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Snowden: NSA mass surveillance has no effect in combating terrorism

snowden

Comment: Snowden is absolutely right. The NSA never intended to stop terrorism, since it is their own government that is the biggest terrorist in the world. Terrorism has merely been used by the US government as an excuse to further erode the freedoms and rights that every American had at one time, freedoms that have been decimated all in the name of making us safer, which Snowden points out, has never actually happened. It's all been a con job, and we're the marks.


Bulk data gathering programs used by US intelligence have no effect in combating terrorism and have failed to prevent any attacks in their 10 years of operation, whistleblower and former NSA contactor Edward Snowden, claims in a recent interview.

"In the wake of the revelations of mass surveillance the [US] president [Barack Obama] appointed two independent commissions to review the efficiency of these [surveillance] programs, what they really did and what effect they had in combating terrorism. [The commissions comprised] the highest priests of these programs, they found these programs had never stopped a single terrorist attack and never made a concrete difference in a terrorist investigation," Snowden told Spanish TV channel Sexta.

The whistleblower went on saying, that "they [the NSA, CIA] violated the constitution and the rights of 330 million Americans for 10 years. We have to ask ourselves: was it ever worth it?" He also stated that despite being justified by preventing terrorist attacks, surveillance programs are more often used for completely different purposes.

"It was diplomatic manipulation, economic spying and social control. It was about power, and there is no doubt that mass surveillance increases the power of the government."

Eye 2

South Sudanese militias allowed to rape women as a form of payment for military service

South Sudan soldiers
Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ

Soldiers were allowed to rape women as a form of payment for their military service. This was stated in the UN report on the situation in South Sudan.

Reuters reports that, according to the UN document, the government of South Sudan not only did not punish soldiers for such crimes, but also supported them.

The High Commissioner of United Nations for Human Rights, Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad, said that in South Sudan horrible things happen of a violent nature towards women from the military and authorities.

The number of raped women during the last six months increased by 1,300 people. The UN report highlights the murder of the local population and the numerous robberies committed by militias.

In the beginning of 2015, another document was declassified, which referred to crimes of a sexual nature. It referred to the abuse by peacekeepers whilst in hot spots.

Cult

Heil Trump: Supporter tells protesters "Go to Auschwitz" while making Nazi salute

trump nazi salute
© kyle bogden
During a recent Donald Trump rally in Cleveland, a man was caught on film yelling some incredibly offensive material at protesters.

Note: The following contains strong language.

Huff Post reports that the unnamed man, who apparently raised his arm in a Nazi salute, yelled:
"Go to Auschwitz. Go to fucking Auschwitz."

Comment: This Nazi glorification is becoming all too common at Trump rallies. Trump's popularity is a billboard signaling America's final decline into a totalitarian state.


Heart - Black

Car bomb injures four people in Russia's Caucasus region

Nazran mosque car bomb
© Ингушское Видео / YouTube
A powerful blast that took place outside a mosque in Nazran, the capital of Russia's republic of Ingushetia in the Caucasus, has injured at least four people and damaged several cars. The bomb may have been targeting the mosque's imam. The car explosion near the Nasyr-Kortovskaya mosque in Nazran injured four people, a spokesman for the Ingushetia department of the Russian Investigation Committee told TASS on Friday.

"Four people,aged 19, 23, 42 and 55, were hurt in the explosion. They received injuries of various degrees of severity," the official said, adding that all of them were taken to hospital.

The 55-year-old man with a serious head wound was operated on and is currently in the intensive care unit. The three others were soon discharged.


Attention

FDA opening a criminal investigation into urination on Kellogg's assembly line video

Kellogg's factory
© Phil Noble / Reuters
A video of a man urinating on equipment used to move Kellogg's rice cereal products went viral over the weekend, but more serious consequences could be pending for both the company and the offending employee. A criminal investigation is underway.

The Kellogg Company was made aware of the footage shortly after it was posted on the viral video site World Star Hip Hop, although Kellogg's told Associated Press that they were able to determine the video was recorded in 2014 at a Memphis, Tennessee plant. The company's internal analysts based the finding on the factory equipment, which they said was different from their current setup.

Since Kellogg's contacted the US Food and Drug Administration, the agency's Office of Criminal Investigations has opened its own case. The offending employee remains unidentified.

Eye 2

Blaming the victim: 13-year-old rape victim sent home from New York middle school for reporting rape

G. in her room
© Sophia Guida for Buzzfeed NewsG. in her room.
A Brooklyn, New York, teen was sent home from school for reporting her rape to the principal.

The 13-year-old, who identified herself by her middle initial G., told BuzzFeed news that a boy in her eighth-grade class at Spring Creek Middle School in Brooklyn secretly filmed himself raping her in April 2015 and then shared it with others. The boy claimed the sex was consensual, but G. said his claim was false.

"It was the most awful thing," she said. "It was bad enough that everyone knew what happened. But knowing that they had seen the video was that much worse." G. said she didn't want to engage in sexual activity with the boy, but others at the school told her it was her fault for not putting up enough of a fight.

"They said I allowed it to happen to me," she said. "But I had no idea what I was supposed to do."

Though the federal gender equity law Title IX requires schools that receive federal funding to investigate claims of sexual assault, G.'s principal decided to send her home while the school attempted to handle the situation.

School administrators never reported the incident, nor did they refer her to legal services or counseling. G. wasn't sent home any work or didn't receive any follow-up contact from the school. After a four-day investigation, G.'s mother said the principal transferred her daughter to another school because there was nothing more they could do.

"Everyone was blaming things on me," G. said. "It was so much pressure. I couldn't take it. At times I felt like giving up on my life."

Comment: The boy, the people who blamed her and the school who dismissed her are disgusting human beings. What a sickening stance to take for the desire of federal money.

Rape Culture in America - How the system protects the rapists and fails the victims


Megaphone

Sisters Uncut blockades Treasury protesting the cut of domestic abuse service funding

female protesters
© Claudia Moroni / sistersuncut.org
Feminist campaigners blockaded the entrance to the Treasury in London on Monday over what they described as "sexist" and "racist" cuts to vital funding for domestic violence services ahead of the government's upcoming budget.

The protest was organized by feminist direct action group Sisters Uncut, which has been campaigning against slashed domestic violence services since 2014.

Sixteen young campaigners arrived at the Horse Guards Road entrance of the Treasury on Monday morning, demanding the government reverse its decision to implement the funding cuts.

The feminists then dropped a monochrome banner demanding the government "ring-fence domestic violence services" as advisers and officials attempted to enter the building.

Family

Hundreds of refugees cross border from Greece into Macedonia

refugees cross Greek-Macedonian border
© Stoyan Nenov / ReutersMigrants wade across a river near the Greek-Macedonian border, west of the the village of Idomeni, Greece, March 14, 2016
Hundreds of refugees and migrants from a camp in northern Greece have managed to get around a border fence and cross into Macedonia, according to a Macedonian police spokeswoman. However, a Reuters photographer estimated the number to be closer to 2,000.

After walking for several hours, the refugees crossed a river while forming a "human chain" and found a way around the fence, which was put up by Macedonian authorities, photographer Stoyan Nenov said.

Many of the refugees, who came from a camp near Idomeni, carried children on their shoulders as they crossed the river.

Greek and international volunteers used a rope to help the refugees across the fast-flowing waters, AP reported.

After the crossing, the refugees found a break in the border fence near the Greek village of Hamilo and entered Macedonia.

Heart - Black

Courtesy of NATO: Syrian children's lives shaped by violence and deprivation

Syrian children
© Bassam Khabieh / Reuters
Some 8.4 million Syrian children, 80 percent of the total number, have been affected by the Syrian war, the UN children's agency reports. Kids as young as seven are being recruited by all parties in the conflict as fighters, UNICEF says.

One in three Syrian children - 3.7 million - have been born since the eruption of the conflict five years ago and "their lives are shaped by violence, fear and displacement," a UNICEF report titled "No Place for Children" says.

"For the 3.7 million Syrian children born since the conflict began, five years is literally a lifetime. A lifetime in which they have known little but violence, deprivation, and uncertainty," Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, said.

More than 800,000 Syrian children live in neighboring countries as refugees with more than 300,000 already born as refugees.

Comment: The horrendous trauma and suffering that Syrians have endured is largely due to US intervention, which is entirely illegal under international law. If it weren't for Russia's humanitarian aid, and legal intervention, there would be no hope for a better future for these children.


Heart - Black

Woman charged with murder for allegedly dumping her newborn in the garbage while it was still alive

Staten Island woman
© FacebookNew York Woman Charged with Murder for Allegedly Dumping Her Live Newborn in the Garbage.
A Staten Island woman has been charged with murder for allegedly disposing of her newborn baby in a garbage bag while it was still alive, PEOPLE confirms.

Nausheen Rahman, 28, was initially charged with concealment of a human corpse after police found the infant's body Saturday, the New York Police Department tells PEOPLE. The charges were upgraded to second-degree murder Sunday after the medical examiner determined the baby had been alive before it was placed in the garbage bag, police say.

Workers at Staten Island University Hospital North alerted police to Rahman after she walked into the emergency room Friday complaining of bleeding as a result of giving birth at home, reports the Staten Island Advance. Rahman allegedly told ER staff that she "threw away" the baby, the paper added.

The cause and manner of the infant's death are pending further investigation, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner told the Advance.

Neighbors told WNBC-TV that Rahman has lived with her family for several years at the Honey Bee Condominium in Staten Island's New Springville neighborhood.

"I think it's terrible," neighbor Mike Stanganelli told WNBC. "And I'm shocked because this is a very good neighborhood. The whole complex is pretty close, too, so for this to go unknown, it's interesting."