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Above the law - Anything goes when you're a cop in America

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 19:27 UTC
"There is one criminal justice system for citizens-especially black and brown ones-and another for police in the United States."-Redditt Hudson, former St. Louis police officer
Breaking the Law
© Exposing the Truth
President Trump needs to be reminded that no one is above the law, especially the police.

Unfortunately, Trump and Jeff Sessions, head of the Justice Department (much like their predecessors) appear to have few qualms about giving police the green light to kill, shoot, taser, abuse and steal from American citizens in the so-called name of law and order.

Between Trump's pandering to the police unions and Sessions' pandering to Trump, this constitutionally illiterate duo has opened the door to a new era of police abuses.

As senior editor Adam Serwer warns in The Atlantic, "When local governments violate the basic constitutional rights of citizens, Americans are supposed to be able to look to the federal government to protect those rights. Sessions has made clear that when it comes to police abuses, they're now on their own. This is the principle at the heart of 'law and order' rhetoric: The authorities themselves are bound by neither."

Brace yourselves: things are about to get downright ugly.

By shielding police from charges of grave misconduct while prosecuting otherwise law-abiding Americans for the most trivial "offenses," the government has created a world in which there are two sets of laws: one set for the government and its gun-toting agents, and another set for you and me.

No matter which way you spin it, "we the people" are always on the losing end of the deal.

If you're a cop in the American police state, you can now break the law in a myriad of ways without suffering any major, long-term consequences.
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Syria Faces New Threat: Al-Qaeda Rebranding Once More, Planning Major Assault on Hama

Anna Jaunger
Sott.net
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:55 UTC
Tahrir Al Sham, a terrorist group led by notorious terrorist leader Abu Mohammed Joulani
Tahrir Al Sham
While the Syrian Arab Army backed by allied forces is conducting a successful counter-terrorism operation along the Euphrates River, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham continues to strengthen in the south of the province of Idlib. And furthermore, the militants intend to become 'moderate opposition'.

This is confirmed by the fact that nowadays Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters are campaigning to unite all radical formations of the province under its authority.

According to sources of Inside Syria Media Center, several large radical organizations Idlib have already joined Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.

On August 3, 2017, the representatives of Hizb al-Islami al-Turkistani, the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria, agreed on temporary cooperation with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in the city of Jisr al-Shughur.

Besides, leaders of Suqour al-Sham also signed an agreement on cooperation with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham at the meeting in the town of Ariha.

According to the Syrian Arab Army's High Command, most likely, this will be followed by a renaming of the extended terrorist group. According to it, this is necessary for militants to turn their terrorist group in a 'moderate opposition group'. Such a rebranding will allow Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters to participate in the political process in Syria.

It is also likely that if a state decides to support such a group openly, it may not fear accusations of links with terrorists, since assistance will be provided to a new "moderate" organization.
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Eye 1

US law enforcement pushes for all civilian drones to be registered and tracked


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:36 UTC
civilian drone
© Steve Marcus / Reuters
Law enforcement in the US wants to be able to identify and track all unmanned vehicles in the sky. Meanwhile, the military was given the green light to shoot down private drones.

American law enforcement agencies oppose the government's plans to allow extensive unmanned flights until federal regulators come up with requirements for the drones to be registered and tracked.

They say the tracking is needed to prevent collisions with aircraft that provide vital public services, such as an air-ambulance helicopter.

"Unfortunately, I've just begun to see these happening on a regular basis," California's Alameda County Deputy Sheriff Richard Hassna told Bloomberg. "I think it's going to get worse and cause a problem."
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Heart

Russia repatriating dozens of children in Mosul whose parents joined ISIS


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:12 UTC
children repatriated russia
A four-year-old Chechen boy has been brought back to Russia after living with his jihadist father, who was fighting alongside ISIS in Mosul. Russian authorities are now seeking the return of several dozen such children from Iraqi orphanages.

Bilal Tagirov's mother hadn't seen him for two years. In October 2015, the child was kidnapped from his native Chechnya by his father, Khasan Tagirov, who went to fight alongside Islamic State jihadists, first in Syria and then in Iraq.

"For the past two years I had cherished the hope that my son would come back," Bilal's mother, Zalikha Ashakhanova, 24, said."There have been attempts to bring him home. Finally, my dream came true."

After two years of unsuccessful searches, Zalikha finally saw her son for the first time in a video from the liberated city of Mosul, uploaded on the internet.
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X

Dear Trump: Fire McMaster!

Justin Raimondo
AntiWar.com
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 17:08 UTC
McMaster and Trump
The internal battle taking place in the Trump administration, pitting the "adults" - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, General John Kelly, and National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster - against the "America First" nationalists, led by Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, has now spread to the media. At the center of the controversy is McMaster, whose foreign policy views are in many ways the exact opposite of Trump's, and who - rumor has it - may be on the way out. There are indications that, despite recent expressions of support for McMaster, the President has clashed with him repeatedly: Eli Lake reports that Trump "screamed" at his National Security Advisor for calling his South Korean counterpart after Trump said Seoul would have to pay for the THAAD antimissile defense system.

The Never Trump progressive-neocon alliance is taking up the cudgels on McMaster's behalf, while the Trump loyalists are calling for his ouster. So what are the policy differences between the two factions?
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Snakes in Suits

Why foreign governments seem reluctant to expose the Clintons' alleged fraud

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 16:15 UTC
Hillary and Bill Clinton
© AP Photo/ Matt Dunham
The Clintons fundraising activities have long been raising justified concerns. However, foreign investigations into the Clinton Foundation's activities are moving too slowly. Apparently, the probes could generate embarrassment and even legal exposures for foreign governments involved, Charles Ortel assumed speaking to Sputnik.

Hillary Clinton goes on with her effort named Onward Together aimed at funding and supporting a coalition of Democratic groups opposing Donald Trump's policies.

According to Ruby Cramer of Buzzfeed, Clinton has recently enlisted Emmy Ruiz and Adam Parkhomenko - political operatives from her 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns - to help manage the organization.

The journalist added that "some of the fundraising work has already started."
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Star of David

Safe zone: Israel's hush-hush campaign to gain a foothold in Southern Syria

Nour Samaha
Syria Deeply
Thu, 15 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
bugisrael
© The Ugly Truth - WordPress.com
Despite its official policy of non-intervention, Israel has taken on a very proactive role in Syria, working to establish an Israel-friendly zone in Quneitra, akin to its strategy in southern Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.

Over the past five years, Israel has been quietly working to establish a foothold in southern Syria to prevent Syrian government-backed forces from controlling the area and to bolster its claim over the Golan Heights.

What began as tentative contacts with opposition factions and residents across the fence in 2012 has turned into a full-fledged, multifaceted operation that has military, logistical, political and humanitarian dimensions, according to an investigation by Syria Deeply, which interviewed residents, Syrian intelligence officials and opposition members for this story.

Israel's "safe zone" now unofficially runs roughly 6 miles (10km) deep and 12 miles (20km) long beyond the demarcation line of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The effort is intended to prevent the Syrian government and its allies, specifically Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, from maintaining a foothold along the Israeli fence. Israel used a similar tactic to establish a zone of control in the south of Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.

In 2016, the Israeli army set up a liaison unit to better coordinate with Syrian residents, which now includes facilitating cross-border travel for residents into Israel, regular deliveries of food, clothing, construction equipment and educational materials, airstrikes on pro-government positions and the establishment of an Israeli-backed opposition faction in rebel-held southern Syria.


Comment: The wolf bearing gifts.


Comment: How Israel justifies a takeover: "We're stealing your land, but we are very nice guys and before you know it, you will think so too. Yesterday, you were here. Now you aren't and...come to think of it...you never were." Non-intervention? You don't need territory for a takeover. Just ask who runs US media, business, banks and politics.

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Stop

Tillerson offers N. Korea direct talks if missile tests cease, no mention of nuclear testing


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 00:10 UTC
KimTrump
© Daily Express
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seems to have dropped a condition for direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang. North Korea must halt its missile tests, but the top US diplomat left out any stipulation on nuclear testing.

"The best signal that North Korea can give us that they are prepared to talk would be to stop these missile launches," Tillerson said Monday in Manila, the Philippines, during the ASEAN ministerial security forum attended by foreign diplomats, Reuters reported. Tillerson reportedly said that through dialogue, North Korea would ultimately "feel secure and prosper economically."

The comments came two days after a unanimous 15 to 0 vote by the United Nations Security Council to sanction North Korea over two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests last month. The UN estimates the move will cost North Korea $1 billion per year.

Comment: UN whammy and US carrot sticks...the global vegetarian strategy. More likely Kim will hold out for the meat.

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Ice Cube

DoJ blackmails law enforcement agencies, Chicago sues Trump admin. over immigration enforcement


RT
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 21:45 UTC
PoIceTrump
© Getty Images
Chicago has sued the federal government over the Trump administration's push to get local law enforcement to help federal immigration authorities go after illegal immigrants.

The Department of Justice said it would withhold federal grants to state and city law enforcement agencies unless they allow federal immigration authorities access to local jails, as well as give them 48 hours' notice before releasing anyone wanted for immigration violations.

In the lawsuit, Chicago argues that the federal policy is forcing the city to choose between its constitutional rights and funding for law enforcement.

"We are bringing this legal challenge because the rhetoric, the threats from this administration embodied in these new conditions imposed on unrelated public safety grants funds are breeding a culture and climate of fear," Reuters cited Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's senior legal adviser as saying.

In response to the legal action, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday that "No amount of federal taxpayer dollars will help a city that refuses to help its own residents."

"To a degree perhaps unsurpassed by any other jurisdiction, the political leadership of Chicago has chosen deliberately and intentionally to adopt a policy that obstructs this country's lawful immigration system," he added. "They have demonstrated an open hostility to enforcing laws designed to protect law enforcement - Federal, state, and local - and reduce crime, and instead have adopted an official policy of protecting criminal aliens who prey on their own residents."

Comment: ICE-ickles! There's an ideological blizzard happening in the US. It is shovel deep, a bitter chill is in the air and it's not even winter.

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Star of David

Amnesty International blasts Israeli closing of Al Jazeera as 'brazen attack on media freedom'


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 15:41 UTC
AlJazeera
© Ahmad Gharabli/AFPOne more critical voice to be silenced.
Amnesty International's regional director has hit out at Israel's decision to close Al Jazeera's office in Jerusalem and take the channel off the air as "a brazen attack on media freedom" and an attempt to silence critical voices.

"This is a brazen attack on media freedom in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The move sends a chilling message that the Israeli authorities will not tolerate critical coverage," the organization's deputy Middle East and North Africa director, Magdalena Mughrabi, said.

In its decision "to suppress Al Jazeera," the Israeli government essentially sided with states such as Saudi Arabia that are also demanding the media outlet to be shut down amid an ongoing row between Doha and the Gulf states, the statement says.

"All journalists should be free to carry out their work without facing harassment or intimidation. Instead of initiating a repressive clampdown on freedom of expression the Israeli authorities must halt any attempt to silence critical media."

Al Jazeera blasted the plan to close the channel on Sunday, saying that the measure comes from "a country that claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East," and that the channel would "closely watch the developments that may result from the Israeli decision" and take "all the necessary legal measures."

Comment: Silence for one is freedom for another. Al-Jazeera has been a thorn in Israel's side, one it badly wants removed. Israel does not tolerate criticism, nor is it capable of hearing truth not of its own making.

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