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Pope immunity: Vatican will protect Benedict from sexual abuse prosecution

Philip Pullella and Robin Pomeroy
Huffington Post
Sun, 17 Feb 2013 09:10 UTC
Pope Benedict XVI
© Reuters/Stefano Rellandini
Pope Benedict XVI holds a palm as he arrives to lead the Palm Sunday mass at the Vatican April 17, 2011.
Pope Benedict's decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.

"His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn't have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else," said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It is absolutely necessary" that he stays in the Vatican, said the source, adding that Benedict should have a "dignified existence" in his remaining years.

Vatican sources said officials had three main considerations in deciding that Benedict should live in a convent in the Vatican after he resigns on February 28.

Vatican police, who already know the pope and his habits, will be able to guarantee his privacy and security and not have to entrust it to a foreign police force, which would be necessary if he moved to another country.

"I see a big problem if he would go anywhere else. I'm thinking in terms of his personal security, his safety. We don't have a secret service that can devote huge resources (like they do) to ex-presidents," the official said.

Another consideration was that if the pope did move permanently to another country, living in seclusion in a monastery in his native Germany, for example, the location might become a place of pilgrimage.
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Arrow Down

'Land Grabbing': Foreign investors buy up third world farmland


Der Spiegel
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:51 UTC
Tea Farm
© Reuters
A tea farm in Uganda.
A number of developing nations have sold or leased much of their farmland to foreign investors. The list is led by Liberia, whose arable land is 100 percent under foreign ownership.

The process is known as "land grabbing," and it is affecting countries in Africa, South America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Around half of the farmland of the Philippines is owned by foreign investors. In Ukraine, American companies have secured over one-third of the country's farmland.
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Attention

Privatization of water in Europe controversial

Günther Birkenstock
DW
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:11 UTC
Water Privatization
© Fotolia/PiChris
German local authorities and citizen initiatives are protesting against an EU directive that would lead to the privatization of public water supply systems. It could lead to forced privatization, critics fear.

Competition is good for business, the argument goes. More competition leads to lower prices and often to better products, according to the European Commission, which is pushing its plans to regulate water supplies in Germany.

If the commission gets what it wants, private companies will be able to get concessions to operate public water systems.

So far, Germany's water supply has fallen under the responsibility of local authorities. Most town and city councils manage water supply systems, maintaining water pipes, ensuring that there are enough pipes for every home to be hooked to the water supply system and managing the quality of tap water.

Sometimes councils grant concessions to private companies. But only in rare cases, is the operation of the water supply sectors entirely in private hands.
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Document

Supreme Court to hear Monsanto seed patent case today


Food Safety News
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:27 UTC
Image
© Food Safety News
Today, the Supreme Court will hear a patent case that's been billed as the one to determine who owns the rights to seeds in the ground: the farmer who planted them on his land, or the company that invested resources in designing and selling them.

Bowman v. Monsanto centers on the conflict between 75-year-old Vernon Hugh Bowman, a corn, wheat and soybean farmer from Indiana, and agribusiness giant the Monsanto Company. Monsanto has a patent on its Roundup Ready soybean seeds, designed to be resistant to the company's weedkiller, Roundup.

Farmers who purchase Monsanto's seeds must sign an agreement that they will only harvest the resulting crop and not use any of its seeds for replanting. The company has invested heavily in designing its seeds, and planting second-generation Monsanto seeds undermines the company's business.

Comment: Monsanto is an excellent example of a psychopathic corporation that is now a "friend of the court" and is receiving support from the US government!

Not surprising really. Read the following articles to learn more about how biotechnology corporations, like Monsanto, are patenting life and controlling the future of food:

Monsanto sued small famers to protect seed patents, report says

People Power: Percy Schmeiser v.s. Monsanto
A Canadian Farmer tells the story of how a corporation by the name of Monsanto tried to take his farm, his land and his life away.

How he Fought Back and Won!!

This is not only a take over of Canadian farms but a problem that is happening all around the world and Monsanto is bent on controlling the seeds of plants that produce food for the world. Their believe is that "he who controls the seed, controls the world" and their goal is world domination to control the food greed and power.

Among the changes in agriculture in Canada and the United States and who owns life forms on the planet is at question. Here a large corporation called Monsanto claims they are God and own the seed to grow foods.

The presumption is that any genetically modified seed belongs to them by the form of a patent. But they intentionally spread the seeds to infect organic farms and then take the farmer to court basically to bankrupt them and put them out of business.
Great Seed Robbery
Vandana Shiva: Corporate monopoly of seeds must end
Seeds Of Life: Hybrids and the Emergence of Seed Monopolies
As Claire Hope Cummings writes in her book, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds, whoever controls the supply of seed, controls the world's food supply. Should such concentrated power be allowed to reside within the private realm, or is food so fundamental a right, only governments representing the public interest be allowed to retain ultimate jurisdiction over such a resource?


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Bandaid

The Wounded Knee medals of honor should be rescinded

Dana Lone Hill
Guardian
Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:30 UTC
Aftermath of the massacre of Lakota Sioux Indians by the US 7th cavalry at Wounded Knee creek, South Dakota, on 29 December 1890


Aftermath of the massacre of Lakota Sioux Indians by the US 7th cavalry at Wounded Knee creek, South Dakota, on 29 December 1890
Congress has apologised for the 1890 massacre of Lakota Sioux, so why do 20 of the nation's highest awards still stand?

One hundred and twenty-two years ago, the Pine Ridge Reservation witnessed the end of an epoch: the end of a people fighting for their way of life. Many see it, in Wikipedia's words, as "the last battle of the American Indian wars".

Except it wasn't a battle; it was a massacre. And it was the end of life as Indians knew it. No more were the days of riding and hunting freely. Treaties had been broken, time and again, by the United States government; millions of buffalo had been killed for their hides and for sport; land was being taken left and right.

The US government recognized the Black Hills as belonging to the Sioux tribe by the Treaty of Laramie in 1868, but this treaty, too, was violated thanks to prospectors who kept coming to search for gold. By 1874, there was a full-fledged gold rush near Deadwood, South Dakota.

The fight for the land that was sacred to the Lakota - and which was coveted for its gold by the white incomers - came to a boiling point on 25 June 1876, when General George Armstrong Custer took his 7th cavalry regiment into an ambush led by Lakota leader Crazy Horse and their allies, the Cheyenne and Northern Arapahoe. The battle at Little Bighorn, often referred to as "Custer's Last Stand", did not sit well with the government as the whole regiment perished and the flags of the cavalry and the United States were captured.
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Attention

Challenge to BBC's 9/11 coverage to be presented this month in court

Peter Drew
Architects and Engineers for Truth
Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:00 UTC
Image

Can 9/11 truth history be made in a simple building like the Horsham Magistrates’ Court?
On February 25, in the small town of Horsham in the United Kingdom, there will be a rare and potentially groundbreaking opportunity for the 9/11 truth movement. Three hours of detailed 9/11 evidence is to be presented and considered in a court of law where the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will be challenged over the inaccurate and biased manner in which it has portrayed the events and evidence of 9/11.

Over the last 16 months, BBC has been challenged strongly by individuals in the UK over two documentaries that they showed in September 2011 as part of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, namely '9/11: Conspiracy Road Trip' and 'The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 Ten Years On'. Formal complaints were lodged with BBC over the inaccuracy and bias of these documentaries, which, according to 9/11 activists, was in breach of the operating requirements of BBC through their 'Royal Charter and Agreement' with the British public. This document requires BBC to show information that is both accurate and impartial. These complaints were supported by the US-based educational charity Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth), which submitted detailed scientific evidence to BBC to buttress the complaints. The evidence focuses in particular on the confirmed free-fall of WTC 7 and NIST's 2008 admission of this fact. In addition, over 300 AE911Truth petition signers supported these complaints by sending letters to BBC, requesting that BBC show this evidence to the public.
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Info

Opposition crops up to GMO foods in Hawaii

Joe Letman
Al Jazeera
Sat, 16 Feb 2013 17:42 UTC
Image
© [Kai Markell/Al Jazeera]
Dr Vandana Shiva traveled from India to the US state of Hawaii to speak about GMO crops.
The US state, home to many biotech testing fields, becomes a focal point for antagonism to genetically modified food.

Lihue, Hawaii - Famous the world over as a tropical vacation spot, the Hawaiian Islands are less well-known as ground zero in the debate over genetically modified organisms (GMO), the open-air testing of pesticide-resistant crops and the ethics of patenting genetically engineered (GE) plant life.

Hawaii is home to one of the world's greatest concentrations of GMO research fields by five of the largest biotechnology and chemical companies: Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer and BASF.

These transnational corporations prefer Hawaii for growing and testing GE crops because of its abundant sunshine, rainfall and year-round growing climate. GMO opponents say the companies also enjoy Hawaii's isolation, largely removed from the public eye.

Yet these companies, which have been in Hawaii for decades, are now facing increasing opposition from residents concerned about GMOs, the health and environmental impacts of pesticides and what they see as a lack of oversight and transparency.
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Cult

Pope appoints new director of scandal-scarred Vatican Bank

Alessandro Speciale|
The Washington Post
Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:27 UTC
Pope Benedict XVI
© AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca
Pope Benedict XVI
VATICAN CITY - Less than two weeks before he retires, Pope Benedict XVI on Friday (Feb. 15) approved the appointment of a German lawyer and financier as the new head of the scandal-plagued Vatican Bank.

Ernst von Freyberg will take on the role of president of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, as the bank is formally known, nine months after former president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was unceremoniously ousted by the bank's board with a no-confidence vote.

But von Freyberg's appointment immediately sparked controversy. The lawyer will remain in his current role of chairman of the executive board of German shipyard Blohm + Voss, which was involved in the production of warships under Nazi Germany.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said that the shipyard is currently involved in engineering and ship repair activities, as well as in the production of luxury yachts. But he also acknowledged that Blohm + Voss is "part of a consortium that is building four frigates for the German navy."

Benedict "expressed his full consent to the choice made by the Commission of Cardinals," according to the Vatican.

The outgoing pope has pushed hard to shed the Vatican's reputation as a suspect and secretive financial center. He has set up an independent financial watchdog and sought recognition from a European overseeing authority.

But those efforts risk being overshadowed by Italian investigations into the Vatican Bank for alleged money laundering.
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USA

The American Way of Life: Kill Lists and Torture

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Mon, 18 Feb 2013 08:42 UTC
Image

Soon-to-be CIA director, John Brennan, and one of the CIA drones he wants to introduce you to.
How many Americans are aware that their government has claimed the authority to arbitrarily kill their fellow citizens when it chooses, and that it can do so 'legally', without any evidence that the citizen in question posed any threat to anyone, let alone the US government or its 'interests'?

How many Americans are aware that the US government has responded to court cases brought by the ACLU questioning the US government's authority to engage in targeted assassinations of US citizens by saying that this is a political question and that US courts and judges have no say in the matter ("There exists no appropriate judicial forum to evaluate these constitutional considerations")? I'd wager not many. But that's precisely what the US government has done, according to a leaked unsigned and undated Justice Department white paper, obtained by NBC News. You can read the white paper here.

The actual legal justification as defined by Justice Department lawyers in 2010 is being kept secret by the government, but the 'white paper' explains that, not only has the government decided that targeted assassinations without due process are legal, but that no evidence of any imminent threat from a target is necessary for the target to be deemed an imminent threat. (Go figure).
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Yoda

Hedges v Obama - Interview with NDAA plaintiff Chris Hedges: NDAA 2013 overturns Posse Comitatus Act

Breaking the Set
Russia Today, U.S. Edition
Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:36 UTC
Abby Martin sits down with journalist, author and lead plaintiff in the case against indefinite detention, Chris Hedges, about the historical precedent the NDAA lawsuit sets, and why every American should care.


Comment: For reference, AUMF is the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, passed on 14th September 2001.

The Posse Comitatus Act is an 1878 United States federal law limiting the powers of Federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce the State laws. In short, military personnel are not supposed to carrying out domestic police work.

The NDAA is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a United States federal law specifying the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense, reviewed annually since it was first passed in 2007. The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 is currently being 'debated' in congress, but as Chris Hedges points out, its most worrisome additions are probably already being used against American citizens...

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