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Handcuffs

Saudi Arabia sent death row inmates to fight in Syria in lieu of execution


Assyrian International News Agency
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:31 UTC
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© Photo: Saudi Press Agency/APKing Abdullah of Saudi Arabia with French President Francois Hollande, who went to the desert kingdom in early November for talks about Syria and Iran.
A top secret memo sent by the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia reveals the Saudi Kingdom sent death-row inmates, sentenced to execution by decapitation, to Syria to fight Jihad against the Syrian government in exchange for commuting their sentences.

According to the memo, dated April 17, 2012, the Saudi Kingdom negotiated with a total of 1239 inmates, offering them a full pardon and a monthly salary for their families, who were to remain in the Kingdom, in exchange for "...training for the sake of sending to the Jihad in Syria."

The memo was signed by Abdullah bin Ali al-Rmezan, the "Director of follow up in Ministry of Interior."
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USA

The U.S. was operating in Mali months prior to French incursion: Meet the "intelligence and security command"

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:59 UTC
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Last week we reported that in the aftermath of the so far disastrous French campaign to eradicate "rebels" in the north of Mali, because of their implied threat fo Europe, that "US Drones, Boots Arrive In Mali."

Turns out we were wrong, and as the case virtually always is, for some reason there was already a US presence of at least three US commandos in Mali in the summer of 2012. What they were doing there remains a mystery, as it is a mystery if the ever co-present flip flops on the ground were there inciting the perpetual scapegoat Al Qaeda to do this, or that.

Or maybe it was not the CIA. Maybe it was the Army's "little-known and secretive" branch known as the Intelligence and Security Command. Regardless, what becomes obvious is that while the US was on the ground and engaged in secret missions, it needed an alibi to avoid "destabilizing" the local situation once its presence became conventional wisdom. It got just that, thank to one Francois Hollande just over a week ago.
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USA

Kill Anything that Moves: Seeing the sickening reality of the Vietnam war, 50 years late

Jonathan Schell
Tom Dispatch
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:11 UTC
anything turse
How Did the Gates of Hell Open in Vietnam?

A New Book Transforms Our Understanding of What the Vietnam War Actually Was

For half a century we have been arguing about "the Vietnam War." Is it possible that we didn't know what we were talking about? After all that has been written (some 30,000 books and counting), it scarcely seems possible, but such, it turns out, has literally been the case.

Now, in Kill Anything that Moves, Nick Turse has for the first time put together a comprehensive picture, written with mastery and dignity, of what American forces actually were doing in Vietnam. The findings disclose an almost unspeakable truth. Meticulously piecing together newly released classified information, court-martial records, Pentagon reports, and firsthand interviews in Vietnam and the United States, as well as contemporaneous press accounts and secondary literature, Turse discovers that episodes of devastation, murder, massacre, rape, and torture once considered isolated atrocities were in fact the norm, adding up to a continuous stream of atrocity, unfolding, year after year, throughout that country.
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Light Saber

Martin Luther King's vehement condemnations of U.S. militarism are more relevant than ever

Glen Greenwald
The Guardian
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:29 UTC
Martin Luther King
© Francis Miller/GettyMartin Luther King at Washington DC's Lincoln Memorial in 1968. Barack Obama used the day before his inauguration to honour the spirit of King.
His vital April 4, 1967 speech is a direct repudiation of the sophistry now used to defend US violence and aggression

The civil right achievements of Martin Luther King are quite justly the focus of the annual birthday commemoration of his legacy. But it is remarkable, as I've noted before on this holiday, how completely his vehement anti-war advocacy is ignored when commemorating his life (just as his economic views are). By King's own description, his work against US violence and militarism, not only in Vietnam but generally, was central - indispensable - to his worldview and activism, yet it has been almost completely erased from how he is remembered.
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Smoking

Oklahoma lawmaker: Let businesses fire cigarette smokers

Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:39 UTC
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© Shutterstock
If you live in Oklahoma and smoke cigarettes, look out: a local lawmaker is pushing a bill that would let companies fire smokers in order to save on health care costs.

State Sen. David Hold (R) authored Senate Bill 327 after discovering that Oklahoma law actually protects smokers from workplace discrimination.

"I was just kind of incredulous that there was a protection like this because, as I said, these are the kinds of protections you'd think we have for race and gender, not smokers," he told KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City.
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Crusader

Be a proud conspiracy theorist, you're in the majority

Eric Blair
Activist Post
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:42 UTC
freedom
© unknown
"Is everything a conspiracy? No, just the important stuff." - Jeff Wells, Rigorous Intuition.

It seems that the establishment media has intensified their attack on "conspiracy theorists". It's long been their feeble attempt to discredit anyone who dares question the "official" narrative of events. But why the sudden deluge of attacks?

First, what does conspiracy theory even mean?
con·spir·a·cy - An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
the·o·ry - A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena.
con·spir·a·cy the·o·ry - The belief that the government or a covert organization is responsible for an event that is unusual or unexplained.
In short, a conspiracy theorist seeks the full facts about covert subversive acts, and unusual or unexplained events. Put another way, when the story of an event doesn't add up, theories arise to explain what really happened.

Given the abominable track record of the establishment media, it's become more common to question everything we hear rather than blindly swallowing their script.

As the initial reporting of the Sandy Hook school massacre was so scattered, and policymakers immediately seized the crisis to promote a long desired agenda of strict gun control, it's no wonder that some have questioned the authenticity of the "official" version of events.

Comment: For an in-depth disection of Sandy Hook listen to this link of SOTT Talk Radio's recent broadcast. Why and how it happened and what these kinds of mass shootings by alleged 'lone nuts' mean, not just for American citizens, but the people of the world.

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V

WikiLeaks reveals association with Aaron Swartz


RT.com
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:41 UTC
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© Reuters/Noah Berger/Luke MacGregorAaron Swartz and Julian Assange
In a series of tweets, WikiLeaks disclosed that deceased Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz may have contributed to the organization and had even been in contact with Julian Assange.

WikiLeaks said it was divulging this information "due to the investigation into the Secret Service involvement with #AaronSwartz."

Swartz, who committed a suicide on Jan. 11, was arrested two years ago for breaking and entering into an MIT storage closet and accessing an Acer laptop that he programmed to download millions of scholarly articles from the JSTOR database. The Secret Service took charge of the Swartz investigation two days before his arrest and provided the prosecution with information that led to its harsh pursuit of the 26-year-old.

While it is unclear why WikiLeaks decided to disclose Swartz's involvement with the document archive organization, some have suggested that the alliance may have prompted the US Attorney's Office and the Secret Service to pursue Swartz more harshly.
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Bad Guys

Invasion of the foreign supercops: Minister unveils new plans to hire U.S. crimebusters to take over British police

Simon Walters
The Mail Online
Sat, 19 Jan 2013 14:28 UTC
Mr Bratton
© GettyMr Bratton (L), former head of New York City Police and the Los Angeles Police Department, was drafted in by David Cameron to advise on tackling gang warfare in Britain in 2011.
Former Army officers will be recruited as police superintendents
Changes rip up tradition of only British citizens serving in the police

Foreign crimebusters such as US supercop Bill Bratton will be given the chance to take over British police forces under radical new plans to be unveiled by Home Secretary Theresa May.

And former Army officers will be recruited as police superintendents in an attempt to end the 'closed shop' police culture blamed for bungled investigations and corruption. The changes, set to be fiercely opposed by police chiefs, rip up the centuries-old tradition of only British citizens serving in the police.

They also abolish the rule that senior policemen have to work their way up from being a bobby on the beat.
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Pistol

Bulgarian Televised 'assassination attempt' 'was stunt'

Miriam Elder
The Guardian
Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:16 UTC
Ahmed Dogan
© AP/Getty

News
World news
Bulgaria

Bulgarian gas pistol attack 'was stunt'

Gunman reportedly wanted to show politician he was 'not untouchable', while some suggest whole incident was staged

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Miriam Elder in Moscow
The Guardian, Sunday 20 January 2013 19.00 GMT

Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party in Bulgaria, escapes an apparent assassination attempt
Gunman reportedly wanted to show politician he was 'not untouchable', while some suggest whole incident was staged

It was a shot almost heard around the world as millions watched a man storm a stage in Bulgaria and then point his gun at a prominent opposition politician live on television.

But many in Bulgaria are now trying to separate fact from fiction as they try to be clear about what motivated the attack.

Police took Oktai Enimehmedov, 25, into custody after he pulled the gun on Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), a party supported by Muslim voters including some Turks in Bulgaria.

Police now say Enimehmedov was holding a gas pistol that was loaded with pepper spray, with two other "bullets" being simply noisemakers. He pointed the gun at Dogan's head during a party congress in the capital, Sofia, but failed to shoot. He was tackled to the ground and beaten by guards and party members as TV cameras continued to roll.

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Pills

Employers challenging health law contraceptive provision

Robert Barnes
Washington Post
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:23 UTC
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© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesProtesters hold signs and pray during a gathering billed as the “Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally” in MIami in June 2012.
Enjoy the festivities, President Obama, and while you're on the grand stage Monday, it might be wise to make nice with the assembled Supreme Court justices.

The next legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act is moving quickly to the high court, and bringing potent questions about religious freedom, gender equality and corporate "personhood."

The issue is the health-care law's requirement that employers without a specific exemption must provide workers with insurance plans that cover a full range of birth-control measures and contraceptive drugs.

Inclusion of the no-cost contraceptive coverage for female workers has always been a controversial part of the legislation. It has now sparked more than 40 lawsuits around the nation involving more than 110 individuals, colleges, hospitals, church-affiliated nonprofits and private companies.
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