Puppet MastersS


Hourglass

Could fracking finally kill off rural America?

fracking map
© Gasland 2If drillers get their way, rural America will have no escape from fracking. U.S. map showing waterways (in blue) over shale gas plays (in red).
Gasland 2, the sequel to Josh Fox's documentary about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, introduces a frightening image.

It's not another money shot of tap water on fire, though the water well hose lit up by the owner of a multimillion dollar home in Parker County, Texas is a wonder.

Nor is the most frightening image an internal gas industry memo labeling residents of small towns in Pennsylvania or New York State an "insurgency" that must be put down with PSYOPS techniques honed by the military in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The most frightening image in Gasland 2 is a map of the United States covered with potential fracking sites.

The United States of Fracking

Look at the map. It's hard to find a state whose water supply doesn't originate in or cross through a place that the industry would like to frack.

So what? The U.S. government says that fracking can be done without harm to groundwater. And the industry claims that no study has ever proven that fracking has contaminated one single water supply.

Arrow Down

MIT opposes Freedom of Information when it comes to Aaron Swartz

Aaron
© Common Dreams Org
Despite its earlier vow to act in "a spirit of openness," the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has intervened in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) court case brought by Wired reporter Kevin Paulsen aimed at releasing Aaron Swartz's Secret Service file. Paulsen has blasted MIT's move to block the release, which they justified by citing the need to protect MIT personnel even though records are routinely redacted, as unprecedented, noting neither he nor his lawyer has ever seen a non-governmental party argue for the right to interfere in a FOIA release of government documents.
"The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century...The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges."

Whistle

ALEC - State by State: Ag-Gag Laws silence whistleblowers

Muckrakers and activists have been working to expose the brutality of industrialized meat production since Upton Sinclair's writing of The Jungle in 1906. But an ALEC model bill known as "The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" would make it a crime to film at animal facilities - such as factory farms or slaughterhouses - with the intent to "defame the facility or its owner." So-called "ag-gag" laws that appear inspired by the ALEC model have been passed in several states. This report, produced by Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, Inc. looks at the effect of these laws on both our food supply and our freedom of speech.


Comment: Warning: this video features disturbing images. Further information from Moyers & Company on ALEC can be viewed here in the film "United States of ALEC", September 28, 2012.


Pirates

500 Al Qaeda terrorists 'escape' from Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons in Iraq


Al-Qaeda has said it carried out two mass jailbreaks in Iraq, which freed hundreds of prisoners including senior leaders of the Islamist militant group.

In an online statement, al-Qaeda said Sunday's attack was the final one in a campaign aimed at freeing inmates.

At least 20 security guards died when gunmen stormed the Abu Ghraib and Taji jails near Baghdad.

Abu Ghraib gained global notoriety in 2004 when images were released showing US guards abusing Iraqi detainees.

Iraqi officials had previously tortured regime opponents in Abu Ghraib during Saddam Hussein's rule.


Comment: Oh but nothing near the scale and depth of depravity reached by the U.S. governors of the jail...


On Tuesday, an al-Qaeda affiliate calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it carried out the attacks on the prisons.

Comment: No doubt, like the thousands of Al Qaeda-type nutcases freed by NATO in Libya, imprisoned by progressive leader Muammar Ghaddafi in accordance with Western wishes to 'remove safe harbor for terrorists' in the aftermath of 9/11, these Iraqi fundamentalists, kept at bay by the progressive Maliki government to date, will join their brethren across the Middle East incausing bloody mayhem in the name of their lord and master, the CIA...


X

U.S. reviewing 27 death penalty convictions for errors


An unprecedented federal review of old criminal cases has uncovered as many as 27 death penalty convictions in which FBI forensic experts may have mistakenly linked defendants to crimes with exaggerated scientific testimony, U.S. officials said.

The review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution in Mississippi in May.

It is not known how many of the cases involve errors, how many led to wrongful convictions or how many mistakes may now jeopardize valid convictions. Those questions will be explored as the review continues.

The discovery of the more than two dozen capital cases promises that the examination could become a factor in the debate over the death penalty. Some opponents have long held that the execution of a person confirmed to be innocent would crystallize doubts about capital punishment. But if DNA or other testing confirms all convictions, it would strengthen proponents' arguments that the system works.

Rocket

Global surveillance state: Australia's Pine Gap drives U.S. drone kills

pine gap
Central Australia's Pine Gap
Central Australia's Pine Gap spy base has played a key role in the United States' controversial drone strikes involving the ''targeted killing'' of al-Qaeda and Taliban chiefs, Fairfax Media can reveal.

Former personnel at the Australian-American base have described the facility's success in locating and tracking al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders - and other insurgent activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan - as ''outstanding''.

A Fairfax Media investigation has confirmed that a primary function of the top-secret signals intelligence base near Alice Springs is to track the precise ''geolocation'' of radio signals, including hand-held radios and mobile phones, in the eastern hemisphere, from the Middle East across Asia to China, North Korea and the Russian far east.

This information has been used to identify the location of terrorist suspects, which then feeds into the United States drone strike program and other military operations. The drone program, which has involved more than 370 attacks in Pakistan since 2004, is reported to have killed between 2500 and 3500 al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, including many top commanders.

Attention

Snowden may be granted papers to leave airport for city center by Wednesday

Image
Snowden has been in the airport transit area for a month
Edward Snowden May Leave Airport In Two Days

Edward Snowden's lawyer says he should be allowed to leave a Moscow airport transit area in the next few days. The American is expected to be granted papers by Wednesday allowing him to move to the city centre, according to his Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena.

Mr Kucherena, who helped the 30-year-old file his request for temporary asylum in Russia, said: "He should get this certificate (allowing him to leave the airport) shortly."

His bid for temporary asylum in Russia may take up to three months to process but he can pass through customs based on the initial response to his request, Mr Kucherena added.

The former National Security Agency (NSA) worker has not ruled out seeking Russian citizenship, his lawyer said.

Snowden believes it would be unsafe to try to travel to Latin America soon because of US efforts to extradite him to face espionage charges after he leaked details of the Prism surveillance programme.

Calendar

Despite Pentagon claims, Marine colonel sought in Benghazi investigation not yet retired

Bristol
© Eric Steen/ArmyCol. George Bristol speaks during the April 2012 ceremony in which he took command of Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara. Although the Pentagon has claimed Bristol is now retired, that is not true. Some lawmakers want to question Bristol about the U.S. response to the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
When insurgents attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, last fall, Col. George Bristol held a key post in the region. As commander of Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara, he was in a position to know what options the U.S. had to protect Americans under fire.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the Sept. 11 attacks, sparking national outcry and a congressional investigation examining the lack of protection. Several U.S. officials have testified before Congress since - but not Bristol, a salty Marine whose task force was responsible for special operations in northern and western Africa.

Defense Department officials have told members of Congress that Bristol cannot be forced to testify because he retired after stepping down during a March change of command ceremony, according to several media reports. The Pentagon reinforced that point of view to Marine Corps Times on Tuesday.

"Col. Bristol was not invited by Congress to testify before he retired," said Air Force Maj. Robert Firman, a spokesman with the Office of the Secretary of Defense. "The DoD has cooperated fully with Congress and the Accountability Review Board since the beginning of this investigation, and we will continue to do so."

That isn't the case, however. While Bristol is preparing for retirement, he is on active duty through the end of July, said Maj. Shawn Haney, a Marine spokeswoman, on Wednesday. He will be placed on the inactive list on Aug. 1, she said. That contradicts statements that Pentagon officials have issued to both Congress and the media.

Camcorder

Congressman Wolf: Benghazi survivors forced to sign non-disclosure agreements

Congressman Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, said today on the House floor that survivors of the Benghazi terror attack have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements:


Comment: Comment:

There's a reason why all of the reports about Benghazi are so confusing
Petraeus, Allen, Gaouette, Ham: The Benghazi Story The Media Isn't Telling You


Briefcase

Congressional Investigation finds IRS officials ordered special scrutiny

Lois lerner
© Associated PressLois Lerner, who led the tax-exempt organizations division of the Internal Revenue Service, has been put on administrative leave. The second IRS official removed over the recent scandal, Ms. Lerner has been accused of misleading an investigation into the division.
IRS employees have told congressional investigators that they were ordered by the agency's Washington office to give extra scrutiny to tea party groups' applications for tax-exempt status, according to excerpts from interviews with the employees that were released by House committee chairmen Wednesday.

Carter Hull, a tax law specialist with 48 years of experience at the IRS, told investigators that Lois Lerner, the former head of the Exempt Organizations division, demanded he send some of the reviews of tea party groups to the IRS chief counsel's office in Washington. The chief counsel is one of two political appointees in the IRS.

The Internal Revenue Service has come under fire over the past several months after the agency's auditor, J. Russell George, exposed that the agency was targeting conservative groups for intrusive scrutiny. This week,The Washington Times reported that government employees also improperly accessed IRS information to look at data on a handful of political candidates and donors.