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Ron Paul launches clemency petition for Edward Snowden


RT
Fri, 14 Feb 2014 16:05 UTC
Image
© RT
Former Texas congressman Ron Paul has announced a petition aiming to secure clemency for Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower who revealed extensive US surveillance programs and ignited a national debate on Americans' privacy.

In a video released Thursday on the Ron Paul Channel, an online network the libertarian started last summer, he calls on supporters to sign the petition in an attempt to bring Snowden home to the US safely before his temporary visa in Russia expires in July.

"Edward Snowden sacrificed his livelihood, citizenship, and freedom by exposing the disturbing scope of the NSA's worldwide spying program," he said. "Thanks to one man's courageous actions, Americans know about the truly egregious ways their government is spying on them."

Paul worked as a physician before serving in Congress intermittently in the 1970s and 1980s then again from 1997 until 2013. He is best known for his libertarian positions, which often put him at odds with members of the Republican party. Paul has repeatedly lent public support to Snowden since the former NSA contractor came forward to admit he leaked classified documents to journalists affiliated with the Guardian and the Washington Post.

Comment:
Russia to Snowden: Stay as long as you like

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Light Sabers

Ukraine president's signs EU-brokered agreement with anti-semitic, anti-gay, far-right opposition to end crisis - But can such characters be trusted?


RT
Fri, 21 Feb 2014 11:36 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo
(From L) The head of the anti-Semitic far-right Udar ('Punch') party Vitalii Klitschko, the head of Svoboda, the other far-right, anti-Semitic party, Oleh Tyagnybok, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (center), the head of Batkivcshchyna party Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who is against gay marriage, stand for an homage to people who died during clashes in Kiev before signing an agreement on February 21, 2014.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders have signed an EU brokered agreement on ending the political crisis in the country.

The Ukrainian opposition representatives included the leader of the UDAR political party, Vitaly Klitschko, the head of the Batkivshchyna opposition party, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and the leader of the nationalist Svoboda opposition party, Oleg Tyagnibok.

The breakthrough agreement was witnessed by EU foreign ministers who brokered the deal, including Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski and Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as well as Director at the Continental Europe Department of the French Foreign Ministry, Eric Fournier.

Russia's Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin, who was present at the negotiations, noted the positive dynamic of the talks.

"We got acquainted with our partners' position, and now we understand it," he said. However, he added that "the biggest difficulty is that the situation is constantly changing" and there is no clarity as to who will fulfill the agreements and how.

Comment: So, let's just see if we got this straight.

A revolution, of sorts, has taken place in Ukraine in which the West (US and EU) is fully behind the opposition parties who are far-right extremists, anti-Semites and anti-gay... ostensibly in order to let Ukrainians to 'break free from the chains of corrupt government', but actually in order to remove a democratically elected leader of country that is a natural and key ally of Russia... whose leader in turn is attacked daily in the West for being an anti-democratic, gay-bashing, corrupt, extremist... but who actually is none of those things and is rather a lone voice of reason in a world of political elites gone utterly insane.

Confused?
Euromaidan: The Dark Shadows Of The Far-Right In Ukraine Protests

IBTimes, February 19th, 2014

The leader of Svoboda, Oleh Tyahnybok, who has appeared at the Kiev protests, has a long history of making inflammatory anti-Semitic statements, including the accusation during a 2004 speech before parliament that Ukraine is controlled by a "Muscovite-Jewish mafia." Miroshnychenko also called the Ukrainian-born American film actress Mila Kunis a "dirty Jewess."


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Better Earth

Prince William slams 'despicable' elephant, rhino and tiger poaching


Yahoo! News
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 03:46 UTC
Image
© AFP/Stephanie De Sakutin
A black dehorned rhinoceros and calf are pictured at the Bona Bona Game Reseve, 200 kms southeast of Johannesburg on August 3, 2012.
Britain's Prince William has called for the "despicable" illegal trade in elephants, rhinos and tigers to be stamped out, ahead of an international conference on Thursday to clamp down on poaching.

Representatives from 50 states have gathered in London for the talks, aimed at improving law enforcement in the -- mainly African -- countries where poaching is rife and stemming growing demand in Asia.

The London Summit on Illegal Wildlife Trade is being hosted by the British government and Princes Charles and William, who called it a turning point in the fight against trafficking.

"Tonight we are here with a single, shared purpose -- to use our collective influence to put a stop to the illegal killing and trafficking of some of our world's most iconic and endangered species," he told guests at an evening reception.

"Never before has a group like this come together -- in these numbers -- to stop the illegal trade in wildlife. All of us in this room have a duty to make sure that tomorrow, 13th February, is a date that marks the beginning of the end of this despicable trade."

Comment: 'Wild-life protector' Prince Harry in 'trophy kill' water buffalo photo

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War Whore

US-Ukraine: Nuland comes clean with dirty language

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture
Sun, 02 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Image

A recording of a phone call posted on YouTube seems to provide details of a diplomatically sensitive conversation between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland (left) and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt (right).
The leaked private phone conversation between senior US State Department official Victoria Nuland and the American ambassador to Ukraine - in which Nuland is heard to disparage the European Union with a vulgar expletive - comes as a welcome relief. It is a moment of clarity, in which the US government inadvertently comes clean on its hidden agenda...

All the elusive speculation about what Washington's agenda in Ukraine is now laid to rest. Nuland's own words make it clear that the US agenda is all about orchestrating regime change in Kiev. Needless to say, that constitutes an infringement of that country's sovereignty and should now be a matter of applying sanctions under international law against the US.

It also undermines the political cause of protesters in Maidan Square. They are now seen, more than ever, as a Trojan Horse for external political interference in Ukraine. This is not a cause of patriotism, as we have been led to believe in the Western media, but rather more like grubby treachery to serve a foreign agenda.

For nearly three months, the American and European governments have been playing a frustratingly devious game of piously pretending to support the people of Ukraine in their bid for attaining EU integration and democracy. The charade has been frustrating because there is abundant evidence to show that both Washington and Brussels are engaging in regime change by subterfuge, but all the while the West maintains that it is simply acting as an honest broker to resolve a regional political crisis.

Comment:
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland says Washington has spent $5 billion trying to subvert Ukraine
"F**k The EU" - U.S. State department blasts Europe; revealed as alleged mastermind behind Ukraine unrest
Ukraine scores $15 bln from Russia, 33% gas discount

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Sheriff

The Unknown Putin: Documentary about the man who reverted Russia's decline

Pravda
Youtube
Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
"The Unknown Putin" - a documentary by well-known Russian journalist Andrei Karaulov. The first part of the film is devoted to the struggle for oil, which was unfolding during the first presidential term of Vladimir Putin. There were a lot of serious, yet unknown incidents that occured during that struggle. Andrei Karaulov formulated his idea of the documentary as follows: he wanted to understand what Putin had to experience from 2000 till 2010.
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Megaphone

Turkey's pro-western imperialism puppets accuse Turkish people of being "conspiracy theorists"

Sibel Edmonds
Boiling Frogs Post
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 15:34 UTC
Image
© Unknown
I just finished reading a ridiculous hit piece published at Eurasia.Net accusing the Turkish people of being conspiracy theorists for believing that the imperial US and EU are engaged in schemes towards regime change around the world. According to the article and its sources, one must be ignorant, uninformed, uneducated and a big time conspiracy theorist in order to believe that the US-EU are engaged in political manipulations and regime change operations around the world.

Here is one of the article sources attributing the Turkish people's distrust of the West to their ignorance, paranoia and conspiracy mindedness:
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Bad Guys

US and EU are paying Ukrainian rioters & protesters

Dr Paul Craig Roberts
Boiling Frogs Post
Tue, 18 Feb 2014 05:05 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A number of confirmations have come in from readers that Washington is fueling the violent protests in Ukraine with our taxpayer dollars. Washington has no money for food stamps or to prevent home foreclosures, but it has plenty of money with which to subvert Ukraine.

One reader wrote: "My wife, who is of Ukrainian nationality, has weekly contact to her parents and friends in Zhytomyr [NW Ukraine]. According to them, most protesters get an average payment of 200-300 grivna, corresponding to about 15-25 euro. As I additionally heard, one of the most active agencies and 'payment outlets' on EU side is the German 'Konrad Adenauer Stiftung', being closely connected to the CDU, i.e. Mrs. Merkel's party."

Johannes Loew of the Internet site elynitthria.net/ writes: "I am just back from Ukraine (I live in Munich/Germany) and I was a lot at the Maidan. Most of those people get only 100 grivna. 300 is for Students."

As I reported on February 12, "Washington Orchestrated Protests Are Destabilizing Ukraine," Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, a rabid Russophobe and neoconservative warmonger, told the National Press Club last December that the US has "invested" $5 billion in organizing a network to achieve US goals in Ukraine in order to give "Ukraine the future it deserves."
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Eye 2

New details of US murder of Yemeni wedding prompt demands to explain drone policy

Ryan Devereaux
The Intercept
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 12:47 UTC
Image
© Human Rights Watch
Abdullah Muhammad al-Tisi of Yakla holds a photo of his son Ali Abdullah Mohammed al-Tisi, who was killed in a US drone strike outside Rad`a, Yemen on December 12, 2013.
A new report on the U.S. drone missile strike that killed 12 members of a Yemeni wedding convoy has renewed calls for the Obama administration to make public its own investigations into the incident - and explain how such strikes are consistent with international laws of war.

The detailed, 28-page report from Human Rights Watch describes conflicting accounts of the December 12 attack, but nevertheless concludes that some, if not all, of the victims may have been civilians.

Comment: The drone policy explained:
"Imagine--if you can--not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools. Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.
...
Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all. If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. In fact, terrorism (done from a distance) is the ideal occupation for a person who is possessed of bloodlust and no conscience, because if you do it just right, you may be able to make a whole nation jump. And if that is not power, what is?"
- Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door

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Cowboy Hat

7 Ways Republicans and Democrats are exactly the same

Bonnie Kristian
Rare
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 10:13 UTC
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Cats vs. dogs. Coke vs. Pepsi. Democrats vs. Republicans.

These are the great divisions of life. But what if one of those rivalries isn't actually much of a division at all?

Don't worry, I'm not trying to reignite the cola wars of the 90s. (Besides, we all know Coke is the clear winner: Do you order a Jack and Pepsi?)

No, I'm talking about Democrats and Republicans - or rather, the out-of-date and out-of-step establishments of both parties.

For libertarians, saying both parties are the same is a common theme. Democrat and Republican partisans dismiss such critiques as cynical or unserious, but there's a real case to be made if we look at the cold, hard facts.
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Eye 1

Brit high court: David Miranda detention at Heathrow airport "lawful"

Alan Travis, Matthew Taylor and Patrick Wintour
The Guardian
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 19:45 UTC
David Miranda
© Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images
David Miranda, who was detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours last August.
Detention of former Guardian journalist's partner was justified by 'very pressing' interests of national security, judges say

Three high court judges have dismissed a challenge that David Miranda, the partner of the former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, was unlawfully detained under counter-terrorism powers for nine hours at Heathrow last August.

The judges accepted that Miranda's detention and the seizure of computer material was "an indirect interference with press freedom" but said this was justified by legitimate and "very pressing" interests of national security.

The three judges, Lord Justice Laws, Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Openshaw, concluded that Miranda's detention at Heathrow under schedule 7 to the Terrorism 2000 Act was lawful, proportionate and did not breach European human rights protections of freedom of expression.

The ruling says that Miranda was stopped in transit between Berlin and Rio de Janeiro after meeting the film-maker Laura Poitras, who had been involved in making disclosures based on documents leaked by the US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Miranda was carrying encrypted files, including an external hard drive containing 58,000 highly classified UK intelligence documents, "in order to assist the journalistic activity of Greenwald". The Guardian made his travel reservations and paid for the trip.

Laws said he noted that the seized material included personal information that would allow staff to be identified, including those deployed overseas.

Greenwald told the judges that the security services were well aware that the seized material was in connection with journalism and not terrorism. He said there was no evidence to indicate that any disclosure had actually threatened or endangered life or any specific operation.
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