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Depth and extent of federal domestic militarization should shock U.S. taxpayers

Rob Nikolewski
Watchdog.org
Thu, 03 Apr 2014 04:00 UTC
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© Watchdog.org
[1]The Long Arm of the Law Getting Longer: The number of law enforcement agents, such as these from the Environmental Protection Agency, have grown in recent years
In late February, four federal agents carrying side arms with a drug-sniffing dog descended on the Taos Ski Valley [2]in what was called a "saturation patrol."

Authorities were working on tips of possible drug selling and impaired driving in the ski resort's parking lot and surrounding area.

But the agents weren't from the FBI, ATF or even the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Rather, the agents represented the U.S. Forest Service.

"It's one of the untold stories about government," said former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson [4], who lives in Taos, is an avid skier and has been a leading critic of the operation that turned up only a few minor infractions. "People don't grasp the size and the scope of these entities and their law enforcement arms."

It may come as a surprise to many U.S. taxpayers, but a slew of federal agencies - some whose responsibilities seem to have little to do with combating crime - carry active law enforcement operations.
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Telephone

U.S. blasts EU's plan for anti-snooping network as 'draconian'


RT
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 16:38 UTC
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© Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach
US officials on Friday slammed plans to construct an EU-centric communication system, designed to prevent emails and phone calls from being swept up by the NSA, warning that such a move is a violation of trade laws.

Calling Europe's proposal to build its own integrated communication system "draconian," the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said American tech companies, which are worth an estimated $8 trillion per year, would take a financial hit if Brussels gives the initiative the green light.

"Recent proposals from countries within the European Union to create a Europe-only electronic network (dubbed a 'Schengen cloud' by advocates) or to create national-only electronic networks could potentially lead to effective exclusion or discrimination against foreign service suppliers that are directly offering network services, or dependent on them," the USTR said in its annual report.
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Snakes in Suits

'Eat pork or go hungry': France's Marine Le Pen tells school canteens to stop offering alternatives to Muslim children


Daily Mail
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 09:36 UTC
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Marine Le Pen says schools in towns run by her National Front party will stop serving non-pork alternatives to Muslim children
Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said on Friday it would prevent schools from offering non-pork alternatives to Muslim pupils in the 11 towns it won in local elections, saying such arrangements were contrary to France's secular values.

France's republic has a strict secular tradition enforceable by law, but faith-related demands have risen in recent years, especially from the country's five-million-strong Muslim minority, the largest in Europe.

'We will not accept any religious demands in school menus,' Le Pen told RTL radio. 'There is no reason for religion to enter the public sphere, that's the law.'

Pork is forbidden under Jewish and Muslim dietary laws.
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Light Saber

Nigel Farage: I have more respect for Putin than for 'kids' who run Britain

Rowena Mason
Guardian
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 08:43 UTC
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© Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, said Vladimir Putin was doing a better job on foreign policy than David Cameron or William Hague.
Ukip leader stands by admiration of Russian president, as Nick Clegg says support for sponsor of Syria's Assad is grotesque

Nigel Farage has repeated his admiration for Vladimir Putin, saying he respects him more than the "kids" who run Britain, as Nick Clegg condemned support for the Russian president as "utterly grotesque".

The Ukip leader said he did not like or trust Putin, or want to live in Russia, but he was doing a better job on foreign policy than David Cameron and the foreign secretary, William Hague.

A number of politicians have expressed surprise about Farage's comments in an interview with GQ magazine, in which the Ukip leader said Putin was the world leader he most admired as an "operator".

"The way he played the whole Syria thing. Brilliant. Not that I approve of him politically. How many journalists in jail now?" he said.

Asked about Farage's comments, Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said: "I just think it is utterly grotesque that Nigel Farage apparently admires - and that was the question to him: 'Who do you admire?' - admires someone, Vladimir Putin, who has been the chief sponsor and protector of one of the most brutal dictators on the face of the planet, President Assad [of Syria], who has blocked at every single turn in the United Nations any attempt by the international community to work in concert to help the many, many millions of people who have been driven from their homes and have been brutalised, and have been tortured and have been killed.
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Megaphone

Britain's Nigel Farage warns of 'unpleasant' end to EU


RT
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 08:37 UTC
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© Reuters / Toby Melville
Demonstrators from the far-right English Defence League (EDL) stand in front of police lines during a protest in east London

Neo-Nazism is on the rise in Europe and if nations do not opt-out of EU democratically, the entity has a violent end ahead of it, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said during a second public debate on the UK's EU membership.

Farage specified that if EU members could not rein back control over their own countries diplomatically, then neo-Nazi groups, like the Golden Dawn party in Greece, would do it for them through violence.

"I want to see the EU brought to an end, but I want it to end democratically. If it does not end democratically I am afraid it will end unpleasantly," Farage said during the debate with the leader of Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg.

According to the viewers, Nigel Farage won the television debate on Europe by 69 percent to 31 percent, a Guardian ICM poll showed.

During the debate Farage criticized big business, wealthy landowners and focused on growing violence in Europe, stating that his goal was to take care of the white working class.
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Quenelle

Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea apply for Russian citizenship by the thousands


Voice of Russia
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 21:24 UTC
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© RIA Novosti
Most Ukrainian soldiers on service in Crimea voiced their wish to join the Russian Armed Forces and they were granted this opportunity, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday.

"As of today over 8,000 of these soldiers have submitted paperwork to get Russian passports. Around 3,000 of them have already been assigned duties. We now have to create conditions for their speedy adjustment to serving in the Russian army," Shoigu said at an off-schedule ministerial meeting.

The Russian defense minister also stated that the Ukrainian soldiers could easily leave Crimea to return to Ukraine.

The majority of Ukrainian soldiers willing to continue serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine have left Crimea leaving behind some 400 people responsible for combat equipment withdrawal, said Vitaliy Yarema, Ukraine's first deputy prime minister of the interim government in Kiev, as he spoke to the press on Friday.
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Eye 1

'100% sure Berkut police didn't shoot people in Kiev' says ex-Ukrainian interior minister


RT
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 06:13 UTC
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© RIA Novosti / Andrey Stenin
Police officers are seen on Maidan Nezalezhnosti square in Kiev, where clashes began between protesters and the police on February 19, 2014
Berkut riot police were targets - not shooters - during the Maidan standoff, ex-Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko said, adding that a fair investigation of the tragic events in Kiev is impossible under the biased, coup-imposed government.

During his interview with Russia's Channel One, Zakharchenko stressed that he is "100% sure that it wasn't the police" who used firearms against the people during the February Maidan standoff.

"Berkut riot police were without their service weapons. On February 18 and 19, 86 police officers were wounded by gunshots. Fourteen of them died. They were internal troops, military, Berkut, and traffic police, who were shot at their post checkpoint," he said.

On February 20, Berkut forces and internal troops encountered point shooting in Kiev's center and "that's why they actually, began retreating," the former interior minister explained.

"It's clear for any reasonable person that if it were the law enforcement officers who opened fire, they would've probably been advancing. That would've been the reason to use firearms. Meanwhile, they began retreating after the killing of their troops began," he said.

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Airplane

U.S. operates global drone war from German base according to ex-pilot


rt.com
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 05:59 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Daniel Roland
The German and the US flags fly at the entrance to the US Airbase in Ramstein
A testimony by a former US Air Force drone pilot has revealed that the US is using its Ramstein Air Base in Germany to wage highly controversial drone warfare in Africa, Yemen, and Pakistan.

"The entire drone war of the US military wouldn't be possible without Germany," Brandon Bryant, who resigned in 2011, told NDR television and Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Last year, German media revealed that the US uses its military bases in Germany to conduct targeted killings of suspected terrorists in Somalia. But Bryant now says that Ramstein Air Base in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate is involved in strikes on Pakistan and Yemen.

During his five years of service, Bryant flew more than 1,000 operations in Pakistan and Yemen. He said his unit was responsible for 1,262 targeted killings. Although Bryant was seated at his control pad in New Mexico - far from the actual drones - there is mounting evidence that the base in Germany plays a key role.

Data from the remote controlled drones is transmitted via satellite to Germany. It is then sent back to America via fiber optic cable. Live pictures are analyzed and classified by teams of US intelligence officers in Germany, suggesting Ramstein is the nerve center behind the operations.

Bryant said that Ramstein was always "the first port of call" during any strike.
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Target

Arab world doesn't trust U.S.: More dangerous as friend than enemy

Artyom Kobzev
Voice of Russia
Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:54 UTC
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© Mondoweiss
When the Arab spring started gathering momentum the US tried to take the "right side of the history". In reality it meant its agreement to support the forces that opposed the authoritarian leaders in the Maghreb countries and the Middle East. Meanwhile, the Americans did not take into account the fact that many of those rulers had been Washington's allies for many years. The outcome of that policy is quite sad: Islamists strengthened their influence on the region, while the US reputation in the Arab world was destroyed.

Egypt is the largest country of the Arab world. It is not surprising that the change of the regime in that specific country became the central event of the Arab Spring. During the three years that past since the first protests the power in Egypt has changed hands several times.

The Americans acknowledged each new regime as legitimate, easily forgetting its ties to the previous leadership in Egypt. Below is the commentary of Prof. Georgy Mirsky, chief researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
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War Whore

Americans "fed up" with government's wasteful spending on military "jingoism and adventurism"


Press TV
Thu, 03 Apr 2014 07:46 UTC
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© Press TV
The American people are "fed up" with the US government's wasteful spending on military "jingoism and adventurism" at a time of austerity budgets, a political and military analyst in New York says.

Michael Burns made the comment in regard to US Secretary of State John Kerry's recent statement about Washington's support for its NATO partners in central and Eastern Europe in the wake of the recent developments in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"This initiative announced by Ambassador Kerry on behalf of the United States is just another example of our spending money, supplemental dollars, on military jingoism and adventurism," Michael Burns said.

"The Republican Party has announced a very draconian budget, cutting domestic spending for all sorts of medical services and other services, threatening social security," he told Press TV on Wednesday.
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