Whoever leaked the Mossack Fonseca papers appears motivated by a genuine desire to expose the system that enables the ultra wealthy to hide their massive stashes, often corruptly obtained and all involved in tax avoidance. These Panamanian lawyers hide the wealth of a significant proportion of the 1%, and the massive leak of their documents ought to be a wonderful thing.

Unfortunately the leaker has made the dreadful mistake of turning to the western corporate media to publicise the results. In consequence the first major story, published today by the Guardian, is all about Vladimir Putin and a cellist on the fiddle. As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent.

But why focus on Russia? Russian wealth is only a tiny minority of the money hidden away with the aid of Mossack Fonseca. In fact, it soon becomes obvious that the selective reporting is going to stink.

"The unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights."—Hillary Clinton, Meet the Press (April 3, 2016)

When presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declares that unborn babies do not have constitutional rights, she's not just spouting partisan rhetoric in the heated national debate over abortion. She's providing us with a glimpse into an increasingly troubling mindset among government officials who believe that the government not only has the power to determine who is deserving of constitutional rights in the eyes of the law but also has the authority to deny those rights to an American citizen.

The unborn are not the only persons being denied their rights under the Constitution.

American families who have their dogs shot, their homes trashed and their children terrorized or, worse, killed by errant SWAT team raids in the middle of the night are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

Disabled individuals who are being strip searched, handcuffed, arrested and "diagnosed" by police as dangerous or mentally unstable merely because they stutter and walk unevenly are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

School-aged children as young as 4-years-old who are leg shackled, handcuffed and strip searched for violating school zero tolerance policies by chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun and playing an imaginary game of cops and robbers, or engaging in childish behavior such as crying or jumping are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

Unarmed citizens who are tasered or shot by police for daring to hesitate, stutter, move a muscle, flee or disagree in any way with a police order are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

Likewise, Americans—young and old alike—who are shot by police because they pointed a garden hose at a police officer, reached for their registration in their glove box, relied upon a cane to steady themselves, or were seen playing with air rifles or BB guns are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

Female motorists who are unlucky enough to be pulled over for a questionable traffic infraction only to be subjected by police to cavity searches by the side of the road are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

Male pedestrians and motorists alike who are being subjected to roadside strip searches and rectal probes by police based largely on the color of their skin are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

American citizens subjected to government surveillance whereby their phone calls are being listened in on, their mail and text messages read, their movements tracked and their transactions monitored are being denied their rights under the Constitution. The same goes for individuals who are being denied access to body camera footage of their interactions with police, school officials and even medical professionals.

The investigation into former Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin's death was referred to the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Despite that, US media say authorities don't see the death as suspicious, citing sources in law enforcement. The New York Times has reported that the referral of Lesin's case to the Justice Department's Criminal Division in March was merely a formality, suggesting that no criminal investigation followed. Citing the same unnamed sources, the New York Times says neither the FBI, nor the US Justice Department have been taking an active part in the ongoing investigation.

Initial reports following Lesin's death in DC's Dupont Hotel on November 5, 2015 said he suffered a heart attack. Four months later, in March, Washington police and a DC medical examiner announced the cause of death as blunt head trauma. They added that "blunt force injuries of the neck, torso, upper extremities and lower extremities" contributed to the 57 year old's death.

Nevertheless, the manner of death was still classified as "undetermined," with the autopsy unable to reveal the cause of Lesin's injuries, meaning they could have been the result of a physical assault, a fall or a vehicle accident. Following the medical examiner's statement, Russia's prosecutor general sent an official request to the US Justice Department, demanding more information about Lesin's case on the basis of a bilateral treaty on mutual legal assistance on criminal cases dating back to 1999.

The airstrikes of the international US-led coalition destroyed the compound of the Turkish consulate located in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is occupied by Daesh, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday. In 2014, Daesh fighters occupied Mosul and surrounding areas, during their offensive against the Iraqi government forces.

"On April 4, 2016 03:00 a.m. [01:00 GMT] airstrikes of the international anti-Daesh coalition destroyed the premises of the consulate in Mosul, which has been under occupation of Daesh since June 2014. According to the intelligence data, it had been used as a residence for senior Daesh terrorists," the statement read. It was added in the statement that the coalition's airstrikes had been sanctioned by Turkey.

The infamous Daesh group, which is outlawed in many countries worldwide, including the United States and Russia, has seized large areas in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate on territories under its control. The US-led coalition of over 60 nations has been conducting airstrikes against the terrorist group first in Iraq and later Syria since 2014.

Having contributed to Palmyra's liberation, the Russian president once again has outperformed prognosis and predictions, Le Point reported. Recently, Vladimir Putin announced the Russian withdrawal from Syria, which marked the end of the main stage of the military campaign launched six months ago.

However, the pull out was partial. Some Russian forces are still deployed to Syria, and last week they contributed to the liberation of Palmyra. The Syrian Army with its own forces could not retake Palmyra from Daesh terrorists without Russia's assistance, an article in Le Point read.

Russia played a major role in the operation, by including their ability to deliver airstrikes. Russian bombers and attack helicopters pummeled Daesh motorcades fleeing from Palmyra. The terrorists sustained record losses - 400 militants were killed, according to the Syrian Center for Human Rights.

Beholden to special interests; complicit in US war crimes across the globe; held top secret information on an unsecured home server; incessantly lies (like most politicians); and is married to a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault: the fact that Hillary Clinton is even remotely capable of becoming President of the US is symptomatic of how corrupt and screwed up the US political system actually is.

Puppet on a String

Clinton is the walking, talking definition of a political prostitute, completely controlled by special interests, Israel and the shadow establishment. Since the beginning of 2013, Clinton has received at least $21.7 million for 92 speeches she has given to private organizations and groups. This includes $225,000 from Morgan Stanley; $225,000 from Deutsche Bank; $225,000 from Bank of America; and $675,000 from the Goldman Sachs Group (for three separate speeches). George Soros, the investor, billionaire and regime change extraordinaire, has also put millions into Clinton's campaign.

Hillary is controlled by the parallel US government, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In 2009, she revealed her relationship with the CFR when she addressed the council at their newly opened outpost in Washington D.C.:

"I have been often to the mother ship in New York City, but it's good to have an outpost of the council right here down the street from the State Department. We get a lot of advice from the council, so this will mean I won't have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future."

A look at the corporate membership of the council reveals the level of power vested in such a small amount of hands, with approximately 200 of the most influential corporate players belonging to the group, including: Exxon Mobil Corporation; Goldman Sachs Group; JPMorgan Chase; BP plc; Barclays; IBM; Google Inc; Facebook; Lockheed Martin; Raytheon; Pfizer; Merck & Co; Deutsche Bank AG; Shell Oil Company; and Soros Fund Management.

Baltimore—When Rory Fanning, a burly veteran who served in the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion and was deployed in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2004, appeared at the Donald Trump rally in Chicago last month he was wearing the top half of his combat fatigues. As he moved through the crowd, dozens of Trump supporters shouted greetings such as "Welcome home, brother" and "Thank you for your service." Then came the protest that shut down the rally. Fanning, one of the demonstrators, pulled out a flag that read "Vets Against Racism, War and Empire."(watch video below)

"Immediately someone threw a drink on me," he said when I interviewed him on my teleSUR show, "Days of Revolt." "I got hit from behind in the head three or four times. It was quite the switch, quite the pivot on me. Questioning the narrative, questioning Donald Trump's narrative, and I was suddenly out of their good graces."

Nationalists do not venerate veterans. They venerate veterans who read from the approved patriotic script. America is the greatest and most powerful country on earth. Those we fight are depraved barbarians. Our enemies deserve death. God is on our side. Victory is assured. Our soldiers and Marines are heroes. Deviate from this cant, no matter how many military tours you may have served, and you become despicable. The vaunted patriotism of the right wing is about self-worship. It is a raw lust for violence. It is blind subservience to the state. And it works to censor the reality of war.

"A lot of soldiers who've come back from war see themselves as anything but a hero," Fanning said. "To throw that term around loosely is dangerous. It's a way to manipulate soldiers. It buys their silence."

"Soldiers are not encouraged to talk about the realities of war when they come back," he said. "They're labeled a hero or warrior. That's a major problem. It leads to further seclusion, isolation with soldiers. We talk about the suicide rates amongst veterans—22 a day. It's because we're not allowed to talk about what we saw overseas, how unjust it was, how we feel like bullies. How many innocent people have been killed since 9/11? Throwing out words like 'heroes' does a disservice to the experience of veterans and all the innocent people that have been killed since then."

War, up close, bears no relation to the myth. It is depraved and cruel. It has nothing to do with noble ends or justice. Killing is a dirty, ugly business. There is a vast disparity between war's reality and the myth peddled by the press, the entertainment industry, politicians and churches.

"What I didn't know as I entered [Afghanistan] with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion was that the Taliban had essentially surrendered after the initial assault by the Air Force and the special forces," Fanning said of his first tour, which started in late 2001. "Our job was essentially to draw the Taliban back into the fight. Surrender wasn't good enough for politicians after 9/11. We wanted blood. We wanted a head count. It really didn't matter who it was. So we'd walk up to people, people who had been occupied ... , involved in civil war before that, with tons of money at our disposal. We'd said, 'Hey, we will give you this amount of money if you point out a member of the Taliban.' An Afghan would say, 'Sure, absolutely. There's a member right there.' So we go next door. We'd land in their neighbor's front yard, put a bag over every military-aged person's head, whether they were a member of the Taliban or not, give the person who identified that person money. Then that person would also get that neighbor's property. In a country with as much desperation and poverty as Afghanistan you'd do anything to put money or food on your family's table. Essentially that's what we were doing. But we were also bringing people who had absolutely no stake in the fight into the war. We were creating enemies.

"I signed up after 9/11 to prevent another 9/11 from happening," he went on. "But soon after arriving in Afghanistan I realized I was only creating the conditions for more terrorist attacks. It was a hard pill to swallow. We were essentially bullies."

The disproportionate use of force on the part of the American occupation forces not only left huge numbers of civilians dead but served as a potent recruiting weapon for insurgents.

In complying with a request made by the Turkish president's son, Ankara blocked websites detailing alleged criminal connections between him and a businessman recently arrested in the United States.

Turkey blocked 21 news websites detailing the US criminal case related to Bilal Erdogan, son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On March 22, Turkish national Reza Zarrab was arrested in the United States for fraud, money laundering and evading sanctions against Iran. Zarrab was previously implicated in a 2013 Turkish corruption scandal, which was tied to Bilal Erdogan, who was tied to the indictment though a connected businessman, Sıtkı Ayan.

The websites, including those of the newspapers Haberdar and Cumhuriyet were blocked, but no warning or court order was given prior to the block. It was only after the websites were blocked that officials sent notes to Haberdar.

Along with information about the connections between Bilal Edogan and the criminal case, newspapers cited fragments of a leaked wiretaps of a conversation between Bilal and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made during the 2013 anti-corruption operation.

Large-scale fighting has begun in Nagorno-Karabakh with the Azerbaijani army starting an offensive on the night of April 2nd, 2016 across the whole line of contact with the armed forces of Armenia, and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. After the day of fighting it was ceased, but may resume at every moment. Artillery, aviation and tanks were used, with both sides blaming each other for the escalation of the conflict, but the features of the Azerbaijani attack indicates a pre-planned operation. The age-old conflict between the two peoples of the region: Christian Armenians and Muslim Azerbaijanis, related to the Turks, broke out with renewed vigor.

US President Barack Obama has said there is "no doubt" that innocent civilians have been killed in drone strikes worldwide, despite intelligence on the targets being "checked, double-checked, triple-checked." Drone warfare has become a symbol of post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and other countries. The Obama administration has continuously expanded the drone program over two presidential terms, drawing heavy criticism for the extent of civilian deaths - also known as "collateral damage."

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, President Obama was asked to comment on the rising death toll in US drone strikes in the Middle East and beyond. "In the past, there was legitimate criticism that the legal architecture around the use of drone strikes wasn't as precise as it should have been," he said, as cited by AP. "There's no doubt that civilians were killed that shouldn't have been. In situations of war, you know, we have to take responsibility when we're not acting appropriately," Obama added.

He claimed that, in general, the US military and CIA - the main drone operators - use "vigorous criteria" to gather the intelligence used in targeting, and that this intelligence is "checked, double-checked, triple-checked before kinetic actions are taken."

The president's straightforward acknowledgement of civilian deaths caused by drone strikes stands out among his previous statements on the issue. To date, Washington has preferred to downplay public criticism by making formal apologies or denying any wrongdoing.