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Sat, 16 Oct 2021
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Snakes in Suits

Obama's legacy of murder: Putting our bodies on the line to stop drone warfare

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There is a growing national movement to end the drone warfare that has been expanded during the Obama years. Even as Obama gives an inaugural speech that many thought to be inspiring and suggestive of change, reports indicate that the drone program continues to escalate. So, we must continue to do everything we can to stop the killer drones.

I believe Obama became a war criminal in 2009, a few days after he took the oath of office and swore he would uphold the constitution. It was only a few days after his first inauguration that he ordered his first drone strike, killing innocent people and beginning his legacy as a murderer. Drone warfare is immoral killing hundreds of innocent children, women, and men. It is illegal, constituting extra-judicial killing. Obama has a "kill list" that he looks at every week and makes a unilateral decision that this person should die. He also targets people who are engaged in what is considered suspicious-looking activities whether he knows who they are or not.

I made plans to join others in an action of nonviolent civil resistance organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR). We wanted to expose Obama's hypocrisy on Inauguration Day as he swore to uphold and defend the US Constitution, even as he defiles its most basic principles through drone warfare.

Crusader

Spreading freedom: List of children killed by U.S. (drone strikes) in Yemen and Pakistan

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PAKISTAN

Name | Age | Gender

Noor Aziz | 8 | male
Abdul Wasit | 17 | male
Noor Syed | 8 | male
Wajid Noor | 9 | male
Syed Wali Shah | 7 | male
Ayeesha | 3 | female
Qari Alamzeb | 14| male
Shoaib | 8 | male
Hayatullah KhaMohammad | 16 | male

Brick Wall

Google Earth images reveal another 'North Korea prison camp'

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© Photo: NK Econ Watch.com/Google Earth
Blogger Curtis Melvin has identified what appear to be guard posts, a staff entrance, residential units and an abandoned coal mine
Blogger discovers development with 'striking similarity' to already discovered camps next to existing an prison.

Analysis of updated Google Earth satellite images has identified what appears to be another of North Korea's notorious prison camps.

Blogger Curtis Melvin, who publishes North Korean Economy Watch, discovered a new development next to existing prison Camp 14, sharing 3km of fencing, and near the disused Camp 18.

While not confirmed as a new prison, Melvin observed a "striking similarity" to existing camps and a visible security fence. He has speculated that the area is an extension of Camp 14, a new camp or a new type of facility altogether.

Melvin said this new area was constructed some time between December 2006 and September 2011, and has identified what appear to be guard posts, a staff entrance, residential units and an abandoned coal mine.

Propaganda

Gingrich: Calling an AR-15 an assault weapon is 'lovely propaganda'

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Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says that AR-15 military-style rifles should not be banned and that it is just "lovely propaganda" to call them "assault weapons."

Following the introduction on Thursday of Sen. Diane Feinstein's (D-CA) bill to ban assault weapons, CNN host Piers Morgan reminded Gingrich that Aurora shooter James Holmes used an AR-15 that could fire 100 bullets in a minute and it was legal under current law.

"How many more bullets do you need to fire, Mr. Speaker, before that qualifies as a dangerous killing machine by your criteria?" Morgan wondered.

"Well, by my criteria, and this goes back to the question of what you respect, Piers," Gingrich asserted. "I think the Second Amendment really matters."

Newspaper

'Croc Hunter' daughter slams Hillary Clinton editors over essay

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© AFP Photo
Teenage conservationist Bindi Irwin, daughter of late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, has revealed her shock that an essay she penned for Hillary Clinton was edited so heavily that her words were "twisted".

Irwin, 14, was reportedly invited to write for US Secretary of State Clinton's e-journal about why she had chosen to work in wildlife conservation and wrote 1,000 words that largely focused on the issue of overpopulation.

But she told Sydney's Daily Telegraph that when the piece had been edited and returned to her for approval, it had been altered so much she felt she had to withdraw it from publication.

"When I got the essay back after they edited it, it was completely different," the newspaper cited her as saying.

Question

Missouri Republican proposes bill to require teaching of 'intelligent design'

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© Shutterstock
Legislation proposed in the Missouri House of Representatives on Wednesday would require schools to treat the theory of evolution and intelligent design equally.

The Missouri Standard Science Act states the theory of evolution must be taught side-by-side with intelligent design in public elementary and secondary schools. The bill also requires any textbook that discusses evolution to "give equal treatment to biological evolution and biological intelligent design."

Proponents of intelligent design, a variant of creationism, believe the complexity of life cannot be adequately explained by natural processes such as biological evolution.

The bill was introduced by State Rep. Rick Brattin, and cosponsored by State Reps. Andrew Koenig and Kurt Bahr. All three lawmakers are Republicans.

Megaphone

Antiwar protester heckles Kerry during confirmation hearing

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A protester interrupted Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on Thursday during his confirmation hearings.

The woman shouted that the United States was killing thousands of people in the Middle East who were not a threat. Security officers quickly escorted her out of the room.

"When I first came to Washington and testified, I obviously was testifying as part a group of people who came here to have their voices heard, and that is, above all, what this place is about," Kerry, who has been nominated as Secretary of State, replied.

Megaphone

Five killed, 19 wounded as Iraqi army opens fire on anti-govt protest

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© Reuters / Mohanned Faisal
A protester gestures in front of a burning vehicle, destroyed by protesters, during clashes with security forces in Falluja, 50 km (31 miles) west of Baghdad, January 25, 2013
Iraqi soldiers killed five people after opening fire on an anti-government protest in an attempt to disperse it, reports Al Jazeera. Troops clashed with thousands of Sunni Muslims in Falluja, protesting against Iraq's Shiite PM Nuri al-Maliki.

Sunni activists gathered in the western city of Falluja to call for the resignation of PM al-Maliki in a protest dubbed the "Friday of No Retreat." Security forces initially fired shots in the air to disperse the crowds when protesters pelted them with stones, but later troops fired on activists who set a military vehicle on fire, reported Reuters.

The Sunni-majority city of Falluja has been a hub for anti-government protests recently, with demonstrators decrying government marginalization of their minority group.

"We received three bodies with gunshot wounds in the abdomen, back and shoulder," a hospital source told Reuters.

Elsewhere in the country disgruntled Sunnis took to the streets to voice anger over a reform of anti-terror laws that they say persecute the Sunni minority. They also called for the release of 400 prisoners, some of whom were being held illegally.

Eye 2

Royal treatment: Bahraini princess & princes accused of torturing activists

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Bahraini princess Nora Bint Ebrahim al-Khalifa
A Bahraini princess is in court for the torture of three pro-democracy activists in detention. The princess's case is the latest in a string of cases of torture and violence has seen the light in a report issued by Bahraini opposition.

Princess Nora Bint Ebrahim al-Khalifa who serves in Bahrain's Drugs Control Unit, allegedly collaborated with another officer to torture three activists held in detention following a pro-democracy rally against the island kingdom's monarchy.

The princess categorically denies the charges of torture set against her.

Two of the princess's alleged victims were Doctors Ghassan Daif and Bassem Daif, who went to help the hundreds wounded when police opened fire with teargas and birdshot during protests in 2011. They were taken into custody in March of that year when it is thought that al-Khalifa tortured them.

Stop

Ten Chinese officials fired over sex scandal in former Bo Xilai fiefdom

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© Photograph: Jason Lee/Reuters
Bo Xilai, the disgraced former Chongqing party chief, whose trial is expected soon.
Developers secretly filmed men sleeping with women then used videos to extort construction deals.

Chinese authorities have fired 10 officials caught in a sex and blackmail scandal in Chongqing, the former fiefdom of the disgraced politician Bo Xilai, state media have reported.

Developers hired women to have sex with the men, then secretly filmed the meetings and used the videos to extort construction deals from the officials in the south-western city. The state news agency Xinhua said police had now broken up the criminal ring responsible.

But questions remain about how and why the videos emerged and the links between the case and Wang Lijun, the former police chief who sparked the downfall of Bo, previously his patron. It is the latest in a series of scandals over corruption and other abuses of power under Bo and Wang's watch to be aired in the Chinese media.

The Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao reported on Friday that Bo would go on trial in south-western Guiyang on Monday, but a Guiyang court official told Reuters: "The case has not yet even been put forward for prosecution".