Puppet Masters

French MP says Ukraine should be sanctioned for failure to implement Minsk agreements

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Fri, 03 Jun 2016 15:21 UTC

Thierry Mariani

French lawmaker Thierry Mariani says sanctions should be imposed against Ukraine its failure to implement a single reform in the Minsk accords.

Some lawmakers in Europe are logical, fact driven people. Take French lawmaker Thierry Mariani. Here is a man who has actually read the Minsk 2 Agreement, and has come to the undeniable conclusion that sanctions must be placed on Ukraine for not adhering to one single part of the accord it signed.

Fact: Russia is not mentioned once in the Minsk 2 Agreement and is not a party to its terms.

Comment: Not to mention for their atrocious human rights record: UN slams Ukraine for systemic torture, intimidation, rampant human rights abuses

Which Clinton Aide Arranged the Private Email Server? Eight former State Dept employees 'decline' interviews with Inspector General

Charles S. Clark
Government Executive
Fri, 03 Jun 2016 14:57 UTC

When the State Department watchdog on May 25 released a damning report on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's lapses in email management, the footnotes added a new wrinkle to the story that could force other shoes to drop in the 2016 presidential campaign.

"In addition to Secretary Clinton, eight former Department employees declined OIG requests for interviews," Inspector General Steve Linick wrote after itemizing by title the dozens of current and former State employees who did cooperate with investigators in the highly scrutinized controversy. Two additional individuals did not respond to the IG's requests.

Still unanswered is the question of which State Department specialists in information technology, records management and classification law OK'd the unusual arrangement. The IG found no evidence that Clinton had sought permission for the private server, though Clinton has repeatedly said that the arrangement "was permitted."

As it happens, many of those who declined to talk to the IG have been or soon will be deposed by the FBI, which is probing possible mishandling of classified information at State, as well as lawyers for Judicial Watch, the conservative legal transparency group that has won rulings from two judges allowing interviews with Clinton associates.

Government Executive has assembled profiles of 12 current or former aides and associates with Clinton who have or will be interviewed. (Neither the IG staff nor State press officers would identify the individuals beyond their titles, but public records and Judicial Watch documents provide a solid selection.)

UN slams Ukraine for systemic torture, intimidation, rampant human rights abuses

RT
Fri, 03 Jun 2016 15:07 UTC

Ukraine's secret service, the SBU, systematically uses torture, ill-treatment and intimidation, also running secret detention centers, the UN human rights body says. It describes spiraling violence and abuse on either side of the two-year conflict.

The UN has documented "hundreds of cases" of illegal detention, torture, summary executions and ill-treatment of captives both by Ukrainian government and pro-Russian armed groups in the east, Ivan Simonovic, UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, told the Times in an interview on Friday.

He said the UN documents for the first time expose the "scale and brutality" of Ukraine's government-run torture program as well as existence of five secret detention centers.

Comment: There have been reports of torture and extrajudicial killings since the start of the conflict from both sides. The vast weight of them, however, condemn the Ukrainian side of the conflict. The SBU, the volunteer neo-Nazi battalions, and others fighting on Kiev's side, regularly target not only militiamen, but also civilians. They torture and kill people they accuse of having "separatist" views, even if they have not taken part in the fighting. Remember, it's Kiev that invaded the Donbass, shelling civilians, blockading the Russian population there and killing indiscriminately. Any crimes committed by the DPR and LPR militias have been against illegal invaders, child-murderers, rapists, and psychopathic mercenaries. That may not excuse them legally, but it sure puts things into perspective.

Snowden: GCHQ and NSA regularly intercept Brit MPs' emails

RT
Fri, 03 Jun 2016 12:16 UTC

American spies and the UK's listening post GCHQ regularly intercept the emails of British MPs and peers, including privileged correspondence between parliamentarians and their constituents. The US National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly has access to intercepted emails sent and received by all MPs and peers through Parliament's Microsoft computer system, Office 365. Intelligence agency GCHQ on the other hand, allegedly accesses the data when it leaves UK's borders on its way to Microsoft's data centers in Dublin and the Netherlands.

The revelations have been made public through an investigation by Computer Weekly, based on leaked documents by the now-exiled former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

GCHQ has harvested details of all parliamentary emails, including sender, recipient and subject matter, for at least three years using its Tempora bulk interception system, according to Computer Weekly. The magazine reports documents released by Snowden reveal how GCHQ is also able to scan the content of parliamentary emails for keywords through a cyber defense network connected to spam-filtering software.

US spy agency the NSA allegedly uses Microsoft's cloud system, Office 365, to access parliamentary emails and documents. The Prism system is able to intercept the communications after secret directives were given to Microsoft under controversial surveillance laws, passed by Congress in 2008. The directives came into force at the same time Microsoft sold its cloud data system to Parliament.

Comment: The same and worse applies to the common man. If the collected data on MPs were used knowingly as a legitimate oversight to keep governments within legal boundaries and honest with their constituents, then it would be very useful. Instead, parliament and congress members are up in arms over the invasive spy techniques and their loss of privacy, while the rest of us will never reclaim the rights and liberties of which our governments let toss asunder. Ultimate power in the hands of the few, for the few...more clouds on the horizon.

Turkish, Israeli reconciliation deal 'very close'

Sputnik
Fri, 03 Jun 2016 00:48 UTC

After six times of tensions, Israel and Turkey may finally reach a reconciliation agreement that would boost bilateral cooperation in the spheres of tourism, energy and construction. Tel Aviv and Ankara are "very close" to reaching a reconciliation agreement, after almost six years of tensions, Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday.

"This agreement is significant for Israel from a national security perspective, and its economic significance is far reaching and has ramifications in the spheres of tourism and energy, and has the potential of influencing the construction sector as well... The agreements between us and the Turks are ready in almost all aspects," Gallant said, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post.

According to the minister, Turkish and Israeli officials are expected to meet again next week to try to conclude the final accord. He added that Israel had "many enemies," but did not want more.

Relations between Israel and Turkey deteriorated after the Freedom Flotilla incident in 2010, when a convoy of six ships, including one under Turkey's flag, tried to approach the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and activists on board. The flotilla was blocked and stormed by Israeli forces, resulting in eight Turkish citizens being killed. Turkey responded by expelling the Israeli ambassador from the country, recalling its ambassador from Israel and demanding a formal apology from Israel, as well as compensation for the victims' families.

In late March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that his country was ready to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. The following month, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that the bilateral talks on normalizing the relations reached certain progress.

Comment: Israel and Turkey...a match (figuratively and literally). Considering Netanyahu and Erdogan are the pathological bookends of hate and genocide, this increase in collaboration doubles the trouble for all territories caught in between.

Humanity still in the trenches... 100 years on

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 30 May 2016 00:00 UTC

This year marks the 100th anniversary of two of the biggest military slaughters in history - the battles of the Somme and Verdun, both fought during the First World War. Shockingly, when we survey the warmongering mentality today of US-led NATO powers one may deduce that not much has changed fundamentally. We see the same murderous squander of human potential by an unaccountable elite.

During the Somme and Verdun campaigns, upwards of two million casualties were suffered on all sides by the British and French armies in trench warfare with their German enemy. The Somme was the deadliest battle of the entire war, pitched between July and November 1916, while Verdun was the longest running, from February until December in the same year.

For the British army the opening day of the Somme remains its worst day in martial history, incurring some 60,000 casualties and losses in a matter of hours.

The First World War, from 1914 to 1918, which was waged mainly on French territory and pitted major European powers, including Russia, against one another, resulted in a total death toll of 17 million, of which the majority - 11 million - were military.

'Mental torture': Gitmo inmate testifies against guards at US prison center

RT
Fri, 03 Jun 2016 14:46 UTC

© DoD / 1st Lt. Sarah Cleveland / Reuters
S Navy guards escort a detainee through Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay naval base.

A Somali detainee at Guantánamo Bay has accused guards at the high-security Camp 7 of using "mental torture" against inmates. He testified as a witness in a case against inhumane treatment at the US facility in Cuba, backing up claims by another inmate.

"They have mental torturing in the Camp 7," Guleed Hassan Dourad said at a pretrial hearing for Yemeni defendant Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, according to Reuters.

Guleed described vibrations in his cell floor, a constant "stinky smell" and noises that sounded "like someone on the roof... hitting hammer."

"I experienced noises, smells, and the vibrations [in the cell]...That's what made me come here [to court] to testify that we have mental torture in Camp 7," Sputnik news agency cited him as saying.

Prosecutor Edward Ryan has accused Guleed of lying and questioned his disciplinary record.

"Do you remember the time you spit out a food tray slot at a guard?" asked Ryan. "Yes, I did," Guleed replied. "If you were there in the camp, you would do the same."

Guleed has been held at Guantánamo for nine years and nine months, but has never been charged. The Somali national spent most of that time at Camp 7, a high-security unit holding CIA-captured prisoners, where he was moved in 2006. The unit is run by a secret US Army unit called Task Force Platinum and has been accused of abuse and torture against inmates.

Comment: The CIA is trying stymie any investigation into its activities in every way possible. The agency is rotten to the core.

Carter warns China that US will remain most powerful military

PressTV
Sat, 04 Jun 2016 12:56 UTC

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has warned China that the United States will remain the most powerful military and the main guarantor of regional security, while offering closer cooperation with Beijing to establish a "principled security network" across the Asia Pacific.

In a speech to an international security forum in Singapore, Carter criticized China for unnerving its neighbors with expansive moves to build land features in the South China Sea.

"There is growing anxiety in this region, and in this room, about China's activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the region's airspace," he said.

Comment: Anxiety because US world dominance is being challenged perhaps?

"Indeed, in the South China Sea, China has taken some expansive and unprecedented actions, that have generated concerns about China's strategic intentions," he added.

The Pentagon chief also tried to allay concerns in Asia about US staying power, describing the US approach to the region as "one of commitment, strength and inclusion."

Comment: The US doesn't want to be left out of the Asia Pacific trade party.

Lobbyists paid $2.1 million by New York Catholic Church to block child sex-abuse law reform

Brendan O'Connor
Gawker
Fri, 03 Jun 2016 14:05 UTC

Governor Andrew Cuomo and Cardinal Timothy Dolan

From 2007 to the end of 2015, the New York Daily News reports, the New York Catholic Conference, led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, paid top Albany lobbyists more than $2.1 million to help block legislation, including the Child Victims Act, that would make it easier for victims of child sex abuse to seek justice.

If passed, the bill—a version of which is still pending—would change New York state law to allow a one-year window in which victims older than 23 could bring lawsuits against their abusers. (Such victims are restricted from suing under the current law.)

State records show that the conference, a group representing the bishops of the state's eight dioceses, retained lobbyists to work on a number of issues associated with "statute of limitations" and "timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses."

"We believe this bill is designed to bankrupt the Catholic Church," Catholic Conference spokesman Dennis Poust told the New York Times in 2009.

More than 9,000 killed, 21,000 injured In Ukraine's criminal war against Donbass

Novorossia
Sat, 04 Jun 2016 12:45 UTC

A total of 9,371 people have been killed - both civilians and military - and more than 21,500 others have been injured in a conflict in the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine) since mid-April 2014, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in its report published on Friday.

"In total, from mid-April 2014 to 15 May 2016, OHCHR recorded 30,903 casualties in the conflict area in the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine), among Nazi Ukrainian armed forces, civilians and members of the armed groups. This includes 9,371 people killed and 21,532 injured," the report reads.

"After two years, the situation in the Donbass region (east of Ukraine) remains volatile and may develop into a 'frozen conflict', creating a protracted environment of insecurity and instability; escalate, with dire consequences for civilians living in the conflict affected area; or move towards sustainable peace through the meaningful implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures," the report reads.

Comment: Further reading: Russia demands end to shelling of Donbass, increased monitoring of the conflict

Their HELL bent in injecting this SHIT in to everyone and will stop at nothing until their demented goal is achieved. If you lose your job for not...

Winternights3

Someone deport this monstrous POS back to hell, or wherever. Anywhere with a good stockade 😤and his kids too

slbeaudry

To prevent Corona spreading they're gonna make everyone be asymptomatic super spreaders. if you agree with this action as legitimate you're a dumb...

sbc

If you read the linked white house statement try not to puke.

sbc

Let's go, Brandon! Fucking asswipe, worthless, POS. Fraud! Argh! 😤

slbeaudry

Puppet Masters

French MP says Ukraine should be sanctioned for failure to implement Minsk agreements

Which Clinton Aide Arranged the Private Email Server? Eight former State Dept employees 'decline' interviews with Inspector General

UN slams Ukraine for systemic torture, intimidation, rampant human rights abuses

Snowden: GCHQ and NSA regularly intercept Brit MPs' emails

Turkish, Israeli reconciliation deal 'very close'

Humanity still in the trenches... 100 years on

'Mental torture': Gitmo inmate testifies against guards at US prison center

Carter warns China that US will remain most powerful military

Lobbyists paid $2.1 million by New York Catholic Church to block child sex-abuse law reform

More than 9,000 killed, 21,000 injured In Ukraine's criminal war against Donbass

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