Society's ChildS


Question

Swedish court allows flying the Islamic State flag

ISIS flag
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
A Swedish court has dismissed a case against a Muslim man accused of inciting racial hatred for flying an Islamic State flag because it is not an expression of hate speech.

The now 23-year-old from Laholm, in Halland County posted a photo of himself posing with the flag as his Facebook profile picture in December 2015, but removed it when it was reported to police in March.

The Syrian-born man was facing felony charges of inciting racial hatred, but Prosecutor Gisela Sjovalls said she had made the decision to drop the charges "after careful consideration back and forth," reports Hallandsposten.

Comment: Interesting debate on what the IS flag represents. Here are some clues to the controversy:
ISIS, or the Islamic State
ISIS flag in Iraq
© STR/AP
ISIS's flag features a handwritten, rougher version of the shahada. The top line reads: "La 'ilaha 'illa-llah,"meaning "There is no god but God," and the white seal reads "God Messenger Mohammed." The script is much less elaborate than other flags with similar messages. The white seal is meant to resemble the official seal of the Prophet Muhammad, though experts have debated what the seal actually looked like.
RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM AND ISLAM
What do symbols represent in religion? For many, it is sacred; for some, it is their identity, or represents their culture, history, practices, beliefs, spirituality, architectural artifacts, buildings and decorations or signifies their place in religious worships and rituals, or a relic of historical values.

Islam is considered to be an iconoclastic religion and strictly speaking does not possess symbols. This derives from the strict monotheistic belief within Islam that there is no creator but God. Muslims believe that the pictorial representation of anything that could be understood to represent divine power is an arrogation of the divine creative power by humans.

Islam has no symbol principally associated with it. The early Muslim community did not really have a symbol. The Holy Qur'an also does not specify any symbol for Islam and current symbols are the results of the understanding and imagination of Muslim artists, politicians or thinkers during the past times. During the early years of Islam Muslim armies and caravans flew simple solid-colored flags (generally black or white without symbols or markings) for identification purposes. In later generations, the Muslim leaders continued to use a simple black, white or green flag with no markings, writings or symbolism on it. There are no official Islamic symbols, but several symbols have a special place in the Muslim community.



Laptop

WikiLeaks sources facing serious charges following CIA, FBI, DHS hacks

computer hacker
Two North Carolina men were arrested in September for their alleged roles in a hacking group responsible for breaching the email accounts of CIA Director John Brennan, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper -- and providing the contents to WikiLeaks.

Andrew Otto Boggs, 22, and Justin Gray Liverman, 24, were extradited to Virginia to appear at an Alexandria District Court. Despite the allegations that they belonged to the same hacker group, and the fact that they live so close together, the two men did not know each other offline.

The duo is accused of being part of the hacking group "Crackas With Attitude," which allegedly social-engineered access to Clapper's personal email, home telephone and internet account, as well as his wife's Yahoo email account.

At least three other members of the group, located in the United Kingdom, are currently under investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service. Two, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old, were arrested earlier this year but have not been identified, as they are minors. One of the minors went by the alias "Cracka," and is alleged to have been behind the bulk of the breaches.

Bell

The Forgotten War: Anguish, Bloodshed, Forgotten Heroes of Yemen

sanaa funeral yemen
© Yemen the Forgotten WarYemen civil defence and army recovering bodies from the Saudi coalition bombed ceremony hall in Sanaa
It should be personal to all of us. Yemen, regularly portrayed as the poorest nation in the Arab world, is proving itself to be the richest in courage, resourcefulness and resilience.

Ever since March 2015, some of you may have noticed how oil-rich Saudi Arabia, with the United States at its side, have been waging genocidal war against the Yemeni people.

Yemen are a people under attack by an undeclared super-power coalition comprised of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, US, UK, EU, UAE and Israel. As in Iraq, while the Yemeni people are under attack from super-powers, they are simultaneously being collectively punished by the illegal sanctions imposed by a corrupt United Nations body.

Sanctions imposed by resolution 2216, against 5 named individuals, on the pretext of legitimizing an illegitimate fugitive ex-president, Saudi Arabia and Washington's hand-picked puppet leader, Mansour Hadi, who demanded that neighbouring Saudi Arabia bomb his ownpeople - even after Hadi had resigned twice from an already over-extended presidential term, before fleeing to his alma mater in Riyadh.

UN sanctions imposed upon 5 named individuals yet being exploited by the US/UK/EU backed Saudi coalition to collectively starve and punish 27 million Yemeni people.


Comment: Funny... Hadi is a dictator who is killing his own people. Yet where is the "responsibility to protect" the Yemeni from this illegitimate leader? Instead, they are supporting him in his genocide. Not very funny at all, in fact.


Fire

"No Nazis Here!": Nazis Stage Massive March in Kiev

azov nazis
© Sputnik/ Stringer"Nazi and proud."
On Friday, several thousand Ukrainian ultranationalists descended onto the streets of Kiev to mark Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) day, dedicated to the 74th anniversary of the founding of the WWII-era Nazi collaborationist organization.

Ukrainian media reported that up to 5,000 radicals from organizations including the Azov Regiment, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Right Sector and the Svoboda Party gathered to celebrate the holiday, which coincides with the Day of Ukrainian Cossacks and Defender of Ukraine Day, the latter holiday invented in 2014 to replace the 'Defender of the Fatherland Day', celebrated in most post-Soviet countries on February 23.

The nationalists walked through the streets, holding torches and flares, throwing smoke bombs, chanting nationalist slogans, beating drums and holding the flags of ultranationalist and neo-fascist organizations.


Comment: There's nothing "neo" about these Nazis. No wonder the U.S. helped put them in power in post-Maidan Ukraine - the CIA establishment has been infested with Nazis ever since Allen Dulles's love affair with the SS during the war.


Snakes in Suits

Corporate psychopathy: Pharma company raised price of lead poisoning drug 2,700% as Flint water crisis unfolded

flint michigan lead water
The saga of Flint, Michigan, where residents suddenly found themselves drinking lead-poisoned tap water, demonstrated how people become victims of corrupt government. If that weren't enough, those who suffer the worst from lead poisoning find themselves the victim of shameless corporate greed.

As the Flint water crisis unfolded and we began finding out that lead-tainted water is a problem in cities across the country, one notorious pharmaceutical company saw a chance to cash in.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals raised the price of a drug used to treat lead poisoning by 2,700 percent after acquiring the drug in 2013. By 2015 - as the issue of lead poisoning became prominent news - the price for a package of vials rose from $950 to $26,927.

Comment: Children debilitated by lead poisoning: just another profit opportunity to corporate psychopaths.


Health

Sodomized Guantánamo prisoner recovers after surgery

Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi
© www.welt.deMustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi
An alleged accomplice in the Sept. 11 terror attacks underwent reconstructive surgery for decade-old damage from his "sodomy" in CIA custody and was to be returned to his clandestine prison to recuperate, his attorney said Saturday. "All they said is there was minimal bleeding and he is recovering," attorney Walter Ruiz, a Navy Reserve commander, said Saturday morning. His client, Mustafa al Hawsawi, 48, was scheduled to begin surgery at 9 p.m. Friday and Ruiz said he was informed that it was over by 10:45 p.m.

Hawsawi, a Saudi, and four other men are awaiting a death-penalty trial for allegedly orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. He voluntarily missed Friday's hearing to rest up for the procedure.

An unclassified portion of the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation of the CIA's Black Site program showed allegations that Hawsawi was subjected to rectal exams with "excessive force" before his 2006 transfer to Guantánamo and that at one point he had a "medical emergency" that the agency considered having treated in a foreign hospital.

Comment: Torture: The government's 'terrorists' within are just as bad, maybe worse, than the terrorists in the field. For Hawsawi, it took more than 10 years to repair this ongoing, painful damage.


Laptop

Memo to Clinton team: We noted you might need a few email security tips...

hillary on phone face
© Ethan Miller/Getty Images
There is probably no one more acutely aware of the importance of good cybersecurity right now than Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, whose emails have been laid bare by WikiLeaks, are being mined for news by journalists (including at The Intercept), and are available for anyone with internet access to read.

So as a public service to Podesta and everyone else on Clinton's staff, here are some email security tips that could have saved you from getting hacked, and might help you in the future.

Use a strong password

There's a method for coming up with passwords that are mathematically unfeasible for anyone to ever guess by brute force, but that are still possible for you to memorize. I've written about it before, in detail, including an explanation of the math behind it.

But in short: You start with a long list of words and then randomly select one (by rolling dice), then another, and so on, until you end up with something like: "slinging gusty bunny chill gift." Using this method, called Diceware, there is a one in 28 quintillion (that is, 28 with 18 zeros at the end) chance of guessing this exact password.

For online services that prevent attackers from making very many guesses — including Gmail — a five-word Diceware password is much stronger than you'll ever need. To make it super easy, use this wordlist from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Comment: Wise advice. Who's been reading YOUR email?


Handcuffs

Ridiculous laws, awful cop behavior and the reason why people are angry: What walking around a blocked sidewalk looks like in a police state

blocked road
Edina, MN — Larnie B. Thomas didn't do anything 'wrong,' per se — but that, unsurprisingly, did not prevent a typically ugly interaction with police intent to enforce one of thousands of needless laws governing daily life.

Edina, Minnesota, police felt construction blocking the sidewalk did not constitute sufficient reason for Thomas to enter the roadway, even though he hugged the right shoulder's white line — so a plain-clothed officer paid with taxpayer dollars halted his forward progress to harass and then arrest the man for attempting forward progress.

Janet Rowles stopped her vehicle and watched the incident unfold along Xerxes Avenue and — as has become a necessity in the American police state — whipped out her cell phone to tape the unnecessary confrontation.

Lt. T.F. Olson, identified later, grabbed the back of Thomas' jacket and then escorted the man back toward his waiting, unmarked SUV.

"Come over here," the white officer in an oxford shirt and khakis tells the man whose elbow he grasped.

"For what?!" Thomas replies, understandably angry at having been accosted for essentially no reason.

Cross

Mexican priest with HIV who raped 30 young girls absolved by church

catholic church
© Getty Images/EyeemThe priest, Jose Garcia Ataulfo, was absolved of any wrongdoing by the Archdiocese of Mexico.
The Catholic Church has acquitted an HIV-infected priest who has admitted to raping close to 30 young girls between the ages of five and 10 years old.

According to a bombshell report, which appeared in the Spanish-language news site Urgente24.com, the priest, Jose Garcia Ataulfo, was absolved of any wrongdoing by the Archdiocese of Mexico.

Comment:


Dollar

Caught!: Millions found in Chicago police dept. from secret asset forfeiture fund

gun-money
A detailed report released in September 2016 by the Chicago Reader unveiled a secret civil asset forfeiture fund that amounted to nearly $50 million in seized cash which the Chicago Police Department was attempting to keep for themselves. The detailed analysis shows that CPD officials were attempting to pocket 65% of the cash and assets they brought in through civil asset forfeiture. This is policing for profit, and it is no different than highway robbery.

The Reader reports:
Since 2009, the year CPD began keeping electronic records of its forfeiture accounts, the department has brought in nearly $72 million in cash and assets through civil forfeiture, keeping nearly $47 million for itself and sending on almost $18 million to the Cook County state's attorney's office and almost $7.2 million to the Illinois State Police, according to our analysis of CPD records.

Comment: From this recent article we learn that police civil asset forfeiture is a widespread phenomenon:
Such pointless raids were the norm rather than the exception in about a half a dozen ride-alongs on which Atkinson and his crew went. But while the cops found almost no drugs, they did seize $876 through a controversial policing practice known as civil asset forfeiture.

"It gives you a reason to enter the home and almost always there's something you can seize within the home," Atkinson said in an interview with Truthdig. "We've created a for-profit policing system," said Atkinson, the son of a SWAT-team commander. "You're sending SWAT teams into homes, and if they find anything, they get to keep it."

According to Eastern Kentucky University criminologist Peter Kraska, there are 50,000 to 80,000 raids like this per year, up from 3,000 per year in the 1980s. The turning point came in the 1990s with the 1208 program, which authorized the Department of Defense (DOD) to transfer to federal and state police any weaponry and supplies "suitable for use by such agencies in counter-drug activities." The 1208 was expanded into the 1033 Program in 1997, and the new policy gave police the right to asset forfeiture.

Today, 80 percent of SWAT deployments are based on search warrants. Nearly all of those are drug raids, which, according to the movie, yield results about half of the time. The situation is so out of control that in 2014, police seized more private property from ordinary citizens than was stolen by criminals.