I first heard Ray McGovern speak on a country road in the New England hills. This was courtesy of the admirably dedicated David Barsamian, who broadcast one of McGovern's talks on Alternative Radio in late-2013. Reception up here being spotty, I pulled over and sat watching the autumn clouds drift by for the full hour McGovern stood at the podium of a Methodist church in Seattle. I was rapt.

What a lost pleasure it is in our indispensable nation to be in the presence of someone who thinks, acts and speaks out of conscience and conviction. Even better, these were precisely McGovern's topics that day three years back: The necessity of careful thought, of honoring one's inner voice, of acting out of an idea of what is right without regard to success or failure, the win-or-lose of life. One way or another, these themes run through everything he has to say, I have since discovered. At an inner-city church in Washington, McGovern teaches a course he calls "The Morality of Whistleblowing."

Born in the Bronx in 1939 and educated at Fordham (and later Georgetown and Harvard), McGovern joined the Central Intelligence Agency during the Kennedy administration, when it was still possible to think sound, disinterested analysis out there in Langley, Virginia, could be a force for good. Long story short, as McGovern likes to say, he left 27 years later, by which time the scales had fallen, and founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence—Adams being a former colleague and one of the whistle-blowers who paid his price. Not long before that AR speech, McGovern went to Moscow to give the recently exiled Edward Snowden one of his Sam Adams Awards. This is the ex-spook's milieu: At 76, he dwells among the truth-tellers.

Israel has accused UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of promoting "terror" after he defended the Palestinian uprising as a natural response to the Tel Aviv regime's occupation of their lands. In a letter to Ban on Monday, Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon urged Ban to withdraw the comments he made in last month's address to the UN Security Council.

Ban had urged Israel to freeze the construction of settler units in the occupied territories, describing settlement expansion "an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community." Commenting on continued Palestinians protests, Ban had also said that "as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation."

In the letter, the Israeli official claimed that the UN chief's statements can put Israel and the rest of the world in jeopardy.The statement have created "two categories of terror: terror directed at Israelis and terror directed at the rest of the world," he wrote. Danon said the world body must punish the perpetrators of attacks against Israelis instead of criticizing the Tel Aviv regime for the ongoing unrest in the occupied Palestinian lands.

Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN chief will "stand by every word he has used." In an opinion piece published last week by The New York Times, Ban wrote, "The time has come for Israelis, Palestinians and the international community to read the writing on the wall: The status quo is untenable. Keeping another people under indefinite occupation undermines the security and the future of both Israelis and Palestinians," he said.

The Iraqi army is sending thousands of soldiers to a northern base for operational training to retake Daesh's hub city of Mosul, officials said on Monday.

Daesh captured Mosul, Iraq's second largest city in June 2014 and except for airstrikes it has held the city largely unopposed for over 18 months as the country's security forces fought the militants in other areas.

"Units from the Iraqi army have begun arriving to a military base near the Makhmur district to start launching initial military operations toward Mosul," a staff brigadier general told AFP on condition of anonymity.

In a series of fierce clashes with terrorists, the Syrian army backed by aerial support managed to take control over a strategic town and a key height in the province of Aleppo.

Syrian government forces and their allies continued their offensive in Aleppo province, regaining full control of the strategic town of Taana in the eastern part of the region. The town came under full control of the Syrian Army on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Air Force attacked terrorists' position in the towns of Hayan and Hraytan.

Before every phone call that Fatuma Hashi has with her brother Mahdi, FBI agents come on the line to tell her what she is not permitted to talk about. "You're not allowed to speak about political issues. Or whatever's happening in the outside world. Or his case," she told The Intercept.

Mahdi Hashi, a young man of Somali origin who grew up in London, had never been to the United States before he was imprisoned in the 10-South wing of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan in November 2012, when he was 23. For over three years, he has been confined to a small cell 23 hours a day without natural light, with an hour alone in a slightly larger indoor cage. He has had no physical contact with anyone. Apart from occasional visits by his lawyer, his human interaction has been limited to brief, transactional exchanges with guards and a monthly 30-minute phone call with his family.

Yet most of Hashi's time in solitary confinement occurred before he had been deemed guilty by the justice system. Prolonged isolation prior to or in the absence of trial, sensory deprivation, and a lack of independent monitoring are normally associated with the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and CIA black sites overseas. But the MCC's 10-South wing, which houses terrorism suspects, is no different in these respects. A former MCC prisoner and a psychologist specializing in trauma told The Intercept that the kind of extreme isolation imposed on defendants there can pressure them to accept a guilty plea, irrespective of actual guilt.

For Hashi, who worked at a community youth organization in London, everything changed when he was approached by MI5, the U.K.'s domestic intelligence agency. He was pressured to become an informant, according to accounts he gave to rights groups and local authorities, but refused, despite being warned that doing so would make his life difficult.

Hillary Clinton likes to extol her foreign policy credentials, particularly her experience as Secretary of State. She attaches herself to Barack Obama's coattails, pledging to continue his policies. But she is even more hawkish than the President.

Like Obama, Clinton touts American exceptionalism, the notion that the United States is better than any other country. In his State of the Union addresses, Obama has proclaimed America "exceptional" and said the U.S. must "lead the world." Clinton wrote in her book Hard Choicesthat "America remains the 'indispensable nation.'"

It is this view that animates U.S. invasions, interventions, bombings and occupations of other countries. Under the pretense of protecting our national interest, the United States maintains some 800 military bases in other countries, costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars annually. Often referred to as "enduring bases," they enable us to mount attacks whenever and wherever our leaders see fit, whether with drones or manned aircraft.

Top Russian pollster explains Putin's high popularity

The slump in the ruble, the decline in the price for oil and Western sanctions have raised Russian prices, lowering the county's satisfaction with life index. Yet the head of state remains as popular as ever, with a 74% electoral rating. In an interview with Izvestiya correspondent Anastasiya Kashevarova, "Public Opinion"polling company head Alexander Oslon explained this not only by the "Crimean factor" but also by the fact that the president is perceived as society's savior.

A recent US intelligence report said that Daesh (also known as ISIL/Islamic State) is degrading. Two coalitions - one led by the US and the other by Russia - have been involved in fighting the terrorists. It is high time to figure out some differences between the two approaches.

The Common Goal

Russia, the United States, and Syria have one common enemy - the terrorist group Daesh. In September 2014, US President Barack Obama pledged to destroy Daesh with massive airstrikes.

"Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy. We will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists," he said in a statement.

Disclosure: Some names have had
 to be changed, locations not named, and an understanding was brokered with the subject that this piece would be submitted for the subject's approval before publication. The subject did not ask for any changes.

"The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom." — Montaigne

It's September 28th, 2015. My head is swimming, labeling TracPhones (burners), one per contact, one per day, destroy, burn, buy, balancing levels of encryption, mirroring through Blackphones, anonymous e-mail addresses, unsent messages accessed in draft form. It's a clandestine horror show for the single most technologically illiterate man left standing. At 55 years old, I've never learned to use a laptop. Do they still make laptops? No fucking idea! It's 4:00 in the afternoon. Another gorgeous fall day in New York City. The streets are abuzz with the lights and sirens of diplomatic movement, heads of state, U.N. officials, Secret Service details, the NYPD. It's the week of the U.N. General Assembly. Pope Francis blazed a trail and left town two days before. I'm sitting in my room at the St. Regis Hotel with my colleague and brother in arms, Espinoza.

Two top secret British 'ghost ships' are reportedly on their way to Japan to collect enough plutonium for 80 nuclear warheads. It is believed that each ship is armed with 20mm cannon and guarded by 25 commandos.

They are likely being shadowed by a Royal Navy submarine.

The Pacific Heron and the Pacific Egret are currently en route to Japan after departing Barrow-in-Furness, England, in January. The vessels are to travel across the Atlantic before passing through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific, Mail Online reported.