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Hollande Pushes EU to Talk about Joint Euro Bonds

Hollande
© Reuters
French President Francois Hollande, standing firm in the face of stiff German opposition, said on Wednesday that European leaders should broach the possibility of jointly-issued euro bonds and that no option to resolve the bloc's crisis should be taboo.


Hollande, due to join other European Union leaders later on Wednesday for talks over dinner, said all options should be put on the table because the gathering was about exchanging views before a decision-making summit at the end of June.

"This is not about entering into conflict with others," the Socialist president told a news conference in Paris. "Everyone should go into this in the best spirit."

Hollande, who held the news conference jointly with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after the two met, reiterated that he was committed to debt and deficit reduction but that helping economic growth was a necessary part of that objective.

He said he would raise a panoply of ideas including the role of the European Central Bank and the European Financial Stability Fund on the one hand as well as euro bonds.

Star of David

"Citizen Journalism" Focuses on Israeli Occupation

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© Reuters / Mohamad TorokmanVideo of an incident filmed on Saturday by Ibrahim Makhlouf (not pictured) is displayed by his son in the West Bank village of Aseera al-Qibliya village near Nablus May 22, 2012.
Amateur video of Israeli soldiers appearing to watch idly as settlers opened fire on Palestinians throwing stones has emphasized the growing power of "citizen journalism" in the occupied West Bank.

Shaky footage, captured on Saturday from two angles by residents of Aseera al-Qibliya village, shows bearded residents from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar aiming a hand gun and assault rifle at the crowd, followed by sounds of gunfire.

A bloodied youth shot in the face was shown being carried away on the shoulders of fellow villagers. The video was soon posted on the Internet.

Teacher Ibrahim Makhlouf, who filmed the incident, lives by the brush scorched in the clashes on the village's edge, beneath the gaze of the prefabricated suburbs of Yitzhar, which lie outside the official settlement boundary.

"We want the whole world to see what Israel and the settlers do to us. They steal our land and they attack us, and the world said we were the terrorists and criminals," he said.

"Now we can make it clear who's the aggressor and who's attacking whom. The truth contradicts their claims about our situation."

Padlock

Pakistani Doctor Who Helped US 'track down Osama bin Laden' Sentenced to Prison

Shakil Afridi
© unknownDr. Shakil Afridi
Peshawar, Pakistan - A Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was convicted of high treason Wednesday and sentenced to 33 years in prison, officials said, a verdict that is likely to further strain the country's relationship with Washington.

Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad where U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida chief last May. The operation outraged Pakistani officials because they were not told about it beforehand.

Senior U.S. officials have called for Afridi to be released, saying his work served Pakistani and American interests. His conviction comes at a sensitive time because the U.S. is already frustrated by Pakistan's refusal to reopen NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. The supply routes were closed six months ago in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Afridi also was ordered to pay a fine of about $3,500 and will spend an additional three and half years in prison if he does not, said Nasir Khan, a government official in the Khyber tribal area, where the doctor was arrested and tried.

Comment: For more information on Osama Bin Laden's death, please read:

New Sott Report: US Government Psy-Ops - The 'Killing' of Osama Bin Laden
Bin Laden died of natural causes: Former CIA agent


USA

Calculating the True Cost of America's Spending on National Security

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As the country's big wars on the Eurasian continent wind down, American war-making and war preparations fly ever more regularly under the radar. There has, for instance, been much discussion about the Obama administration's policy "pivot" to Asia -- the only warlike act in the region so far has, however, been a little noted drone strike in the Philippines.

At the same time, remarkably little attention has been paid to a massive build-up of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, and -- though both seem to be underway (and connected) -- who talks about the "pivot" to the Western Indian Ocean or the "pivot" to Africa?

For those keeping a careful eye out, U.S. drone (and air) bases in the region have been proliferating -- in the Seychelles Islands, in Ethiopia, and at an unidentified site on the Arabian peninsula, among other places.

Recently, however, Wired's Danger Room website reported that an Italian blogger had put the pieces together and offered impressive evidence of a larger war-making effort in the region, involving not only drones but F-15E fighter jets, possibly being used to bomb Yemen. Meanwhile, there are U.S. drone strikes in Yemen almost daily and at least 20 special forces operatives are reportedly now on the ground there, helping direct some of the fighting and even taking casualties.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Africa Command (Africom), set up in 2007, has been gaining clout. In 2011, 100 special operations troops, mainly Green Berets, were moved into Central Africa, officially to aid in the hunting down of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army.

Comment: Which is why there is never enough money for education, job creation, repairing the crumbling US infrastructure or extending jobless benefits, as well as other social programs that might actually benefit people.
US: Congress Cuts Winter Heating Aid For The Poor While Boosting The Defense Budget
Obama on the Budget: "Target the Military? No, I'm gonna hit the working poor, the middle class and students"
A New Record is Set for Military Spending: The Shame of Nations


Crusader

Missing girl 'buried in murdered mobster's tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties', claims Catholic Church's leading exorcist priest

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© AFP/Getty ImagesOutspoken: Father Gabriel Amorth said the 15-year-old was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties
The Catholic Church's leading exorcist priest has sensationally claimed a missing schoolgirl thought to be buried in a murdered gangster's tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties.

Father Gabriel Amorth, 85, who has carried out 70,000 exorcisms, spoke out as investigators continued to examine mobster Enrico De Pedis's tomb in their hunt for Emanuela Orlandi.

Last week police and forensic experts broke into the grave after an anonymous phone call to a TV show said the truth about Emanuela's 1983 disappearance would be 'found there'.

And although bones not belonging to the mobster were recovered they have not yet been positively identified as hers.

However Father Amorth, in an interview with La Stampa newspaper, said: 'This was a crime with a sexual motive.

'It has already previously been stated by (deceased) monsignor Simeone Duca, an archivist at the Vatican, who was asked to recruit girls for parties with the help of the Vatican gendarmes.

2 + 2 = 4

9/11 'truther' leading Egyptian presidential race

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© Amr NabilEgyptian presidential candidate, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, waves to his supporters in front of Egyptian presidency logo " falcon" during television interview at MISR University for Science and Technology in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, May 20, 2012.
An Islamist who believes that the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States were an American conspiracy is the front-runner in Egypt's presidential race, a new poll shows.

Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, formerly a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, led the field of 13 candidates with 32 percent of the vote in a survey released Monday by the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

Mr. Abolfotoh expressed his views on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in an interview last year with Egypt scholar Eric Trager.

Mr. Trager, now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, quoted Mr. Abolfotoh as saying:
"It was too big an operation .... They [the United States] didn't bring this crime before the U.S. justice system until now. Why? Because it's part of a conspiracy."
Egyptians will vote Wednesday and Thursday in their first presidential election since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak last year. If none of the candidates wins a majority, the two top vote-getters will compete in a runoff next month.

Eye 1

Mitt Romney's Disturbed Character Reveals Psychopathic Mindset

Romney
© Unknown
People tend to associate the word psychopath with serial killers or other violent criminals. The word conjures up images of anti-social monsters who are unable to fit into everyday society. This makes sense since everything in our media teaches us that psychopaths are predatory murderers. Indeed, experts on psychopathy have estimated that up to 25% of prison populations include people who could be labeled as psychopaths. However, people with psychopathic personalities are not exclusively found among criminals. In reality, they are often described as "charming" and quite normal, even functioning in high profile professions. Recently, Sherree DeCovney made controversial headlines by making the assertion that as many as 1 in 10 financial services workers on Wall Street were psychopaths, which was probably an overestimation. But, DeCovney was on to something. There are many highly successful people who can also be observed to have psychopathic tendencies, and recently, evidence has been piling up that one of them is none other than presidential wanna-be Mitt Romney.

Comment: Full blown psychopaths do make it in politics, and the evidence shows they are running the show. Read Political Ponerology to see how far the rabbit hole goes.


Bizarro Earth

Tunisia to extradite ex-Libyan prime minister back home, despite fears he'll be mistreated

Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi
© unknownAl-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi
Tunis, Tunisia - Tunisia said Tuesday it will soon extradite Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi back to his homeland, after detaining the former Libyan prime minister for eight months.

Al-Mahmoudi was arrested in September for illegally crossing the frontier into Tunisia as he tried to flee to Algeria, where members of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's family had sought refuge.

Lawyers and human rights groups had opposed the extradition, saying Al-Mahmoudi might be harmed by Libya's new ruling authorities - representative of the rebels who overthrew Gadhafi last year.

"Tunisia will never be a refuge for those who represent a threat to Libya's security," said Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali on Tuesday, following a visit by his Libyan counterpart, Abdurrahim el-Keib.

Mondher Bedhiafi, a spokesman for Tunisia's justice ministry, said the extradition would occur in the coming weeks, but only once necessary procedures were completed.

Attention

E.U. Science Panel Dismisses French GM Concerns--Again

France's latest attempt to keep genetically modified (GM) crops from its fields has been rebuked by a scientific panel at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Yesterday, EFSA issued an opinion dismissing France's argument that a GM maize variety produced by Monsanto might be harmful to the environment or human health.

The opinion is the latest blow in a long-running battle over MON810, also known as YieldGard, whose cultivation has been banned in a handful of European countries despite its approval by the European Commission in 1998. The French government, faced with strong public opposition to GM crops, banned Mon810 in 2008 under a so-called "safeguard clause" that gives countries some leeway to duck European rules. EFSA rejected the measure later that year, and in 2011, France's Council of State also ruled that the prohibition was out of line.
Corn Borer
© Keith Weller/U.S. Department of AgricultureDefensive maize. MON810 produces a toxin that protects it from the European corn borer.

In February, France again asked the European Commission for permission to ban MON810, armed with a new scientific dossier. In it, the French government argues, among other things, that Cry1Ab, a protein produced by MON810 to ward off maize stalk borers, could hurt non-target species such as bees and butterflies, and that it could linger in the soil. But in yesterday's report, EFSA's Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms said the file contains some of the same evidence France presented - and EFSA rejected - in 2008; in the remainder, the panel "could not identify any new science-based evidence indicating that maize MON 810 cultivation in the EU poses a significant and imminent risk to the human and animal health or the environment."

Given recent history, EFSA's decision is "not really a surprise," AFP quoted a spokesperson for European health Commissioner John Dalli as saying. The commission is considering its next move, but "technically, we could now demand that France lift its ban," the spokesperson said.

Bad Guys

Pushing for War on Iran: Congress Provides the "Green Light"

C-SPAN screenshot Congress
© C-SPAN
National Defense Authorization Act 2013: De Facto Declaration of War

Congressional hawks want war. Bipartisan support backs it. Moderates outnumber hotheads. At issue is for how long.

Saber rattling, fear mongering, and bogus accusations persisted for years. Now it's showing up in legislation. More on that below.

Possibly a false flag will ignite another Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) for "the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States."

At high-anxiety times, options often dwindle to war. Knee-jerk congressional support authorizes it with no formal declaration. The Constitution's Article 1, Section 8 mandates it.

It hasn't been declared since December 8, 1941. Why bother when presidential diktats send Americans to war with no congressional opposition.

Threats don't exist so they're invented. False flag attacks masquerade as real ones. Body counts rise exponentially. Buildings and other facilities topple like tenpins.

When people realize they've been had, it's too late. They never learn. No matter how often they're fooled, they're easily deceived again. Once a damn fool, always one. Relying on scoundrel media for news and information makes it easy.

Television is worst of all. Print managed news also omits what people most need to know and distorts the rest.