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British celebrity icon Jimmy Savile sexually abused up to a thousand children on BBC premises

Daniel Boffey
The Observer
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 07:44 UTC
Image

Birds of a feather...
The BBC will be plunged into a major crisis with the publication of a damning review, expected next month, that will reveal its staff turned a blind eye to the rape and sexual assault of up to 1,000 girls and boys by Jimmy Savile in the corporation's changing rooms and studios.

Dame Janet Smith, a former court of appeal judge, who previously led the inquiry into the murders by Dr Harold Shipman, will say in her report that the true number of victims of Savile's sexual proclivities may never be known but that his behaviour had been recognised by BBC executives who took no action.

Smith's investigations, which followed the Pollard inquiry into why the BBC shelved a Newsnight programme about Savile, will send shockwaves through the corporation.

A source close to the inquiry told the Observer: "The numbers are shocking. Many hundreds and potentially up to 1,000 people were victims of Savile when he was representing the corporation. The report will overshadow Pollard. It will go right to the heart of how Savile was able to get away with the most heinous of crimes under the very noses of BBC staff for more than 40 years."

Comment: Then there are all the hospitals, schools, orphanages, and sports facilities Savile was granted free access to around the UK...

The final toll could run into many thousands.

      Read More...
Eye 1

Liar, liar: 4 questionable claims Obama has made on NSA surveillance

Kara Brandeisky
Pro Publica
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 06:00 UTC
Obama
© Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
In preparation for President Obama's speech on surveillance policy today, here are some of the misleading statements he has made about the NSA
Today President Obama plans to announce some reportedly limited reforms to National Security Agency surveillance programs.

Since the first disclosures based on documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Obama has offered his own defenses of the programs. But not all of the president's claims have stood up to scrutiny. Here are some of the misleading assertions he has made.

1. There have been no abuses.
And I think it's important to note that in all the reviews of this program [Section 215] that have been done, in fact, there have not been actual instances where it's been alleged that the NSA in some ways acted inappropriately in the use of this data ... There had not been evidence and there continues not to be evidence that the particular program had been abused in how it was used. -- Dec. 20, 2013
At press conferences in June, August and December, Obama made assurances that two types of bulk surveillance had not been misused. In fact, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has reprimanded the NSA for abuses both in warrantless surveillance targeting people abroad, and in bulk domestic phone records collection.

In 2011, the FISA Court found that for three years, the NSA had been collecting tens of thousands of domestic emails and other communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The court ordered the NSA to do more to filter out those communications. In a footnote, Judge John D. Bates also chastised the NSA for repeatedly misleading the court about the extent of its surveillance. In 2009 - weeks after Obama took office - the court concluded the procedures designed to protect the privacy of American phone records had been "so frequently and systemically violated that it can fairly be said that this critical element of the overall ... regime has never functioned effectively."
      Read More...
Stormtrooper

Panicked lawmakers mull firing squad executions as drug shortage worsens


RT
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 05:32 UTC
Execution chamber
© Reuters / Trent Nelson-Salt Lake Tribune
The execution chamber at the Utah State Prison is seen after Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by a firing squad in Draper June 18, 2010.
Politicians in at least two US states where authorities have been unable to obtain lethal injection drugs have admitted they would be open to executing prisoners via firing squad, resurrecting a method that has disappeared in much of the world.

European manufacturers that have traditionally supplied the drugs used to painlessly execute prisoners have stonewalled, boycotting sales of the drug on a moral basis. Officials in the states where capital punishment is employed have turned to pharmacies to concoct untested mixes of existing drugs in an attempt to make a cocktail that will end a convict's life.

The method of using a sedative and painkiller combination is now coming under scrutiny, however, after it caused a convicted rapist and murderer in Ohio to gasp for air and convulse violently during his final moments. It was the first time in the a two-drug method has been used in the US and it instantly became a rallying cry for death penalty opponents who say the inmate suffered from cruel and unusual punishment.

Proposed legislation in Missouri seeks to correct this problem by carrying out the death penalty with a firing squad.
      Read More...
Flashlight

New analysis from Massachusetts Institute of Technology of rocket used in Syria chemical attack undercuts U.S. claims

Matthew Schofield
McClatchy DC
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:38 UTC
Syrian chemical attack analysis
© MCT
A series of revelations about the rocket believed to have delivered poison sarin gas to a Damascus suburb last summer are challenging American intelligence assumptions about that attack and suggest that the case U.S. officials initially made for retaliatory military action was flawed.

A team of security and arms experts, meeting this week in Washington to discuss the matter, has concluded that the range of the rocket that delivered sarin in the largest attack that night was too short for the device to have been fired from the Syrian government positions where the Obama administration insists they originated.

Separately, international weapons experts are puzzling over why the rocket in question - an improvised 330mm to 350mm rocket equipped with a large receptacle on its nose to hold chemicals - reportedly did not appear in the Syrian government's declaration of its arsenal to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and apparently was not uncovered by OPCW inspectors who believe they've destroyed Syria's ability to deliver a chemical attack.

Comment: So the war hawks just blame Assad for the fact that the type of rocket used in the attack was not on the list of items in Syrian government possession. The most likely answer is that he doesn't have that type of rocket and that is was fired by rebels from rebel held areas, as the evidence appears to point to. This is also what the Russians said all along.

      Read More...
War Whore

U.S. public sez: We don't want AIPAC's 'Path to War'

Sarah Lazare
Common Dreams
Tue, 14 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
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© Bill Hughes
A congressional drive for new sanctions on Iran, backed by the lobbying muscle of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, is meeting growing push-back from a public that does not want another war.

We have an opportunity to stand up and say we're not going to support legislation that will only move us towards war," said Greg Broseus, Chicago-based member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, in an interview with Common Dreams. "The goal now is to stop another war before it even starts."
      Read More...
Dollars

Who Read the 1,582-Page $1.1Trillion Spending Bill?

Barbara Boland
CNS News
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 17:20 UTC
When asked whether he read the 1,528-page,
Image
© Unknown
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). (AP)
$1.1 trillion government spending bill before he voted for it yesterday, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said, "Nobody did!"

On Capitol Hill on Thursday, CNSNews.com asked Blumenauer: "The omnibus bill yesterday, it was 1,582 pages, did you have a chance to read all the pages before voting on it?"

Blumenauer laughed and said: "Nobody did!"

"Nobody did?" said the CNSNews.com reporter.


Comment: Of the Omnibus Bill - did Rep. Connolly read 1,582-Pg. $1.1T Bill 'I'm Not Going to Dignify That Question With an Answer'. Similar question put to Rep. Mark Meadows: Didn't 'Personally' Read All 1,582 Pg. Spending Bill -- Voted No.

"Nope," said Blumenauer.
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Hardhat

U.S. State in the worst fiscal condition is...


The Blaze
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 18:45 UTC
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[Editor's note: The following is a cross post that originally appeared on CNBC.com]:

A new study on the fiscal condition of the 50 states ranks New Jersey dead last, citing revenue shortfalls, budget practices and high levels of debt .

The healthiest states, on the other hand, are those benefiting from the domestic energy boom, including Alaska and the Dakotas.

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University released the study earlier this week. The center counts among its key backers the Koch family, and conservative financier Charles Koch sits on the center's board.
      Read More...
Stormtrooper

Abu Ghraib 2.0? Horrifying images of US Marines burning Iraqis prompt military investigation


RT.com
Wed, 15 Jan 2014 15:23 UTC
Abu Ghraib 3
© Agence France-Presse
This handout photo from SBS TV received 15 February, 2006 shows a hooded prisoner allegedly being tortured at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail supposely during interrogation by US soldiers in Baghdad in 2004
The Pentagon confirmed early Wednesday that a formal investigation has been launched after photographs began to surface purportedly showing US troops burning the remains of dead Iraqis.

Those images were published Wednesday morning by website TMZ, which claims to have recently come into possession of 41 photos in all that they believe to have been taken in Fallujah sometime in 2004 amid the US-led Iraq occupation.

The website has only published eight of the images, including ones in which men appearing to be US Marines are seen dousing the dead with chemicals and setting them ablaze. TMZ is withholding the majority of the photographs, however, because many are simply "too gruesome," they claim, including one alleged to be in their possession showing a human body being devoured by dogs and another covered in flies.

Comment: Note that when those in high posts of government murder and pillage sovereign counties for no reason at all and are able to get away with it, it creates precedence and gives permission for such perversions to spread, especially by individuals who lack a human conscience.

      Read More...
Dollar

Congress just authorized $1.1 trillion in spending ... and nobody read the bill

Kim Paxton
Freedom Outpost
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 14:52 UTC
Dirty Money
© Freedom Outpost
We are so lucky to live in a country where we have representation. Think about it - we all get to choose someone to go to Washington DC and look out for our best interests. We all have a voice, and we can all rest assured that those elected officials will diligently work for us, their constituents.

Please note my sarcasm.

It's triggered by the recent spending bill passed by Congress - all 1, 582 pages of it.

Wouldn't you think that before authorizing something so massive that our members of Congress would have read it? Or at the very least, have hired someone to read it and summarize it for them?

Nope.
      Read More...
Cow

Dairy and meat prices hit record levels in 2013 as global food prices remain highest for third year running

Suzie Horne
Farmers Weekly
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 08:29 UTC
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World food prices were at their third highest in 2013, with dairy and meat values hitting record levels, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Its food price index averaged 209.9 points for the year, a slight fall on 2012 levels, but well below the 2011 peak of 230.1.

"Last month, the FAO food price index remained elevated as strong demand for certain high-protein foods continued to drive up prices overall, countering falling prices of major food crops after last year's abundant harvests," said FAO economist Abdolreza Abbassian.

The index measures the prices of five major food commodities on international markets: cereals, dairy products, meat, sugar and vegetable oils. Large supplies pushed down international prices of cereals (apart from rice prices), oils and sugar. Overall, in 2013, sugar prices were 18% lower than in 2012, while the dairy index averaged 243 points - its highest ever annual value.
      Read More...
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