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Rose

Russia unexpectedly sets Greenpeace ship 'Arctic Sunrise' free - crew granted amnesty from charges

arctic sunrise greenpeace
Arctic Sunrise
Greenpeace reaffirmed its belief that the arrest of the ship was illegal under international law

Russia, in a "surprise move," is releasing Greenpeace's Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise ship, seized last year after a protest against Arctic oil drilling, the environmental group said Friday afternoon.

"Russia's investigative committee this morning informed Greenpeace International that it has annulled the arrest of the Arctic Sunrise, which has remained in custody in Murmansk," Greenpeace said in a statement.

Greenpeace reaffirmed its belief that the arrest of the ship was illegal under international law.

Reacting to the news, Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo said:
"Millions of people spoke out against the illegal imprisonment of the Arctic 30, and today the final member of the group is free to come home. Our ship was arrested during an entirely peaceful protest against Arctic drilling in international waters. There was absolutely no justification either for boarding the ship or keeping her for eight months.

"This whole affair was a brazen attempt to intimidate those who believe that drilling for oil in the melting Arctic is reckless and unsafe. After months without proper maintenance our ship will need careful repairs, but like our campaign to protect the Arctic she will emerge better, fitter and stronger from this."
Russian authorities told Greenpeace's lawyers that investigations continued "in order to examine equipment found on board the ship".

Russian military commandos seized the Arctic Sunrise last September and detained 30 Greenpeace activists and journalists after a protest at an offshore oil rig owned by Russian state oil giant Gazprom.

Originally facing a charge of piracy, they were later targeted with less severe 'hooliganism' accusations.

Health

'Merkun 'Mockracy: ​More than 100 people blown to pieces during yet another bloody day in Iraq

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© AFP Photo / Marwan Ibrahim
Iraq saw one of the bloodiest days Saturday with a string of car bombings killing an estimated total of 60 in Baghdad, while a further 59 died in the country's north. Several fatalities were also reported after militants took students hostage in Ramadi.

In Baghdad, the most severe of the attacks took place in Bayaa, the capital's southwestern neighborhood. There alone 23 people were killed - the majority of whom had been young and engaged in a game of billiards.

Clashes in the northern city of Mosul took lives of 21 police and 38 militants as the fighting spilled over into the second day, an officer and mortuary employee told AFP.

On Saturday, armed militants also took over a university in Ramadi, located in the western province of Anbar, capturing male and female staff and students. The gunmen fought their way through the Anbar University guards, wounding some, and blowing up a bridge.

War Whore

Arch-idiot Kerry demands Poroshenko prove the impossible: Russia's involvement in Novorossiya events

Poroshenko Kerry
© RIA Novosti / Nikolay LazarenkoThe camera can barely sustain this amount of idiocy: Kerry AND Poroshenko.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko prove that Russia is involved in the independence movement in the eastern regions of Ukraine, according to The New York Times.

During a meeting in Poland on Wednesday, Kerry asked the newly elected president to provide evidence of a connection between Moscow and Ukraine's independence supporters, according to the media outlet.

The politicians also discussed the democratic development of Ukraine. Kerry expressed admiration for the people of Ukraine and congratulated Poroshenko on his victory in the May 25 presidential election.

After talks with Kerry, the president-elect met US President Barack Obama to discuss US help in training Ukrainian military forces, and Ukraine's energy security.

The US secretary of state is due to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Paris on Thursday to discuss Syria and Ukraine.

Washington recently claimed that the US has proof Russia intervened in the conflict, by sending troops and supplying weapons to the independence movements in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed these claims in an interview Wednesday with French broadcasters Europe 1 and TF1. The West does not have reliable evidence of Moscow's involvement in the violent standoff between the Kiev authorities and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine, Putin said.

Comment: If the U.S. had proof, why would they demand Poroshenko provide more? The Americans are blowing a lot of hot air and leaving their stooge in the lurch. It will be interesting to see if Poroshenko gets the message and provides the kind of 'proof' the U.S. desires. By U.S. standards (recall the lead-up to the Iraq war), he won't need much. Just enough 'created reality' (i.e., total fabrication) to prove he's part of the team.


War Whore

American-approved democracy restored in Egypt: General al-Sissi sworn in as dictator

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© AP Photo/MENAIn this image released by Egypt's state news agency MENA, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, left, and outgoing interim President Adly Mansour attend El-Sissi's inaugural ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 8, 2014
Egypt's former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was sworn in Sunday as president for a four-year term, assuming the highest office of a deeply polarized nation roiled by deadly unrest and an economic crisis since its Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

El-Sissi's inauguration came less than a year after he ousted the country's first freely elected president, Islamist Mohammed Morsi, following days of mass protests demanding he step down. While praised by many in a wave of nationalist fervour following the July 3 overthrow, el-Sissi's rise to power coincided with the detention of thousands and the killing of hundreds of Morsi supporters.

Now, the retired field marshal faces the daunting tasks of reviving Egypt's stagnant economy, fighting Islamic extremists and cementing his rule after years of turmoil in the Arab world's most populous country.

"The presidency of Egypt is a great honour and a huge responsibility," el-Sissi told local and foreign dignitaries gathered at an opulent Cairo palace hours after his swearing-in ceremony.

Under his rule, he said, Egypt will work for regional security and stability. He also called on Egyptians to build a more stable future after three turbulent years, asking them to work hard so that their rights and freedoms could grow.

Wolf

Neocon Victoria Nuland to attend inauguration of 'president-elect' Poroshenko in Kiev

Nulnd
© East News/APShe-devil Victoria Nuland.
US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland is expected to arrive in Ukraine for a three-day visit, during which she will attend the inauguration of Ukraine's president-elect, Petr Poroshenko, a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman told Interfax on Friday.

"Nuland will attend the inauguration of Ukraine's newly elected president. She will visit Odesa over the weekend, and on Monday will hold a series of meetings with representatives of the authorities in Kiev," he said.

The US official is expected to travel to Odessa on Sunday, when she will also visit a local children's summer camp.

US Vice President Joe Biden will head his country's delegation to Poroshenko's inauguration on June 7.

Comment: The inauguration ceremony has come and gone, and it looks like Poroshenko is firmly in the pocket of his U.S. masters. He made this clear when he essentially declared war on eastern Ukraine during his inauguration speech, no doubt after a litany of 'editorial suggestions' from Nuland and her minions...


Handcuffs

New NDAA bolsters Guantanamo-style indefinite detention for Americans

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© Jamiol Cartoon
Top senators thought you wouldn't notice. Behind closed doors, they wrote up new indefinite detention and Guantánamo provisions in the annual defense policy bill, and then waited 11 days to quietly file the bill.

But we now have the bill, and everyone can read it. And everyone should understand what is in this new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) before the full Senate makes a big mistake and paves the way for Guantánamo-style indefinite detention being brought to the United States itself.

The new Senate NDAA:

Brings Indefinite Detention to the U.S. Itself:
The bill now says that detainees may be brought to the United States for "detention pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force" (AUMF). In plain English, that means the policy of indefinite detention by the military, without charge or trial, could be carried out here at home. Right now, the number of people in the U.S. in military indefinite detention is zero. If the bill is enacted, that number could immediately jump to 100 or more.
Bolsters Claims of NDAA and AUMF Indefinite Detention Authority:
The AUMF is the basis for the indefinite detention authority included in the NDAA that Congress passed nearly three years ago. Indefinite detention is wrong today and certainly cannot be sustained past the end of U.S. combat in the Afghan war. But passing a new Senate NDAA that relies on detention authority based on the AUMF, just as the U.S. combat role in the war is winding down, could be used by the government to bolster its claim that indefinite detention can just keep on going. Even when any actual U.S. combat is over.

Comment: Is this bill a "product of sloppy drafting", as the author states, or is it another example of politicians slithering behind closed doors systematically stripping more basic human rights such as habeas corpus?


Sheriff

Cops still on the job in New Mexico after performing illegal anal probes

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© Photo via Flickr user Andrew Magill
Police officers in a New Mexico town who forced suspects to undergo multiple, forced anal cavity searches are still on the job despite their questionable behavior, according to Watchdog.org.

In January, the town of Deming and Hidalgo County settled a lawsuit for $1.6 million over the case of David Eckert. Pulled over for a minor traffic violation, Eckert was flagged for holding drugs by a K-9 unit, which would later be found to be operating under expired certification. Police suspected Eckert was carrying drugs in his anal cavity and sought out a search warrant, but then transported the man to a hospital outside of the warrant's jurisdiction when the first establishment refused to conduct the search on ethical grounds.

At Gila Regional Medical Center, however, doctors performed eight separate medical procedures against Eckert's protests, including two rectal finger examinations, three enemas and a colonoscopy. He was also forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. None of these procedures uncovered any drugs.

According to Eckert's lawyer Shannon Kennedy, not only was the issued search warrant overly broad and lacking in probable cause, but it was also only valid in Luna County, where Deming is located and Eckert was arrested.

Comment: Warning to New Mexico residents: Your police are being taught to use more deadly force


Cell Phone

To prevent ACLU review, U.S. Marshals transfer controversial 'Stingray' cellphone surveillance

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© Globalresearch
The US Marshals Services has intervened in a dispute between a Florida police department and the ACLU, with the Marshals sweeping in at the last minute to seize controversial cell phone records before the ACLU was able to review them.

Earlier this year the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Sarasota Police Department in an attempt to compel them to turn over records on the police's use of its "Stingray" devices.

The powerful Stingray equipment has drawn the ire of civil liberties advocates nervous about its ability to essentially act as a fake cell tower and collects information from each of phone that connects to it.

The ACLU, which asserts that the Stingray enables the "electronic equivalent of dragnet 'general searches' prohibited by the Fourth Amendment," convinced the court to force the Sarasota police to make the documents available for review.

ACLU staff attorney Nathan Freed told Wired that the US Marshals sent an agent from the Tampa area to Sarasota to pick up the documents so the police would be unable to disclose them.

Comment: FBI loses appeal in StingRay surveillance case


Bomb

Russia sez Kiev's use of heavy weapons in 'crackdown' violates international law - It does

Donbass artillery
© RIA Novosti / Evgeny BiyatovKiev violates international law, gets away with it.
Moscow has raised the issue of Kiev using heavy armaments in its special operations against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine at OSCE session, Russia's envoy Andrei Kelin said on Wednesday.

"The punitive operation led by Ukrainian forces reflects signs of an international human rights violation, in particular, of the Geneva convention of 1949," Kelin said.

"We drew attention to the tragic outcome of an operation in the Donbas [in eastern Ukraine], a barbaric shelling of a building of the Luhansk local administration," he added.

He referred to reports claiming the Ukrainian military had used exploding bullets, cluster bombs and artillery.

"There are reports on the use of inhumane weapons - exploding bullets, cluster bombs - and the shelling of civilian targets in Ukraine. If they are confirmed, such acts have to be treated as war crimes. If it is proven that Right Sector killed the wounded in a Krasnyi Lyman hospital, there are no words to justify such an action," Kelin said.

The envoy added that the latest report from the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine confirmed pro-Kiev forces had been using tanks, artillery and aircraft in its special operations.

"We asked a lot of questions, but Ukraine's permanent representative [to the OSCE] gave no answers, aside from the usual attempts to shift responsibility to Russia," Kelin added.

Chart Pie

Japan, China vie for India's new prime minister Narendra Modi's heart

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe follows only three personalities on Twitter. One is India's newly minted Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So it came as no surprise when Abe dispatched a congratulatory tweet to Modi minutes after it became clear that the latter would occupy the prime minister's official residence at 7 Race Course Road in New Delhi. Modi's tweet in response read, "I am sure we will take India-Japan ties to newer heights." It sounded as though the two politicians were continuing a previous conversation rather than forging a new relationship.

Much of Shinzo Abe's economic reforms in Japan will not bear fruit without a significant emerging market driving the growth of Japanese industry. Japanese exports to China declined by 18% in the 12 months leading to the Indian elections. The decline was triggered by the controversy over the Senkaku (or Diaoyu, in Chinese) Islands and is unlikely to reverse course in the near future.

Meanwhile, many Japanese companies are well entrenched in India but suffered at the hands of the previous outgoing United Progressive Alliance government. Two major Japanese corporations, Mitsubishi and Honda, were slapped with tax recovery notices to the tune of US$2.6 billion following a retrospective amendment to a tax law in India. All this makes Modi look like a white-bearded Samurai savior in the eyes of Abe's business-minded constituents.