Society's ChildS


Dollar

Riyadh's coercion and physical abuse used to seize billions in anti-corruption purge


RT
Tue, 13 Mar 2018 05:08 UTC
MohammedbinSalman
© Hamad I Mohammed / ReutersSaudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Saudi Arabia's so-called anti-corruption campaign saw hundreds of the country's elite arrested about four months ago. Most detainees have been released but witnesses say they are not really free, living in fear and uncertainty.

People familiar with the situation told the New York Times that many of the arrested princes and businessmen were subjected to coercion and physical abuse. They now wear ankle bracelets that track their movements, witnesses said. The families who flew on private jets cannot gain access to their bank accounts, even wives and children have been forbidden to travel.

In the early days of the crackdown, at least 17 detainees were hospitalized due to physical abuse and one later died in custody with neck injuries and other signs of abuse, according to a person who saw the body. In an email to the New York Times, the Saudi government denied accusations of physical abuse as "absolutely untrue."

Many of the detainees surrendered huge sums of money in order to leave the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, where the arrested were held. They have also signed over real estate and shares in their companies to the government - all outside of any clear legal process. "We signed away everything," said a relative of a former detainee, who has been forced to wear a tracking device. "Even the house I am in, I am not sure if it is still mine."

Comment: See also: More from Yahoo.com:
A Saudi general may have been tortured to death and several wealthy businessmen were allegedly abused in captivity at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's recent crackdown on powerful figures in Saudi Arabia, according to a newspaper report.

The most dramatic accusation involves Major General Ali al-Qahtani, an aide to a senior Saudi prince seen as a potential rival to the 32-year-old Prince Mohammed, who died in government custody in mid-December.

Sources told the newspaper that the general's "neck was twisted unnaturally as though it had been broken" and that his body had burn marks which appeared to be the result of electric shocks.

General Qahtani was taken to hospital in November but was reportedly returned to his interrogation after being seen by doctors. The government has not offered an official explanation for how he died.

The general's death had been widely reported in Arab and Iranian media previously but not in detail. The US report comes shortly before Prince Mohammed, known by his initials "MBS", is due in Washington for meetings with the Trump administration.

General Qahtani was an aide to Prince Turki bin Abdullah, a former governor of Riyadh who is from a rival line of the Saudi royal family to Prince Mohammed. Prince Turki was himself detained during the November crackdown on allegations of corruption. He was eventually released.


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Ambulance

Tiger mauls zookeeper who raised and domesticated him since a cub (VIDEO)

Erica Doyle Higgins
The Sun
Mon, 12 Mar 2018 19:14 UTC
tiger attack zookeeper
© AsiaWireThe zookeeper lies lifeless in the cage as staff members push the tiger away with a stick
The shocking moment a zookeeper was mauled and eaten alive by a tiger he had raised since it was a cub at a Chinese zoo has been captured on video.

The employee, with the surname Wu, was with the tiger inside the large metal cage used for training exercises and circus performances when the big cat attacked.

An official with the Fuzhou City Government in East China's Fujian Province said the cat "suddenly bit onto and suffocated him to death."

The statement said Wu, who worked for the Fuzhou Zoo, had raised the tiger since it was a cub, and that it had been domesticated through long-term interaction with humans.

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Cheeseburger

Iraqi military discover US army rations in cave used by Daesh


Sputnik
Mon, 12 Mar 2018 21:56 UTC
Daeshflagguy
© VOA
The cave may have been used as a staging area from which the jihadists could rest and eat.

Directorate 4, a Telegram channel monitoring the security situation in Iraq and Syria, reported the find, saying that US MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) individual field rations packaging was found in the terrorists' cave.

The channel explained that in addition to caches of weapons and ammunition, the Iraqi military has also been finding these kinds of Daesh (ISIS) underground shelters where the jihadists could get a bit of rest and relaxation. Directorate 4 added that it can be assumed that some of these secret facilities continue to be used.

The Syrian and Iraqi militaries have been finding large stocks of weapons, ammunition, and other supplies in territories once controlled by Daesh. On Monday, Syrian Army units discovered a massive pile of US and European-made weapons inside Daesh hideouts near the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor.
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Star of David

Jerusalem is where the occupier demands loyalty from the occupied

Mariam Barghouti
Al Jazeera
Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Silhouettes Palflags
© Axios
Israel's new 'breach of loyalty' bill is yet another sinister attempt to erase the Palestinian identity from Palestine.

Last Wednesday, Palestinians in Jerusalem were hit with yet another travesty. The Israeli parliament ratified a bill that allows the minister of interior to revoke the residency rights of any Palestinian who poses a threat to Israel, or, more specifically, is suspected of a "breach of loyalty" to Israel.

Palestinians in Jerusalem do not possess Israeli citizenship or Palestinian passports. They are in a perpetual limbo state with a mere permanent residency card and temporary Jordanian passports for travel purposes. Between the years of 1967 and 2016, Israel has revoked the status of more than 14,500 Palestinian Jerusalemites, despite them having lived there for generations, since before the establishment of the Israeli state.

The new bill, which is a visible consequence of Israel's being emboldened to take over Jerusalem after Trump recognised the city as the undivided capital of Israel, is not only an attack on the Palestinians of Jerusalem but implicitly acts to further attack Palestinian identity.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Russian MoD: Militants killed 9 civilians in Eastern Ghouta while suppressing protests


RT
Tue, 13 Mar 2018 20:10 UTC
Destroyed buildings
© Bassam Khabieh / Reuters
Militants in Eastern Ghouta killed at least nine civilians on Monday during protests against being held hostage in the city, according to Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia's general staff.

"Terrorists severely suppress any protest actions from the population of Eastern Ghouta, who are forbidden to leave the area under threat of death," the top Russian military officer said. Eastern Ghouta is a militant-held suburb near the Syrian capital of Damascus.

While dispersing a rally in the Hammuria area of Eastern Ghouta, militants shot dead four people and injured 10 more, the official said. Five more were killed and 12 injured in the Kafr Batna area, Gerasimov said, citing data from the Russian MoD.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

The 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' dies prior to starting sentence


The Jerusalem Post
Mon, 12 Mar 2018 20:00 UTC
OskarGroening
© Reuters/Axel Heimken/PoolOskar Groening
Oskar Groening was sentenced to four years for his role as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 of the Auschwitz concentration camp's roughly 1 million victims.

The man known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz" who in 2015 became one of the last people to be convicted for crimes in the Nazi genocide of Europe's Jews during World War Two, has died aged 96, magazine Der Spiegel reported on Monday.

Oskar Groening was sentenced to four years for his role as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 of the Auschwitz concentration camp's roughly 1 million victims. He was in the hospital when he died and had yet to begin his sentence.

Spiegel said Groening died on Friday but prison authorities had yet to receive a death certificate. He did not take part in any killings himself but counted cash taken from victims on their arrival at the camp.
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Sheeple

Shocking televised experiment shows people will resort to murder to conform to society

Dylan Charles
Waking Times
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 19:05 UTC
push off roof
In his 1974 book, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram discusses in detail the findings of his now famous experiment. Milgram demonstrated just how easy it is to convince an ordinary person to commit torture and murder under the instruction of an authority figure.

Intrigued by the role of Nazi military personnel in concentration camps during WWII, Milgram wanted to know how much coercion people needed in order to willingly inflict harm on another person.
"He asked volunteers to deliver an electric shock to a stranger. Unbeknownst to the volunteers, there was no shock-and the people they were shocking were actors pretending to be terribly hurt, even feigning heart attacks. Milgram found that most people would keep delivering the shocks when ordered by a person in a lab coat, even when they believed that person was gravely injured. Only a tiny percentage of people refused." [Source]
The suggested conclusion is that people are inherently unable to think for themselves when given a subordinate role in some authoritarian hierarchy, such as the role of the ordinary citizen in a state-controlled world. A documentary of this experiment can be seen here.
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TV

Israeli feminists lose it over removal of female IDF soldier video


Sputnik
Sun, 11 Mar 2018 15:39 UTC
israeli soldiers
© AFP 2018/ JACK GUEZ
Israel's Air Force uploaded a video specially for International Women's Day on March 8, but quickly had to revoke it . However, due to a number of enthusiasts who managed to save the file on their computers, it's now being shared on Twitter and elsewhere on the internet.

The Israeli defense forces, which draft women in addition to men, were criticized sharply on Saturday after they removed a feminist air force video, previously shared on social networks, which lauded female soldiers' contributions in the military sphere.

According to the religious website Srugim, the video was taken down after it tweeted that the video was provocative.

The move triggered a storm of criticism from female opposition lawmakers. For instance, Zionist Union's Tzipi Livni wrote on Twitter that the rhetoric voiced by religious conservative activists is much the same as what they say about successful women in any walk of life - from combat to politics.
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TV

Eva Bartlett interviews veteran journalist Elijah Magnier on latest developments in Syria (Update)

Eva K Barltlett and Elijah J. Magnier
Eva K Bartlett
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 21:25 UTC
Elijah Magnier
© Eva Bartlett
Elijah Magnier is the chief international correspondent at Al Rai and a political and terrorism/counterterrorism analyst, with over 32 years' experience, including covering Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya & more.

His website is Elijah J. Magnier where you can find his latest articles, including translations into a number of languages. You can find him also on Twitter.

Mr. Magnier is working on a book, "Hezbollah: The Unlikely Peacemakers From Domestic Resistance To A Regional Army". He has a Go Fund Me campaign for this project.


Comment: Update: Journalist Elijah Magnier reports on developments in Ghouta, Afrin and the corporate media's shameful reporting:
On March 11, 2018, I was joined again by courageous journalist and analyst, Elijah J. Magnier, who was in Syria. He addressed developments in eastern Ghouta and in Syria's northwestern region of Afrin-where Turkey has been waging an illegal month and a half-long bombardment operation, killing hundreds of Syrian civilians.

He also spoke of the Reconciliation process, former militants now fighting with the Syrian army, and the makeup of the Syrian army itself. He addressed Twitter censorship, and the incredibly unethical journalism that is Western (and Gulf) corporate media on Syria, among other things.

**Note: the connection was weak at times and so there are a couple of occasions where the feed freezes for a few seconds. Apologies, out of my hands. The clicking was me trying to resolve whatever the issue was, and to ensure recording was continuing.


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Life Preserver

Vancouver mayor calls for immediate legalization of all drugs in efforts to fight opioid epidemic

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Showing how the war on drugs has only led to more harm and more overdoses, the mayor of Vancouver is now making a push to decriminalize all drugs.

Drug war
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson issued a bold press release which called for the legalization of all drugs, even drugs like heroin and cocaine.

The statement pointed out that 365 people died from overdoses last year in the city of Vancouver, and the Mayor blamed drug prohibition for this problem.

"We are witnessing a horrific and preventable loss of life as a poisoned drug supply continues to kill our neighbors, friends, and family. Volunteers and first responders are working around the clock to keep people alive, but lives are on the line and more action is urgently needed. We will keep pushing for bold solutions, and that includes breaking down the stigma that leads people to use drugs alone at home, addressing access to a clean supply through drug testing equipment, and dramatically improving a range of treatment options like opioid substitution therapy," Robertson said.

The mayor went on to say that there are over 100 medical calls in the city every week relating to overdoses and suggested harm prevention methods instead of punishment.

Comment:

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