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Your Tax Dollars at Work: CIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody 'video-game' sorties by drone pilots

David Rose
Daily Mail
Sun, 21 Oct 2012 11:30 UTC
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The Mail on Sunday today reveals shocking new evidence of the full horrific impact of US drone attacks in Pakistan.

A damning dossier assembled from exhaustive research into the strikes' targets sets out in heartbreaking detail the deaths of teachers, students and Pakistani policemen. It also describes how bereaved relatives are forced to gather their loved ones' dismembered body parts in the aftermath of strikes.

The dossier has been assembled by human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who works for Pakistan's Foundation for Fundamental Rights and the British human rights charity Reprieve.

Filed in two separate court cases, it is set to trigger a formal murder investigation by police into the roles of two US officials said to have ordered the strikes. They are Jonathan Banks, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency's Islamabad station, and John A. Rizzo, the CIA's former chief lawyer. Mr Akbar and his staff have already gathered further testimony which has yet to be filed.

'We have statements from a further 82 victims' families relating to more than 30 drone strikes,' he said. 'This is their only hope of justice.'

In the first case, which has already been heard by a court in Islamabad, judgment is expected imminently. If the judge grants Mr Akbar's petition, an international arrest warrant will be issued via Interpol against the two Americans.
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Black Magic

Romney-Ryan ticket to return a more militarized version of Bush era

Wayne Madsen
Press TV
Sat, 20 Oct 2012 03:26 UTC
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Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney introduces Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his vice presidential running mate on August 11, 2012 in Norfolk, Virginia.
A Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan administration would bring back to American foreign and domestic policy all the worst elements of the Bush administration, along with a greater degree of militarism, home-grown fascism, and a greater likelihood of war with such countries as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, North Korea, China, and Russia.

In fact, the most alarming aspect of a Romney administration would be the appointment of members of the Mormon Latter Day Saints Church, a sect that is not considered Christian by most traditional Christian denominations, to senior government positions.

Mormons believe in the imminent apocalypse and would have no problem pushing the world to the edge of nuclear annihilation as a fulfillment of their prophecies of a band of 19th-century con-men who convinced their followers that Jesus ministered in North America and that the Garden of Eden was located in what is now the state of Missouri.

The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, believed that one day the United States would become a theocratic nation run by the Mormon Church. Romney, a former Mormon missionary and bishop of the sect, has referred to Smith's prophecy as "not official church doctrine," but he has refused to condemn it outright.
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MIB

America's brownshirts - Homeland Security graduates first Corps of Homeland Youth


Whiteout Press
Sun, 07 Oct 2012 00:00 UTC
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© DHS.gov
On September 13, 2012, the Dept of Homeland Security graduated its first class of FEMA Corps youth, aka the Homeland Youth.
Vicksburg. The federal government calls them FEMA Corps. But they conjure up memories of the Hitler Youth of 1930's Germany. Regardless of their name, the Dept of Homeland Security has just graduated its first class of 231 Homeland Youth. Kids, aged 18-24 and recruited from the President's AmeriCorp volunteers, they represent the first wave of DHS's youth corps, designed specifically to create a full time, paid, standing army of FEMA Youth across the country.

On September 13, 2012, the Dept of Homeland Security graduated its first class of FEMA Corps youth, aka the Homeland Youth. Image courtesy of DHS.gov.

On September 13, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security graduated its first class of FEMA Corps first-responders. While the idea of having a volunteer force of tens of thousands of volunteers scattered across the country to aid in times of natural disasters sounds great, the details and timing of this new government army is somewhat curious, if not disturbing.

Comment: If this isn't reminiscent of Hitler Youth, what is?

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Airplane

US loses eight jets at Camp Bastion in worst one day air loss since Vietnam war


RT.com
Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:36 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Leila Gorchev
Harrier jet

After Taliban gunmen destroyed eight Harrier jets at a US camp in Helmand Province, the US military has suffered its worst air loss in one day since the Vietnam War.

The Taliban attacked Camp Bastion, the main strategic base in southwestern Afghanistan, on Sept. 14, causing $200 million in damage in the single most destructive strike on a Western base during the war, according to military officials.

Two Marines were killed, nine coalition personnel were wounded and six jets costing between $23 million and $30 million were completely destroyed.

The approximately 15 insurgents, dressed in US Army uniforms, had penetrated the base Friday night and instantly began shooting and setting fire to parked Navy-AV-8B Harrier jets when they were inside. Three refueling stations were severely damaged during the attack.
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Star of David

Twelve-year-old arrested and abused multiple times by Israel and he is one among many

Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
The Electronic Intifada
Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Amer Aruri / B’Tselem
Muslim Odeh

In an unwavering voice, Muslim Odeh recounted how Israeli riot police took him from his bed earlier this week, blindfolded him, subjected him to hours of intense interrogation and held him overnight in a Jerusalem prison compound.

Odeh vomited after Israeli police punched him four times in the stomach on his way to his prison cell. Odeh's calm demeanor, only days after his ordeal, was evidence of how this was his tenth arrest in three years.

More shocking, however, is the fact that this resident of Silwan in East Jerusalem is only 12-years-old. "I miss my house," Odeh told The Electronic Intifada, as he stared longingly from the balcony of his uncle's home - where he is under house arrest until next Wednesday, 24 October - onto his family's house below.

"I don't feel comfortable. I miss my friends, my grandmother, my mother," he said. "I don't know if they will arrest me again."
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Pirates

5 ways America is being hollowed out by unfettered corporate greed

Paul Buchheit
Alternet
Sun, 14 Oct 2012 16:04 UTC
money bags
© unknown
There's no free market -- just businesses doing whatever they please with virtually zero accountability

Conservatives believe that enriching individuals will eventually enrich society, and that government should not get in the way of the process. This is what happens as a result:

The tax loss from one scheming businessman could have paid the salaries of 30,000 nurses

The lack of regulation in the financial industry allowed hedge fund manager John Paulson to conspire with Goldman Sachs in a plan to create packages of risky subprime mortgages and then short-sell (bet against) the sure-to-fail financial instruments. The ploy paid him $3.7 billion. Deregulation in the tax code allowed him to call his income "carried interest," which is taxed at a 15% rate. More deregulation allowed him to defer his profits indefinitely.

The lost taxes of $1.3 billion (35% of $3.7 billion) could have paid the salaries of 30,000 LPNs, 10 nurses for every county in the United States. Instead, one clever businessman took it all.
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Handcuffs

From Colony to Nation to Slave: The descent of the U.S.

Michael Scheuer
poorrichard's blog
Sat, 20 Oct 2012 15:49 UTC
us loyalty to israel
As Americans fixate on the presidential campaign, they also should note the status of President Obama and Governor Romney. Yes, both are presidential candidates, but both are also men who - with their predecessors and the Congress - have willingly surrendered American sovereignty and independence to Israel and its U.S.-citizen advocates (Jewish and Evangelical), their organizations, and much of the media.

In return for campaign contributions and positive media coverage, Obama and Romney have enslaved themselves and their country to Israel and some few thousands of disloyal Jewish-Americans and their equally disloyal Christian Evangelical allies. One has to wonder whether Obama and Romney refer to Israel's prime minister as "Massa' Benyamin," or whether they shuffle and pull their forelocks when groveling for money from Israel's Jewish-American and Evangelical operatives.

If independence and sovereignty mean anything for a national government, they mean that that government alone decides whether or not the country it governs will go to war. In the United States, more specifically, its means - constitutionally - that the Congress will decide via a formal vote whether it will declare war on behalf of the American people, who once upon a time were its constitutional masters. This is, at any rate, how the Founders meant the process to work.
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Bomb

Cui Bono? Car bomb in Beirut kills intelligence head of Lebanon


Press TV
Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:03 UTC

Comment: How timely and convenient for NATO and Israel that Syria seems to be getting into trouble with its neighbours Turkey and Lebanon, just when it is busy fighting so-called rebels within its borders. Perhaps such troubles have been encouraged or sponsored by Syria's enemies?

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Boat

Terrorist Israeli navy boards activist ship en route to Gaza


RT
Sat, 20 Oct 2012 08:32 UTC
Estelle Gaza ship
© AFP Photo / STR
Finnish ship SV Estelle is seen during an operation off the southern Greek island of Gavdos, south of Crete
Israel's defense forces have boarded a ship attempting to break through the Gaza blockade in "a peaceful operation." The vessel was carrying Palestinian activists, parliamentarians and humanitarian cargo, said a mission spokesperson.

­Israeli naval boats surrounded the SV Estelle' 38 nautical miles from Gaza while it was still in international waters.

A spokesperson from the Israeli Department of Defense said that they were forced to intervene after the vessel ignored numerous warnings to change course and cooperate with the Israeli authorities.

"After the passengers ignored calls to change course, the decision was made to board the vessel and lead it to the port of Ashdod," said the spokesperson, adding that no one was injured when the marines seized control of the ship.

The organizers of the activist mission to Gaza announced over the radio that their vessel had come under attack shortly after it was approached by Israeli ships.

Comment: Lets get this straight. Israel imposes a six-year blockade on Gaza, preventing its population from accessing the most basic resources to meet their needs and effectively turning the region into the largest prison on the planet, and when decent people from other parts of the world attempt to lend a helping hand to Gaza, Israel attacks and boards the aiding ships alleging defense from 'terrorism'!

Who would you say is the terrorist party in this drama?

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Eye 1

MSM Rehabilitates Psychopathy: Psychopathic traits: What successful presidents have in common

Maia Szalavitz
Time
Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:22 UTC
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Political partisans delight in labeling opposition leaders as malign or even psychopathic - but it turns out that U.S. presidents with high levels of certain psychopathic traits may actually do better on the job, no matter what their party affiliation, according to new research.

The study, which was based on presidential performance ratings and personality assessments by hundreds of historians and biographers in several different surveys, found that one psychopathic characteristic in particular was linked to success in presidency: fearless dominance.

"An easy way to think about it is as a combination of physical and social fearlessness," says Scott Lilienfeld, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at Emory University. "People high in boldness don't have a lot of apprehension about either physical or social things that would scare the rest of us."

He adds, "It's often a kind of resilience because you don't show lot of anxiety or frustration in the face of everyday life challenges." While that sounds like a necessity for dealing with the daily crises that face the White House, from hurricanes to threats from rogue nuclear nations, the same trait in psychopaths is also associated with callousness, indifference to negative consequences and impulsive antisocial behavior.

Comment: There seems to be a move by the media to rehabilitate psychopathy by presenting it as a spectrum. This obscures the issue of genetic psychopaths. Yes, it's true that there is a spectrum of psychopathic traits that are shared to one extent or another by those who have been psychologically damaged by living in a society dominated by genetic psychopaths, but that is a far different thing than what Andrew Lobaczewski calls "essential psychopathy" in Political Ponerology.

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