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Scandal: BBC's six-year cover-up of secret 'green propaganda' training for top executives

Anthony Watts
WattsUpWithThat
Sun, 12 Jan 2014 15:39 UTC
BBC Scandal
© WattsUpWithThat

David Rose of the Mail on Sunday tears the BBC a new one, thanks to an "amateur climate blogger".
  • Pensioner forces BBC to lift veil on 2006 eco-seminar to top executives
  • Papers reveal influence of top green campaigners including Greenpeace
  • Then-head of news Helen Boaden said it impacted a 'broad range of output'
  • Yet BBC has spent more than £20,000 in legal fees trying to keep it secret
The BBC has spent tens of thousands of pounds over six years trying to keep secret an extraordinary 'eco' conference which has shaped its coverage of global warming, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The controversial seminar was run by a body set up by the BBC's own environment analyst Roger Harrabin and funded via a £67,000 grant from the then Labour government, which hoped to see its 'line' on climate change and other Third World issues promoted in BBC reporting.

At the event, in 2006, green activists and scientists - one of whom believes climate change is a bigger danger than global nuclear war - lectured 28 of the Corporation's most senior executives.

Then director of television Jana Bennett opened the seminar by telling the executives to ask themselves: 'How do you plan and run a city that is going to be submerged?' And she asked them to consider if climate change laboratories might offer material for a thriller.
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Camera

More DHS-funded police surveillance cameras; No drop in crime

Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
New American
Sat, 11 Jan 2014 11:58 UTC
Surveillance Camera
© New American

Thousands of surveillance cameras are showing up in cities across the country without a corresponding reduction in crime. Citizens are taking notice of this fact of the federal takeover of local police, and they are speaking out.

On January 8, for example, the Texas Civil Rights Project-Houston issued a statement on its Facebook page criticizing their city's participation in the construction of the surveillance state.

"As a community, we need to start a serious dialogue about the level of governmental intrusion in our daily lives that government foists upon us without our consent," declared Amin Alehashem, the group's regional director. "Government has no need to know with whom we associate, walk on the streets, attend meetings, worship, or go to dinner."

Local leaders in Houston, like those in so many other cities across the country, have approved the installation of new surveillance cameras. These 180 new cameras bring to nearly 1,000 the number of known surveillance cameras in the country's fourth largest city.

The eye of the government will reportedly cover the city's "public areas around downtown, stadiums and the theater district."

Local CBS affiliate KHOU reports on its website that Houston police chief Charles McClelland believes the city needs the nearly 1,000 cameras to "provide necessary police coverage."

And just where did Houston get the money to buy these new cameras? There's no provision for the expense in the mayor's Fiscal Year 2014 budget, so the city's not paying for these "critical" services so necessary for the "safety" of its citizens. Department of Homeland Security to the rescue!
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Bad Guys

GWB scandal: 5 reasons Chris Christie might be lying

Amy Punt
Salon
Sat, 11 Jan 2014 07:15 UTC
Chris Christie
© AP/Mel Evans
Chris Christie
"I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said during his press conference on Jan. 9 regarding the George Washington Bridge scandal. "I am who I am, but I am not a bully." While he worked hard in the nearly two-hour press conference to dispel any rumors of his involvement, many have already noted that Christie's speech was more remarkable for the questions it didn't answer than for the ones it did.

Left looming is: How could a man like Christie not know that his deputy chief of staff ordered lane closures on the George Washington Bridge? And how does a former U.S. Attorney, with his eye on a 2016 presidential campaign, not ask follow-up questions when told the closures were a result of a traffic test?

How indeed?

Most people feel it's relatively easy to spot a liar, and judging by the media coverage on this scandal, many people feel that Christie is lying, but without a smoking gun, i.e. damning emails or personal testimony from his staff or the Port Authority, it's hard to prove.

But his press conference itself may offer some insights. In "Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception," author Pamela Meyer asserts that only when we step back from someone's words to view the whole picture can we begin to see the combination of indicators that will help us successfully identify a liar. She writes:
After listening closely to the details of someone's speech, take a mental step back to consider what the combination of his facial expressions, body language, and verbal clues says about his attitude toward being questioned. Attitude is a crucial indicator.

Is the subject interested in helping you solve a problem or answer a question? Is he forthright or evasive? How confidently does he speak? A deceptive person might be guarded and hesitant to firmly acknowledge or deny anything you suggest about his actions or behavior. A truthful person will cooperate from the start and will signal that he is on your side.
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Star of David

No tears over Sharon's death in Sabra-Shatila camps


Alakhbar English
Sat, 11 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Anwar Amro / AFP
Palestinian refugees living in the the Shatila refugee camp in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Abu Jamal still remembers when Lebanese militiamen allied to Israel woke him and his family early one September morning more than three decades ago and dragged them out into the street.

The gunmen forced him and other Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps to line up, separated the men and women, and dragged young men from the line to be killed. Abu Jamal's son, 19 at the time, was among those they chose.

"He was in his last year of school," said Abu Jamal, who wears a button with his son's picture on his sweater and asked that his full name not be used. "He never saw his diploma."

Israeli troops did not intervene during the bloodshed, which went down as one of the worst atrocities of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. Ariel Sharon, who died on Saturday, was defense minister at the time and many Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila still blame him for the killings.

Over three days, beginning on September 16, 1982, around 2,000 men, women and children were massacred in Sabra and Shatila on the southern outskirts of Beirut. Some 500 more simply vanished without a trace. Israel had invaded Lebanon three months before, and the brutal killings, the work of Israel's Lebanese Phalangist allies, were carried out as Israeli troops surrounded the camps.
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Eye 1

20 British private schools face ruinous child sex abuse claims


Sunday Times
Sun, 12 Jan 2014 10:23 UTC
Image

Inhuman monster, Jimmy Savile, but many more like him, in positions of power, continue to act with impunity.
More than 20 schools face crippling compensation claims from dozens of child sex abuse victims who have come forward in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

They include some of the country's most expensive fee-paying schools and institutions attended by Nick Clegg, Boris Johnson and Tony Blair.

The allegations range from rape to fondling, and date from the 1950s to the 1990s

One firm, Pannone, is acting for former pupils at a dozen prep boarding schools in England, said lawyer Alan Collins.
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Bad Guys

West Virginia: Freedom Industries has ties to Koch Brothers

dharmafarmer
Daily Kos
Sun, 12 Jan 2014 04:59 UTC
Very briefly ...

If news reports have left you with the impression that Freedom Industries - the company that has contaminated the water supply serving 300,000 people (and who knows how much wildlife) in nine West Virginia counties - is a rinky-dink Charleston operation, that might be because the media isn't mentioning its influential ties.

In 2008, Freedom Industries was specially selected by Georgia-Pacific Chemicals as a distributor of G-P's Talon brand mining reagents for West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Minnesota, Kentucky and Michigan.

Georgia-Pacific Chemicals is, of course, a subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific, which was acquired by Koch Industries in 2005.
"We are excited to offer our customers inventive products like Talon that push past the status quo in coal recovery to bring profit and productivity benefits to mining preparation plants," said Joshua Herzing, director of business development for Freedom Industries. "Georgia Pacific's longstanding technical expertise and R&D capabilities combined with the industry knowledge, skill and reputation of Freedom Industries will provide an excellent platform for growth and development of new technology to meet existing and future customer demands. We are proud to be part of Georgia-Pacific's strategy as a global supplier of mining reagents in multiple market segments."
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Oscar

Putin named international person of the Year by The Times


Ria Novosti
Mon, 30 Dec 2013 16:34 UTC
putin
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been named International Person of the Year by Britain's The Times newspaper for succeeding in his ambition of bringing Moscow back to the international top table.

The paper said Putin, 61, a judo black belt, has hip-flipped US President Barack Obama on the Syrian crisis, wrestled the EU to the ground on Ukraine, tripped up the opposition at home and rescued weaker team players such as President Assad of Syria and Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, who was given asylum in Russia.
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Brick Wall

China blocks the Guardian

Jonathan Kaiman
The Guardian
Wed, 08 Jan 2014 07:07 UTC
Image
© How Hwee Young
Internet users in Beijing
Some attempts to access the Guardian site in Beijing fail, but no clear reason for China's leadership to take issue with recent content

The Guardian's website has been partially blocked in China, according to a censorship-tracking website.

The website was first blocked on Tuesday, according to the website greatfire.org. Numerous attempts to access the site from multiple browsers, devices and locations across Beijing failed without the aid of firewall-circumventing software. As of Wednesday afternoon local time, the Guardian's mobile and iPad apps were still uncensored.

While users around the country have reported problems, some of those commenting below this story say they reached it without difficulty; one, using the name zangdook, said the block "comes and goes". Other users were able to access the website front page briefly but could not reload it moments later and could not reach other sections.

China's leadership is known to block websites that it deems a threat - Bloomberg and the New York Times have been blocked since 2012, when they published lengthy investigations revealing the vast wealth accumulated by the families of senior leaders.

China's foreign ministry brushed off a question about the block at a regular press briefing on Wednesday. "This is the first time I have heard of this," said ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, according to Reuters. "I don't understand the situation. You can inquire with China's relevant department."
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Stormtrooper

French comedian Dieudonne holds press conference, accepts ban of his show 'The Wall', announces new show about French-African issues, government immediately bans it without having seen the material


BBC
Sat, 11 Jan 2014 21:33 UTC
Image

Dieudonne arrived in costume for a news conference to announce his new show on Africa and black issues. Didn't matter, it was banned anyway.
The French comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, who has convictions for anti-Semitic hate speech, has dropped a controversial show after it was banned.

He told reporters in Paris he would no longer perform The Wall, after France's highest court upheld a ban on the opening night of his tour on Thursday.

Citing "blatant political interference", he said he wanted to perform a new show devoted to Africa.

This new show has already been banned by the authorities in Paris.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls is seeking to keep Dieudonne kept off all stages in France, condemning the comic's "mechanics of hate".
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Padlock

Police State: Insane Clown Posse defends fans with F.B.I. lawsuit

David Itzkoff
The New York Times
Wed, 08 Jan 2014 18:09 UTC
Image
© Marcus Yam for The New York Times
The Insane Clown Posse during a 2011 performance at Gramercy Theater in New York.
The Michigan rap group Insane Clown Posse filed suit on Wednesday against the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, saying that the United States government had made the "unwarranted and unlawful decision" to classify fans of the band as criminal gang members, leading to their harassment by law enforcement and causing them "significant harm."

The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Detroit by lawyers for the band and for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. Plaintiffs include the Insane Clown Posse founders Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler, who perform as Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, and whose fans call themselves Juggalos.

Also listed as plaintiffs are four Juggalos from Nevada, California, North Carolina and Iowa, who offered details of incidents in which they said they had been subjected to police harassment or other punishments for identifying with Insane Clown Posse.

Brandon Bradley, from Citrus Heights, Calif., and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said at a news conference in Detroit on Wednesday that he had been stopped and questioned by police on several occasions because he wore Juggalo tattoos and clothing. He said that after a lifetime of feeling like an outsider, the music of Insane Clown Posse "told me I wasn't alone."


Comment: This is crazy to define a group of musical fans as a criminal gang. It's a classic example of expanding the scope of a law that at first glance seems reasonable: "Gangs are bad, there should be a law that helps police crack down on gangs," etc. For gangs, you could substitute "terrorists" and the same process applies. Now they're going after people who follow a band. Of course, to test this, they picked an easy target. The Insane Clown Posse's lyrics are deliberately offensive and frightening, albeit in a kind of silly way, and the working class white kids who follow them (Juggalos) will look unsavory to the public. But given the broad definition applied here, what's next? People who follow Phish? Even Jimmy Buffet? No doubt some laws are broken by those fans, too.

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