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875,000 left in bureaucratic black hole that is U.S. terror watchlist system


RT
Fri, 14 Mar 2014 15:30 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Robyn Beck
The US had 875,000 people in its terrorist watchlist system as of December 2012. Those secretly blacklisted have no real path to challenge their status, states a new report, thus indefinitely restricting those listed from travel or simply getting a job.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans and foreigners languish in the watchlist system, considered "known or suspected terrorists" based on secret rules and evidence that are basically impenetrable should the average suspect attempt to contest them, says a new report by the ACLU that highlights these challenges.

The US terrorist watch list system, which is shared with state and local law enforcement agencies, can stifle overseas travel, the ability to obtain a US visa or entry into the US, and can lead to invasive screenings or detentions by authorities at airports and the like. This is not to mention the social pressure of being considered a terror suspect by the US, which can lead to a host of problems ranging from separation from family to ostracization from a community or place of employment, for example.

Despite the endless effects that can stem from being placed in the watchlist system, the US has not taken proper care to avoid the basic fairness principle of innocent until proven guilty, according to the ACLU.
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Pirates

With friends like these, Monsanto doesn't need regulators...does it?

Willy Blackmore
Takepart.com
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 16:06 UTC
Image
A quick look at the company's board of directors shows how tight it is with big food and big business.

The fight over GMO labeling isn't the first regulatory battle Monsanto has engaged in over the course of its 112 years in business. From PCBs to DDT to Agent Orange, the chemical company turned ag giant has manufactured numerous products that ended up all but disappearing - if not being banned outright - following high-profile public debates about environmental and health concerns.

Despite defeats for grassroots movements trying to have genetically engineered foods in California and Washington labeled, recent progress on state-level GMO labeling laws suggests that the tide is shifting against genetically engineered foods. Polls show that most Americans want to know if their food has been genetically altered. But despite the small steps made by some food corporations, the food industry - and corporate America on the whole - is still decidedly on Monsanto's side regarding genetic engineering.
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Pumpkin

Due to own goal: Russia 1, Regime Changers 0

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:16 UTC
Lenin Square in Simferopol
© EPA
Fireworks explode in the sky over Lenin Square after the end end of a referendum in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine, 16 March 2014.
Let's cut to the chase - short and sweet.

1. The Obama administration's "strategic" gambit to subcontract the State Department's "Khaganate of Nulands" to extricate Ukraine from the Russian sphere of influence - and ultimately annex it to NATO - by instrumentalizing a coalition of willing neo-nazis and fascists with a central bank veneer (prime minister "Yats"), is in utter shambles.

2. Moscow's counterpunch was to prevent in Crimea - as intercepted by Russian intelligence - a planned replay of the putsch in Kiev. The referendum in Crimea - 85% of turnout, roughly 93% voting for re-joining Russia, according to exit polls - is a done deal, as much as the oh-so-democratic European Union (EU) keeps threatening to punish people in Crimea for exercising their basic democratic rights. (By the way, when the US got Kosovo to secede from Serbia, Serbians were offered no referendum).

3. The main rationale for the whole US "strategic" advance - to have their proxies, the regime changers in Kiev, cancel the agreement for the Russian naval base in Sevastopol - is up in smoke. Moscow remains present in the Black Sea and with full access to the Eastern Mediterranean.

And the rest is blah blah blah.
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Clock

Recently freed from prison, Khodorkovsky seeks residency in Switzerland

Marie-Noëlle Blessig
Yahoo! News
Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:58 UTC
Image
© AFP
Former Russian oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky leaves the Wall Museum in Berlin on December 22, 2013 in Berlin after giving a press conference a few days after he was released after 10 years of jail.
Former Russian oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade in prison in Russia, has applied to become a resident of Switzerland, his spokesman told AFP on Monday.

"His application for residency was filed a while ago," said spokesman Boris Durande, without specifying which part of Switzerland Khodorkovsky intends to settle in.

The 50-year-old foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been living at a Zurich hotel since shortly after he was pardoned and released from jail on December 20.

He was once Russia's richest man and an influential politician with presidential ambitions who openly opposed Putin when the former KGB spy first entered the Kremlin in 2000.

Khodorkovsky's arrest in 2003 and subsequent convictions on fraud and embezzlement charges have been widely condemned by Kremlin critics as an effort by Putin to silence his most potent rival.

Comment:
Vlad the Merciful: Putin frees Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky from prison
Khodorkovsky created the myth that he is Putin's political opponent AFTER he was sent to prison for being a corporate thief

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Stop

Crimean military thwarts sabotage of gas plant feeding peninsula


RT
Sat, 15 Mar 2014 14:36 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti / Valery Melnikov
Volunteers from self-defense units are taking an oath of allegiance to the people of Crimea as the autonomous republic puts together its own military on March 10, 2014
Crimean military and self-defense forces have prevented an attempt to sabotage and cripple the gas distribution center that feeds a number of socially critical facilities in the peninsula, including schools and medical centers, Crimean authorities said.

Around 11:00 GMT on Saturday the gas supply to Crimea was halted at one of the distribution centers near Strelkovaya, effectively cutting gas delivery to a number of areas in the eastern part of the Crimean peninsula. As a result a number of hospitals, medical centers, schools and apartment buildings were cut off from the gas supply.

A group of gas technicians, escorted by the Crimea's newly created military, comprised of former Ukrainian troops who have sworn their allegiance to the republic, responded to the supply disturbance and set out to check the gas station.

"There they encountered a group of at least 20 armed men in camouflage," the Cabinet of Ministers of Crimea announced. "These people were planting explosives at the facility in order to knock it out of action completely."

Upon seeing the Crimean forces, they quickly fled towards the village of Strelkovaya, authorities explained. According to Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov, the men sabotaging the facility introduced themselves as the member of the Border Troops of Ukraine, but retreated without any further explanation of what they were doing at the gas plant.
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Eye 2

Venezuelan FM: John Kerry is a murderer and is intentionally inciting violence in Venezuela


RT
Sat, 15 Mar 2014 14:27 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo/Juan Barreto
Foreign Minister Elias Jaua has called US Secretary of State John Kerry a murderer and accused him of inciting violence in Venezuela. Jaua's words came in retaliation to Kerry's accusation that the Venezuelan government is terrorizing its own people.

In a heated rebuke to Kerry, Jaua denounced him as a murderer of the Venezuelan people.

"Kerry, we denounce you before the world. You are inciting violence in Venezuela, and we will denounce it in every part of the world. We denounce you as a murderer of the Venezuelan people," Jaua said in Caracas.

He added that Venezuela would not back down until the US ordered its "lackeys" in Venezuela to cease their violent activities.

"Every time we're about to isolate and reduce the violence, Mr. Kerry comes out with a declaration and immediately the street protests are activated," Jaua said in a speech carried on state TV. He added that the protests had not succeeded, however, in achieving their aim of triggering a coup d'etat in Venezuela.
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Green Light

The wait is over: Putin signs order to recognize Crimea as a sovereign independent state


RT
Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:24 UTC
Russia's President Vladimir Putin
© Reuters / Michael Klimentyev
Russia's President Vladimir Putin
President Vladimir Putin has signed an order that Russia recognizes Crimea as a sovereign and independent state. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea held a referendum on Sunday with over 96% voting for integration into Russia.

"According to the will of the peoples of the Crimea on the all-Crimean referendum held on March 16, 2014, [I order] to recognize the Republic of Crimea, in which the city of Sevastopol has a special status, as a sovereign and independent state," the document reads.

The order comes into force immediately.

Crimea was declared an independent sovereign state, the Republic of Crimea, on Monday, the autonomous Ukrainian regional parliament's website stated.

Crimea also addressed the UN seeking recognition as a sovereign state.

"The Republic of Crimea intends to build its relations with other states on the basis of equality, peace, mutual neighborly cooperation, and other generally agreed principles of political, economic and cultural cooperation between states," the parliament said.

The Crimean parliament also unanimously voted to integrate the region into Russia.
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Handcuffs

Pro-Russian oligarch arrested - first sign of U.S. sanctions on Russia? Will U.S. and EU soon regret such actions?

Ian Allen
Intel News
Mon, 17 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
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A well-connected Ukrainian oligarch, who is considered one of Russia's most trusted energy sales intermediaries, has been arrested in Austria at the request of the United States.

Some speculate that this may be a first direct sign of America's response to Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. In an article published last week, The Washington Post suggested that the arrest of Dmytro Firtash, a citizen of Ukraine, may be "the beginning of a US effort to inflict financial pain on Russia over its role in the Ukrainian crisis".

Firtash's lucrative business activities are inextricably tied to Gazprom, the world's largest extractor of natural gas and one of the most powerful corporations in existence. The company, whose activities typically account for around 10 percent of Russia's annual gross domestic product, is one of Moscow's primary exporters of energy and among its most important sources of foreign revenue. Throughout the last decade, Firtash's company, RosUkrEnergo, acted as the primary mediator between Gazprom and Naftohaz, Ukraine's national oil and gas company. The latter would import Russian natural gas from Gazprom through RosUkrEnergo, which would purchase it from the Russian company and sell it to the Ukrainians at a noticeably steeper price.
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Dollar

Obama's executive order -- Blocking property of certain persons contributing to the situation in Ukraine

Office of the Press Secretary
The White House
Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Politiconomie.wordpress
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, find that the actions and policies of persons -- including persons who have asserted governmental authority in the Crimean region without the authorization of the Government of Ukraine -- that undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine; threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and contribute to the misappropriation of its assets, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat. I hereby order:

Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person (including any foreign branch) of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:

(i) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, directly or indirectly, any of the following:
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Take 2

Edward Snowden: 'We need a watchdog that watches Congress'

Dustin Volz
National Journal
Mon, 10 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Tomsguide.fr
The fugitive leaker, appearing by video conference, attacked virtually every corner of the national security apparatus during a Q&A session at the festival

America's most high-profile fugitive visited one of the country's most popular entertainment festivals in Texas on Monday, drawing thunderous applause from a crowded room filled with his adoring fans.

Edward Snowden, appearing from Russia through a live video stream, told attendees of the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin that Congress had fundamentally failed to do its job as an overseer of the government's bulk surveillance programs, declaring that "we need a watchdog that watches Congress."

The former National Security Agency contractor, in a conversation with the American Civil Liberties Union's Christopher Soghoian and Ben Wizner, also charged the current and most recent chief of the NSA as the two people most responsible for jeopardizing the country's national security due to their preference for aggressive collection of data rather than protection of it after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Comment: The full video interview with Edward Snowden can be found here.

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