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Sherlock

UK Lib Dems: Mass surveillance by security services should be reviewed

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© Martin Argles for the GuardianTim Farron, above, will submit the motion on surveillance to the Liberal Democrats' spring party conference. Photograph:
Party's motion, in wake of Snowden whistleblowing, covers agencies' accountability, data collection and bill of rights

Judicial oversight of state surveillance and a regular release of the number of data requests made by the security services should be among the issues examined by a government "commission of experts" into all the recent allegations raised by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Liberal Democrats are to propose.

They will also call for the commission to review the effectiveness of all legislation surrounding the security services, including the system of parliamentary accountability. They envisage the commission as being modelled on Barack Obama's privacy and civil liberties oversight board, a five-strong body of legal, industry and security experts appointed by the president and confirmed by Congress. The board has been advising Obama on his imminent response to Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor.

The comprehensive response is being submitted in a motion to the Lib Dem spring conference by the party's president, Tim Farron, and home affairs select committee chairman, Julian Huppert. Such high-profile support suggests it is almost certain to be passed.

The terms of the motion have been discussed with Nick Clegg and the Lib Dem home affairs minister Norman Baker, and represent the most substantive sign that the Snowden revelations may yet prompt a political response in the UK similar to the one under way in the US and continental Europe.

A spokesman for Clegg said: "The motion is very much in line with Nick's thinking and he agrees with its principles."

Chart Pie

Twisted Gov Stats: Truth is 74K jobs were added but 347K jobs were lost

Alabama senator Jeff Sessions responds to the latest jobs report:
Alabama senator Jeff Sessions
Alabama senator Jeff Sessions
Today's jobs report underscores a deeper problem facing our economy: a large and growing block of people who are chronically jobless and completely outside the workforce. In December, the economy added only 74,000 jobs - not nearly enough to keep up with population growth - and 347,000 left the workforce. That means for every one job added, nearly 5 people left the workforce entirely. There are now nearly 92 million Americans outside the workforce, resulting in the lowest participation rate in 36 years. The President's immigration plan will only make things dramatically worse - and no amount of 'promise zones' will be a sufficient remedy for the millions of displaced workers.

We must help people move off of welfare, off of unemployment, and into good-paying jobs that can support a family. More tax, spend, borrow and regulate will only produce more joblessness, dependency and debt. Instead, we need more American energy, streamlined taxes and regulations, a leaner and less wasteful government, better trade and immigration enforcement, and a reformed welfare system that helps struggling Americans realize the dream of financial independence.

Sherlock

JPMorgan and Madoff were facilitating nesting dolls-style frauds within frauds

Graphic of Madoff and his nesting doll-style frauds
© Unknown
Last week JPMorgan Chase paid $2.6 billion in fines and restitution, signed a deferred prosecution agreement and walked away from their 22-year involvement with Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. But according to court documents filed in 2011 by the Trustee of the Madoff victims' fund, Irving Picard, this was not a simple case of poor risk management at JPMorgan. This was an operation structured like those Russian nesting dolls, with the Ponzi scheme as the outside doll with many more frauds layered inside the big one.

After reading the documents released by the Justice Department in connection with the settlement, the Los Angeles Times asked in a photo caption of a smirking Madoff outside of Federal Court: "Bernie Madoff: Was he part of the JPMorgan ring, or was JPMorgan part of his ring?"

The New York Times had a far more charitable stance, with Floyd Norris writing: "Did JPMorgan Chase deliberately cover up Bernard L. Madoff's fraud? The documents released this week by federal prosecutors do not show it did, and I suspect it did not."

Interestingly, the folks in sunny California, 2400 miles away from Wall Street, had an epiphanous moment in that photo caption while the Times assumed an all too common ostrich position when it comes to Wall Street.

Attention

Best of the Web: Government of the Rich, by the Rich and for the Rich: It's time for 'Militant Nonviolent Resistance'

"[E]verywhere, "time is winding up," in the words of one of our spirituals, "corruption in the land, people take a stand, time is winding up." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Psychopaths Rule our World
© SOTT

We now live in a two-tiered system of governance. There are two sets of laws: one set for the government and its corporate allies, and another set for you and me.

The laws which apply to the majority of the population allow the government to do things like sending SWAT teams crashing through your door in the middle of the night, rectally probing you during a roadside stop, or listening in on your phone calls and reading all of your email messages, confiscating your property, or indefinitely detaining you in a military holding cell. These are the laws which are executed every single day against a population which has up until now been blissfully ignorant of the radical shift taking place in American government.

Then there are the laws constructed for the elite, which allow bankers who crash the economy to walk free. They're the laws which allow police officers to avoid prosecution when they shoot unarmed citizens, strip search non-violent criminals, or taser pregnant women on the side of the road, or pepper spray peaceful protestors. These are the laws of the new age we are entering, an age of neo-feudalism, in which corporate-state rulers dominate the rest of us, where the elite create the laws which can result in a person being jailed for possessing a small amount of marijuana while bankers that launder money for drug cartels walk free. In other words, we have moved into an age where we are the slaves and they are the rulers.

Unfortunately, this two-tiered system of government has been a long time coming. As I detail in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, the march toward an imperial presidency, to congressional intransigence and impotence, to a corporate takeover of the mechanisms of government, and the division of America into haves and have nots has been building for years.

Star of David

Israeli police to investigate 'expressions of joy' at Sharon's death

Israeli army officers salute in front of the flag draped coffin
© Reuters / Darren WhitesideIsraeli army officers salute in front of the flag draped coffin of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon as he lies in state at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem January 12, 2014
The Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch instructed police on Sunday to probe public placards that have appeared proclaiming satisfaction and even joy at the death on Saturday of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The notices were posted in several Yeshivas or religious academies after Sharon's death Saturday.

A message which appeared at the Torat HaChaim yeshiva in central Israel, which was evacuated from a Gaza settlement following Sharon's orders to pull out, read: "A hearty mazal tov to Ariel Sharon upon his demise," the Times of Israel reported. 'Mazal Tov' is a Jewish congratulation at birthdays and other significant events.

Police have said that they will set up a team alongside representatives from the State Attorney's Office and the Attorney General's Office and will decide upon further legal action where appropriate.

"This conduct is contemptible and I will not stand for it. I view such criminal actions very severely and I have asked police officials to handle the issue swiftly and professionally," Aharonovitch said in a statement.

However, Israeli law guarantees freedom of speech and aside from cases of incitement to violence, it is not clear if there would be any legal grounds for such an investigation.

Attention

'Operation Shutdown': Bangkok residents warned to stockpile food as Thai crisis continues

Bangkok protest
© ReutersAnti-government protesters march during a rally in Bangkok.
More than 20,000 security forces will be deployed across the Thai capital on Monday as anti-government protesters implement "operation shutdown" aimed at toppling the elected government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

As the United States embassy in Bangkok recommended residents stockpile two weeks of cash, food and water, army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said he was concerned about the possibility of violent clashes and admitted he does not see a solution to end the country's crisis.

Arrow Down

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

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.

Camera

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

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!

Bad Guys

GWB scandal: 5 reasons Chris Christie might be lying

Chris Christie
© AP/Mel EvansChris 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.

Star of David

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

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© Anwar Amro / AFPPalestinian 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.