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Geneva talks on Iran's nuclear program: Lavrov reveals amended draft circulated at "last moment", Russia not consulted

Gareth Porter
Global Research
Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:37 UTC
Sergey Lavrov
Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov. Is the U.S.'s puppet regime in Kiev planning on losing in E. Ukraine to engineer a new Cold War?
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed a crucial detail Thursday about last week's nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva that explains much more clearly than previous reports why the meeting broke up without agreement.

Lavrov said the United States circulated a draft that had been amended in response to French demands to other members of the six-power P5+1 for approval "literally at the last moment, when we were about to leave Geneva."

Lavrov's revelation, which has thus far been ignored by major news outlets, came in a news conference in Cairo Thursday that was largely devoted to Egypt and Syria. Lavrov provided the first real details about the circumstances under which Iran left Geneva without agreeing to the draft presented by the P5+1.

The full quote from Lavrov's press conference is available thanks to the report from Voice of Russia correspondent Ksenya Melnikova.

Lavrov noted that unlike previous meetings involving the P5+1 and Iran, "This time, the P5+1 group did not formulate any joint document."

Instead, he said, "There was an American-proposed draft, which eventually received Iran's consent." Lavrov thus confirmed the fact that the United States and Iran had reached informal agreement on a negotiating text.
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Snakes in Suits

Prosecute HealthCare.gov?

Andrew Stiles
National Review
Fri, 15 Nov 2013 12:11 UTC
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HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
The FTC has rules about deceptive advertising. But they don't apply to the government.

Conservatives often argue that the federal government should function more like a private business. Obamacare supporters should be grateful it does not, because otherwise HealthCare.gov would almost certainly run afoul of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as of the recently established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Orson Swindle, who served as an FTC commissioner from 1997 to 2005, says there are a number of practices that, if HealthCare.gov were a private entity, would result in its being "taken to the shed and horsewhipped" by government regulators.

President Obama's oft-repeated falsehood, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan" - something the administration knew was untrue - would almost certainly be a textbook case of deceptive advertising, punishable under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits "unfair or deceptive acts or practice in or affecting commerce." This includes a "representation, omission or practice that is likely to mislead the consumer," such that the consumer would be "likely to have chosen differently but for the deception."

Other examples of potentially deceptive practices include the apparently deliberate decision to withhold information from HealthCare.gov visitors as to the actual prices of the policies offered via the exchanges. In fact, users aren't told how much those policies will cost until after they have created an account, which requires giving a slew of personal and financial information.
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Cowboy Hat

'If they have to dry out in jail - great': Back in 2005, Ford said 'tough love' is the only way to battle drug use

James Cowan
National Post
Fri, 17 May 2013 11:50 UTC
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© Peter J. Thompson/National PostToronto Mayor Rob Ford arrives at his City Hall offices on Friday May 17, 2013. In 2005, he said "harm reduction" strategies only encourage addicts to continue their drug use.
Rob Ford said 'tough love' is the only way to battle drug use in 2005

Rob Ford may not have had much to say about crack on Friday, but he had plenty to say in a story published in the National Post on October 18 of 2005. He spoke on the subject of the city's drug strategy, free pipes and safe inhalation sites. Here is that article in full:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Toronto should consider building crematoria beside crack houses if the city's proposed drug strategy is implemented, city councillor Rob Ford warned yesterday.

The councillor, who has battled addiction in his own family, blasted a new report by Toronto Public Health on combating alcohol and drug use in the city. The report recommends the city distribute crack pipes and other paraphernalia to addicts and explore opening safe injection and inhalation sites.
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Bad Guys

Leader of large Syrian terrorist brigade killed

Rima Abushakra
Wall Street Journal
Mon, 18 Nov 2013 10:07 UTC
Abdel Qader al-Saleh
© Associated PressIn this Aug. 13 citizen journalism image provided by the Tawheed Brigade and distributed through the Associated Press, Abdel Qader al-Saleh, left, speaks to his fighters ahead of an attack on government troops, in Aleppo, Syria.
The commander of the largest rebel brigade in northern Syria was killed Thursday, his group said Monday, in a setback for rebels increasingly struggling to maintain territory and make gains against the Syrian army and its allies.

Abdel Qader al-Saleh was the leader and one of the founders of the Islamist Tawheed Brigade, which numbers an estimated 4,000 fighters and is considered among the most effective on the ground, according to analysts, rebels and activists.

Mr. Saleh was hit in a government air attack on a Tawheed Brigade barracks north of Aleppo. He died in a hospital in Turkey, other commanders said.

The Syrian army has gained significant territory in recent weeks in areas near the capital Damascus and are making gains in the country's largest city of Aleppo, including breaking a monthslong rebel siege of Aleppo's airport.

Comment: So he once said that "This state will not be imposed by force", and yet he led an army of terrorists, who did all things possible to destroy Syria by force. In other words, the quote was only meant for consumption by the Western public, so that they could keep the image of supporting peace loving rebels. No doubt the Western media is feeling a little sad, as their much promoted regime change is fizzling out.

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Stormtrooper

British police to patrol Irish streets


Irish Republican News
Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:58 UTC
British Police
© Unknown
Police from England, Scotland and Wales could become a permanent feature of the PSNI's patrols in the north of Ireland as an alternative to the return of the British Army, it has emerged. PSNI chief constable Matt Baggott has said he has been forced to rely on British police reinforcements on a regular basis as a result of financial constraints.

Baggott called in more than 1,000 "back-ups" from British constabularies this summer to help local recruits cope with the loyalist marching season.

On Friday he told the Policing Board that he may require such support to be "camped here" on an ongoing basis due to budget limitations.

"If we get to the point of reducing numbers, as I suspect we may if the budget continues the way it is, then I will have mutual aid camped here," he told board members at a meeting in Omagh, County Tyrone.

"Now I don't want to do that and neither do you - that's not good for Northern Ireland."

Speaking later, Baggott claimed that the deployment of officers from British forces had prevented a breakdown in society at the hands of loyalists.

But he still denied that the loyalist paramilitary UVF have "come off ceasefire".

Comment: For a thorough in-depth analysis of the British empire's interference in Northern Ireland read this article by Joe Quinn:

The British Empire - A Lesson In State Terrorism

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Eye 1

Israel's President Shimon Peres admits that Israel ordered the assassination of Yasser Arafat

Jean Shaoul
globalresearch.ca
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 07:05 UTC
Image
Nine years after Yasser Arafat died in a French military hospital on November 11, 2004, a Swiss team of toxicologists has found traces of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 in his exhumed remains, as well as in his shroud and the soil of his shrine.

A Russian team also found traces of polonium in the body of the leader of Fatah and elected president of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Swiss scientists said there was an 83 percent probability that the late Palestinian leader was poisoned. proving, and expanding the web site.

Their findings, part of the French authorities' broader investigation into Arafat's death, confirm that the Palestinian leader was assassinated.

As soon as Arafat, who was in good health, became ill after eating a meal at his compound in Ramallah in October of 2004, there were suspicions that he had been poisoned. But it proved impossible to determine whether that was the case. None of the doctors treating him, in Palestine or in France, were able to diagnose the cause of his illness, which was a combination of intestinal inflammation, jaundice and a blood condition known as disseminated intravascular coagulation.
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Eye 1

Report: Israel, Saudis working on Iran strike plans


upi.com
Sun, 17 Nov 2013 06:35 UTC
Israel and Saudi Arabia are working on contingency plans for a possible military strike on Iran, a Sunday Times report said.

The British newspaper reported the two countries are working on plans for a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities if a a deal struck by the P5 plus1 countries in Geneva later this week fails to significantly curb Iran's nuclear program. Israel's intelligence agency Mossad is reportedly working with Saudi officials on the plans.

"Once the Geneva agreement is signed, the military option will be back on the table. The Saudis are furious and are willing to give Israel all the help it needs," a diplomatic source told the newspaper.

In the framework of cooperation between the two countries, Riyadh has given Jerusalem a green light to use its airspace in the event of a military strike on Iran, the newspaper said.

Both countries are alarmed by Iran's nuclear ambitions, the report added.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been appealing to Western audiences to oppose an agreement with Iran, Haaretz said.
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Magnify

Syria has changed

Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet.org
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 13:58 UTC
Damascus
© UnknownDamascus, the oldest inhabited city in the world
The media coverage of the war in Syria examines only military, diplomatic and humanitarian action. It ignores profound transformation. However, one does not survive a sea of ​​violence without changing profoundly. From Damascus, where he has lived for two years, Thierry Meyssan describes this evolution.

While in Damascus, the Special Envoy of the Secretaries General of the Arab League and the UN, Lakhdar Brahimi, presented "his" draft peace conference project, Geneva 2. A conference whose objective would be to end the "civil war". This terminology rehashes the analysis of one side against another, of those who argue that this conflict is a logical continuation of the "Arab Spring" against those who argue that it has been manufactured, fueled and manipulated from the outside.
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Video

CBS will stream four days of its 1963 live coverage of President Kennedy's assassination

Dante D'Orazio
The Verge
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 13:06 UTC
Next week will mark 50 years to the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. To mark the anniversary, CBS will stream four days of its live coverage from 1963, covering the first reports of the assassination to the president's funeral. Legendary anchor Walter Cronkite is as tied to the assassination as the famous "Zapruder film," but the brief clip showing Cronkite announce the president's death is typically all you see today.

Comment: Read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's JFK series to learn more about how America's hope was assassinated. Also, watch Evidence of Revision - a six part documentary containing historical, original news footage revealing that the most seminal events in recent American history have been deeply and purposefully misrepresented to the public. Footage and interviews provide an in-depth exploration of events ranging from the Kennedy assassinations to the Jonestown massacre, and all that lies between. The footprints left in this archival footage reveal the coordinated, clandestine sculpting of the America we know today. Evidence of Revision proves once and for all that history has been revised even as it was written!

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Mr. Potato

Chase's Twitter gambit devolves into all-time PR fiasco

Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 13:30 UTC
JPMorgan Chase headquarters
© Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesJPMorgan Chase headquarters in New York City.
I almost couldn't believe it when I heard that JP Morgan Chase was going to do a live Twitter Q&A with the public - you know, all those people around the world they've been bending over and robbing for, oh, the last decade or so. On the all-time list of public relations screw-ups, it's hard to say where this decision by America's most hated commercial bank (with apologies to Bank of America, which probably finishes a 49ers-like very close second this year) to engage the enraged public on Twitter ranks. For sure, anyway, it's right up there with Abercrombie and Fitch's rollout of thong underwear for 10 year-olds and the $440,000 afterparty AIG executives threw for themselves at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California after securing a federal bailout.

Chase execs probably thought they were going to be inundated with questions, like, "What steps can I take to try to become as totally awesome as all of you?" This one can infer from the self-satisfied language of their announcing Tweet, which read:
What career advice would you ask a leading exec at a global firm? Tweet a Q using #AskJPM. On 11/14 a $JPM leader takes over @JPMorgan
Only on Wall Street would a bank that's about to pay out the biggest settlement in the history of settlements unironically engage the public, expecting ordinary people to sincerely ask one of their top-decision makers for career advice. The notion that this was their idea of reaching out to the public in a moment of public relations crisis - we'll take questions now on how you can become just as successful as us! - was doomed to be hilarious, and it turned out to be that and more.
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