L'Autre Monde 23 avril 2012 : Le véritable terrorisme

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L'Autre Monde 23 avril 2012 : Le véritable terrorisme
 

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L'Autre Monde 23 avril 2012
120 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM

	Nombre d'émission: 207 Diffusion en direct : Lundi à 15:00h Animation : François Marginean Réalisation : François Marginean Chronique : Stéphane Poutoire
Archives d'émission

Au programme cette semaine: 

- Actualité mondiale, économie

- Qui sont les véritables terroristes dans le monde?

- Moyen-Orient

- Fukushima

C'est en rendez-vous le lundi dès 15h pour l'émission la plus écoutée de CHOQ FM, la radio officielle de l'Université du Québec à Montréal ! 
 

***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui: 

Actualité:

 

"The responsibility for the last World War [WW I] rests solely upon the shoulders of the international financiers. It is upon them that rests the blood of millions of dead and millions of dying." -- Congressional Record, 67th Congress, 4th Session, Senate Document No. 346, 1923

Harper government monitoring online chats about politics

The Harper government has been monitoring political messages online, and even correcting what it considers misinformation. One local expert says the government is taking things too far.
Under the pilot program the Harper government paid a media company $75,000 to monitor and respond to online postings about the east coast seal hunt.

How to Divorce Google

Leave Google and restore your privacy in seven days (or at least get a start on the process) -- One man's tale of escape.
You must then learn how to remove all of their cookies from your devices, and use non-Google products and applications, including Chrome, Google Plus+, and so forth. Each browser's method is different. Then there is the problem of supercookies, which can actually resurrect cookies you've deleted. Selectout is a website that yanks most cookies (I haven't checked it exhaustively) and includes SuperCookies. SuperCookies act as “agents" for various tracking bloodhounds, and seemingly unrelated cookies can re-appear by magic if just a few of them do. It's subterfuge to keep you tracked. Tracking is money.
Once cookies are gone, you'll need a cookie and tracking blocker. I chose an application called Ghostery. Ghostery blocks trackers, adware cookies, and most of the barnacles. It's made by a maker of barnacles, and so far, has been faithful in blocking undesired cookies in my experience. Ghostery is a browser application that works with many browsers, and slows down response noticeably. The response slows because as each web page is loaded, it's examined for the scripts and destinations associated with ads, trackers, and so forth. It has the ability to foil and largely fool the web page into doing no evil on your machine, while not giving up any information regarding the user, machine, browser, etc. Light testing has shown it to be effective, and Ghostery is updated frequently to allow new and novel tricks to be thwarted.
The warning here is that although Ghostery seems to work, it can cause certain web pages that depend on tracking to suddenly not work. If you use Discus, as an example, you must turn it back on by adding an exception for your site. I have no idea what Discus does with the data it garners. Sometimes Ghostery lights up with a dozen or more tracking elements on every page I load from some sites. A page reload (including going back to a page) will trigger Ghostery all over again. Some pages simply crawl because of the extra tracking junk Ghostery must stop.

 

How to hide emails from government snooping | The Raw Story

Despite coalition proposals to monitor public email, there remain numerous free or low-cost methods to keep messages private
You already know how to keep messages private: you just encrypt the contents using a password. But although this kind of technology has been freely available to PC users since Phil Zimmermann launched PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) in 1991, hardly anyone uses it. The benefits of email and online messaging are that they are fast and relatively frictionless – you don’t need to address an envelope, find a stamp, walk to a post box and so on – and encryption becomes an annoyance.
The problem with the latest government attempts at snooping is that they are not concerned with the content of messages, but their existence. If you have found some suspected criminals or terrorists, then you will want to know who their friends are: the people they email or message most frequently. Each of these people can probably be identified by their internet protocol (IP) address: the number assigned by their ISP (internet service provider). Even an encrypted email will usually include the addresses of the sender and the recipient in its headers.
Examples include hidemyass.com, anonymouse.org, Guardster, Proxify, IDzap and Megaproxy. Such servers usually have terms of service to prevent abusive or criminal behaviour. They will probably record your IP address and may report you if you breach them, so they’re not completely beyond government reach. However, they’re probably beyond government fishing expeditions.
There are also some really anonymous remailer services, which use networks such as Cypherpunk and Mixmaster to ensure privacy. The drawback is that if you send an email anonymously, the recipient cannot simply hit Reply. QuickSilver software for 32-bit Microsoft Windows makes it relatively simple to route an email through 45 or more remailers using Mixmaster. But like the Tor anonymous network, this kind of thing is mostly used by programmers and geeks.
There are simpler ways to send private and/or anonymous emails. For example, anonymouse.org offers a simple form for AnonEmail, as does the sendanonymousemail.net website. There’s also Mailinator, which provides free disposable email addresses, and Hushmail, which works like an ordinary email service but encrypts all your email.
For encrypted instant messaging, you could try BitWiseIM or ProjectSCIM (for Secure Cryptographic Instant Messenger). Facebook’s internal messaging is reasonably private because it’s not visible on the net, though it could be vulnerable to a court order.

 

Violent Riots Erupt From Montreal Protests

Student protests in Montreal have turned into violent riots forcing police to use batons, grenades and chemical irritants to control crowds refusing to disperse.

Raw Video: Police Pepper Spray California Students

Police pepper spray as many as 30 Santa Monica College students protesting at a trustees meeting over a plan to offer high-priced courses.

Stigmatizing Resistance to Authority

The current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) list Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) under “disorders usually first diagnosed infancy, childhood, or adolescence.” (Hat tip: Bryan Hyde.) According to the manual,
Let us not forget: the old Soviet Union characterized any rational, logical, and peaceful difference of opinion with that of the State Government to be a form of mental illness, and many times locked people away in mental institutions indefinitely for the temerity of having a difference of opinion with that of the Central Government.
Something very similar has happened recently in the landscape of American law, with President Obama having signed into law the NDAA on New Year's Eve, giving every president the right to have the US military arrest any American citizens and detain them indefinitely, if not in a mental institution, then in a prison for the rest of their lives, without due process.
Particularly insidious is the fact that strong>the language here is so loosely written that anyone with a peaceful, thoroughly reasoned difference of opinion with that of the Central (read: Federal) government can be picked up and locked away for life.

10 Disgusting Examples Of Very Young School Children Being Arrested, Handcuffed And Brutalized By Police

When did we decide that it was okay to treat very young school children as if they were terror suspects? When I was growing up, I don’t remember a single time that the police ever came to my school and arrested anyone. But now police are being called out to public schools at the drop of a hat. All over America, very young school children are being arrested and marched out of their schools in handcuffs in front of all their friends. For example, down in Georgia the other day police were called out because a 6-year-old girl was throwing a tantrum. The police subdued her, slapped handcuffs on her and hauled her off to the police station. Instead of apologizing for this outrageous incident, the police are defending the actions of the officer involved.
People with kids and skills, please get out of the country while you still can.
And if you cannot do that, home school your children.
Because the ultimate upshot of public education these days is generally illiteracy and innumeracy, and a complete inability for any critical thinking whatsoever.

Israel Ranks 2nd Per Capita In Imprisoned Journalists – OpEd

The Committee to Protect Journalists has published its annual ranking of nations who imprison journalists.  Israel has the dubious distinction of coming in second in the competition behind Eritrea, one of the most closed societies in the world.  Per capita Israel has imprisoned more journalists than Iran.

China blocks all foreign websites

China's internet censorship system known as “the Great Firewall of China” intensified briefly today when all foreign websites blocked as users were unable to access them.
Observers speculated that the system could be being upgraded to further tighten the regime's control over foreign sites.
Users in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere in China reported that they were unable to access any foreign sites at all, The Daily Mail reports.
China had already restricted access to many foreign sites including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube citing a need to maintain social stability.

Supreme Court tells Parliament to rewrite wiretap law

The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down a law that allows police to tap telephones without a warrant in an emergency.
In its ruling, the court said that Section 184.4 "falls down on the matter of accountability" because the existing structure doesn't provide a framework for oversight of police actions.

Undercover TSA Agents To Search Bags, Question Passengers On Houston Buses

Feds to watch for suspicious activity, pre-crime behavior
A new program in Houston will place undercover TSA agents and police officers on buses whose job it will be to perform bag searches, watch for “suspicious activity” and interrogate passengers in order to ‘curb crime and terrorism’

TSA Treats 95-Year-Old Wheelchair-Bound Veteran Like a “Terrorist,” $300 Stolen

Wheelchair-bound 95-year-old veteran Omer Petti and his 85-year-old partner Madge Woodward were treated like terrorists by TSA agents at San Diego International airport, ostensibly so TSA workers could separate them from $300 dollars in cash which subsequently went missing.
TSA Treats 95 Year Old Wheelchair Bound Veteran Like a Terrorist, $300 Stolen
“Can you imagine an 85-year-old lady and 95-year-old retired Air Force Major in wheelchairs being treated like terrorists?” Petti asked the Detroit News’ Marney Keenan.
Given the TSA’s recent history – yes – veterans and old people are two of the federal agency’s primary targets and are routinely subjected to intense harassment and abuse.

TSA installs undercover agents on Texas busses

If you are one of the select few that actually enjoys riding the bus, you might have a change of heart after hearing what the TSA is doing in Houston, Texas.

This charming TSA agent has been stealing iPads out of traveller's luggage

What nice people the TSA employs. No wonder I could never get a job with them. I'm smart and honest.
If I want an iPad, I'll buy one when I have the money. Else, it's somebody else's property and if I take it, that's stealing.

Video shows agonising TSA pat-down - as woman sobs in 'sexual violation' at hands of TSA agent

A traveller's sobs were left ignored this weekend, as she was subjected to an invasive pat-down despite her cries - in another blow to the TSA.
A video posted to YouTube captures the weeping woman’s ordeal during the security checkpoint at an airport in Madison, Wisconsin.
Jim Hoft, who runs the political blog Gateway Pundit, posted the video on the site, as well as YouTube yesterday.

'It left me no doubt about her sexual preference': Bar Refaeli felt violated after airport pat down by female security guard

The brunette beauty told her followers that the incident left her contemplating the woman's 'sexual preferences'.
'I got a security "patdown" by a woman at the airport that made me feel very uncomfortable and left no doubt about her sexual preferences,' she wrote on the social networking site.

Big Government on Steroids: Senate Bill Calls for Black Box Recorders on All New Cars

The same Senate bill, 1813, known as MAP-21, that calls for the Secretary of State to revoke or deny a passport to any US citizen that the IRS Commissioner deems as having 'seriously delinquent tax debt', also calls for, in section 31406 of the bill. the mandatory installation of 'black box' event recorders to be installed in every new passenger vehicle starting with model year 2015:

A New Microchip Knows Just Where You Are, Indoors and Out

Broadcom has just rolled out a chip for smart phones that promises to indicate location ultra-precisely, possibly within a few centimeters, vertically and horizontally, indoors and out.
The unprecedented accuracy of the Broadcom 4752 chip results from the sheer breadth of sensors from which it can process information. It can receive signals from global navigation satellites, cell-phone towers, and Wi-Fi hot spots, and also input from gyroscopes, accelerometers, step counters, and altimeters.

Using Mobile Phone User Location Data for ‘Crowd (Soft) Control’

Eighty-eight percent of Americans now own a cell phone, forming a massive network that offers scientists a wealth of information and an infinite number of new applications. With the help of these phone users — and their devices’ cameras, audio recorders, and other features — researchers envision endless possibilities for gathering huge amounts of data, from services that collect user data to monitor noise pollution and air quality to applications that build maps from people’s cell phone snapshots.

What's the government buying these days? Hollow point bullets, hardened checkpoint booths and radiation pills

It forces us to ask the obvious question: For what purpose does the DHS need thousands of bulletproof checkpoint booths?
Once again, the answer is obvious: To quickly erect "show us your papers" checkpoints on roadways, highways and key traffic points nationwide.
And in Houston, the TSA has unleashed a network of bus-riding secret agents to spy on citizens and search their bags on city busses. What's next, are they going to feel your genitals on the bus, too? You might be hiding a bomb in your anus, you know...
Do you think it is a coincidence that DHS is sourcing 450 million rounds of hollow point bullets at the same time it is buying thousands of bulletproof checkpoint booths and hardened armored assault vehicles?

Readying for War? DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Puts in Order for More Ammo

By Alex Thomas
theintelhub.com
April 16, 2012
Over the last month we have reported on the numerous and increasingly alarming purchases of hollow point ammuntion by the Department of Homeland Security.
While many have claimed that it is completely normal for domestic government agencies to order over 750 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo, the fact remains that these purchases have been anything but normal and signal a full scale militarization of various government agencies that could one day take on the American people.
Survival Seed Bank – Your Plan for Survival and Preparedness (Ad)
Now, a new post on the infamous FBO.gov website by Homeland Security is once against raising eyebrows.
In the request, the Combined Synopsis/Solicitation shows that the following ammunition is set to be delivered in May.
Item No . Description Qty Unit
001 .22 long rifle, 36 grains hollow point (HP) 5 TH
002 .308 175 grains match boat tail hollow point (BTHP) 1000 EA
003 .45 ACP 230 grains jacketed hollow point (JHP) 500 EA
004 .45 Colt / Long Colt, 25 grains lead 100 EA
005 .300 AAC black out, 125 grains open tip match 250 EA
006 .44 mangnum, 240 grains jacketed soft point 100 EA
007 .44 special, 240 grains lead flat nose 100 EA
008 .22 magnum, 40 grains jacketed hollow point 400 EA
009 .30-30 winchester, 150 grains soft point 100 EA
010 12 GA, # 8 bird shot 400 EA
011 .30-06, 168 grains match 500 EA
In an article appearing on the Prepper Podcast website, James Smith commented on the fact that the above ammunition is essentially the most basic and common ammo that you might find in an everyday American’s house.

These caliber types are consistent with a variety of handguns and rifle, as if they were familiarizing new shooters on a variety of weapons, from .22 caliber to the 12 gauge shotgun, up to 100 rounds of 44 magnum ammunition.

It almost seems they are training “personnel” on how to use weapons that would be in most people’s homes.

Regardless of the reason, if asked they will never tell us the truth and this all falls under the umbrella of “National Security”.

At first this request for ammunition for “training” purposes at a DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Center seems somewhat customary but when you factor in the hundreds of millions of .40 caliber rounds, bullet proof checkpoints, and literal armored attack vehicles, a clear cut picture emerges.
Aspects of various domestic federal agencies are preparing for what they must believe will be a large scale confrontation with either a large influx of immigrants or the American people themselves.

The US Government Has Ordered Over 750 Million Rounds of .40 Caliber Hollow Point Ammunition in the Last Three Years

In the last three years numerous domestic US government agencies have ordered a total of over 750 million rounds of .40 caliber ammunition.
That’s right, multiple government agencies that specifically operate primary inside the United States have gone on a literal ammunition spending spree in preparation for what they must believe will be some sort of violent event.
In 2009, Winchester Ammunition was awarded a contract to supply the Department of Homeland Security with 200 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammunition.

DHS won't explain its order of 450 million hollow point bullets

After 9/11, the United States government created the Department of Homeland Security to prevent future acts of terrorism and deal with other domestic issues. Now in order to keep doing such, the agency is asking for 450 million hollow point bullets.
For those who may not understand the name, a "hollow point" bullet has a cavity at the tip which causes the bullet to flatten out on impact, causing far more injury than a non-expanding full metal jacket round. Hollow points are illegal to use in war, I might add. So the DHS is not only buying enough bullets to shoot every living American they are buying ammunition that is illegal to use in combat against enemy troops, which is designed to inflict the maximum amount of damage and death.

It looks like DHS isn’t the only ammunition hog in the United States

James Smith, Contributor
Activist Post
There are two stories that have come to light recently, the first is the awarding of a contract to a munitions manufacturer for 450,000,000 hollow point rounds for the .40 caliber.
The second story which I wrote is how the Department of Homeland Security had already ordered 200,000,000 rounds of .40 caliber, but also ordered 15,000 gun cleaning kits for the .40 caliber weapons, and has put a request out for a virtual shooting gallery for the .40 caliber handguns.
650,000,000 round of ammunition is quite a bit of lead and brass. It will sure to drive the price of copper and brass way up. But Homeland Security is not alone in their requests.

Texas Gun Store Owner Links Rising Gun Sales to Obama, Doomsday.

Gun Sales linked to NO ONE TRUST OBAMA AND THE GOVERNMENT ANYMORE!

Further Crackdown On Dissent As The Elite Prepare For Mass Uprising

Brit Dee, Contributor
Activist Post
As southern Europe erupts in protest at crippling austerity measures, imposed by corrupt puppet politicians at the behest of global financial loansharks such as the IMF, the Spanish authorities have announced plans to further criminalize and crush dissent...
Spanish interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz yesterday announced in Congress planned reforms that would introduce harsh new punishments for those involved in organizing street protests that "seriously disturb the public peace". A minimum jail term of two years could be imposed on those found guilty of instigating and carrying out violent acts of protest, and organizing such demonstrations through social networks would carry the same penalty as involvement in a criminal organization.

Even more alarming, acts of "passive resistance" will also carry harsher punishments under the proposed legislation, and it will be an offense, said Mr Diaz, to "breach authority using mass active or passive resistance against security forces and to include as a crime of assault any threatening or intimidating behavior". Attempts to disrupt public services, such as the recent blockades of bus and train stations by Spanish protestors during a general strike on March 29th, would also be treated as a crime.

We can expect to see such legislation enacted across the Western world, as governments prepare for the unrest that is inevitably going to spread and intensify as living standards plummet, due to the theft and corruption of the political and financial elite.
During the riots many suggested deploying the army on the streets, and there has been much talk of using water cannons and rubber bullets; this week it was revealed that the British police are considering the use of chemical agents to deal with rioters. How long will it be before such methods, sold on the pretense of being solely for use in violent riots, are used more generally against peaceful protestors and those engaged in acts of civil disobedience?

Will A Mutiny In The Gulf Lead To An American Military Coup?

This is the question of the day for bankers and politicians.
Do you really believe the US military will go door to door seizing 350 million weapons and 12 billion bullets from 300 million Americans ten days after nationwide food riots and race riots have burned every city to the ground? Wouldn’t it be far easier and far more popular for the American military to just arrest every criminal on Wall Street?

Black Helicopters and Heavily Armed Soldiers Conduct Drills In Downtown Chicago As Preparation for NATO Summit Confrontations Continue

In a shocking display of the police state and the creeping push towards actual martial law, heavily armed military officers in black helicopters swooped through downtown Chicago in what was billed as a routine military exercise.
Up to three Blackhawk Helicopters flew in formation and separately around downtown office buildings and apartments for at least three hours.
A report by the local Chicago Fox affiliate was surprisingly unconvinced by the military’s claims that these exercises had nothing to do with the upcoming NATO Summit:

DHS imports wartime surveillance technology to U.S. border

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post
The behemoth and corrosive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeks to unleash a massive Raven Aerostar aerostat (essentially a blimp) on the U.S. border, which was designed for and used in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s worth pointing out that if this blimp is used, it would not be the first Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or drone, to be flown for surveillance purposes over the U.S. border...

Crowd control a concern ahead of NATO summit

Police plan to use what's called a long-range acoustic device to keep crowds from getting out of hand. ABC 7's Paul Meincke learned more about the device and what worked and didn't work in Pittsburgh.
The G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September of 2009 has been called the most peaceful of modern day global summits. There are doubtless many reasons why arrests and property damage were minor compared to other host cities. Police say their intelligence paid dividends. Some protestors say the city purposely dragged out the permitting process for marches making it tougher to organize. And there is also Pittsburgh's layout: a compact downtown that come summit time was filled with riot-control police.
It is very clear that coming into the 21st century, the United States of America is no longer the "land of the free", but has become the land of the cowed, and the home of the surveilled; its people continually threatened by elements of a government, ever working to preserve the status quo for themselves while impoverishing all those around them.
I am not surprised that Chicago police feel perfectly comfortable deploying this, and I have to wonder if the "trigger" for its deployment will simply be a permitted, completely peaceful, march in protest of NATO policies, with which to "lower the bar" on when, and how, such technology could be used nationally.
In fact, I am almost astonished that they are not purchasing and deploying Raytheon's "pain gun", which was used in Afghanistan.
Here is how the company describes what this machine does:
The Silent Guardian™ protection system is a revolutionary less-than-lethal directed energy application that employs millimeter wave technology to repel individuals or crowds without causing injury. The system provides a zone of protection that saves lives, protects assets and minimizes collateral damage. Silent Guardian produces precise effects at longer ranges than current less-than-lethal systems and provides real-time ability to establish intent and de-escalate aggression. Various commercial and military applications include law enforcement, checkpoint security, facility protection, force protection and peacekeeping missions.
And here is how a volunteer describes how he experienced being at the receiving end of this equipment:
Er ... ow! OW!" Not good. I try again. "OWWW!" I pull my hand away sharpish. My finger is throbbing, but seems undamaged. I was told people can take it for a second, maximum. No way, not for a wimp like me. I try it again. It is a bit like touching a red-hot wire, but there is no heat, only the sensation of heat. There is no burn mark or blister. Its makers claim this infernal machine is the modern face of warfare. It has a nice, friendly sounding name, Silent Guardian. I am told not to call it a ray-gun, though that is precisely what it is (the term "pain gun" is maybe better, but I suppose they would like that even less). And, to be fair, the machine is not designed to vaporise, shred, atomise, dismember or otherwise cause permanent harm. Oww! Michael Hanlon tries the Raytheon ray-gun But it is a horrible device nonetheless, and you are forced to wonder what the world has come to when human ingenuity is pressed into service to make a thing like this. Silent Guardian is making waves in defence circles. Built by the U.S. firm Raytheon, it is part of its "Directed Energy Solutions" programme. What it amounts to is a way of making people run away, very fast, without killing or even permanently harming them. That is what the company says, anyway. The reality may turn out to be more horrific.
So please do not think, for one moment, if law enforcement agencies across this nation believe that they can get away with the use of technology like this, burying what is left of human and civil rights for American citizens, that they will hesitate to use it.

US Army Conducts Domestic Civil Disturbance and Mock Riot Drills

The US military is currently conducting training to crush domestic civil disturbances that have been handled by civilian riot police in the past.

The Intel Hub
April 9, 2012
For years the alternative media has warned about the US military possibly being used against the American people in a time of economic collapse or any sort of martial law scenario.
Drills such as Vigilant Guard 2010 have brought widespread attention to the fact that portions of our own military are training to take on crowds of American citizens demanding food and Constitutional rights in a time of crisis.
Now, a new release by the website Public Intelligence, once again confirms that as recently as February and March of 2012, US troops at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington were conducting training scenarios for a civil disturbance domestic quick reaction force.
A series of photos of the drills shows US troops with crowd control riot shields on the opposite side of actors portraying what can only be described as American citizens.
“The following photos are from March and February of this year and were taken at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.  The first four photos from March depict riot control training for a “domestic quick reaction force” that would aid in civil disturbances.
The second set of photos from February depict the 67th Military Police Company that typically mans the area’s Regional Correctional Facility attempting to quell riots among “restless prison inmates” that have created a disturbance, wrote Public Intelligence in a blog post that accompanied the photos.

Caught On Tape: Federal Agents Taser And Beat Man To Death

A group of dozen federal agents beat a man to death as he was lying in a fetal position and repeatedly shocked by an electric taser.

Black Helicopters and Heavily Armed Soldiers Conduct Drills In Downtown Chicago As Preparation for NATO Summit Confrontations Continue

In a shocking display of the police state and the creeping push towards actual martial law, heavily armed military officers in black helicopters swooped through downtown Chicago.

AFRICOM’s Military Campaign: Natural Resources

Washington’s “hunt” for Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group, is a sideshow masking America’s intention to fulfill a long-held dream to gain a foothold in the DRC’s minerals sector.
An analysis of America’s Africa policy shows that it is premised on an axis of three strategic interests: securing minerals, off-setting Chinese economic and political influence, and moving its African Command (AFRICOM) from Stuttgart in Germany to the continent.
The “humanitarian” card is the pivot, with Washington’s propaganda machinery being deployed to justify America’s increasingly bellicose attitude towards the continent.
Ever notice that when the US government does things for allegedly "humanitarian" reasons, those are absolutely not the "real reasons" the US government is doing those things?
The same can definitely be said for its attempt at the recolonization of Africa to secure its mineral wealth.

Executive Order: Feds To Take Control of Domestic Natural Gas Production

While Americans focused their attention on the Colombian controversy involving U.S. Secret Service agents, prostitutes and excessive drinking, President Obama quietly signed his latest Presidential Executive Order.
The Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources Executive Order seeks to create what amounts to a Presidential super committee that will oversee the regulation and development of the ‘unconventional’ natural gas industry for the purpose of ensuring a long-term natural gas supply for the United States, as well as to do so in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

EU gives US go ahead for 'Big Brother' snooping

A controversial bill that will give the United States access to personal information about airline passengers has been approved by the European Parliament.
The deal, which was held up for two years over privacy concerns, was agreed by MEPs in a vote of 409 to 226 on Thursday. It sets out the legal parameters governing the transfer of passengers’ personal data to the US Department of Homeland Security.

 

Coupe Snoop: Congress wants all cars to be equipped with recording devices

The federal government is about to become the country’s worst backseat driver. Congress wants to put tracking devices in the car of every American, and that’s not even the scariest provision in a new bill being passed around Washington.
S. 1813: MAP-21
112th Congress, 2011–2012. Text as of Mar 14, 2012 (Passed the Senate (Engrossed)) .www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s1813/text

University of Texas researchers design chip allowing mobile devices to see through walls

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post
As unbelievable as it sounds, researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have created an imager chip for mobile devices which would turn an ordinary cell phone into something which can see through walls, wood, plastics, paper, skin and other objects.
Using the terahertz (THz) band of the electromagnetic spectrum, the wavelengths of which fall between the microwave and infrared bands, the chip could signify a revolution in the surveillance capabilities of mobile phones along with new chips like Broadcom’s BCM4752 which is capable of providing ultra-precise location data...

‘Human Rights Crisis’ in US Client Bahrain, Despite Reform Pledge

Shiite Bahrainis – who make up about 70 percent of the population in the Gulf monarchy ruled by Sunnis – have been protesting for democratic reforms for over a year. The regime’s response was initially bloody, killing dozens of unarmed protesters in February 2011 when security forces shot at them with live rounds.
But the Obama administration has been supportive of the regime’s stubborn repression throughout. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is considered by Washington as a geopolitical asset in the strategically important Persian Gulf, also serving as a bulwark against Shiite Iran.
President Obama should be congratulated for having brilliantly demonstrated, yet again that democracy is only something the US embraces overseas when it is "convenient"; it is not "convenient" in Bahrain, and therefore we're propping up this tinpot monarchy with, ultimately hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in military aid.

I have to wonder how many educational, or medical supplies, that sum might buy for desperately poor sections of our country;and I have to wonder how far that money would go to buy food for the US's desperately hungry children.
But I would strongly caution President Obama on the following, and this quote, I believe, comes from one of his more appreciated predecessors, the late John F. Kennedy: "When peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable"
So sir, if Bahrain does topple, because you and your administration have been impotent to "encourage" the reining regime to fix the fundamental problems which are causing this unrest in the first place, please don't say I didn't warn you!

UN 'aid' program to be used in establishing NATO 'humanitarian corridors'

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post

Recently reported in Reuters', "UN seeks Syria nod for major aid operation," the UN is seeking to bring in "aid workers" and open offices all across Syria in order to carry out what they call a "major humanitarian operation."

Syria has criticized certain nations of what is clearly the "politicizing of humanitarian aid." Fortune 500-funded US policy think-tank, Brookings Institution has openly stated that US foreign policy would best be served by taking advantage of "gaining humanitarian access" allowing the West to "add further coercive action to its efforts" to topple the Syrian government. Specifically, Brookings foresees gaining such access may lead to establishing "safe-havens and humanitarian corridors" protected by NATO military forces, in yet another example of the "mission creep" that led to regime change in Libya. Such "creep" would give proxy militant forces unassailable positions to continue their campaign of violence against the Syrian people.


Image: Brookings Institution's Middle East Memo #21 "Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf)," makes no secret that the humanitarian "responsibility to protect" is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.

Despite the UN's "peace plan" being fully rejected by both the Syrian rebels and their Western and Arab League backers who have openly pledged cash, weapons, and support for them to continue fighting, in full violation of the proposed ceasefire, the Western media has instead accused the Syrian government of failing to meet its obligations.

UN’s World Food Program in Ethiopia Feeding Death Squads?

While southern Ethiopia and the Ogaden continues to suffer from the worst drought and famine in 60 years the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) has been turning over all its food aid for the region to the Ethiopian military which uses it to feed the paramilitary death squads conducting a counterinsurgency in the region.
What food is left over is sold by the Ethiopian generals on the black market with the proceeds pocketed, all the while millions are left to starve.
And what is the UN doing about this crime? Their motto seems to be "silence is golden" and silent they remain since they last sent teams to investigate the region in 2007, the reports of which have remained under lock and key in UN headquarters in Addis Ababa.

• Abso-unflipping-believable!

So, who the heck is this Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, anyway?
Since coming to power in 1991, the Ethiopian security forces of Meles Zenawi have been committing systematic and widespread abuses, including massacre, extrajudicial executions, rape, torture and forced exile of ordinary people, students, journalists, artists, etc. in Oromia and other regions. The current regime also encroaches on the media using sophisticated techniques to censor and block access to independent news outlets, such as the Voice of America (VOA). Journalists are increasingly harassed, assaulted and murdered.
So yes, this guy is an industrial-strength thug who represses and starves his own people; but please remember, this guy is OUR THUG!! And, why, you may ask?!? Because he sent Ethiopian soldiers to fight the US proxy war against Al-Shabab forces in Somalia, starting in 2007, during the Bush regime.

NATO failed to investigate Libya civilian deaths: Amnesty

NATO has failed to properly investigate or provide compensation for civilian deaths caused by its air strikes during the seven-month operation in Libya that helped bring about the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Amnesty International said on Monday.

‘NATO, US arming Israel over projected, planned Iran war’

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30230

A prominent political analyst says NATO and the US are arming “Israel with missile capacities in relation to a projected and planned attack upon Iran.”

Italy says it wants to finalize a one billion dollar deal with Israel to buy thirty M-346 training jets from the Italian-based aerospace and defense group Finmeccanica's Alenia Aermacchi unit.

Italian Premier Mario Monti said the deal would result in a "leap of quality" in industrial relations between Italy and Israel.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ralph Schoenman, political commentator, to further discuss the issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

TO VIEW VIDEO INTERVIEW CLICK HERE
"This is part of the elaborate NATO and US arming of Israel with missile capacities in relation to a projected and planned attack upon Iran. It’s also related to an earlier 1.6 [billion] dollar arms deal which was announced in the Associated Press on February 26th with Azerbaijan in which Israeli defense officials confirmed that the one billion dollar deal would involve drones and anti-aircraft missile defense systems in Azerbaijan.
I would strongly caution those in the bowels of power in DC and Tel Aviv on the following.
1. Should such an attack against Iran go forward, it will enjoy absolutely zero support from the American people, and will wind up an election-loser for President Obama.
Oh yes, there may be some level of martial law imposed against the American people to prevent public outcries against this insanity; but you will not have changed people's minds because you have silenced them.
2. The American people, by the way, are sick, tired, and angry at the consistently high level of sacrifice, of American blood and money,demanded by the Israeli government to be place upon the altar of ultimate Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, and they want it stopped RIGHT NOW.
They are very keenly aware that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq was very much supported by Israel, which characterized it as Israel's "existential threat du jour, brimming with 'weapons of mass destruction.' And of course, we all know how brilliantly that ended: let's see now, over one million Iraqis dead; thousands of US service members dead or maimed for life; thousands of Iraqis dealing with the medical consequences of exposure to depleted uranium weapons, manifesting as aggressive cancers or massive birth defects; and the final price tag of over 1 trillion dollars which purchased the US not one bit more safety or security for the American people than they had the day before the invasion and occupation. Are we so foolish as to do this again against another one of Israel's existential enemies in the region, when the causus belli for war against Iraq was a pack of lies?!?
3. Unless this attack is delivered in blitzkrieg-style, and executed with deadly precision, it may well prolong for some time, and this would be a very bad turn of events for the following reasons: the US does not have the troop strength, the money, or the manufacturing to pursue a prolonged war against Iran to a successful conclusion.
4. We are already hearing reports that Russia is pre-positioning its troops with which to counter a US/Israeli strike against Iran.
In the case of an Iranian war, it's expected that the Russian spearhead will be ordered to strike south to prevent the presumed deployment of US bases in the region, to link up with the troops in Armenia, and take over the South Caucasus energy corridor along which Azeri, Turkmen and, other Caspian natural gas and oil may reach European markets, the website added.
The Russian military anticipates that an attack will occur on Iran by the summer and has developed an action plan to move Russian troops through neighboring Georgia to stage in Armenia, which borders on the Islamic republic, according to informed Russian sources. Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-09/news/31311454_1_russian-defense-ministry-military-action-dmitry-rogozin#ixzz1reb6pVpy
Add to this the reality that leaders of nuclear-armed China and Pakistan have also gone on record, quite publicly, and stated that should Iran be attacked, they will go to its aid militarily.
So, what this all means is the potential for a global, thermonuclear war against an alleged Iranian weapons program which cannot, to date, be proven to exist.

CHICAGO SUMMIT TO CONSOLIDATE "GLOBAL NATO": Hillary Clinton Promotes 22nd Century NATO Ahead Of Summit

By way of belated acknowledgement that the main purpose of NATO’s war in Afghanistan was to build an international, integrated expeditionary military force – there are 50 nations contributing soldiers, equipment, artillery and aircraft for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force – for future wars, Clinton said that the Chicago summit will enhance the allies’ “commitment to joint exercises and training programs that deepen the habits of cooperation we have developed through our work together in Afghanistan.”
Translation: though these remarks, Secretary Clinton is both praising, and institutionalizing,the concept of endless war, courtesy of NATO.
How clearly, and undeniably, Orwellian of her.
And I have to wonder; how many "other people's children" will have to die, or be maimed for life, as a "sacrifice" upon the altar of NATO hegemony?

Pentagon: America will be ready if needed in Syria

Assad "will be taken down," Panetta said.
Forget all about the "reluctance." That one Panetta quote is the real story.

Leon Panetta: US military planning for greater role in Syria conflict

US military officials are crafting possible new strategies to 'protect the Syrian people' from the Assad regime, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday on Capitol Hill. NATO's Libya intervention may be a model.
"Libya is the perfect model for our foreign policy. We got the gold. We got the oil. We got rid of their value-based currency and enslaved the Libyan people to the same sort of private central bank that ruined the lives of ordinary Americans. It's Miller time!" -- Official White Horse Souse

As NATO Provokes War Russia Deploys Warships To Guard Syria Permanently

Russia is permanently deploying warships to guard Syria as NATO prepares to launch an all out war.
The Russian Defense Ministry has announced the permanent deployment of Russian navy warships to guard the coastline of Syria in response to the recent escalation of hostilities toward by NATO allies.
The announcement is an about face from previous statements that Russia would not intervene if NATO attacks Syria.
The change of hear is most likely due to the fact that the US and its NATO allies are choosing to escalate the crisis in despite the Syria’s agreement to a UN and Arab League backed peace plan and ceasefire.
The escalation have come in through a variety of diplomatic, covert and military means.
Turkey just yesterday cited of the article 5 of the NATO treaty in calling for NATO to launch a military intervention after skirmishes broke out along the Turkey border where Turkey is providing the Syria terrorist rebel army with military bases to launch attacks across the border.
This comes as accusations fly that Turkey is being forced into ganging up against Syria.
There has been a military building of NATO navy vessels near Syria and a massive evacuation of NATO diplomatic officials.
Obama has just announced the US will supply “non-lethal” aid to the terrorist rebels  to the Syria rebels which has sparked strong criticism that the US is purposefully working against the UN peace plan.
While the US supplies non-lethal aid, Al Jazeera is supplying the communication equipment,  Saudi Arabia and Qatar are supplying the lethal aid and the CIA is training the rebels, and US mercenaries are fighting on the ground.

Al Jazeera Smuggled Satellite Communication Tools To Syria Rebel

A former Al Jazeera correspondent reveals the news outlet smuggled Satellite internet and phone communication tools to the Syria rebels through Lebanon.

US Mercenaries Intervening In Syria - Leaked Emails

Leaked emails show that US Mercenaries are working with armed terrorists in Syria to overthrow Assad at the request of and under air cover of US officials.

Foreign Fighters Join Syrian Rebels

By Ulrike Putz in Beirut
REUTERS
Jihadists Declare Holy War Against Assad Regime
Abu Rami hails from Lebanon, but his heart is in Syria these days. The 40-year-old is one of hundreds of Arabs who are fighting against the Assad regime at the side of Syrian insurgents. Many of these volunteer fighters are veterans of the Iraq war, who have now brought their holy war to Syria.

Engdahl: CIA plays ugly role, trains Syrian rebels

Researcher and author of Full Spectrum Dominance, F. William Engdahl talks to RT from across the Syrian border about his take on the latest developments in Syria and Turkey.

Turkey Cites NATO Article 5 To Call For Military Action In Syria

As Turkey provides Syria terrorists with military bases on its border they cite the NATO treaty to justify military intervention after skirmishes at those bases.

Syrian rebels ‘using Turkish refugee camps as base’

The Syrian army’s pursuit of rebels across the Turkish border has shed light on claims of rebel groups using refugee camps as safe havens. Reports suggest the Free Syrian Army could be treating them as springboards to launch incursions into Syria.
RT correspondent Sara Firth interviewed an anonymous source on the Syrian-Turkish border following the incident, who said that members of the Free Syrian Army were operating in the border region.
We told you this was coming, and what the outcome would be here: bases established right on the Syrian/Turkish border enabling armed mercenaries to wreak ever more havoc in Syria.

SYRIA: US conspires with Turkey over militarized buffer zone following Syrian ceasefire

Washington has made clear that the ceasefire implemented Thursday is only a staging post in its plan for regime change in Syria.
Attention is now concentrated on setting up a buffer zone on the Turkish border. This will provide a bridgehead and base of operations for the SNC and various covert operatives. More importantly, its “protection” will be used to legitimize a wider military deployment and aerial attacks, as was carried out recently in Libya.
It is being made painfully obvious, courtesy of the US and NATO, that the majority of citizens of Syria will have absolutely no say in how they will be governed, when this regime change takes place.
That, of course, will be the first step necessary to isolate Iran, ahead of an Israeli-US attack against it.

Syria: Another "Humanitarian War" Based on Lies & Deceit

The Paris-based Centre for the Study of Interventionism (CSI) and Julien Teil, director of "Lies behind the "Humanitarian War" in Libya: There is no evidence!" has recently released a short documentary exposing how a cartel of Western nations and their Arab proxies are purposefully creating chaos inside targeted nations and then using it as a pretext to invade, topple governments, and replace them with preselected client regimes, and in effect threatening the very concept of national sovereignty.

US, NATO HAVE BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS. Syrian ‘Opposition’: West-controlled Proxy Paramilitary’

Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, noted that Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the UN, was wrong in saying that Russia and China had blood on their hands.
“NATO has blood on their hands,” he told RT. “The United States has blood on their hands. Why? Because they have supported an armed insurgency from the onset in March 2011. It is known and documented that this so-called opposition is, in fact, a proxy paramilitary formation, which is supported by the Western military alliance.”
Political analyst Lajos Szaszdi says the US, as well the Gulf States and Turkey, prefer to see the failure of the UN-brokered peace plan put forward by the organization’s Syrian envoy Kofi Annan.
Every time any leader of NATO prates on about "humanitarian concerns", just substitute the words "regime change", and you will know the true outcome is which is desired there.

Al Jazeera Faked Syria, Libya News Reports Says Producer - Exclusive Video

A producer from the Arab satellite network Al Jazeera reveals the news channel fabricated stories on the unrest in Syria as he resigns in protest.
Moussa Ahmed, a producer for Al Jazeera’s Beirut Bureau, is just one of the five Al-Jazeera employees that have resigned in the last couple of weeks over the news outlets biased coverage of the unrest in Syria.
In resigning he has came forward and said he decided to leave Al Jazeera as the TV channel concealed facts and fabricated news stories entirely.
In an Arabic news broadcast I obtained from China Central TV, he says the station has been reporting false news reports since the Libya revolution.
In the video, he refers to a video of child pretending injured that  Al Jazeera reported on air even though they knew the child was faking his injury.
Coincidentally the video report was provided to the station by the activist Danny who has been exposed for fabricating an entirely different news report for CNN.
CNN has also aired the story the producer points out to be a known fake.
He apologizes that it has taken this long to come forward explaining working for Al Jazeera is the dream of many reporters from which one can infer that by blowing the whistle he is giving up on that dream and moreover his career as a reporter.
Here is the video from the Chinese News Service, in Arabic, to which I have added the station’s shot list and quotes in English to explain the video.

Kosovo's "Mafia State" and Camp Bondsteel: Towards a Permanent US Military Presence in Southeast Europe

Kosovo is a tiny parcel of land in one of the most strategic locations in all Europe from a geopolitical standpoint of the US military objective of controlling oil flows and political developments from the oil-rich Middle East to Russia and Western Europe.
The Pentagon has already secured seven new military bases in Bulgaria and Romania on the Black Sea in the Northern Balkans, including the Graf Ignatievo and Bezmer airbases in Bulgaria and Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania, which are used for "downrange" military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The US strategic agenda for Kosovo is primarily military, secondarily, it seems, narcotics trafficking. Its prime focus is against Russia and for control of oil flows from the Caspian Sea to the Middle East into Western Europe.
If THAT wasn't enough to get your head revolving backwards, counterclockwise, please look at the following exchange, just 9 days ago, in DC, between Secretary of State Clinton, and Hashim Thaci, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, and former head of the KLA, an acknowledged terrorist organization:

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, good afternoon, everyone. It’s a great pleasure for me to welcome Prime Minister Thaci back to Washington and here to the State Department. The prime minister has shown great leadership, and he has helped to promote democracy, stability, and the rule of law in Kosovo. And he is leading his country toward the future that the people of Kosovo desire and that the United States wants to see for them, full partnership in European and Euro-Atlantic institutions.
"...he has helped to promote democracy, stability, and the rule of law?" Forgive me, Secretary Clinton, but how in the name of heaven could you possibly have said that, in public, with an absolutely straight face?
But I have to come to the understanding that you said this, in your characterization of Prime Minister Thaci, because it was expedient; it was convenient, and therefore, through the miracle that is Governmental Doublespeak, did not have to have any relationship, whatsoever, to the truth.

Nine bomb attacks cause chaos across Iraq

By: suman

At least 17 of the dead were in Baghdad, where a car bomb in Haifa Street in the city centre hit a convoy carrying the health minister, Hamed Amin, wounding four of his bodyguards and killing two civilians.

The others killed in the Iraqi capital were hit by car bombs across the city centre and in the suburbs of Al-Amil and Khadimiyah. The targets of the attacks seemed mostly to be Shia, also a social club for members of the Turkmen minority was also struck, killing two people.

US trains terrorists in Kuwait camps

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236919.html
The United States military has been training terrorists in a military base in Kuwait, preparing them for attacks in the Middle Eastern countries.
The recruits are sent to the “Arifjan” base where they receive military training and learn methods of bombing and terror operations within a three month period, according to reports.
The US military then sends the trained terrorists as ringleaders to countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria to set up terror networks inside these countries and embark on terrorist activities and carry out acts of sabotage with the support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Iranian terrorists were trained in the U.S. by the U.S.

They took our privacy, our rights, our dignity in the name of
security, they fight their phony 'War on Terror' at our expense,
and they threaten to indefinitely detain without charges anyone
'associated' with terrorists.

Yet, repeatedly, our own government IS terror.

Seymour Hersh has revealed that during the Bush Administration the
Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) trained members of the
Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a dissident Iranian opposition group known in
the West as the M.E.K.

M.E.K. is to this day on the State Department's list of terrorist
organizations and was responsible for the killing of six Americans
in Iran in the 1970s.

Video:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/10096.html

Confirmed: Terrorist Organization Trained on US Soil by US Military

Series of mainstream admissions of US & Israeli state-sponsored terrorism.
Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post
Ynetnews reported in their article, "US operated deep in Iran, trained assassins," that, "the New Yorker reported over the weekend that the US trained members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq. According to previous reports, Israel has been cooperating with the group, which allegedly carried out hits on Iranian nuclear scientists." Ynetnews also reported that US officials doubt Iran is or will be developing nuclear weapons, as has been claimed to justify years of sanctions, covert subversion, terrorism, and unprovoked attacks by the West against Iran.
It appears that not only Israel, but the US in tandem with Mossad have been training, arming, financing, harboring, and directing the US State Department-listed foreign terror organization (#29) Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) since as early as 2005 where MEK terrorists were brought to Las Vegas, Nevada to train. The April 2012 New Yorker article, "Our Men in Iran?" by Seymour Hersh, elaborates in detail how the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) trained a listed terrorist organization on US soil before sending them back to Iran with weapons and money to carry out "anti-regime terrorist activities." MEK is suspected to be behind a rash of assassinations targeting Iranian scientists, as well as handling patsies in a string of international bombings US and Israeli officials attempted to pin on Iran.

Iran Claims Arrests of Israeli 'Terrorists'

The Iranian government claimed Tuesday that it had arrested members of an Israeli-backed "terror" network plotting assassinations and sabotage inside the country.
Iran's intelligence ministry announced via state-run media that it had disbanded a "large and sophisticated Israeli terror and sabotage network after months of operations" just as the network was planning fresh attacks.
The statement also said that the government's apprehension of the "devils led to the discovery of of the Zionists' regional command center" in a third country.
Iran has blamed Israel, the U.K. and the U.S. for a series of assassinations of nuclear scientists and explosions and disruptions at missile sites that began in 2007.
Don't you love the way ABC puts little quote marks around the word 'terrorist', like we are supposed to believe that Israelis could never be real honest-to-goodness genuine terrorists!

Leaked Video Shows US Contractors Randomly Killing Civilians

Employees of the US military contracting group are seen in new leaked video shooting their machine guns at random citizens while driving through the streets of Baghdad.
Sadly, when the US government finds the person who leaked these videos the whistleblower will suffer the same fate as Bradley Manning and be charged as an enemy combatant providing support for Al-Qaeda.

The Oklahoma City Bombing - PROOF there were additional explosive charges.

Leaked CIA Memo Shows Bush Was Warned Torture Methods Are War Crimes

A leaked CIA memo reveals Bush was advised that the torture techniques he authorized the CIA to use are felony war crimes and chose to use them anyway.

Leaked CIA memo exposes US terror suspect torture as 'war crimes'

The US is refraining from defining waterboarding and other questionable interrogation methods it used to apply to terrorist suspects as torture, possibly with a view to using them once again someday.
Years after the Bush administration left office, many feel President Obama is not doing enough to make up for America's past mistakes. This includes torture treatment of terrorist suspects by the US investigators.
Such torture techniques include waterboarding, stress positions and other methods of interrogation welcomed into American secret service after 9/11 paved the way for the War on Terror.
Two weeks before taking office, US President Barack Obama steered clear of citing America’s historic commitments to international justice.
As we have known from the time of the Catholic Inquisition, torture is not about getting the truth: torture is about getting a suspect to confess to a crime or crimes they most likely have never committed.

Guidebook To False Confessions: US Torture Manual Released

The timeline of how we went from a nation of liberty to one of forced false confessions revealed in release of the key document the US used to justify torture.

 

"Guidebook to False Confessions": Key Document John Yoo Used to Draft Torture Memo Released

Air Force Col. Steven Kleinman, a career military intelligence officer recognized as one of the DOD's most effective interrogators as well a former SERE instructor and director of intelligence for JPRA's teaching academy, said he immediately knew the true value of the PREAL manual if employed as part of an interrogation program.
"This is the guidebook to getting false confessions, a system drawn specifically from the communist interrogation model that was used to generate propaganda rather than intelligence," Kleinman said in an interview. "If your goal is to obtain useful and reliable information this is not the source book you should be using."
So, let me wrap my head around this: US agencies signed off on torture methods in order to gain false confessions which were of absolutely no use to them in discerning where clear and present danger existed, to create confessions to adhere to a pre-determined outcome?!?
The reason many of our prisoners of war( forgive me, the terminology almost slipped my mind; "enemy combatants", currently warehoused at Guantanamo without due process)will never be released is that water-boarding wasn't the worst thing done to them in order to extract these false confessions.

American Muslim Alleges FBI Had A Hand In His Torture Overseas

Fikre had been visiting family in Khartoum, Sudan, when, in April 2010, the officials got in touch with him. He agreed to meet with them, but ultimately balked at cooperating with FBI questioning without a lawyer present and he rebuffed a request to become an informant. Pressing him to cooperate, the agents told him he was on the no-fly list and could not return home unless he aided the bureau, Fikre says.
We still torture, or outsource torture, no matter what President Obama has said about it.
"Black sites" outside the US exist for just this purpose.
And if you don't believe it, take a look at the US prison in Bagram, Afghanistan.
Bagram - As America works to hand over control of Afghan detention facilities to the Afghan authorities, a new report by an Afghan investigative commission says inmates at a Bagram prison claim they have been tortured. The prison in Bagram, Afghanistan is known as "the forgotten second Guantanamo" but worse than Guantanamo. Exposed several years ago as a place of torture by human rights lawyers, a new report says inmates are still claiming they have been tortured and held without evidence. An Afghan commission has investigated the prison prior to its transition to Afghan control. The BBC reported that Gul Rahman, head of the investigation, reported "During our visit to Bagram some of the prisoners talked of misconduct, some alleged they had been tortured." Other prisoners complained they were still held in the prison after being cleared for release. Few details of alleged torture were detailed in the Afghan report by the Constitutional Oversight Commission.

Man Who Was Waterboarded 183 Times, Confesses Complete Responsibility for 9/11 and Will Be Executed.

It was reported on BBC News tonight that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others will be charged with orchestrating the September 11 attacks.
What the report omitted to say was that many sources, including the New York Times (could any institution be less anti-establishment?), reported in April 2009 that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been waterboarded 183 times in Guantanano Bay.
The BBC report went on to say, rather comically in the circumstances, was that "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admits everything relating to the 9/11 attacks from A to Z."
I like to think that this blog specialises in stating the obvious but here is something SO obvious that it does not need stating.
How long will we and our useless, zombified representatives continue to put up with this stuff?
"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." -- US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11.

Obama’s Guantanamo “war court” in session

The lawyers argued that, thus shackled, Nashiri was unable to participate in preparing his defense because it revived the trauma of being similarly shackled during the years of torture to which he was subjected while in CIA custody.
The motive for preventing the airing of these issues is clear. A heavily redacted 2004 CIA inspector general’s report provides an indication of the criminal methods to which Nashiri was subjected. The report acknowledges that Nashiri was waterboarded 83 times, a form of induced drowning which was prosecuted as a war crime after the Second World War.

Uranium Double-Standard: The US, Kazakhstan, and Iran

Despite the fact that investigative journalists Seymour Hersh, Gareth Porter and others have meticulously documented the fact that Iran, in fact, poses no nuclear threat at all, the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress have laid down multiple rounds of harsh sanctions as a means to "deter" Iran from reaching its "nuclear capacity."
While rhetorical attention remains focused on Iran’s "threat", there is an "elephant in the room": Kazakhstan’s booming uranium mining and expanding nuclear industry -- a massive effort involving U.S. multinational corporations and an authoritarian regime increasingly tied to Washington.
This consistent use of double standards by the US government is painfully obvious for the entire world to see.
And after the US government gave the world a very chilling object lesson as to what happens to a country which does not have a nuclear deterrent, thought the invasion and occupation of Iraq, it is amazing to me that every country on the planet is not rushing in earnest, toward the development of a nuclear weapon!

Media, Academia Join Forces to Downplay Dangers of Nuclear Power

Since the nuclear disaster in Fukushima started in March, the media has been full of misinformation about the dangers posed by the nuclear accidents and the damage caused by past accidents such as those at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Whether it is Jay Lehr on Fox News1 or George Monbiot on Democracy Now, 2 the story line is the same: there were only dozens of deaths from the Chernobyl and none from TMI, the health consequences for the general population are negligible, and all things considered nuclear power is among the safest forms of energy.

Yemen: More clashes as CIA and US special forces join in secret war

A mainly covert U.S. role in Yemen relies to a considerable extent on drones which are flown from a base in nearby Djibouti on the horn of Africa. There is also a secret base thought to be in Saudi Arabia. However, there are also special forces on the ground.
Yemeni officials also reported that the capital of Abyan province, Zinjibar was hit by missile fire from the Gulf of Aden. The Yemeni government does not have the capability to mount such an attack so no doubt it was mounted from U.S. warships. Zinjibar is occupied by the militant group Ansar al Sharia.
Hadi has so far thrown his lot in with the U.S. in making a priority attacks upon Al Qaeda and other militant groups such as Ansar al Sharia. Saleh alternated attacks with deals with the militants.
President Kennedy said it best: when peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable.
Yemen may well have a new president; however, nothing, really, has changed in terms of the "misery index" of the Yemenite people. Poverty, corruption, and hardship hasn't been abated one single bit since the transition.
And therein lies the problem.
I can understand that the US government doesn't want the unrest here to spill over into Saudi Arabia, where a sclerotic House of Saud is barely holding on to power only through its own brand of brutal repression.
But the US government is going about suppressing unrest in Yemen in what appears to be an absolutely, hamfistedly wrong way.
In order to prevent, or at least ameliorate unrest which leads to violence and bloodshed, you have to start fixing the situations which lead to the unrest in the first place.
Enlightened US foreign policy here would insist that food aid, medical aid, education, and infrastructure be top priorities for the government, with transparency guarantees that the aid actually wound up going for the good of the people of Yemen.
The US cannot possibly be seen as the "good guy", when it is supporting another corrupt tinpot dictator with no social or moral conscience in terms of truly taking care of his or her people.
And unfortunately, that is all too often the case with US foreign policy, all over the world.
And in the case of Yemen, should President Hadi's government fall, the US will be looking at a profoundly anti-US government in Yemen, right on the border of Saudi Arabia.

Yemen militants killed in suspected U.S. drone raid

A suspected US drone strike in Yemen’s southeastern Shabwa province has killed five Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants, a local government official said on Tuesday.
The defence ministry said Saturday’s raid was conducted by Yemeni warplanes, but a security official told AFP that a US drone was responsible for the attack.
The United States has never formally acknowledged the use of drones against Al-Qaeda in Yemen, considered by Washington to be the most active and deadly branch of the global terror network and a major focus of its “war on terror.”
Every single time one of these raids happens, it is a recruiting call to those who would wish Americans harm in the region.
The developers of US foreign policy seem pathologically incapable of getting it right in Yemen.
The departure of former President Saleh has done nothing to ameliorate the terrible conditions in which most of the Yemenite people live, which include desperate poverty, horrendous corruption, and zero transparency in government.
Instead of placing so much emphasis on military aid here, the US should be using its foreign aid both as a carrot and a stick, making sure that food aid, education, medical care, and infrastructure investment become the first priority of the government of Yemen, and that people have hope for a better life.
Fear and suppression can only work for so long before people get tired of living with it, and massively rebel against the leadership, and the conditions, which are sapping away their strength. The late President Kennedy said it best; when peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable.
The US government is in Yemen, primarily to contain any possible unrest from seeping into Saudi Arabia, its huge oil-producing neighbor.
But unfortunately, the sclerotic House of Saud is having its own domestic problems with unrest which it, as well, is attempting to put down with massive military suppression, rather than trying to fix the systemic problems responsible for the unrest in the first place.

CIA ‘wants more’ drone strikes in Yemen

The CIA is seeking permission to launch more airborne drone strikes in Yemen, even when there is a risk the victims might not always be terrorists, The Washington Post reported.
The targets would be chosen based on intelligence reports indicating suspicious behavior, such as images of militants unloading explosives or gathering at al-Qaeda compounds.
If President Barack Obama’s administration gives the CIA permission for the strikes, it could represent a politically dangerous escalation of US military activity in Yemen, the Post said.
Translation; the US Government is losing the drone war in Yemen because it is making absolutely zero attempt to cajole the current government into fixing the conditions on the ground which have lead to the unrest in the first place.
Since the departure of "President" Selah, the conditions of the Yemenite people have not become any better at all, and they are suffering from massive poverty, political corruption; a lack of infrastructure, and a lack of foreign investment which would translate into jobs.
The late President Kennedy said it best; when peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable.
The only intelligent way to put an end to this is for the US to be providing human aid, in terms of food and medical support, to begin with, and find a mechanism to insure that this aid actually gets to the people for whom it was intended; not doled out as a "prize" for any government-controlled paramilitary organizations tasked with suppression of the Yemenite people.
The only real reason we are in Yemen is to prevent this unrest from spilling into the oil giant Saudi Arabia next door, where the sclerotic House of Saud is having its own problems with political unrest due to unemployment and poverty.
Unfortunately, they are also using brutal suppression of their people to attempt to stomp on it, and refuse to fix the problems causing the unrest in the first place.
The worst case scenario for the US government would be for Saudi Arabia to be in political rebellion or revolution to the point where their oil stops flowing, right at the moment when the US and/or Israel are going to invade Iran.

US airstrikes take out al Qaeda targets in Yemen

This Al Qaeda? whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/fakealqaeda.php
U.S. forces launched a successful airstrike against al Qaeda targets in Yemen on Wednesday as government troops continue to hammer away at the terror group's sanctuaries in the south.
The airstrike, likely carried out by an unmanned aircraft operated by the CIA, hit a vehicle carrying a dozen members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Abyan province in southern Yemen, according to the Associated Press.

Qaeda battles to create safe haven in Yemen

Al-Qaeda, still smarting from the loss of its iconic leader Osama bin Laden, appears determined to capture the south Yemeni town of Loder in a bid to build itself a secure base in the Arabian Peninsula.
Its location between three provinces gives Loder strategic importance, and it can also provide a safe haven from bombardment from the sea, experts say, adding that the militant group is seeking to extend its influence across the region.
Despite the loss of an estimated 152 men in four days of fighting in and around Loder in Abyan province, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is still engaging Yemeni soldiers and local tribesmen in fierce firefights.
Forgive me, but I am rather curious: who the heck is this Mustafa Ani, and why is it impossible to find bio or contact info on him online? I am no slouch with a search engine, but I certainly couldn't find him, other than where he is mentioned in this article.
Is he perhaps imaginary or invented in order to give an air of "gravitas" to this article?
And let's take a longer view of the situation in Yemen, shall we?
The not-terribly-voluntary self-exile of former President Selah has done nothing to ameliorate the horrendous conditions in Yemen, in terms of poverty, political corruption, lack of education, lack of investment capital, and the lack of transparency in government.
And the late President Kennedy said it best: when peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable.
In the Middle East, is certainly easy enough to label any group with extreme upset and grievances against a government which has chosen the path of violence against that government as "Al Queada" (which means, literally, "the base", in Arabic, but colloquially, means "the toilet"), but is this a true characterization?
I am not certain about that.
But there is one thing of which I am certain, and that the US support of the current government, even to the point of massive drone bombing raids against the rebels here, is not going to resolve these consistent problems on the ground. And what we may have, ultimately, if the current Yemen government is toppled by these rebels, is a new government which is virulently anti-American.
I understand that the US government is pulling out all the stops to prevent such an outcome, but is truly going about attempting to reach this goal in a spectacularly ham-fisted, thoroughly irrational manner.
The only reason the US is here is Yemen's proximity to Saudi Arabia, where any waves of unrest could well cripple oil production here, toppling the House of Saud, and perhaps taking Saudi oil off the market, just when it is most critically needed, if and when Israel and the US government decide to attack Iran.

Al-Qaeda bomb-making expert publishes magazine

A top al-Qaeda bomb-making expert this week has joined his fellow terrorists in publishing information on the World Wide Web, but this time its an Internet magazine instructing readers on how to build bombs and other deadly devices.
Like the Black Panther Coloring Book and various so-called anarchist cookbooks, this magazine is the product of the US Government, to convince you there is a terrorist threat that can only be solved by sending your children to die killing Israel's enemies.

Experts Stunned: Key Al Qaeda Websites Went Silent After March 23

Terrorism experts are dumfounded one why the key mode of Al Qaeda communication – online forums on Jihadist websites – suddenly went silent after March 23.

New Al-Qaeda Graphic Warns Of Another Attack In New York

The NYPD and the FBI are investigating this computer graphic that was posted to an internet site linked to al-Qaeda.
"Coming soon again" is pure American colloquialism. This is another war-starting hoax by CIA/Mossad and their phony Al Qaeda actors.

South Yemen Fighting Spreads: 177 Killed So Far

The ongoing fighting between the Yemeni government and a militant faction (either Ansar al-Sharia or al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) depending on the news source) continues to escalate today in the strategic town of Lawder, with locals reporting that the overall death toll of the last four days of fighting is now 177.
The fighting hasn’t just spread inside Lawder either, with reports that the nearby town of Mudia is also seeing fighting as militants clash with locals. The US has also become involved, attacking a stolen army vehicle with a drone and killing 12 “suspects.”
The late President Kennedy said it best, and most succinctly: when peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable.
Unless the US reassesses what aid, and what aid other then military, they are going to give to the Yemen government, and uses a carrot-stick approach to enforce the aid actually reaching the people of Yemen, it may well find itself with the current, hideously corrupt and disfunctional government toppled, and a very intensely anti-US government in its place.
The US government wouldn't even be in Yemen right now, were it not for it's proximity to Saudi Arabia, and the fear that the sclerotic House of Saud may well be toppled by unrest there, taking Saudi oil off the market when it may well be most critically needed, if there is a coming military attack against Iran.

Thousands Protest Against US Death Squads And Drone Strikes In Pakistan

Thousands of Pakistanis have come out to protest the reopening of supply lines to US-led forces in Afghanistan following deadly death squad raids and drone strikes in Pakistan.

No plan to end drone strikes in Pakistan: US officials

The White House has no intention to end CIA drone strikes against terrorists targets on Pakistani soil, US officials say, possibly setting the two countries up for diplomatic tensions after Pakistan’s parliament unanimously approved new guidelines for the country’s troubled relationship with the United States.

US: Drone Strikes Against Pakistan Will Continue

Yesterday’s statement from the Pakistani parliament has not changed anything, according to Obama Administration officials, who insist that drone strikes against Pakistan’s tribal area will continue over any objections. They also addressed reports that the reduction in attacks in recent weeks was an effort to placate Pakistan, insisting that the strikes proved how successful the assassination campaign has been, and that it has sent everyone into hiding.
As reported by RT last August:
A new report out of London challenges the US government’s claims that the CIA-led drone initiatives in Pakistan have spared civilians from unnecessary casualties. Rather, writes the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, hundreds of noncombatants have been killed by US airstrikes overseas.
The Bureau has also figured that upwards of 2,863 people in all have been killed in drone strikes, and though most of the casualties were suffered by militants (126 of whom have been named thus far), as many as 775 civilians have been killed in the attacks. John Brennan, the chief counter-terrorism adviser under President Obama “insisted” recently that the drone strikes in Pakistan “do not put… innocent men, women and children in danger,” though the Bureau says that at least 218 of those killed under the current administration were civilians. A senior US official tells CNN that only 50 civilians have been killed in CIA drone strikes since 2001. Since May, the official adds that he “can’t confirm any noncombatant casualties.” Casualties in all, say the Bureau, are at least 40 percent higher than previously reported by the US government.
The Pakistani people do not loathe us because "we are free"; the Pakistani people loathe us because we are indiscriminately murdering their wives, husbands, kids, aunties, grandmothers, and friends.

U.S. tries to limit damage from grisly Afghan photos

The United States has swiftly condemned photos of soldiers posing with the mangled corpses of insurgents in Afghanistan, seeking to limit the fallout from the latest scandal involving US troops.
The photographs, which date back to 2010 but were published by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, add to a string of damaging incidents that have ignited anti-Western feeling and complicated NATO efforts to withdraw most troops in 2014.
The Taliban on Thursday condemned the photographs as “inhuman” and vowed revenge.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said those responsible would be punished but voiced “regret” that the LA Times had decided to publish the images against the Pentagon’s wishes, warning that they could prompt a violent backlash.
Looking at this current string of incidents, which almost seem to have been engineered as provocations, I have to wonder what went down which was even more grisly than these images, and also if, perhaps, the threat of Taliban "revenge" is going to be played as a further justification for a continue US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan.
The CIA has a long, and thoroughly ugly, history of using drug money in various parts of the world the US has occupied to fund their off the shelf operations.

I understand that the heroin production has been outstanding this last year in Afghanistan.
Opium production by Afghan farmers rose between 2001 and 2011 from just 185 tons to a staggering 5,800 tons. Last year, levels increased by 61 percent, with more than 90 percent of heroin found on British streets being traced back to opiates cultivated in Afghanistan, according to UN figures. The UN figures make grim reading for those who backed the invasion of Afghanistan.

‘Several drunk troops behind bloodbath, laughed on shooting-spree, burned corpses’

Gruesome new details are surfacing after 16 Afghan villagers including nine children were shot in their houses by at least one US serviceman. Witnesses to the atrocity now say that several drunken American soldiers were involved.
Neighbors at the village where the killings took place said they were awoken past midnight by crackling gunfire:
"They were all drunk and shooting all over the place," Reuters cites Agha Lala, a villager in Kandahar's Panjwayi district.
Lala's neighbor Haji Samad lost all of his 11 relatives in the rampage, including children and grandchildren. He claims Marines “poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them.”

NATO Allies Turn Their Backs On US And Withdraw Troops After Afghan Massacre

More NATO allies continue to announce sudden and abrupt troop withdrawals from Afghanistan following the Afghan Massacre and other atrocities of US soldiers.

Australia to withdraw troops from Afghanistan early

Australia said Tuesday it will bring its troops home from Afghanistan a year earlier than planned with most soldiers withdrawn in 2013 after significant security gains over the past 18 months.
Canberra, a key coalition ally of the United States, has repeatedly said it intends to remain in the war-wracked nation until 2014 but Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Afghans would now be ready to take responsibility earlier.
She will take her pull-out timetable to a NATO summit in Chicago next month with her announcement coming a day ahead of NATO foreign and defence ministers meeting in Brussels to fine-tune their own troop withdrawals.
Forgive me, but to what "...significant security gains over the past 18 months...." can Australia's Prime Minister Gillard point at this moment in time, considering that there continue to be attacks against NATO and US forces with alarming regularity?
But I will say this: it appears that, unlike the politicians in the US who have an absolutely tin ear to the desires of the American people for a rapid withdrawal of American military personnel from Afghanistan, their Australian counterparts are listening to their citizens on this subject.

NATO: No Reason to Change Afghan War Strategy

It might seem an odd time for it, with most of the Afghan capital still cleaning up after a bloody 18-hour siege, but NATO officials are loudly cheering their “progress” in the war.
NATO’s attempts to spin the attack as vindication aren’t convincing everyone, however, and President Hamid Karzai faulted NATO both for its inability to predict such a huge attack and for reacting so slowly.
The Orwellian "spin" on this attack demonstrates, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that NATO believes in continuing doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different outcome.
This is one of the classic definitions of insanity.

 

US Frames Losing Defensive Posture in Afghanistan as Last Push for Victory

The U.S. military is readying itself for the Afghan insurgency’s annual blitz of increased violence for the spring months, calling what is clearly a defensive posture on the losing side an “offensive” against the Taliban.
Insurgents mounted spectacular coordinated attacks over the weekend that set off an 18-hour battle with NATO forces, an emphatic indication of their annual spring offensive and a public relations embarrassment for the U.S. at what seems to be the lowest point in the war.
IF there was any shred of intelligence in the collective leadership of NATO and the US Government, US and NATO troops would be immediately withdrawn, and both entities would be negotiating with whatever government in Kabul is left standing for the oil pipeline routes.
Of course, THAT would be logical.
It is painfully apparent that neither the leadership of NATO nor the US military ever got the memo that the only person in history who was able to conquer and hold this region was Alexander the Great; and that was only for 3 years!!

US government 'paid terrorist $100 a month'

Zarein Ahmedzay pleaded guilty last year to being part of a suicide-bomb plot which was to target the city’s transport network in an attack which would have echoed the July 7 London underground bombings.
Yesterday, as he gave evidence against an alleged fellow plotter, Adis Medunjanin, Ahmedzay claimed that, for the past year, the US government has been paying him $100 a month (£63) while he has been in prison.
Ahmedzay is one of several terrorists who is testifying against Medunjanin.
The convicted British terrorist Saajid Muhammad Badat struck a bargain with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in which he was given a reduction of two years in his sentence after agreeing to testify against other terrorists, including Medunjanin.

Iran arrests 15 Israeli-linked spies and terrorists

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry has announced that it has recently arrested over a dozen Israeli-linked spies and terrorists.

US Secret Service scandal: pictures emerge of Colombian strip club

Illuminated by green neon laser lights, the windowless Pley Club in the city of Cartagena was apparently the starting point for a scandal that has deeply embarrassed the White House.
Agents from the US Secret Service visited the club and downed beers and whisky as they watched a selection of scantily-clad women dance on poles from a table-height stage, the New York Daily News reported.
As the night dragged some of the elite bodyguards took prostitutes back to the Hotel Caribe, the historic hotel being used by the Secret Service, members of the US military and American reporters.

Colombian authorities investigating whether women in Secret Service scandal were underage

If any of the women involved are under 18, some of the more than 20 Americans tied to the scandal -- a mix of Secret Service agents and members of the US military -- could face criminal charges in Colombia.

Israeli settlers assault UN delegation in al-Khalil

Jewish settlers threw stones and rubbish on a number of foreign law professors, who are participating in a conference about Palestine’s membership in the U.N. which is being held at al-Khalil University, while they were touring the old city near the Jewish settlement of Beit Hadasa.
...
Lecturer and researcher at Oxford University, Abbas Sheblaq said that the situation in the old city is a clear proof of the fascistic way used by the occupation to uproot Palestinians and the Israeli mentality which aims to eliminate the other.

Ah les arriérés!

Queen Beatrix’s Brother-In-Law Calls For Mandatory Birth Control For The “Unfit”

In an episode of the television program Zembla that aired last week on Dutch national television, Pieter van Vollenhoven- queen Beatrix’s brother-in-law- called for forced birth control for people with drug addiction, psychiatric patients and other people deemed unfit to reproduce.
As head of the Dutch Safety Board, Van Vollenhoven investigated several cases in which children were abused at a young age.
After concluding that “the government is not sufficiently capable of delivering on its responsibility to ensure the safety of young children in the age group 0 to 12 within the home”, Van Vollenhoven went on to propose a classical eugenic solution:

Ceasefire Reached After Israeli Air Strikes Killed 26 Palestinians in Gaza

Most of the Palestinian victims were killed on Saturday, making it the deadliest 24-hour period Gaza has seen since the Israeli attack in December 2008 and January 2009 when some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians. “Israel presents this as they’re attacking terrorists who are en route to commit some kind of attack, and that’s the claim they always make,” Abunimah says. “But in fact, in almost every case, they’re attacking people in their homes, riding in cars, just walking in the street.”

Knesset to discuss bill authorising settlers' seizure of Palestinian land

Israel's Knesset (parliament) is due to hold a special session on Wednesday to discuss a bill which would authorise Jewish settlers to build on private Palestinian land, especially in the Migron settlement outpost and other such places. All Jewish settlements, "outposts" or not, are illegal under international law. That the Israeli parliament even gives time to debate such a law is a strong indication of the contempt in which it holds international laws and conventions, and the international community at large.
The bill drafted by Danon proposes compensation for the Palestinian owners of land where settlements are to be built. This would cover dozens of families as such a law would give legitimacy to many settlement outposts.
The government of Israel has never wanted, and does not want, peace; it only wants more territory, and by any means necessary.
And as to that bit about "compensation" to Palestinian land owners; I wouldn't hold my breath that this provision will make it into the final draft of this bill.

IDF document: Avoid media provocations

"Remember it takes only 10 seconds out of hours of video footage to cause irreparable damage to the image of the soldiers, the army and the State," an instruction page distributed by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit to soldiers serving in Judea and Samaria read.
The instruction page, which was obtained by Ynet, urges officers to remember that "the media, and especially the foreign press, is looking for strong images, even provocative, and therefore we must refrain from creating such images unnecessarily.
Unfortunately, because of the way the IDF members are trained to "handle" Palestinians (read: maim, dispossess, and kill), those images of which the IDF is terrified will continue to circle around the world in seconds, showing them for who they really are, and how they really behave.

First ever European Jewish Parliament inaugurated in Brussels

The inaugural meeting of the 120 elected members of the first ever European Jewish Parliament (EJP), described as a new and innovative forum to voice the thoughts, beliefs and ideas as well as concerns of European Jews, took place on Thursday at the European Parliament building in Brussels.
I guess the regular parliament just isn't good enough for them!

Woman removed from Air France flight for not being Jewish

Ali Abunimah reports on a disgusting incident surrounding the recent flytilla, an action in France at the behest of Israeli authorities:
Air France demanded to know the religion of a passenger on a flight from Nice to Tel Aviv and removed her because she is not a Jew.
The 15 April incident, confirmed by an Air France official, may violate international and European law by subjecting prospective passengers to illegal religious discrimination...
Just imagine if a country demanded that Air France question passengers about their religion in order to exclude Jews. And imagine if Air France willingly complied.
”Israel may put others to trial, but no one may judge Israel.” -- Ariel Sharon

Stockholm airport bars Israeli airline over security inspection methods

Arkia has to stop flying to Stockholm because the Swedish capital’s international airport now refuses to allow Israeli methods of security inspections dictated by the Shin Bet security service, TheMarker learned on Wednesday. Thus, Stockholm’s airport joined those in Malmo, Sweden and in Copenhagen in refusing to allow Israeli security inspections, which involve ethnic and personal profiling, extensive questioning and selective inspections based on the perceived degree of risk to security.
Arkia, the only Israeli airline flying to Sweden, had to move its operations to Malmo and Stockholm this year after Denmark refused to permit Israeli security procedures at its airports last summer. Arkia elected to fly passengers to Sweden and take them by land to Denmark. Now this avenue is closed.
Good for the Swedes; finally, a country with some horse-sense about what responsible security should, and should not, entail.
I only hope, however, that there is not some kind of Mossad-sponsored "false flag" to punish Sweden for not having given in to Israel's excessive security demands.

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.: Our duty is to prevent another Holocaust

Israel's ambassador to the United States Michael Oren commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day on Capitol Hill on Thursday, along with other U.S. officials and members of Congress, and warned against Iran and the possibility of another holocaust.
Comparing the conditions of pre-war Germany with the situation in Iran today, Oren described both as “economies in crisis, following a war,” and likened the “supreme leaders” of each regime to one another. Mentioning Iran directly, Oren said, “It denies the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis while pledging to murder another six million—in Israel.”
“The Iranian regime can either abandon its military nuclear program or face truly crippling sanctions and a credible military threat,” he continued.
Memo to Israeli Ambassador Oren: you, sir, apparently DID NOT get the memo that one of the largest, and most ancient of Jewish communities lives in Iran very happily, and these people don't appear to want to emigrate any time soon.
IF Iranian leadership was passionate about wiping the Jewish people off the earth, why, then, logically, would they not start by annihilating Jewish people in their own communities?!?
You see, Mr. Ambassador, you cannot have this both ways: either Iran DOES want to destroy every Jewish person on the face of this earth, or really doesn't.
In light of the fact that there are constitutional protections for Jews in Iran (probably far better than for Palestinians who are Israeli citizens) it would seem that wiping Jews from the fact of the earth is NOT high on the Iranian leadership's "to do" list."
At the present, population of the Jews in Iran is estimated about 25’000 to 30’000 of which about 15000 people are in Tehran (the Capital) and the rest of them in terms of population are residing in Shiraz, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Yazd, Kerman, Rafsanjan, Borujerd, Sanandaj and Oromieh respectively. By establishment of the National legislature in Constitutional period (about a century ago), religious minorities in Iran obtained representation in the parliament and since then Jews have always had representatives in the parliament. After the victory of the Islamic revolution (1979), a Jewish representatives in the parliament. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, a Jewish representative has had an active presence in the Constitution of Elite Council. According to the Constitution, Jews have a representative in Islamic Consultative Assembly (Parliament called “Majlis”). Political, social, and religious activities of Jewish society revolve around Jewish religious authorities (Chief Rabbi Yousef Hamedani Cohen), Jews representative in Islamic Consultative Assembly and Tehran Jewish Committee Board of Directors. Any position declaration or pursuance of legal, political, and social issues of Jewish society is addressed through above bodies.
And to that accusation that Ahmadinejad said he wanted to "...wipe Israel off the Map"; sir, that never really happened, and you know it.
Did Ahmadinejad really threaten to "wipe Israel off the map" or is this phrase just another jingoistic brand slogan for selling the next war in the Middle East? The devil is in the detail, wiping Israel off the map suggests a physical genocidal assault, a literal population relocation or elimination akin to what the Nazis did. According to numerous different translations, Ahmadinejad never used the word "map," instead his statement was in the context of time and applied to the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem. Ahmadinejad was expressing his future hope that the Zionist regime in Israel would fall, not that Iran was going to physically annex the country and its population. To claim Ahmadinejad has issued a rallying cry to ethnically cleanse Israel is akin to saying that Churchill wanted to murder all Germans when he stated his desire to crush the Nazis. This is about the demise of a corrupt occupying power, not the deaths of millions of innocent people. The Guardian's Jonathan Steele cites four different translations, from professors to the BBC to the New York Times and even pro-Israel news outlets, in none of those translations is the word "map" used. The closest translation to what the Iranian President actually said is, "The regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time," or a narrow relative thereof.
And as to that statement that “The Iranian regime can either abandon its military nuclear program or face truly crippling sanctions and a credible military threat"; Ambassador Oren, we are now thoroughly confused. Could you please explain to the American people precisely what you mean by that?!?
Because to date, no IAEA inspection has detected any evidence of any nuclear material having been diverted from Iran's energy and medical use of nuclear material; zero, zip, NONE.
Iran, as a signatory to the NNPT, has the legal right to use energy for peaceful means, and is subject to IAEA inspections to make certain that is happening. So far, no real breaches of protocol have been observed by the IAEA.
On the other hand, however, Israel is a nuclear armed nation,(which, of course, guarantees that there will never BE a "2nd Holocaust, no matter how eloquently you may attempt to invoke its possibility)
However, the government of Israel refuses to sign the NNPT and have their nuclear sites inspected. And this does bring up a very interesting point, Ambassador Oren.
Can you explain why the US government continues to give Israel billions every year, when any monetary or military aid is illegal to give, under the Symington Amendment, to any country which has a nuclear program but which refuses to become a signatory to the NNPT?!?
We're waiting for an answer, Ambassador: what do you have to say here?!?!?

Hague: Palestinian Authority Has No Standing

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/154465#.T3uosNXZpoF

The Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced Tuesday that he rejected a complaint filed by the PA against Israel for alleged war crimes during "Operation Cast Lead" in Gaza in 2009.
The prosecutor explained that only states can file a complaint with the International Criminal Court. "The Palestinian Authority is only an observer at the United Nations and not a member state.
The prosecutor's office noted that, for its purposes, the recognition of "Palestine" by 130 countries and several international organizations, including UN organizations, was immaterial.
Unflipping believable.
Ayoye!!!!

Gandhi On Jews And Hitler (incredible!!!)

Israel attacks German novelist Günter Grass accusing him of anti-semitism

Benjamin Netanyahu has led Israeli officials in a vitriolic denunciation of Günter Grass, accusing the German novelist of anti-semitism after he wrote a poem attacking the Jewish state's nuclear programme.
Anti-semitism is hating the Jews for being Jews. But criticism of Israel's actions is not based on race or religion but on deeds, and it is a shameful fraud by Israel to confuse the two.

Israel, threat to world peace: German Nobel laureate Grass

'Israel - not Iran - a nuclear power out of intl control'

German Nobel literature laureate Gunter Grass has called Israel a threat to world peace, slamming the West’s hypocrisy over Tel Aviv’s nuclear arsenal.

Günter Grass; What Must Be Said (genius performance)

What must be said

Why have I been silent, silent for so long?,
Our generals have gamed it out,
Confident the west will survive.
We people have not even been considered.

What is this right to "preventive war"?
A war that could erase the Iranian people.
Dominated by it's neighbor, pulsing with righteousness
Smug in the fact that it is they, not Iran,
Who have the Bomb.

Why have I so far avoided to identify Israel by it's name?,
Israel and it's ever increasing nuclear arsenal,
Beyond reproach, Uncontrolled, uninspected.

We all know these things
Yet we all remain silent, fearful of being labeled:
anti-Semitic
hateful
worse

Considering Germany's past these labels stick
So we call is "business", "reparation" take your pick,
As we deliver yet another submarine.
As we provide to Israel the means to deliver annihilation.
I say what must be said.

Why did I stay silent until now?
Because I'm German, of course.
I'm tainted by a stain I cannot wash out
I'm silent because I want so badly to make it right
To put my sins in the past and leave them silently there.

Why did I wait to say it until now?
And write these words with the last of my ink?
Declaring that Israel threatens world peace?
Because it is true and it must be said,
Tomorrow will be too late.

We Germans now carry a new burden of sin on our shoulders
Through the weapons we have sold
We are helping to carry out this foreseeable tragedy
No excuse will remove our stain of complicity.

It must be said. I won't be silent
I've had enough of the hypocrisy;
Please shed the silence with me,
The consequences are all too predictable.
It's time to demand free and permanent control
of BOTH Israel's nuclear arsenal
AND Iran's nuclear facilities
enforced with international supervision.

It's the only way, in a land convulsed with insanity,
Israelis, Palestinians, everybody, will survive.
And we too, will survive.

Fukushima:

“Something new in the history of medicine is happening at Fukushima” says physician — 30% of children tested had thyroid lumps — “Now that’s really early, that’s within the first year, that’s unheard of”

But something new in the history of medicine is happening at Fukushima, says Dr. Caldicott [...]
“Now that’s really early. That’s within the first year. That’s unheard of.”
[Referring to study finding 1,143 of 3,765 (~30%) of Fukushima children who were tested were found with lumps on their thyroid glands -SOURCE]
[...]
“Fukushima I predict means the end of the nuclear power industry, and it’s already happening in Japan.”

NHK: Tepco can’t find holes at Reactor No. 2 — Nuclear Expert: It’s leaking like a sieve — “No one knows how they’re ever going to remove fuel in my lifetime” — Likely 50, 60, 70 years — Radiation like outer space (VIDEO)

Title: TEPCO says no water leaks found at No.2 reactor
Source: NHK
Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 20:56 +0900 (JST)

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says inspections using a robot have yet to find serious damage or water leaks at the facility’s No. 2 reactor. [...]

TEPCO said the robot found no water leaks or traces in manholes on the north and southeast sides of the [suppression] chamber, where leakage had been suspected.

Workers also maneuvered the robot to check about 90 percent of the upper part of the 125-meter doughnut-shaped chamber, and found no serious damage or deformation. [...]

The level of radioactive water accumulated on the plant’s premises keeps increasing. [...]

(A rather strange article was published by NHK shortly after the above report — ‘Why containment vessels must be examined‘ is filled with formatting errors and cites no sources for any of its information)
Title: Arnie Gundersen Interview
Source: WBAI’s Five O’Clock Shadow
Date: Tuesday April 17, 2012 5:00pm
At ~21:00 in

The radiation fields at Reactor No. 2 are comparable to what we see in space…

It’s leaking like a sieve…

No one knows how they’re ever going to remove the fuel in my lifetime… likely for 50, 60, 70 years until some of this radiation decays away… and that’s the good news. Units 1 and 3 they can’t even get into because they’re even worse.

Download the program here (April 17, 2012 program)
Stream the program here

• Donate to Five O’Clock Shadow and WBAI here (be sure to pick 5 o’clock Shadow as your show of choice)
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TEPCO: Not Enough Money To Handle Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 4 Problems

The problem at Fukushima nuclear reactor 4 which is being dubbed as the greatest short-term threat to humanity and has the potential to destroy our world and civilization as we know it.
Now nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen who is one of the only people providing objective scientific analysis about the Fukushima nuclear fallout believes based on his analysis of the problems that TEPCO simply doesn't have enough money to deal with the issues there.

Magnitude 4.8 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

A relatively minor quake, to be sure, but a troubling continuation of the swarm near the destroyed nuclear power station.

Report: Tepco will start building sarcophagus over Fukushima No. 4 Spent Fuel Pool TOMORROW

STAY OUT OF THE RAIN! Radioactive Fallout 49X Greater Than Background Radiation.

Fukushima Nuke Plant Reactor 4?s Slowly Changing Look: Photos from March 2011 to March 2012

It’s so slow that nothing seems to have been happening.
March 15, 2011, the day Reactor 4 had an explosion. At that time, “fire” was emphasized not “explosion”, and the condition was described as “a hole in the wall, and damage to the ceiling”. More accurate would have been “8-meter hole in the wall that is crumbling, and no ceiling except for steel beams.”
EX-SKF
April 16, 2012
It’s so slow that nothing seems to have been happening.
March 15, 2011, the day Reactor 4 had an explosion. At that time, “fire” was emphasized not “explosion”, and the condition was described as “a hole in the wall, and damage to the ceiling”. More accurate would have been “8-meter hole in the wall that is crumbling, and no ceiling except for steel beams.”

March 16, 2011:


March 22, 2011:

March 24, 2011:

April 10, 2011:


June 10, 2011:


June 29, 2011. Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool when it was still “warm”, before the heat exchanger was installed:

June 30, 2011:

September 29, 2011:

September 22, 2011:

January 5, 2012. This photo caused some bloggers and sites to claim Reactor 4 is falling apart. For more about the demolition/cleanup work that was being done, see my post from December 2011:

February 24, 2012:

March 5, 2012:

Photos are from TEPCO’s “Photos for Press” page for Reactor 4.
Long, long way to go.
Ironically, the cleanest photo of the recent Reactor 4 building was presented by Asahi TV’s “Morning Bird” program on March 8, 2012 that seems to have introduced many Japanese (and non-Japanese) to the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool danger for the first time after more than 1 years since the start of the accident, however erroneously.
The aerial photo of Reactor 4 building was presented as “walls all gone, they were all blown off in the explosion”. Well not really. That photo was after the clean-up of removing most of the crumbling wall panels and part of ceiling beams to remove the crane:

April 16th, 2012 | 19 comments

Tepco releases footage of No. 3 Spent Fuel Pool — Shows debris, fuel racks, crane… More (VIDEOS)

05:42 PM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 39 comments

Reuters Alert: “Fukushima damage leaves spent fuel at risk” -US Lawmaker — “Far worse than he expected” — Bags of rock only protection from tsunami

03:32 PM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 63 comments

US Senator Issues Press Release on Fukushima Spent Fuel Pools — Urges Japan to accept international help — Warns situation worse than reported after touring plant

01:20 PM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 19 comments

Tepco: “Foundation improvement work” begins tomorrow at Reactor No. 4 (PHOTOS)

11:20 AM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 50 comments

Report: Tepco will start covering No. 4 Spent Fuel Pool tomorrow

08:53 AM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 54 comments

Asahi: Gov’t admits for 1st time “all nuclear reactors will be shut down in Japan” — 45 years since no plants were operating in country

07:33 AM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 13 comments

Alaska’s #2 Newspaper: Spring brings fallout — Cesium-137 believed to cause malevolent genetic mutations, says reprinted editorial

03:46 AM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 26 comments

Book: Reactor No. 4 deformed in front of our eyes, says Fukushima worker — Walls morphed like special effects from movie — No large explosion, yet building destroyed

02:55 AM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 9 comments

Revealed: “Refrain from saying things that may weaken Tepco” -Prime Minister Noda in March 2011

07:30 PM EST on April 15th, 2012 | 20 comments

Kyodo: Move to restart reactors blasted as misinformed haste — Gov’t under fire from public, experts

Japanese Trying to Stabilize Radioactive Fuel Pools, But Are Moving Too Slowly … By a Decade

Mr. Wyden points out, though, that the schedule allows up to ten years to get all the spent fuel in all the Fukushima reactor pools out — something he says is too risky.
“This schedule carries extraordinary and continuing risk if further severe seismic events were to occur,” he wrote in his letter to Ambassador Fujisaki. “The true earthquake risk for the site was seriously underestimated and remains unresolved.

China Syndrome? Japan Times on Melt Through: “Molten ‘lava’ melted bottom of containment vessel,” says nuclear engineer given access by top official — Huge amounts of fission materials released into environment

Nuclear Expert: There’s as much cesium in No. 4 fuel pool as in all 800 atom bombs ever dropped — Fukushima would be at one place, at one time, and on ground level (AUDIO)

 

Fukushima – It’s Never Been Worse

Beginning with the initial meltdown at Fukushima Daiishi nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011, we at From the Trenches World Report were pointing out that the unrealistic information being put out by the Japanese government, TEPCO, and the mainstream media in the United States was purposeful in its intent. Indeed, in reality most people around the world could not grasp the enormity of the event and its significance.
Now it is being reported that radiation from Fukushima is being found in Pacific fish, shell fish and in the kelp off the California Coast. The very idea that the radiation could be contained to Japan, considering the constant state of flux our planet is in, was ridiculous out the gate and the cover-up was obvious.

Japanese Doctor: Children’s health problems increasing — Incurable stomatitis, chest pain, nosebleeds that don’t stop, diarrhea

Former Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Operator: We falsified data and rewrote daily operative reports (VIDEO)

10 times more cesium released from Fukushima than Japan gov’t claims -Study (VIDEO)

Beauty contest for “prettiest student who ate only food from Fukushima” — Supported by Japan gov’t

Title: Japanese government criticized for downplaying nuclear disaster
Source: Deutsche Welle
Author: Ulrike Mast-Kirschning / sb
Editor: Shamil Shams
Date: 18.04.2012

[... Physicist and head of the Society for Radiation Protection Sebastian] Pflugbeil thinks the Japanese government’s strategies to get over the catastrophe by appealing to peoples’ patriotism is absurd. On his last trip to the East Asian country, he took a picture at a beauty contest – with support from the minister for agriculture, a contest was held to find the prettiest student who ate only food from the Fukushima region. [...]

Read the report here

Lead Fukushima Investigator: “The ‘nuclear lava’ melted the bottom of the containment vessel" -- "Leaking a huge amount of fission gasses and particles”

Follow-up to: Japan Times on Melt Through: "Molten 'lava' melted bottom of containment vessel," says nuclear engineer given access by top official -- Huge amounts of fission materials released into environment

Title: World is ignoring most important lesson from Fukushima nuclear disaster
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Author: Kenichi Ohmae
Date: April 5, 2012

[...] Yet another false assumption involved the containment vessel, an invention of nuclear engineers to assure nearby inhabitants that, if there were an unimaginable accident and fission products leaked out of the core, they would be confined inside and not leak out into the external environment. This long-held myth was also broken by Fukushima No.1, as the molten fuel dropped through the pressure vessel and the “nuclear lava” melted the bottom of the containment vessel, leaking a huge amount of fission gasses and particles to the air and water. [...]

Yomiuri: “The worst-case scenario is a China syndrome” [...] A China syndrome refers to a situation in which nuclear fuel in a reactor melts and goes through a containment vessel -Masao Yoshida, former chief of the Fukushima Daiichi plant

Asahi TV airs pics of mutated plants in Tokyo -- Asks audience to send in more mutation examples (PHOTOS)

Via Fukushima Diary on April 18, 2012:

[...] A news reporter showed this mutated dandelion in the TV show “Morning bird” of TV asahi. 2 flowers from one huge stem. 20 of them are growing close to each other in Tokyo. Maybe the dandelions were stressed. The TV show is asking for more pictures of mutated plants. [...]

SOURCE: Asahi TV's 'Morning Bird'

See also: Asahi TV: "Unbelievable" -- If Unit 4 pool gets a crack from quake and leaks, it would be end for Tokyo -Expert -- Doesn't have to be large tremor, already shaken many times (VIDEO)

SOURCE: Asahi TV's 'Morning Bird'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJi-o4F8eOo
UPDATE: Japan Times on Plant Mutations: "Trees died and others grew in abnormal shapes" says ecologist visiting Japan from Chernobyl

Petrochemical Complex Containing Nuclear Fuel On Fire After Explosion

A chemical complex containing nuclear fuel is engulfed in a massive fire at Mitsui chemicals after a lightning strike caused an explosion

April 23rd, 2012 | 20 comments

Book by Fukushima Worker: Bottom of Daini reactor may be ‘broken through’ — Rumors of possible explosion

09:33 PM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 8 comments

*2 Years Later* Professor: Microbes in Gulf attacking things other than oil? Very large increase in crab and lobster with appendages falling off — High incidence of eyeless shrimp… More (VIDEO)

07:59 PM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 39 comments

White sheets covering surface of Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 seen during top official’s tour of Fukushima Daiichi (PHOTO)

06:19 PM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 26 comments

Nuclear consultant examines No. 4 spent fuel pool scenarios: Loss of Water vs. Scattering of Fuel Rods

03:38 PM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 21 comments

Nuclear expert raises doubts about support columns under Spent Fuel Pool No.4 at Fukushima Daiichi (PHOTOS)

01:21 PM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 37 comments

Tens of thousands still living today in highly contaminated areas around Fukushima plant — Effectively abandoned by gov’t -Nuclear Expert

12:30 PM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 9 comments

WSJ: Police raid Mitsui office after explosions — Inspection of site delayed due to flammable gas — Confiscation of documents expected

09:25 AM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 35 comments

Prime Minister Kan: Radiation disaster ‘would hit the world’ if Fukushima Daiichi was evacuated — ‘No longer a question of only Japan’ — Worry over current state of plant

08:25 AM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 10 comments

TV: Nuclear scientists concerned about structural safety of Fukushima fuel pools — 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than Chernobyl (VIDEO)

05:29 AM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 79 comments

New Interview: Fukushima poses lethal risk to US West Coast, says Senator — Another bomb waiting to go off — Extreme nuclear vulnerability, especially in Reactor No. 4

09:18 PM EST on April 22nd, 2012 | 53 comments

Kyodo Gets Suspicious? Mitsui “claimed” radioactive agent is harmless to people — Radiation mentioned 4 times — Explosions began while shutting down plant

08:08 PM EST on April 22nd, 2012 | 49 comments

Closing Scene: Family fleeing Fukushima radiation watches through rear window as their dog runs behind car trying to catch up (VIDEO, 50 min.)

04:54 PM EST on April 22nd, 2012 | 47 comments

HuffPo: Large amounts of radioactive materials could be deposited across 1,000s of miles if water lost at Fukushima fuel pool — Media just beginning to grasp that danger to world is far from over -Nuclear Expert

04:04 PM EST on April 22nd, 2012 | 10 comments

Radioactive material stored 500 meters from where incident began at chemical plant — “The containers are intact” (PHOTO)

02:48 PM EST on April 22nd, 2012 | 3 comments

AFP: Officials “waiting for combustible materials to burn out” after Japan explosions — Fire not extinguished — May take days to determine cause

12:32 PM EST on April 22nd, 2012 | 35 comments

NHK: Another Mitsui chemical plant had trouble BEFORE multiple explosions — All plants were halted at time of blasts (VIDEO)

11:17 AM EST on April 22nd, 2012 | 24 comments

Second explosion at Mitsui plant — FNN confirms depleted uranium — Kyodo: 3,400 drums with radioactive materials — “Did not appear to have any effect on radiation levels” (VIDEOS)

10:12 PM EST on April 21st, 2012 | 147 comments

Explosion at Japan chemical complex, still burning — 3,379 containers of nuclear waste onsite — Reports of depleted uranium — Gov’t says no release of toxic material (PHOTOS & VIDEO)

April 21st, 2012 | 19 comments

California Nuclear Plant Operator: No further description of fire could be provided — “Cause was still unclear”

03:24 PM EST on April 21st, 2012 | 12 comments

Japan Times on Plant Mutations: “Trees died and others grew in abnormal shapes” says ecologist visiting Japan from Chernobyl

02:28 PM EST on April 21st, 2012 | 11 comments

Watch: Babies born this year may be working at Fukushima Daiichi one day

01:04 PM EST on April 21st, 2012 | 15 comments

INES level 1 event at Tokai nuclear plant after March 11 quake — Cobalt-60 detected outside of radiation control area — Safety inspectors rushed to site (PHOTOS)

04:03 AM EST on April 21st, 2012 | 135 comments

Fire at California’s San Onofre nuclear plant burns for over 40 minutes — Cause unknown

09:00 PM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 54 comments

CNN: Fukushima Daiichi engineer says “we still don’t know what’s going on inside the reactors” — Cold shut down “wasn’t true then, and it’s still not true today”

02:05 PM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 58 comments

“Squeals of delight from environmentalists”: Japan will awake on May 6 powered entirely by non-nuclear energy — DPJ Lawmaker: “As many as half of us are against the idea of restart” — Public opposition running hot, now solid majority against nuclear power

12:06 PM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 43 comments

More from Lead Investigator: “The ‘nuclear lava’ melted the bottom of the containment vessel, leaking a huge amount of fission gasses and particles to the air and water”

11:01 AM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 48 comments

‘Territory deactivation’ and long-term health problems after Fukushima studied by Japanese specialists (VIDEO)

09:18 AM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 61 comments

Fukushima Investigation: “Within one day complete meltdown and melt through occurred” — “There is no way that gov’t did not know this” (VIDEO)

06:54 AM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 22 comments

Japan Gov’t: Monitoring shows relatively high radiation dose rate in Chiba ~200km from Fukushima; Tochigi, Gunma too — Necessary to continuously confirm accumulation and migration of radioactive substances

03:33 AM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 5 comments

Fairewinds Energy Education launches new website

12:29 AM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 26 comments

MSNBC: Fukushima radiation “much higher than expected” says biologist — Negative effects to happen quicker than at Chernobyl… and be worse

09:49 PM EST on April 19th, 2012 | 58 comments

Report: Asahi TV show airs photos of mutated plants in Tokyo — Same program to feature dire situation at No. 4 fuel pool — Asked audience to send in more examples (PHOTO)

04:35 PM EST on April 19th, 2012 | 131 comments

Fukushima Report Introduced by Top Official Hosono: “Other reactors are all in considerably severe condition” — 14 total; Dai-ni, Onagawa, Tokai — “Extreme situations, though not much has been broadcast” (VIDEO)

02:48 PM EST on April 19th, 2012 | 21 comments

Former Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Operator: We falsified data and rewrote daily operative reports (VIDEO)

12:41 PM EST on April 19th, 2012 | 42 comments

Gundersen: Cesium-134 and -137 detected in Southern California pollen sample — “When you find them both together that’s a Fukushima signature” (VIDEO)

11:11 AM EST on April 19th, 2012 | 71 comments

“The Mother Load”: Common Spent Fuel Pool just 50 meters away from No. 4 (VIDEO)

April 19th, 2012 | 18 comments

10 times more cesium released from Fukushima than Japan gov’t claims -Study (VIDEO)

08:09 AM EST on April 19th, 2012 | 54 comments

Senate Leader: NRC Commissioner ‘Lied To Congress’ — Could bring Senate to grinding halt

12:45 AM EST on April 19th, 2012 | 81 comments

Beauty contest for “prettiest student who ate only food from Fukushima” — Supported by Japan gov’t

10:58 PM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 50 comments

Gundersen: “I don’t think Tepco has enough money to tackle the problems that it’s facing” when asked about No. 4 fuel pool (VIDEO)

09:34 PM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 45 comments

Deutsche Welle: 15 of Japan’s nuclear reactors are currently shut down due to damage

07:32 PM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 21 comments

German state-run TV: “Reports from Japanese journalists confirm what anti-nuclear activists fear: the situation in Fukushima is much worse than gov’t is letting on”

05:42 PM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 19 comments

Enviroreporter’s Michael Collins discussing Fukushima radiation on well known national TV show — Host: “Very, very serious stuff, I hope you guys take it as seriously as you should” (VIDEO, 11 min.)

04:58 PM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 22 comments

Rumors Spreading? “Dead fetuses in mothers’ stomachs, malformations… but we can’t say for sure at present what is caused by radiation” — “For many, Fukushima Medical University has become Dracula’s Castle”

03:07 PM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 58 comments

Fox News: ‘Vomiting road workers hospitalized after exposing mysterious nuclear waste’

12:56 PM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 28 comments

NHK: Tepco can’t find holes at Reactor No. 2 — Nuclear Expert: It’s leaking like a sieve — “No one knows how they’re ever going to remove fuel in my lifetime” — Likely 50, 60, 70 years — Radiation like outer space (VIDEO)

11:59 AM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 25 comments

Gov’t Official Shocked: “I never thought there’d be this much of a backlash” — “We are not guinea pigs!”, “How will you extract the melted fuel?”, “How can we believe you?”

09:53 AM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 61 comments

Japan Times on Melt Through: “Molten ‘lava’ melted bottom of containment vessel,” says nuclear engineer given access by top official — Huge amounts of fission materials released into environment

08:19 AM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 49 comments

Gundersen: As much cesium in No. 4 fuel pool as in all 800 atomic bombs ever dropped — Fukushima would be at one place, at one time, and on ground level (AUDIO, 30 min.)

Title: Arnie Gundersen Interview
Source: WBAI’s Five O’Clock Shadow
Date: Tuesday April 17, 2012 5:00pm
At 25:45 in

There’s enough fuel in that pool, that it’s almost as much cesium as in all of the atom bombs that were ever dropped into the atmosphere, 800 bombs were dropped into the atmosphere, well there’s as much cesium in that one pool as in those bombs.

It could very easily cut Japan in half [...]

h/t Anonymous tips
Download the program here (April 17, 2012 program)
Stream the program here

• Donate to Five O’Clock Shadow and WBAI here (be sure to pick 5 o’clock Shadow as your show of choice)
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06:04 AM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 10 comments

Bird Study: “Increases in frequency of selective deaths due to mutations” as consequence of Fukushima — “Results suggest significant mortality costs of low-dose radiation” — 0.05 microSv/h considered contaminated

04:43 AM EST on April 18th, 2012 | 32 comments

Japanese Doctor: Children’s health problems increasing — Incurable stomatitis, chest pain, nosebleeds that don’t stop, diarrhea

08:58 PM EST on April 17th, 2012 | 27 comments

Japan gov’t now discussing implementing rolling blackouts — Top official apologizes for reactor remarks

04:37 PM EST on April 17th, 2012 | 34 comments

Japan Times: The Titanic and The Nuclear Fiasco — “Catastrophic effects of Fukushima fiasco are more far-reaching and long lasting” — “Name has already become synonymous with disaster”

12:45 PM EST on April 17th, 2012 | 78 comments

Senator on National TV: I’m so concerned about Unit 4 fuel pool — Tepco’s plan must be sped up — “It’s very clear there are substantial health questions that have to be addressed now” (VIDEO)

April 17th, 2012 | 49 comments

Japan Times: 28 of every 100 Fukushima pregnancies resulted in miscarriage or abortion — “Of course we didn’t believe the rumor, but we just wanted to confirm that it was groundless” says survey leader

08:58 AM EST on April 17th, 2012 | 79 comments

WSJ: Very dangerous situation at Fukushima Daiichi says Senator — Taking years to remove fuel “carries extraordinary and continuing risk” — No comment from Tepco, Japan gov’t — Quake could send buildings tumbling down, resulting in “an even greater release of radiation”

07:30 AM EST on April 17th, 2012 | 11 comments

Colbert Report NOT Selling Out to Nuclear Industry? Mentions “no nukes” — Has Bonnie Raitt on as guest (VIDEOS)

06:11 AM EST on April 17th, 2012 | 16 comments

Confirmed: 35-ton machine “sitting on top of the spent fuel rack in the pool” of Reactor No. 3 — Extent of damage not yet known (VIDEOS)

03:45 AM EST on April 17th, 2012 | 14 comments

UPDATE: No moving spent fuel at No. 4 until 2014 at earliest — Up to 10 years for removal of fuel from all pools — Reactor building to be demolished (VIDEO)

07:04 PM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 42 comments

Tepco releases footage of No. 3 Spent Fuel Pool — Shows debris, fuel racks, crane… More (VIDEOS)

05:42 PM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 47 comments

Reuters Alert: “Fukushima damage leaves spent fuel at risk” -US Lawmaker — “Far worse than he expected” — Bags of rock only protection from tsunami