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'We reject illegal killings': Germany suspends drone purchase


RT
Fri, 15 Nov 2013 09:40 UTC
Drone
© AFP Photo/Armin Weigel/Germany Out
Berlin has suspended the purchase of armed drones on the grounds that it "categorically rejects illegal killings." This follows a report by Amnesty International that accused Merkel's government of aiding the US with drone strikes in Pakistan.

A draft agreement between the Social Democrats and the Conservatives obtained by Der Spiegel condemns the use of drones for targeted attacks.

"We categorically reject illegal killings by drones. Germany will support the use of unmanned weapons systems for the purposes of international disarmament and arms control," said the statement. The government says that before acquiring the remote-controlled craft, it must thoroughly examine "all associated civil and constitutional guidelines and ethical questions."

In spite of significant opposition in Germany - 59 per cent of the population according to a Pew Research poll in 2012 - outgoing German defense minister, Thomas de Maziere, spent hundreds of millions of euros on drones that were not permitted to fly in German airspace.

"We cannot keep the stagecoach while others are developing the railway," declared Maziere, who announced to the German public in May that talks were underway to discuss the purchase of US Predator drones and Israeli Heron drones.

However, with the formation of a new government in Germany following Chancellor Merkel's reelection in September, the German policy on drones looks set to change. Both the Social Democrats and the Christian Socialist Union parties voiced their opposition to the deal, writes the Local.
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Display

Iran putting brakes on nuclear expansion under Rouhani: IAEA report

Fredrik Dahl
Reuters
Fri, 15 Nov 2013 09:05 UTC
President Rouhani
© Reuters/Adrees LatifIran's President Hassan Rouhani takes questions from journalists during a news conference in New York September 27, 2013.

Since Hassan Rouhani became president, Iran has stopped expanding its uranium enrichment capacity, a U.N. inspection report showed on Thursday, in a potential boost for diplomacy to end Tehran's nuclear dispute with the West.

The quarterly report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said that since August no further major components had been added to a potential plutonium-producing reactor that worries the United States and its allies.

The marked slowdown in the growth of activities of possible use in developing nuclear bombs may be intended to back up Rouhani's warmer tone towards the West after years of worsening confrontation, and strengthen Tehran's hand in talks with world powers due to resume on November 20.

The six powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China - are pressing Iran to curb its nuclear program to ease fears that it may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

Iran halted a previously rapid increase in its capacity to refine uranium - which can fuel nuclear power plants but also bombs if processed much more - "when their team changed" in August, a senior diplomat familiar with the IAEA report said, referring to Rouhani and his administration.

Comment: Reuters forgets to mention that Iran is a signatory to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT) and has been since the beginning on July 1st 1968.
The list of parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty encompasses the states which have signed and ratified or acceded to the international agreement limiting the spread of nuclear weapons.
Israel has never joined and will neither confirm or deny that is has nuclear weapons. Therefore no inspections are made in Israel as it has not ratified the treaty.

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Mr. Potato

France clueless on Iran

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Fri, 15 Nov 2013 07:50 UTC
Laurent Fabius le Coq
© Mohammed Kargar/Fars News Agency
Here is definitive proof - if any was needed - that the Gallic fit-throwing that burned the possibility of an interim Iranian nuclear deal last week in Geneva was completely pointless.

The key "concern" expressed by Israel-firster French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to derail an interim deal was about the Arak heavy-water reactor.

Well, UN inspectors this week reported that they had detected no new developments in Arak over the three months since August. [1]

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, was also in Tehran on Monday, and - unusually for his trademark paperboy role for Washington - had nothing to complain about.

Fabius used the Arak gambit at the last minute in Geneva to derail the talks, provoking the ire of even fellow European diplomats. That was out of pure disinformation; Tehran was already doing what Fabius insisted they were not doing.
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HAL9000

Human rights court turns down Polish govt request to keep CIA jail hearing closed


RT
Fri, 15 Nov 2013 06:17 UTC
Polish CIA site
© Reuters / Kacper PempelAn aerial view shows a watch tower of an airport in Szymany, close to Szczytno in northeastern Poland
The Polish government's request to the European Court of Human Rights to prohibit the press and public from attending a hearing investigation on whether the US kept a CIA prison on Polish soil has been rejected.

The public hearing is scheduled for December 3 in Strasbourg, France and will be the first time that allegations stating that the US intelligence agency used rogue "black sites" in Poland for its "extraordinary rendition" program are heard publicly. The US is accused of illegally detaining Al-Qaeda terror suspects and using torture to interrogate them in a forest in northern Poland.

"I can confirm that the hearing on 3 December will be a public hearing," a spokeswoman for the European Court of Human Rights told reporters on Thursday.

After the ruling was announced, the Polish Foreign Ministry told Reuters that the court had also, by its own volition, scheduled a separate closed-door hearing in the case for December 2.

Warsaw has denied that any such facility has ever existed and said that court communications should be kept classified to protect Poland's national security. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, which has a location in Warsaw, has accused the Polish government of deceiving the public.

"We should have the right to review this case in public," Adam Bodnar, vice president of the group, told Reuters before Thursday's decision. "I do not see a reason for confidentiality of proceedings."
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Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: Did FBI execute friend of Boston Bombing suspect during interrogation?


Benswann.com
Thu, 14 Nov 2013 16:36 UTC
Image
Ibragim Todashev, black-bagged by the US government in the name of their War of Terror against people everywhere
Names you know... Dhovar Tsarnev and Tamerlen Tsarnaev... Two young Chechen born brothers, raised in the United States, radicalized through the internet, and responsible for the deadly Boston Bombing attack.

That is the story media has told you but what about the story they have all but ignored? About another Chechen with a lesser known name. Who is Ibragim Todashev and why was he killed by the FBI during an interrogation over the Tsarnev brothers?

Today, you will hear from the widow of that man, and the questions she is still waiting to have answered.

The first step toward truth is to be informed.

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Snakes in Suits

People power: 'What's it like working with Mexican drug cartels?' Banking giant JPMorgan cancels Twitter Q&A after thousands of abusive tweets

Simon Tomlinson
The Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 14 Nov 2013 13:30 UTC
  • Firm had planned public relations stunt with senior executive Jimmy Lee
  • But it decided to cancel session after deluge of insults from angry users
  • One said: 'Is it true that, while you don't always spit on poor people, when you do, you have perfect aim?'
  • Another drew picture making reference to 'London whale' trading scandal
  • Bank faces $13bn for its role in credit crunch that caused global slump
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase was forced into a humiliating climbdown over its plans to hold a question-and-answer session on Twitter today after receiving a barrage of abusive tweets.

The bank had arranged an event where top executive Jimmy Lee would field questions from users in what it hoped would be a positive public relations stunt.

But the company said it had scrapped the session after being flooded with insults, confirming the decision with the matter-of-fact tweet: 'Tomorrow's Q&A is cancelled. Bad Idea. Back to the drawing board.'

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Humiliating: Banking giant JPMorgan confirms it has cancelled a planned Q&A on Twitter with a top executive after receiving thousands of abusive tweets over its role in the global recession
Image
Backfired: Banker Jimmy Lee had been lined up to field questions in what the firm hoped would be a positive public relations stunt
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Attention

The government plans to track us and those we are related to using our DNA

Michael T. Snyder
The Truth
Wed, 13 Nov 2013 11:09 UTC
DNA
© Christoph Bock
The Department of Homeland Security is soliciting information from potential contractors for a new program that the DHS hopes will enable it to use DNA tests to identify criminal suspects and track their family relationships. Down the road, the goal is to make the use of DNA identification as common as the use of fingerprint identification is today. If you do not think that this could ever happen, you should think again. Barack Obama has already said that he wants a national DNA database, and a recent Supreme Court decision has opened the door wide open for one to be created. Someday soon, the federal government will have the capability of tracking all of us and those that we are related to using our DNA. And eventually, a "DNA reader" could replace all of our Internet passwords and be used to log into our bank accounts. In a world that is becoming more corrupt with each passing day, authorities consider being able to positively identify people as an extremely important goal, and DNA is considered by many as the best way to do that.

According to a recent report by Government Security News, the Department of Homeland Security is now actively seeking proposals from prospective contractors that have the capability of helping them set up the program that I mentioned above...
The Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) unit of DHS is gathering information from prospective vendors who could perform deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) tests on samples collected from various individuals to help the agency identify family relationships, criminal suspects and more.
The goal, according to the Request for Information that was issued on November 8th, is to find a more "cost-effective way to identify individuals when fingerprints are not available"...
"Homeland Security Investigations is comprised of Special Agents and support staff who need a better, more accurate and cost-effective way to identify individuals when fingerprints are not available or when a claim of family relationship needs to be proven," says the RFI. "This need is also needed during criminal investigations where evidence is found and DNA is needed from the evidence."
But of what use would DNA be to the government if the government only has the DNA of a limited number of us in their databases?

Wouldn't DNA identification be much more effective if the government had samples of all of our DNA?
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Holly

Poppy fields forever? Record opium output boosts Afghan warlords' power base


RT
Thu, 14 Nov 2013 04:30 UTC
Poppy fields
© AFP Photo / Noorullah Shirzada)An Afghan security force member destroys poppy fields in the Noor Gal district of eastern Kunar province on April 13, 2013.
Despite efforts to curb Afghan's opium culture, cultivation has hit record levels as NATO forces prepare to exit the country. The UN warned warlords may be the biggest benefactor of the situation.

The report, the Afghanistan Opium Survey for 2013, provides little cause for optimism among countries that have witnessed a surge in incidences of heroin abuse among their populace since US-led forces started a military offensive against the Taliban on Afghan soil in 2001.

Afghanistan, long the world's main heroin supplier, has seen its total area of poppy seed plantations explode to 516,000 acres - a 36 percent increase from 2012, according to the report, released on Wednesday.

Last year, the war-torn Central Asian country accounted for 75 percent of the world's opium supplies; Jean-Luc Lemahieu, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Afghanistan, has said in the past that supplies may reach 90 percent of the global total this year.

The new data surpasses the previous record set in 2007, when 477,000 acres were cultivated, according to the UN drug watchdog. Total opium output is estimated at 5,500 tons, up 49 percent from 3,700 tons in 2012.

At the same time, efforts to eradicate poppy fields have waned, with the total area targeted down 24 percent from last year.


Comment: So the UN is warning that the biggest warlords will be the benefactors of the NATO forces exit from the country. The same UN that in February 2001 declared that opium production had virtually been eradicated in Afghanistan:
U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer.

A 12-member team from the U.N. Drug Control Program spent two weeks searching most of the nation's largest opium-producing areas and found so few poppies that they do not expect any opium to come out of Afghanistan this year.

"We are not just guessing. We have seen the proof in the fields," said Bernard Frahi, regional director for the U.N. program in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He laid out photographs of vast tracts of land cultivated with wheat alongside pictures of the same fields taken a year earlier -- a sea of blood-red poppies.
Opium production has been a major financing for the various alphabet soup's black operations. See:
Opium and the CIA: Can the U.S. triumph in the drug-addicted Afghanistan War?

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Stormtrooper

The rest of the world no longer wants to be like U.S. - here's why

Noam Chomsky
AlterNet
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 23:07 UTC
us rogue state
Many countries in the world see the U.S. as the single greatest external threat to their societies.

During the latest episode of the Washington farce that has astonished a bemused world, a Chinese commentator wrote that if the United States cannot be a responsible member of the world system, perhaps the world should become "de-Americanized" - and separate itself from the rogue state that is the reigning military power but is losing credibility in other domains.

The Washington debacle's immediate source was the sharp shift to the right among the political class. In the past, the U.S. has sometimes been described sardonically - but not inaccurately - as a one-party state: the business party, with two factions called Democrats and Republicans.

That is no longer true. The U.S. is still a one-party state, the business party. But it only has one faction: moderate Republicans, now called New Democrats (as the U.S. Congressional coalition styles itself).

There is still a Republican organization, but it long ago abandoned any pretense of being a normal parliamentary party. Conservative commentator Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute describes today's Republicans as "a radical insurgency - ideologically extreme, scornful of facts and compromise, dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition": a serious danger to the society.

The party is in lock-step service to the very rich and the corporate sector. Since votes cannot be obtained on that platform, the party has been compelled to mobilize sectors of the society that are extremist by world standards. Crazy is the new norm among Tea Party members and a host of others beyond the mainstream.
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Vader

U.S. Media: Let's take advantage of suffering Filipinos!

David Swanson
War Is A Crime.org
Wed, 13 Nov 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Tyrone Siu U.S. Navy sailors muster on the deck of the USS Antietam (CG-54) from the George Washington Battle Group before sailing to the Philippines at Hong Kong Victoria Harbor November 12, 2013.
The same week in which a Washington Post columnist claimed that interracial marriage makes people gag, a USA Today columnist has proposed using the U.S. military to aid those suffering in the Philippines -- as a backdoor means of getting the U.S. military back into a larger occupation of the Philippines.

While the Philippines' representative at the climate talks in Warsaw is fasting in protest of international inaction on the destruction of the earth's climate, and the U.S. negotiator has effectively told him to go jump in a typhoon, the discussion in the U.S. media is of the supposed military benefits of using Filipinos' suffering as an excuse to militarize their country.

The author of the USA Today column makes no mention of the U.S. military's history in the Philippines. This was, after all, the site of the first major modern U.S. war of foreign occupation, marked by long duration, and high and one-sided casualties. As in Iraq, some 4,000 U.S. troops died in the effort, but most of them from disease. The Philippines lost some 1.5 million men, women, and children out of a population of 6 to 7 million.

The USA Today columnist makes no mention of Filipinos' resistance to the U.S. military up through recent decades, or of President Obama's ongoing efforts to put more troops back into the Philippines, disaster or no disaster.

Instead, our benevolent militarist claims that budgets are tight in Washington -- which is of course always going to be the case for a government spending upwards of $1 trillion a year on militarism.
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