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Police state accelerates as New York calls up National Guard troops to boost security

Glenn Blain, Annie Karni
Daily News
Fri, 19 Sep 2014 04:24 UTC
Cuomo, Natl guard
© www.army.mil
Governor Cuomo and the New York Army National Guard
Although saying there is "no specific threat" of a terror attack, Gov. Cuomo announced on Friday that he is calling up hundreds of National Guard troops and other personnel to beef up security in New York.

Summoning reporters and legislative leaders to his midtown office, Cuomo said a comprehensive new security plan will be implemented to cover airports, transit hubs and large gathering points across the region.

He declined to give specifics of the plan until he formally unveils it with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie next week.

Cuomo, who is running for re-election, said "it is undeniable that New York is a possible target of terrorist activity," either "in retaliation... or as an offensive gesture."

Subway Natl Guard
© www.newsday.com
Commuters will see increased police and National Guard presence at transit hubs.
However, he acknowledged that, "We have no specific threat" of terrorists plotting an attack.

"This is just a general precaution given the obvious situation and obvious facts," Cuomo told reporters, after discussing the situation with legislative leaders.

It was Cuomo's second media briefing on security issues in five days, activity that comes as he is ramping up his general election campaign against Republican Rob Astorino. The ability to command media attention through official duties is an advantage that incumbents almost always have over challengers.

Comment: Is the Gov. crying 'wolf' and putting it on NY's credit card? Is this a test of the public acceptance of authoritarian boots-on-the-ground surveillance? Or a ploy to get votes in the upcoming election? All three...? Don't question, obey even if it is unconstitutional, tightly control the masses, forget that they are tracking who you are, where you go, what you buy, programming what you think and fear...because they are "protecting you" (from speculation). Bigger agenda, anyone? Homemade ISIS terrorists over there...U.S. cities into lockdown over here. Sounds like Israeli mentality and manipulation.

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Black Magic

Syrian regime change remix: Operation Tomahawk the Caliph

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:59 UTC
US gun diplomacy on Syria
© Adam Zyglis
The Tomahawks are finally flying again - propelled by newspeak. 42 Tomahawks fired from a Sixth Fleet destroyer parked in Mare Nostrum, plus F-22s raising hell and Hellfires spouted by drones, that's a neat mini-Shock and Awe to honor Caliph Ibrahim, aka Abu Bakr al -Baghdadi, self-declared leader of Islamic State.

It's all so surgical. All targets - from "suspected" weapons depots to the mayor's mansion in Raqqah (the HQ of The Caliph's goons) and assorted checkpoints - were duly obliterated, along with "dozens of", perhaps 120, jihadis.

And praise those "over 40" (Samantha Power) or "over 50" (John Kerry) international allies in the coalition of the unwilling; America is never alone, although in this case mightily escorted, de facto, only by the usual Gulf petrodollar dictatorships and the realm of King Playstation, Jordan, all none too keen to engage in "kinetic activities".

Aseptic newspeak aside, no one has seen or heard a mighty Gulf Cooperation Council air force deployed to bomb Syria. After all the vassals are scared as hell to tell their own populations they are - once again - bombing a fellow Arab nation. As for Damascus, it meekly said it was "notified" by the Pentagon its own territory would be bombed. Nobody really knows what the Pentagon is exactly telling Damascus.

The Pentagon calls it just the beginning of a "sustained campaign" - code for Long War, which is one of the original denominations of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) anyway. And yes, for all practical purposes this is a coalition of one. Let's call it Operation Tomahawk The Caliph.

Comment: See also: US airstrikes on Syria are desperation incarnate

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Rocket

US airstrikes on Syria are desperation incarnate

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 24 Sep 2014 13:58 UTC
Image
© Unknown
The West was racing against the clock - attempting to justify war with Syria by allegedly "fighting" the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS) in Syrian territory before the world fully realized the West and its allies had in fact created ISIS in the first place and was to this day arming, funding, and directing them. In haste that can only be described as desperation bordering criminal insanity, the West announced that it has begun air and missile attacks on Syrian territory.

It alleges that it is attacking ISIS, however - and unlike its campaign in neighboring Iraq - the US in particular refuses to provide any details as to what it is actually doing in Syria.

Reuters would report in its article, "U.S., Arab partners launch first strikes on IS in Syria," that:
The United States and several Gulf Arab allies launched air and missile strikes on Islamic State strongholds in Syria on Tuesday, U.S. officials said, opening a new, far more complicated front in the battle against the militants.
"I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against (Islamic State) terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles," Rear Admiral John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.
It is these very "Arab partners" that are also on record, arming and funding terrorism along Syria's borders as well as backing terrorist organizations operating in Syria itself. Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in particular, have been providing money and cash, while the US CIA distributed it mainly along Turkey's border with Syria in the north, and Jordan's border with Syria to the south.


Comment: See: "Fighting" ISIL: Washington and company are part of the problem, not the solution


Despite years of rhetoric attempting to differentiate what the West calls "moderates" from known terrorist organizations including US State Department-listed foreign terrorist organizations Al Nusra, and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), it is clear that literally days before ISIS crossed into Iraq triggering the latest geopolitical crisis in the region, ISIS was fighting alongside so-called moderates in an attack on Syria's town of Kassab along the border with Turkey. Turkey, a NATO member, would even go as far as providing aircover for the attack which was in fact launched from Turkish territory.
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Bad Guys

Karzai's farewell speech: US didn't want peace in Afghanistan


RT
Tue, 23 Sep 2014 00:10 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Omar Sobhani
Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai punctuated on Tuesday his tumultuous 13-year relationship with the United States, alleging that America invaded Afghanistan in 2001 for "its own interests" and never really wanted peace in the region.

Karzai, the only Afghan president since the 2001 US-led invasion, said the United States only wanted war in Afghanistan "because of its own interests," and that Pakistan colludes with Washington to back perpetual violence in his country.

"If America and Pakistan really want it, peace will come to Afghanistan," Karzai said, according to AP."War in Afghanistan is based on the aims of foreigners. The war in Afghanistan is to the benefit of foreigners. But Afghans on both sides are the sacrificial lambs and victims of this war."

Karzai criticized neighboring Pakistan for the lasting Taliban-led insurgency while warning the incoming government to "be extra cautious in relations with the [United States] and the West," Reuters reported.

Comment: Parliamentary member Samem should've realized by now that any support coming from the international community, especially from the US, has resulted in nothing other than an increasing number of dead civilians caused by NATO and their Taliban allies. Former president Karzai hit the nail on the head: The purpose of the invasion was never to establish peace. It is therefore mind-boggling that despite this fact, president-'elect' Ghani has said to sign the 'security' agreement that would enable 10k American military 'advisers' to stay in Afghanistan next year. It is obvious that this National Unity Government is more interested in serving the Western warmongers, than serving the Afghan people and truly establishing stability in the country. With people like Ghani and Abdullah running the country, there is little hope left for Afghanistan.

See also:

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Passport

​Pepe Escobar: From Afghanistan to 'Syraq'

Pepe Escobar
RT
Tue, 23 Sep 2014 11:10 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Stringer
An Islamic State militant (L) stands next to residents as they hold pieces of wreckage from a Syrian war plane after it crashed in Raqqa, in northeast Syria September 16, 2014.
US Secretary of State Kerry brokered a deal in Afghanistan, installing a 'coalition' government, but couldn't come up with a credible coalition to bomb IS in Syria. So the Pentagon will do it alone to the applause of its Gulf 'petrodollar allies.'

This is a short tale of two coalitions.

Let's start with Afghanistan. The charade in Kabul goes by the name of "power-sharing agreement."

You got an election problem? Call John Kerry. That's right; this "agreement" was brokered by none other than the US Secretary of State, who shoved the embarrassing issue of a tainted democratic election under an Afghan carpet.

It came to the point that a UN representative, Jan Kubish, virtually ordered the Afghan electoral commission not to release vote numbers.

And this is while the UN itself had been monitoring an audit and a recount of approximately 8 million votes.

The predictable "senior US officials" spun that the vote result was "transparent." But still, no numbers.

So now we have - essentially appointed by Washington - former Finance Minister and World Bank official Ashraf Ghani as President, and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah as "Chief Executive", a new post.

And this after Abdullah insistently claimed the vote results were no less than a monster fraud. US "Think Tank-land," unfazed, has called it a "temporary fix."
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Bomb

Obama invents a dangerous new legal theory to justify bombing of Syria

Robert Parry
consortiumnews.com
Tue, 23 Sep 2014 09:55 UTC
The U.S. government likes international law when it serves Washington's purposes, but not when it constrains U.S. desires to use military force. Then, the rules are bent, ignored or subjected to novel lawyering, as President Obama is doing with airstrikes into Syria.
Image
© Reuters / Abdalghne Karoof
Residents inspect damaged buildings in what activists say was a U.S. strike, in Kfredrian, Idlib province September 23, 2014
The Obama administration has devised an extraordinary legal justification for carrying out bombing attacks inside Syria: that the United States and its Persian Gulf allies have the right to defend Iraq against the Islamic State because the Syrian government is unable to stop the cross-border terror group.

"The Syrian regime has shown that it cannot and will not confront these safe havens effectively itself," said the U.S. letter delivered by Ambassador Samantha Power to United Nations officials. "Accordingly, the United States has initiated necessary and proportionate military actions in Syria in order to eliminate the ongoing ISIL [Islamic State] threat to Iraq, including by protecting Iraqi citizens from further attacks and by enabling Iraqi forces to regain control of Iraq's borders."


Comment: Contrary to the usual twisting of reality by Ambassador Power, the Syrian government has been confronting ISIL.

How about arming Syria? The Syrian Arab Army is already fighting ISIS


Yet, beyond the danger to world order if such an expansive theory is embraced by the international community (does anyone remember how World War One got started?), there is the hypocrisy of the U.S. government and many of those same Gulf allies arming, training and funding Syrian rebels for the purpose of preventing the Syrian military from controlling its territory and then citing that lack of control as the rationale to ignore Syria's sovereignty.

In other words, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and other enemies of Syria covertly backed the rebels inside Syria and watched as many of them - including thousands of the U.S.-preferred "moderates" - took their newly acquired military skills to al-Qaeda affiliates and other terrorist organizations. Then, the U.S. and its allies have the audacity to point to the existence of those terror groups inside Syria as a rationale for flying bombing raids into Syria.

Another alarming part of the U.S. legal theory is that among this new "coalition of the willing" - the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan - only Jordan shares a border with Syria. So, this novel principle would mean that distant countries have the right to destabilize a country from afar and then claim the destabilization justifies mounting military attacks inside that country.
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Red Flag

Time to shed the colonial past: New Zealand PM wants to cut Britain's Union Jack out of national flag


RT
Wed, 24 Sep 2014 09:45 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Heino Kalis
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who just won a third term in office, wants to drop the Union Jack from his country's flag. He plans to hold a referendum in 2015, which could lead to the creation of a new flag for the nation.

Just days after sealing a third three-year term as the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key is already looking to move away from the country's colonial past. The head of state wants to hold a referendum in 2015 to see if the public wants to abolish the 122 year-old symbol, which has the Union Jack in the left corner and four stars which symbolize the Southern Cross constellation

"I want to get on with it. To me, I'd like to do it in 2015," said Key, referring to the project of remaking the country's flag. "I'd like to complete the whole process next year. I don't think it's one of those things we should hang around with forever," the Washington Post quoted him saying.
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Target

Russia tests Iskander-M missiles during large-scale drill


RT
Mon, 22 Sep 2014 22:45 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Grigoriy Sisoev
Iskander-M ballistic missile complexes
Russia has successfully fired Iskander-M missiles during Vostok-2014 maneuvers in the Far East. It was the first launch of its kind for the Eastern Military District.

Early on Saturday, the Iskander-M missile brigade was ordered to move to the firing pad in the remote woodlands of the Jewish Autonomous Region. The missile strike eliminated all training targets.

The aim of the exercise is to check the coordination between staff and commanders of different combat arms, as well as improve the command and control of troops while performing advanced tasks.

Comment: The latest chaotic developments on the world stage, with the West using "pivot points" to attempt to advance its psychopathic agenda, are proceeding alongside and aimed against the advances of Russia and a multi-polar world.

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War Whore

Justifying their total failure? Ukraine defense minister allegedly claims 'Russia used nukes'


RT
Mon, 22 Sep 2014 22:59 UTC
Image
© Wikipedia
A reported claim by Ukraine's Defense minister that Russia used tactical nuclear weapons against his troops sparked sarcastic comments from Moscow and criticism from the rival Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

The allegations, by Col. Gen. Valery Geletey, were first reported by Roman Bochkala, one of the Ukrainian journalists accompanying the minister in his recent trip to Poland.

"So Russia did use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukrainian troops," the journalist wrote on his Facebook page, citing Geletey's words.

The nuclear weapons in question are rounds for 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled mortars. The journalist reported the minister as saying that Russia supplied some of those to rebel forces and used at least two 3-kiloton nuclear rounds in the battle for Lugansk airport.

"If it were not for the Tyulpans, we could have been holding the airport for months and nobody would have ousted us from it," the general was cited as saying.

Comment: Whether or not the Defense Minister stated that 'Russia used nukes' the real war criminals are those psychopaths in charge in Kiev, and those in charge of them: Remember Odessa and MH17.



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Arrow Down

Students and teachers protest in Colorado after proposal to censor "Civil Disobedience Topics" from history

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Wed, 24 Sep 2014 01:14 UTC
Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.

- Henry David Thoreau in Civil Disobedience (1849)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

- Frederick Douglass
Students
© Jesse A. Paul/The Denver Post
Students from Evergreen High School meet with Jefferson County Schools officials over their concerns about advanced placement history curriculum, Monday, September 22, 2014.
Civil disobedience is as American as apple pie. In fact, one of the most memorable moments in the formation of the republic was the Boston Tea Party, a much celebrated and historic act of civil disobedience.

From colonists dressed as Native Americans dumping East India Company tea into the Boston Harbor, to Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. From Rosa Parks, to Martin Luther King Jr., civil disobedience has been a significant part of what has made these United States free, and is a tactic that should be elevated and encouraged, rather than censored and demonized.
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