Society's ChildS


Black Magic

Thanks America! All of Syria's UNESCO world heritage sites damaged or destroyed

Syrian al-Atroush mosque destruction
© Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters A general view shows the damage at the ancient al-Atroush mosque in the old city of Aleppo, Syria January 28, 2016.
The destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra has made a real impact, but in fact each and every ancient site in Syria inscribed on the World Heritage List has suffered during the five years of conflict. RT looks back at unique landmarks shattered by military action.

Palmyra

Before Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) arrival, Palmyra, which means "City of Palms", was a revered open-air museum just 210 km from the Syrian capital Damascus. The unique landmark, described by UNESCO as an "oasis in the Syrian desert" was captured by Islamic State in May of 2015. Before the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, over 150,000 tourists visited the city every year. The jewel of the ancient ruins at the UNESCO heritage site in Palmyra - the iconic Arch of Triumph - was blown up by IS extremists engaged in what has been dubbed as "cultural cleansing" of the Middle East.

"This new destruction of culture in Palmyra reflects the brutality and ignorance of extremist groups and their disregard for local communities and the Syrian people," Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, said.

Comment: In its exportation of 'freedom and democracy' the Empire of Chaos is unparalleled at leaving a wide path of death, destruction and displacement in its wake.


Newspaper

Group of homeless people sue Los Angeles for violation of civil rights and destruction of property

homeless
© Carlos Barria / Reuters
A group of homeless people are suing the City of Los Angeles and the police department for "criminalizing" their homelessness, violating their civil rights and destroying their possessions.

"We brought this suit to prevent the city from engaging in a practice of unlawfully seizing and destroying homeless people's property. It is an ongoing issue that is only increasing in frequency, which is why we brought the case," the plaintiffs' attorney Shayla Meyers told Courthouse News.

The federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles on Monday, accuses the city and the police department of wrongfully arresting homeless people and seizing their lawful shopping carts as part of a "criminalization" campaign.

Comment: If won, this lawsuit can set a precedent for more humane treatment of homeless people all over the country.


Heart - Black

Civil rights defender jailed on pot charge dies in custody after being unable to pay $100 bail

handcuffs
Last week, police, in their efforts to keep the world safe from a dangerous plant, arrested Jeffrey Pendleton for possessing a small amount of cannabis.

He was then locked in a cage last Wednesday after a Nashua District Court judge had set his bail at $100 cash. Unable to pay his extortion fee for possessing a plant that is legal in some form in 23 states, Pendleton, 26, was found dead in his cell five days later at 2:45 on Sunday.

"There appeared no indication that Mr. Pendleton was in any form of distress," said Superintendent David Dionne. The Manchester police are now investigating his death.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday. However, the results have yet to be released publicly, leaving some questioning the circumstances of his untimely death — especially considering his outstanding history of activism against police abuse of the homeless.

Pendleton is no stranger to police in the area as he had won settlements for civil rights violations from both the Hudson and Nashua police departments last year. Pendleton won a settlement of $7,640 from Hudson after he was unlawfully arrested for standing on public property holding a sign that read, "Homeless and Struggling."

V

Flashback Italians sign petition calling for "Nuremberg for Israel" over genocide of Palestinians

rome protest
© AFP Photo / Andreas SolaroPeople hold a banner in solidarity with Palestinian people during a protest at the Pantheon in Rome.
Hundreds of Italians have signed an online petition slamming Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip as a "slow genocide" of the Palestinians and demanding a "Nuremberg trial" for Israel over the "destruction" of Palestine.

The petition was signed by 525 Italians, mainly academics, Haaretz reported. The signees say they are dismayed by the events in Gaza and accuse Israel of pursuing colonial policies and "ethnic cleansing" of the Palestinians.

The document calls for Israel to face an international tribunal, a Nuremberg-like trial, for its war crimes and the "slow genocide" of the Palestinian people. Italian activists believe that not only the Israeli military and the government, but also the entire state of Israel and "its accomplices" should be brought to trial over current events, as well as those in the past and "the foreseeable future."

The online document also blames the US for supporting Israel, and the EU for "active or passive complicity" in Israel's actions against the Palestinian people. The petition signees also accuse the United Nations of its failure to stop Israel. The Western media, according to activists, paints the events in the wrong light, justifying the Israeli offensive in Gaza as a self-defense operation.

Called 'Noi Accusiamo' (We Accuse), the petition was initially published on an academic website, Historia Magistra, but has gone viral after being re-posted on the website of left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto.

Heart - Black

How the US government's collusion with Big Pharma is driving the opioid epidemic

Pills
© Enny Nuraheni / Reuters
We are in the middle of an opioid and heroin epidemic, which is killing ever increasing numbers of Americans at an astonishing rate.

In 2014, almost 30,000 people died from heroin and opioids (also called narcotic prescription painkillers), exceeding those who died from car accidents during the same year, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1

Prescriptions for opioids have risen by 300 percent over the past 10 years and fed the heroin epidemic as the tolerance of opioid addicts surpasses their allotted prescription dosage and/or they are no longer allowed to refill their prescription.

In April of 2015, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also noted that "Controlled prescription drug abusers who begin using heroin do so chiefly because of price differences."2

Most people know there is a prescription painkiller epidemic underway but few realize how much the government is enabling it, how much taxpayers are subsidizing it, and how this is the root cause of the current heroin epidemic.

Comment: Despite Obama's new federal initiative to combat the epidemic, the appointment of Robert Califf, a pharma industry insider, will only insure that pharmaceutical cartel profits will continue to be placed well above those of the health and safety of the population. Although you won't be hearing about this on mainstream news, there are alternatives that can help with pain:


Eye 2

More overkill: Israeli forces routinely shoot up Palestinian corpses

IDF Sniper
© Flickr / Israel Defense Forces
Autopsies of those killed by Israeli defense forces reveal that Jerusalem is not only systematically executing Palestinians, but also intentionally firing rounds into corpses.

On Monday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians. Qassem Farid Jaber, 31, and Amir Fuad al-Juneidi, 22, were gunned down after opening fire on Israeli troopers near the Kiryat Arba Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

An Israeli soldier was reportedly injured during the incident.

A third Palestinian man was killed in a separate incident on the same day. Yousef Waleed Tarayra, 18, was shot dead after allegedly attempting a ramming attack in his car, injuring two Israeli soldiers.

Comment: The IDF's behavior towards Palestinians has turned from murderous to macabre. As the article indicates, there is a culture of raw hatred inculcated towards Palestinians that goes far beyond the sane and rational perception Israel likes to project about itself.

A case in point:

Israeli hate t shirts



Snakes in Suits

Bayer and Johnson & Johnson caught hiding data from New England Journal of Medicine

bayer
It is a startling accusation, buried in a footnote in a legal briefing filed recently in federal court: Did two major pharmaceutical companies, in an effort to protect their blockbuster drug, mislead editors at one of the world's most prestigious medical journals?

Lawyers for patients suing Johnson & Johnson and Bayer over the safety of the anticlotting drug Xarelto say the answer is yes, claiming that a letter published in The New England Journal of Medicine and written primarily by researchers at Duke University left out critical laboratory data. They claim the companies were complicit by staying silent, helping deceive the editors while the companies were in the midst of providing the very same data to regulators in the United States and Europe.

Duke and Johnson & Johnson contend that they worked independently of each other. Bayer declined to comment. And top editors at The New England Journal of Medicine said they did not know that separate laboratory data existed until a reporter contacted them last week, but they dismissed its relevance and said they stood by the article's analysis.

But the claim — that industry influence led to the concealing of data — carries echoes, some experts said, of an earlier era of drug marketing, when crucial clinical data went missing from journal articles, leading to high-profile corrections and a wave of ethics policies to limit the influence of drug companies on medical literature.

Book 2

'Ruthless': Father of pathological Scientology leader David Miscavige to publish memoir

Ron Miscavige memoir
Ron Miscavige, the father of Scientology leader David Miscavige, has written a memoir about his controversial son.

St. Martin's Press will publish "Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige and Me" on May 3, according to a news release. The media described the memoir as "the only book to examine the origins of Scientology's current leader" and "a riveting insider's look at life within the world of Scientology."

Ron Miscavige and his family converted to Scientology in 1971, living for a few years in Saint Hill Manor, the British headquarters of the religion. They later returned to their home in Pennsylvania, and David Miscavige joined the Sea Org — a religious order within Scientology — at age 16.

Comment: There is much to suggest that Tom Miscavige's allegations about his son David Miscavige are horrifyingly true. The stories we have covered here at SOTT over the years make clear that at the very top of Scientology is a very successful psychopath who will basically stop at nothing to achieve and maintain total control of the people he is surrounded by.

See also:


Pistol

Man wearing a black hoodie gunned down by trigger happy cops for pointing at them

hoody cop shooting
Responding to a 911 call reporting a robbery in progress, two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies pulled up to a payphone and gunned down an unarmed man pointing his finger at them. After killing the unarmed suspect, police investigators later discovered that no robbery had occurred.

Around 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, police dispatchers received a call reporting a robbery in progress near South Los Angeles. According to a statement released by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD), the caller described the robbery suspect as wearing a black hoodie and black shorts while carrying a black handgun. Approaching a Hispanic male reportedly matching the description and standing next to a payphone, the deputies summarily opened fire.

According to homicide Lt. Eddie Hernandez, it remains unclear whether the deputies turned on their siren or even announced their presence before confronting the suspect. Hernandez claimed that the suspect assumed a two-hand shooting stance pointing his finger at the deputies when he realized they were approaching him.

Comment: Even "if" the man wanted to commit suicide, why would the cops kill him for pointing his fingers?


Book 2

Brussels: Algerian raid suspect found with ISIS flag and jihadist manual

brussels raid
© www.independent.co.ukPolice at scene where shots were fired, Forest suburb near Brussels.
An Islamic State flag and a manual for jihadists were found by Belgian police on the body of the Algerian-born gunman shot in a Brussels raid on an apartment, the prosecutor's office said. The police raid connected to the Paris attacks is ongoing.

A routine inspection of a suburban apartment in southern Brussels on Tuesday erupted in a fire fight in which three officers were slightly hurt and a fourth sustained minor injuries, according to police. A subsequent raid took place three hours after the first operation, leading to the death of one gunman armed with a Kalashnikov. Two suspects reportedly fled the scene.

The fire fight led to a complete lockdown of the block around the rue du Dries, which lasted for several hours before residents were told it was safe to return to their homes. The police operation connected to the Paris attacks of November was still ongoing on Wednesday, according to Prime Minister Charles Michel.

The dead suspect was identified as Belkhaid Mohammed, 35, an Algerian national residing in Belgium illegally, but who had not been on the authorities' radar before, the Belgium's federal prosecutor office's spokesman Eric Van der Sypt said in a statement. An Islamic State flag and a manual on Salafism were found close to his body, he added.


Comment: Why does this incident sound like a set-up? "routine inspection" (objective: 'anti-terrorism' confrontation), "complete lock-down of the block" (no witnesses), "IS flag and Salafism manual close to/on body" (surely the two things you want to grab in a shoot out), "armed with a Kalashnikov" (convenient or planted Russian aspect), "French assistance a 'mere coincidence'" (for that routine inspection?), "not on authorities' radar" (accidentally killed and framed)...or, this could be the real deal absolute truth, just saying it sounds a lot like...(a dog and pony progress report for the public).