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Vader

Séralini's Revenge: World's most evil company Monsanto rocked by new court documents

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 15:11 UTC
evil monsonto
The case against Monsanto is the gift that keeps on giving.

Previously in these pages I discussed how the trial of Monsanto currently taking place in the California Northern District Court-technically known as "Multidistrict Litigation," with the formal title of "In re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2741)"-is airing some of the agrichemical behemoth's dirtiest laundry. In my article "Monsatan On Trial For Roundup Cancer," I revealed how dozens of lawsuits filed against Monsanto for its role in causing the non-Hodgkin lymphoma of thousands of people across the US had been rolled into one dramatic court case, and how discovery from that case had yielded the remarkable deathbed testimony of EPA whistleblower Jess Rowland.

Then new documents emerged from the case confirming what many had long suspected: Monsanto has an entire internal corporate program (appropriately entitled "Let Nothing Go") employing an army of internet trolls who spam the company's propaganda on every social media post, forum and online comment board where its products and practices are being discussed.
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Snakes in Suits

Thailand: US prepares ground for regime change

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer Report
Fri, 04 Aug 2017 14:52 UTC
John McCain and Joseph Lieberman with Yingluck Shinawatra
Ahead of a pivotal court case in Thailand, US interests - both political and across the media - are preparing the grounds for the next round of foreign-backed destabilization.

Efforts to reinstall US proxies into power in Thailand is part of a larger effort to transform Southeast Asia into a united front against a rising China in an attempt to reassert American "primacy" over the region. US support for the Shinawatra family dates back to Thaksin Shinawatra's time as adviser to US-based equity firm, the Carlyle Group, and continues to present day.

Ousted Thai prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, faces charges of negligence regarding a vote-buying rice scheme in which above market prices were promised to farmers if they put her political party, Pheu Thai, into power during 2011 elections.

As a global leader in rice production and exports for decades, Thailand's markets were immediately disrupted as funds quickly ran dry, quality plummeted, and regional competitors found favor with the nation's traditional trading partners instead.

Comment: More on the Thailand situation:

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Map

Is third time the charm? Trump vows to win 16-year Afghan War


RT
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 14:05 UTC
US soldier in Afghanistan
© Carlos Barria / ReutersA US soldier of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain Warrior takes a break during a night mission near Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province.
Clearly frustrated by the Pentagon's ineffective strategies, Donald Trump has vowed to fire some of his top generals and aggressively gain ground in Afghanistan. But will the US president be able to prevail in a 16-year war where his two predecessors failed?

Dragging on longer than the Vietnam and Iraq campaigns, Afghanistan is becoming yet another swamp Trump wants to drain in keeping with his colorful election campaign. George W. Bush presided over the two post-9/11 military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq and Barack Obama promised to end them - but the everlasting Afghan war relentlessly rolls on.

Comment: And for an added twist to the Afghan situation: In Afghanistan, Russians are now remembered with much affection

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Info

Russian Ministries claim EU sanctions over Siemens turbines violate international law


RT
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 13:48 UTC
Industry production of gas turbines at Siemens
© Maurizio Gambarini / Global Look Press
The new EU sanctions against Russia over the delivery of Siemens turbines to Crimea is in direct violation of international law, the Russian Energy Ministry has stated.

The Russian Ministry of Energy slammed the recent decision of the European Commission to broaden its sanctions, blacklisting more individuals and firms accused of delivering Siemens gas turbines to Russia's Crimea peninsula.

The ministry also emphasized that the EU interference in the dispute is illegal and politically motivated.

"The Ministry of Energy has no doubt that the EU took the decision, based solely on political considerations," according to a statement on Saturday.

"No legal basis for the inclusion of the employees of Minenergo [The Ministry of Energy] in the sanctions list was produced," the statement adds.
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Cardboard Box

Uncovered: Monsanto campaign to get Séralini study retracted

Claire Robinson
GM Watch
Wed, 02 Aug 2017 13:21 UTC
monsanto
Documents released in US cancer litigation show Monsanto's desperate attempts to suppress a study that showed adverse effects of Roundup herbicide - and that the editor of the journal that retracted the study had a contractual relationship with the company. Claire Robinson reports:

Internal Monsanto documents released by attorneys leading US cancer litigation show that the company launched a concerted campaign to force the retraction of a study that revealed toxic effects of Roundup. The documents also show that the editor of the journal that first published the study entered into a contract with Monsanto in the period shortly before the retraction campaign began.

The study, led by Prof GE Séralini, showed that very low doses of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide had toxic effects on rats over a long-term period, including serious liver and kidney damage. Additional observations of increased tumour rates in treated rats would need to be confirmed in a larger-scale carcinogenicity study.

Comment: Leaked Monsanto docs reveal it tried to kill research on Roundup and influence EPA to conceal information about cancer risks
"This is a look behind the curtain," attorney Brent Wisner said. "This show[s] that Monsanto has deliberately been stopping studies that look bad for them, ghostwriting literature and engaging in a whole host of corporate malfeasance.

"They [Monsanto] have been telling everybody that these products are safe because regulators have said they are safe, but it turns out that Monsanto has been in bed with US regulators while misleading European regulators," he added.


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Snakes in Suits

US appeals court tosses murder conviction of ex-Blackwater guard in 2007 Iraq massacre

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 04 Aug 2017 12:29 UTC
ex-Blackwater security guards
© The Real News
In a highly unusual decision sure to open old wounds among Iraqis and further prolong an already protracted legal saga, a US appeals court has thrown out the murder conviction of an ex-Blackwater security guard and ordered three co-defendants to be resentenced for their roles in the deadliest incident involving the controversial private security firm to date. The men were responsible for the September 16, 2007 Nisour Square shooting in Baghdad, which killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounded 17 others, and threatened to inflame tensions at the height of what was an already bloody and volatile coalition occupation.

On Friday afternoon a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that Nicholas Slatten should be given a new trial which would allow for fresh testimony concerning his 2014 first-degree murder conviction. Among the four ex-Blackwater employees sentenced in the 2014 trial, Slatten was the only one convicted of murder as it was believed that he fired on the unarmed civilians first. The other three men - Evan Liberty, Paul Slough, and Dustin Heard - were each given 30-years for manslaughter and other related charges (Slatten had been given a life sentence). Friday's decision also directed that the three men be given new sentences because it deemed the previous 30-year sentences to constitute "cruel and unusual punishment." However, Iraqi family members of the slain (who in some instances lost children) are sure to disagree.

The event received broad international media attention at the time as Blackwater already had a reputation for heavy-handed and trigger happy tactics, and for being "above the law" as a private mercenary firm while operating in Iraq.
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Radar

Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya slams Congress: 'They don't want the truth'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 04 Aug 2017 12:18 UTC
Natalia Veselnitskaya
Congressional investigators have dragged Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort to grill them about a now-infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that is at the center of the Democrats' dubious narrative that the Trump campaign somehow colluded with the Russian government to tilt the election in Trump's favor.

But for whatever reasons, they have no interest in speaking with anyone from the Russian side, including Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer at the center of the meeting. Veselnitskaya revealed as much during a 10-minute interview with the Russian news program Vesti, saying she sought the meeting as part of her efforts to help Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, a client of hers who was targeted with sanctions through the Magnitsky Act. Neither Hillary Clinton, nor the Trump campaign were discussed during the meeting, she said.
"It was a private meeting," Ms. Veselnitskaya told the interviewer, according to an account Friday in the Moscow Times.

"I asked for help - help to get out a story I had come across in my professional capacity."

The meeting "had nothing to do with [then-candidate Donald Trump's] rivals or the presidential election," she added. "That never happened. That's not true."

She expressed frustration that US investigators have not asked for her side of the story, telling her audience that the US Congress isn't interested in the truth.
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Info

'Spoke about the simplest things': Ex-Russian Ambassador Kislyak opens up on what he discussed with Flynn


RT
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 12:09 UTC
Sergey Kislyak
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
Now-retired Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak said that the main topic of his conversation with former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was counter-terrorism. The talks were transparent and never touched upon sanctions, he added.

"I do not comment on our daily contacts with our colleagues. Secondly, I had instructions not to discuss sanctions. We never discussed sanctions with anybody. And I assure you, I have honestly followed the instructions," Kislyak told Rossiya-24.

"Sanctions aren't our thing," the retired diplomat said. "We don't discuss or bargain about sanctions, because we believe they were implemented in an illegal, politically aggressive way to begin with."
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Eye 2

Shocking footage of the Saudi regime's brutality against own citizens

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 08:52 UTC
Map of Saudi Arabia
Map of Saudi Arabia
The Saudi regime is in the midst of an extreme and brutal crackdown against its own citizenry in the country's Eastern province - a situation now spiraling out of control with rising civilian deaths, entire neighborhoods turned to rubble, and new reports that water and electricity have been cut to the now completely besieged town of Al-Awamiya. Though local activists continue to upload shocking ground level videos to social media revealing that entire districts have been leveled, international and US media have remained largely silent.

Tensions have been simmering in the heavily Shia populated Qatif governate throughout the past year, especially after the January execution of prominent Shia cleric and Al-Awamiya native Nimr al-Nimr. Additionally, 14 Shia citizens, among them young Mujtaba al-Sweikat - a student enrolled at Western Michigan University - currently await execution upon the signature of King Salman. The torture and mass trial of the group, charged with "protest-related" crimes has further inflamed tensions in the region. Large protests against the Saudi monarchy and security services have been frequent in Qatif going all the way back to the start of the so-called "Arab Spring" - though major international media outlets have tended to ignore such protests occurring under US/UK friendly regimes.

This was especially the case when in 2011 hundreds of Saudi tanks crossed the King Fahd Causeway to quell a popular uprising against neighboring Bahrain's Sunni monarchy. Western media treated the event as a relatively minor hiccup, with some reports even subtly framing Saudi actions as actually motivated by the protection of civilians from Bahraini security forces, while in reality it was a massive show of force pitting tanks against civilians in order to preserve the embattled Bahraini autocratic regime.
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Info

Beijing 'seals off' Yellow Sea for 2nd large-scale naval drill in fortnight


RT
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 08:33 UTC
Naval warships
© Li Gang / Global Look PressNaval warships are seen during a naval parade of the Chinese People's Liberation Army
Beijing has declared an area the size of West Virginia off-limits to civilian vessels, ahead of extensive three-day naval exercises near the coast of North Korea. A similar drill took place in the area at the end of July.

The announcement only said that the drills would last between 6 am on Saturday and 6 pm Tuesday, and would involve "large-scale military operations."

China commissioned 18 ships last year. While it currently only operates one Soviet-made aircraft carrier, trials are ongoing on the second vessel, wholly built in a local shipyard.

According to local analysts, the timing and choice of location for the current exercises is more to do with reasserting China's regional power than an immediate need to test new hardware.

Comment: See also: Beijing flexes naval might in western Pacific

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