Huge volumes of private emails, phone calls, and internet chats are being intercepted by the National Security Agency with the secret cooperation of more foreign governments than previously known, according to newly disclosed documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The classified files, revealed today by the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information in a reporting collaboration with The Intercept, shed light on how the NSA’s surveillance of global communications has expanded under a clandestine program, known as RAMPART-A, that depends on the participation of a growing network of intelligence agencies.
It has already been widely reported that the NSA works closely with eavesdropping agencies in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia as part of the so-called Five Eyes surveillance alliance. But the latest Snowden documents show that a number of other countries, described by the NSA as “third-party partners,” are playing an increasingly important role – by secretly allowing the NSA to install surveillance equipment on their fiber-optic cables.
The NSA documents state that under RAMPART-A, foreign partners “provide access to cables and host U.S. equipment.” This allows the agency to covertly tap into “congestion points around the world” where it says it can intercept the content of phone calls, faxes, e-mails, internet chats, data from virtual private networks, and calls made using Voice over IP software like Skype.
The program, which the secret files show cost U.S. taxpayers about $170 million between 2011 and 2013, sweeps up a vast amount of communications at lightning speed. According to the intelligence community’s classified “Black Budget” for 2013, RAMPART-A enables the NSA to tap into three terabits of data every second as the data flows across the compromised cables – the equivalent of being able to download about 5,400 uncompressed high-definition movies every minute.
In an emailed statement, the NSA declined to comment on the RAMPART-A program. “The fact that the U.S. government works with other nations, under specific and regulated conditions, mutually strengthens the security of all,” said NSA spokeswoman Vanee’ Vines. “NSA’s efforts are focused on ensuring the protection of the national security of the United States, its citizens, and our allies through the pursuit of valid foreign intelligence targets only.”
The secret documents reveal that the NSA has set up at least 13 RAMPART-A sites, nine of which were active in 2013. Three of the largest – codenamed AZUREPHOENIX, SPINNERET and MOONLIGHTPATH – mine data from some 70 different cables or networks. The precise geographic locations of the sites and the countries cooperating with the program are among the most carefully guarded of the NSA’s secrets, and these details are not contained in the Snowden files. However, the documents point towards some of the countries involved – Denmark and Germany among them.
An NSA memo prepared for a 2012 meeting between the then-NSA director, Gen. Keith Alexander, and his Danish counterpart noted that the NSA had a longstanding partnership with the country’s intelligence service on a special “cable access” program. Another document, dated from 2013 and first published by Der Spiegel on Wednesday, describes a German cable access point under a program that was operated by the NSA, the German intelligence service BND, and an unnamed third partner.
The Danish and German operations appear to be associated with RAMPART-A because it is the only NSA cable-access initiative that depends on the cooperation of third-party partners. Other NSA operations tap cables without the consent or knowledge of the countries that host the cables, or are operated from within the United States with the assistance of American telecommunications companies that have international links. One secret NSA document notes that most of the RAMPART-A projects are operated by the partners “under the cover of an overt comsat effort,” suggesting that the tapping of the fiber-optic cables takes place at Cold War-era eavesdropping stations in the host countries, usually identifiable by their large white satellite dishes and radomes.
A shortlist of other countries potentially involved in the RAMPART-A operation is contained in the Snowden archive. A classified presentation dated 2013, published recently in Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place To Hide, revealed that the NSA had top-secret spying agreements with 33 third-party countries, including Denmark, Germany, and 15 other European Union member states:
For any foreign government, allowing the NSA to secretly tap private communications is politically explosive, hence the extreme secrecy shrouding the names of those involved. But governments that participate in RAMPART-A get something in return: access to the NSA’s sophisticated surveillance equipment, so they too can spy on the mass of data that flows in and out of their territory.
The partnership deals operate on the condition that the host country will not use the NSA’s spy technology to collect any data on U.S. citizens. The NSA also agrees that it will not use the access it has been granted to collect data on the host countries’ citizens. One NSA document notes that “there ARE exceptions” to this rule – though does not state what those exceptions may be.
According to Snowden, the agreements that the NSA has in place with its partners are lax and easily circumvented. In a statement to the European parliament in March, he used Denmark and Germany as examples to describe how the NSA had effectively established what he called a “European bazaar” for surveillance.
“An EU member state like Denmark may give the NSA access to a tapping center on the (unenforceable) condition that NSA doesn’t search it for Danes, and Germany may give the NSA access to another on the condition that it doesn’t search for Germans,” Snowden said.
“Yet the two tapping sites may be two points on the same cable, so the NSA simply captures the communications of the German citizens as they transit Denmark, and the Danish citizens as they transit Germany, all the while considering it entirely in accordance with their agreements.”
———
Source documents for this article can be found here.
people (I meam true human being) do not kill people. Agents are borderless, senseless, heartless, .. they are not human beings, they are RATS!
At least someone in the NSA has a sense of humor: “Got Fiber?”
I think maybe we forget that the people working in the NSA are still people.
Remarkable issues here. I am very satisfied to peer your post. Thanks so much and I’m having a look ahead to touch you. Will you please drop me a e-mail?
I am an American temporarily resident in France. In a recent Internet session, I researched 9 11 events a d false flag operations to learn more about the differences of the two. Mistake #1. Then I posted something on FB about how I believed Dick Cheney and neo-cons were behind the 911 “false flag operation”. Mistake #2. Finally, I exchanged emails with another American (whose own obsession is he JFK “assassination”) where we discussed changes in America we didn’t like. Mistake#3. Soon after sending the email, I watched as all of my cache of sent emails was downloaded to who knows where. Where has my free speech gone? Where is my freedom to search the Internet on any subject? Is the NSA now watching me too? I’m a middle-aged lady retired to France, for God’s sake! What threat am I simply because I am curious, and hold opinions of my own?!? As for hacking activity by govt secret agencies – tell me where the quoted source named in this article…. http://www.storyleak.com/downing-of-flight-mh-17-false-flag-operation-to-blame-russia/. has disappeared to….
http://failedrevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/07/cold-war-20-old-school-behind-it.html.
The pap replacing it surely doesn’t represent the thinking of the true blogger!! Government hacking and replacement example, I think!
Spys are obsolete , The satellite system is so powerful , it can read your mind. Snowden is right , the command center people sit around and enjoy watching you.They also provide info to private individuals for their private needs.I have been a victim of that. John Bertotto
Testing 1 2 3…
Disappointed that there are so many redactions made by the media. It casts doubt on the authenticity of the documents (what else has been altered or changed?) – very little transparency from the Media which I find to be disturbingly ironic. My impression is that the actual source documents are not being presented here. Instead the authors have “created” false documents based on what they choose to reveal.
Glenn has published a new article!!!
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/07/09/under-surveillance
Coram just watched The Front Page (1974) Billy Wilder.
Different again from “The Big Carnival” also known and released in divers places as “Ace in the Hole”.
On all things journalistic with 1st Amendment overtones.
How various media treat the same story in different ways.
Excellent film, worth viewing.
A subtle point but (at 1hr 32 m 44 secs) Williams gives the lede for the next day’s front page to Burns by saying “….those thirteen stairs don’t lead up to the gallows they lead up to the stars. ”
Shortly after Mr Burns says to the authorities, “”A divine providence, an unseen power”. This is repeated later that an unseen power protects the “Examiner”
Some quotes but the movie is a treat.
For me this is 4 and a half stars.
Yes. The Front Page is a jazzy take, a remake, on journalistic ethics, and Matthau and Lemmon are back.
The reference to the thirteen courses of bricks in the American Pyramid, and the all seeing eye of horus can not have escaped your reasoning. What unseen power protects the press is the question I ask.
.. phone home, jammer.
Speaking of oligarchy – we know that when only a few corporations own energy, for example, they can engage in price manipulations and price fixing. That goes for all sectors of goods and services, and soon, due to the massive consolidation in the health sector after the ACA was passed, we’ll be seeing price rises in health care and supply bottle-necks that serve to raise prices at critical times of demand increases that will very likely result in rationing of health care for some.
Many people have noticed price increases in food over the last four or so years. But did you know that food company consolidation has now narrowed the number of food companies to a mere ten, that control the vast majority of the global food system?
A 2013 briefing paper from Oxfam delivers the low down on this development – BEHIND THE BRANDS: Food justice and the “Big 10″ food and beverage companies.
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp166-behind-the-brands-260213-en.pdf
On page 5 of the paper:
There’s good news embedded in the report too:
An accompanying graphic: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/1731/67675/12h/si.wsj.net/public/resources/MWimages/MW-CL638_big_br_MG_20140708113052.jpg
An accompanying image: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/1731/67675/12h/si.wsj.net/public/resources/MWimages/MW-CL638_big_br_MG_20140708113052.jpg
This is a great post seer and definitely centered around an issue – monopolization of global food supply and limitation of access – that everyone should consider as an imminent threat to survival of humanity.
When all the food and water is controlled by the few for the profit of the few, many will die.
Thanks for posting.
Dianne Feinstein and a new bill.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/senate-cybersecurity-bill-opposed-by-nsa-critics
Feinstein’s loyalty to the security industrial complex is heartwarming. Some government functionaries are always switching allegiances, depending on who offers them the best deal. It is a rare representative who picks the winning horse right out of the starting gate and then backs it all the way.
And to think that, but for Dan White, she might today be unknown outside the San Francisco society pages.
You don’t suppose DF enabled his Hostess addiction…?
If a Twinkie diet’s it, you must acquit…
You’re overlooking the two Hostess Ding Dongs theory, which puts them behind the knoll.
ACLU statement on CISA 27 Jun 14: https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/beware-dangers-congress-latest-cybersecurity-bill
Strong opposition on this one.
The establishment of the United States of America is drunk on self-importance, violence and domination, and there is no one – no one – powerful enough to intervene and stop the abuse.
Your right no one individual can stop this….but collectively we can.
I have read your comments and you try, through activism, to do your part.
Hang in there.
The both of you are the best of the best.
Keep on keeping on.
Victory or failure is in the hands of the gods. It is a warriors role to fight even if he will be defeated.
Properly understood, to fight the impossible fight is the test of one’s courage.
Easy to fight and win.
Something else to fight the good fight and lose.
The joy of a warrior is in the fight. Victory is ordained elsewhere.
Fight on warriors and die with dignity.
Meanwhile, over at the Guardian, a new story about DARPA and the US military spending considerable time and doubloons on studying social networks.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/darpa-social-networks-research-twitter-influence-studies
Some key quotes:
“Through the program, Darpa seeks to develop tools to support the efforts of human operators to counter misinformation or deception campaigns with truthful information.”
However, papers leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate that US and British intelligence agencies have been deeply engaged in planning ways to covertly use social media for purposes of propaganda and deception.
Documents prepared by NSA and Britain’s GCHQ (and previously published by the Intercept as well as NBC News) revealed aspects of some of these programs. They included a unit engaged in “discrediting” the agency’s enemies with false information spread online.
… The project, which related to how users understood and consumed information on Twitter, at one point analysed the tweets, retweets and other interactions spawned by Lady Gaga (described as “the most popular elite user on Twitter”) and Justin Bieber (“who is extremely popular among teenagers”).
“However, papers leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate that US and British intelligence agencies have been deeply engaged in planning ways to covertly use social media for purposes of propaganda and deception.”
Yes, therein is the duplicitous, irreconcilable cognitive dissonance that is our secret intelligence agencies.
“We need only in cold blood ACT as if the thing in question were real, and keep acting as if it were real, and it will infallibly end by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real.”
– William James
I’m glad the Department of Defense is spending money to research social media, because frankly they aren’t very good at it. I don’t blame them for this; the skill set for flying an F-15, or building a nuclear missile doesn’t always translate well to Twitter. It must be frustrating to deploy your best shock and awe techniques, and then return to find that Lady Gaga still has more followers than you do.
I also wonder if the Department of Defense should have been given responsibility for every government function. It may have been a mistake to put them in charge of diplomatic relations, as tensions with close allies such as Germany seem to be increasing. Granted the State Department was completely ineffectual, but they had a sensitivity to the concerns of other nations that seems to missing from the military. Diplomacy and military strength often complement each other and adopting just a single approach can sometimes be limiting.
The same could be true of Twitter – it may not actually be necessary to eliminate everyone on Twitter who disagrees with US policy. Still, after the war on poverty, the war on crime and the war on drugs, the war on Twitter is probably inevitable. So best of luck to the Department of Defense as they plot to dethrone Justin Bieber. But they do risk losing sight of their core competency – smashing other nations to smithereens – as they wade ever deeper into the quagmire of social media.
Yes, Duce, although in this case I can’t really blame them. They must have been spooked by the rapid spread of revolution during the Arab Spring, the use of social and other media — including Skype and YouTube — to organize the mob and, later on in places like Libya, to conduct military training or even direct artillery fire.
(To others: coram nobis says check out Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla by David Kilcullen to see how this plays out in this new medium. The next young Alexander may come wielding an iPad).
I don’t think they can convincingly spread propaganda in these social media — their sockpuppets here, QED, prove that — but they may like to know if the next meme is going to cause problems. They’re probably not worried that 10 million Lady Gaga fans are going to overthrow the US government, but they have reason to watch social media for a sudden meme, which might play out in real time. They’re watching that, Duce, not what Justin Bieber has tattooed on his backside.
I forced to remind, my good coram nobis, Chelsea Manning is a fan of Lady Gaga’s.
Are either of them tattooed on Justin Beiber? Because the NSA needs to complete the conspiracy theory.
Freaking hypocrite. He’s not a vegan.
And then there’s his support of animal torture porn.
What does whether or not one is a vegan have to do with believing that, “deriving pleasure & self-esteem by shooting defenseless animals” is a reasonable and understandable opinion to have and to express?
Your follow-on “comment” is just another of your out of control tourette syndrome screams.
Because factory farms are not more humane than hunting? In fact you could argue thay are grossly less humane in some if not most ways. Because since he’s a meat eater (claims his “fave” restaurant in Rio is a beef place), he’s “deriving pleasure” from the grotesque treatment of animals in those factory farms?
I’m surprised you didn’t use that phrase…what is it … “toxic shit spew?” Used on Chris Floyd’s blog. LOL. #toxicshitspew In the comments where you had your ass handed to you.
I noticed you didn’t comment on his First Amendment absolutism about videos of animal torture porn. He’s a hypocrite and he depends on rabid fans and Greenback$ bots like you to defend his contradictions and his inconsistencies over and over again.
You take care now Banjo.
As always, you’re lying out right and by omission, and tossing in a lot of straw man nonsense. Glenn specifically separated hunting for food from what is known as trophy hunting. Also you’re pretending that factory farming includes “deriving pleasure and self esteem…”>/em>
Assuming that you’re not truly as stupid and dishonest as your comments would indicate, you’ve long ago outlived your usefulness to whomever the hell it was who was foolish enough to think that you could be an asset to their cause. You should be fired posthaste. Or maybe you might consider willing submitting your resignation.
I say the same thing when I fail to bag anything.
One salient aspect of the debate has received little attention: that big, fat streak of cowardice running through the US/UK’s Stasi ranks; ‘The Scared Deciders’, to whom not so wise American and British civilians grant judge, jury, and executioner privs on the occasion of each national election.
Cowards click the GUI terrorist-check-box next to the names of individuals who use Tor, read WikiLeaks, dispense with New Testament thumping F-15 pilot(s), attend climate-change science seminars, oppose perpetual offensive war, or anyone else suspected of scary, extremist thought-crime, no matter how innocuous and reasoned. And lets not forget those frightful vegans and readers of Linux Journal; these terrorists are A Clear And Present Danger!™
A discussion of the cowardice angle of the NSA debate would be constructive, not matter how overdue.
“A discussion of the cowardice angle of the NSA debate would be constructive, not matter how overdue.”
Agreed. It’s easy to make these decisions when no one is watching – it’s the light of scrutiny by the world community that tempers this abhorrent behavior.
I put together a quick analysis/organization of your post:
Oh boy, here we go with the “stasi” talk again. Let’s forgive that though; let’s see what “big, fat streak of cowardice” you speak of. [Spoiler Alert: It’s never explained in a coherent manner]
I can almost imagine you saying this, some guy wearing a tin-foil hat, with bloodshot eyes and a nervous twitch, using air quotes to describe “the scared deciders.” You mention national election so you refer to the President and Congress, who in fact aren’t performing the functions of “judge, jury, and executioner” and in fact are barely function at all. Your rants are cryptic to the point that nobody can possibly respond and start a sane dialogue.
Okay, so cowards = elected officials. But now you imply the “cowards” are those who select your imaginary check boxes. But those people aren’t elected, they are either Presidentially appointed or are career employees. I thought I’d point that out before addressing your laundry list of fully-monitored government tasks.
“Use TOR and you’re automatically monitored?” Any evidence of such arbitrary and all-encompassing surveillance?
“Read wikileaks” and you get a ‘terrorist’ designation? Yawn.
“Dispense with the New Testament thumping F-15 pilots.” This is incoherent babble
“Oppose perpetual offensive war.” Watch out Libertarians!!
“or anyone else suspected of scary, extremist thought-crime, no matter how innocuous and reasoned.” You basically cannot even argue with a comment like this because of its ridiculousness. You’ve watched Minority Report one too many times.
I don’t know if this is just more nonsense babble or your attempt at humor. If it’s the latter, well…comedy isn’t for everybody.
No. Nothing you said is conducive to discussion because it is mere rhetoric. It may seem profound to you but your posts are not stimulating conversation at all if you hadn’t noticed. God bless Sillyputty for trying.
Nate –
Shame on YOU! I think Stan definitely has a point. First, the kind of targeting Stan mentions IS occurring. It has come out they were targeting Tor users and even those who investigated Tor and/or Linux. Previous revelations showed they targeted NGOs that were definitely not related to terrorism. And another report said that NSA and intelligence folks thought of those who opposed drone strikes as adversaries. All these things have come out of Snowden related stories.
And second, you DO have to wonder if these NSA analysts and higher -ups would be so bold if the curtain was drawn back. They’re surely fighting hard to keep that curtain closed (see Coram’s post on the new bill Feinstein has proposed). It’s shameful. They want to know everything we do online or on the phone or even by mail. But they want to keep secret their targeting. What are they scared of?
@ Nate:
You obviously derive a great deal of pleasure trying to make yourself look good at the expense of others.
You are so egocentric that you can’t see that it is your “mere rhetoric” which is offensive. You are an arrogant, asshole.
Here is an EFF statement regarding Tor and readers of the Linux Journal:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/dear-nsa-privacy-fundamental-right-not-reasonable-suspicion
The EFF doesn’t generally issue statements without supporting evidence.
Perhaps you should check your facts before you itemize your useless, debate points and make rude comments which only serve to extinguish discussion.
Too Cents..
‘American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions . . . . There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House’s National Security Council . . . . Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate. . . . The role of the president in ordering or ratifying a decision to target a citizen is fuzzy. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to discuss anything about the process. . . .
Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, was asked by reporters about the killing. The process involves “going through the National Security Council, then it eventually goes to the president” . . . .Other officials said the role of the president in the process was murkier than what Ruppersberger described. They said targeting recommendations are drawn up by a committee of mid-level National Security Council and agency officials. Their recommendations are then sent to the panel of NSC “principals,” meaning Cabinet secretaries and intelligence unit chiefs, for approval . . . But one official said Obama would be notified of the principals’ decision. If he objected, the decision would be nullified, the official said.
So a panel operating out of the White House — that meets in total secrecy, with no known law or rules governing what it can do or how it operates — is empowered to place American citizens on a list to be killed by the CIA, which (by some process nobody knows) eventually makes its way to the President, who is the final Decider. It is difficult to describe the level of warped authoritarianism necessary to cause someone to lend their support to a twisted Star Chamber like that; I genuinely wonder whether the Good Democrats doing so actually first convince themselves that if this were the Bush White House’s hit list, or if it becomes Rick Perry’s, they would be supportive just the same. Seriously: if you’re willing to endorse having White House functionaries meet in secret — with no known guidelines, no oversight, no transparency — and compile lists of American citizens to be killed by the CIA without due process, what aren’t you willing to support?’ [snip]
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/06/execution_by_secret_wh_committee/
Thanks, suave –
That lays it all out. We should ALL be enraged at this “star-chamber”, “kill list”, “decision matrix”, or whatever it gets called.
Thanks, feline, and others… I’m glad you are enraged.
Nate and friends are trying very hard to do their part in keeping the lid on the COINTELPRO story — stalking and interference in targets’ daily lives. The types of interference — not reported here — go way beyond the digital surveillance the five named targets experienced: they fuck with people’s finances, they recruit doctors & lab technicians to fuck with target-patient’s heads (and on occasion, administer mild physical torture), physically stalk and harass targets, interfere with job interviews, and more.
There isn’t just one star-chamber, there are countless star-chambers. Some of these low-level GUI terrorist check-box clickers are involved; they have been granted the security privs to destroy lives. Some COINTELPRO targets are driven to suicide, as they were in the 60s and 70s. But it’s worse now: today’s Stasi has more impunity, more influence in the workplace, more neighborhood cooperation, police cooperation, a public scared of its own shadow, and of course, all those cool gadgets.
So, thanks again, feline, suave, & Lyra. And finally, a friendly question: can you imagine how disgusted long-term targets must feel about the fellow Americans who have approved of this state of affairs for so many years?
“There are many more NSA stories yet to be reported.” Glenn Greenwald in an interview with Amy Goodman after coming to NY for the Polk Awards.
“This will be the finale.” Glenn Greenwald last week.
Nobody has been gagged?
Omidyar needs to get his legislation passed before they can continue “reporting” their “breaking stories” on the same topic spun 100 different ways to look NEW! and IMPROVED!
Once Omidyar gets his tax breaks and more lax regs governing investing in the U.S. and overseas in programs that supposedly help the working classes (like he did investing in Ukraine overthrow), then Greenback$ can start his “journalism” again.
More NSA stories being reported, just not here. See my post further along about DARPA and Operation Bieber Tweeter.
Any information on whether a certain state security service was involved in the hacking of the University of East Anglia climate science emails? You know, because terrorism.
If control over energy policy fails so might the superpower military in bed with the energy owners.
It’s always more accurately been a war on “terraism,” with plenty of distractions while pockets are picked.
Climate hysteria is funded and mobilized by leftist progressive globalists and their Big Government. That’s how climate taxes and int’l banking Climate derivatives are promoted. They have no reason to work against their interests by attempting to expose Global Warming theory as baseless.
That leaves you as a cheerleader of globalist Big Government and its progressive leftist police- and surveillance-state.
Dear Glenn Beck, You sound even more deranged than usual. Are you taking your meds?
The Ex-Google Hacker Taking on the World’s Spy Agencies
“During his last six years working as an elite security researcher for Google, the hacker known as Morgan Mayhem spent his nights and weekends hunting down the malware used to spy on vulnerable targets like human rights activists and political dissidents.
“His new job tasks him with defending a different endangered species: American national security journalists.
For the last month, 34-year-old Morgan Marquis-Boire has been the director of security for First Look Media, the journalism startup founded by Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.”
Try it out!
“Now you’ll try a test correspondence with a computer program named Edward, which knows how to use encryption. Except where noted, these are the same steps you’d follow when corresponding with a real, live person.”
https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/
I know many feel it necessary to encrypt email, but doesn’t it just draw unwanted attention? I think I prefer to hide my tree in the forest.
Do you want to discuss with a german about trees? ;-)
I guess we have to redefine the Black Forest. :)
Today we had a discussion about tourism for young americans in Europe, Prag, Berlin, London, Paris, Neuschwanstein, maybe Spain or better not… Oh no, we did forget the Black Forest!
`keller..
tal vez españa?
‘carnaval de cadiz’
I commited a word crime?! Sorry.
http://www.englishtown.com/blog/word-crimes-discuss-about/
Being a tree doesn’t save you when they clear-cut the forest. Kinda the point.
To heck with encryption. That’s running away from the actual problem, which is feeling empowered to collect everything in the first place. They are not.
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jul/02/game-of-thrones-app-yo-hodor
Oh, I get it now. I was on staycation. So, now that’s over, can I get a proof of life?
The Pejorative Use of ‘Dumping’
http://ohtarzie.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/on-the-pejorative-use-of-dumping/
Oh, no big whoop, one can be dehodorized easily, apparently. I figured I’d just drop into goog’s greedy mouth some data points flashing past me as you toss my comments into the sea and found what you saw I see. See? No? How you like dat?
Kind sickening as this sounds similar to XKeystroke Vandals sacking Game of Drones.
LMAO.
Why are you so obsessed with Ryan Gallagher? Did this article strike a nerve?
You may not have wasted enough time dwelling on PSBI’s wordscapes, but this poor soul hates Glenn Greenwald for not being him. I doubt he even cares about Ryan, while I have been kicking his side for years.
`VoR..
Neither. Her latest demented angst was directed at Mr. Greenwald’s partner who was detained/interrogated at Heathrow airport back in Aug/’13..
Her cowardice is exemplified being that her repugnant *bitterlligerence is dispensed from the safety of her own obscurity.
*urban
LOL.
More fun with Hobby Lobby (h/t DKos). A limited-liability corporation, at least in US law, exists as a legal entity to shield its shareholders and owners from personal liability; the LLC gets sued, not them — unless under a legal theory called “piercing the corporate veil” the corporation is revealed as a sham or a personal activity. You can look up “piercing the corporate veil” and “limited liability” online and get the gist.
Anyway, I come to find that a group of corporate-law professors did put in an amicus brief on this, to the effect that a finding for Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Products, enabling their owners to act upon their religious beliefs through the corporation, would open the door to “piercing the veil” actions. A lot of them.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/07/hobby-lobbys-other-problem
(see the “friends of the court brief” hyperlink, via becketfund URL).
Let the revels begin.
Corporations exist in part to shield the personal assets of shareholders from personal liability for the debts or actions of a corporation. Unlike a general partnership or sole proprietorship in which the owner could be held responsible for all the debts of the company, a corporation traditionally limited the personal liability of the shareholders. The limits of this protection have narrowed in recent years. Shareholders are increasingly personally liable.
Piercing the corporate veil typically is most effective with smaller privately held business entities (close corporations) in which the corporation has a small number of shareholders, limited assets, and recognition of separateness of the corporation from its shareholders would promote fraud or an inequitable result.
There is no record of a successful piercing of the corporate veil for a publicly traded corporation because of the large number of shareholders and the extensive mandatory filings entailed in qualifying for listing on an exchange.
— wiki entry on “piercing the corporate veil”
veddy interesting, ty coram. now on to Guantanamo, lol.
This hasn’t worked out too well.
Publicly-traded corporations aren’t closely-held, and are governed by the Securities Act and Rule 10b-5 and a lot of other stuff, and, in theory, the x thousand people who hold their stock (ownership per share, which is sort of why they call them “equities”). A lot harder to impose your religion when you hold 10,000 shares out of 100 million, say.
Right. I’m referring to the “in theory” part. Limited liability in the real world. But I digress.
A large number of shareholders is no longer necessary in a society where all wealth will soon be controlled by a relatively small number of oligarchs. This ruling does not expand the powers of the limited liability corporation, but rather recognizes it is no longer relevant.
No need to limit liability when the oligarchs are granted impunity.
No, VOR, but the ruling did suggest that it’s easier to show that the corporation was sham and the plaintiffs can sue the people housed within. Justice Alito’s opinion also suggested that single-payer health care was a way to avoid questions of corporate responsibility in heath care.
You get what you wish for. You get it good and hard, sometimes.
Unfortunately you only get what you pay for. If corporations are funding the health plans, they get to call the tune.
quote”No need to limit liability when the oligarchs are granted impunity.”unquote
This is when the only viable alternate becomes owning shares in the 100 Heads Life Insurance Co.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_RncdHHdbig/U7lqLpJe1xI/AAAAAAAAbwQ/UbLHnx-tuv0/s1600/get-attachment+(6).jpg
Meanwhile, what’s that commotion in The Intercept office.. the sound of crickets?
An interesting wikileaks cable.
U) SECRETARY CLINTON’S DECEMBER 9, 2009 MEETING WITH UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PETRO POROSHENKO
Sorry didn’t mean to spam.
I was under the impression that the USG was not altogether happy with the Ukrainian government under Yanukovych and I can’t remember when Yanuk took office but even if he wasn’t the guy in 09, I”m sure whoever it was wasn’t capitalist neoliberal enough for CIinton and her boys in Washington. That should tell you about how reactionary and conservative the USG is and they will stop at nothing to make these countries safe for shoveling $$ out of these places and into foreign banks for the CEOs. Yanuk was nowhere near a socialist but he was keeping lots of money inside Ukraine, and the Clinton cabal and then Obama/Kerry wanted no part of that, which is why the coup. The coup came on the heels of Obama getting his ass handed to him by Putin on Syria, though. I doubt it was planned as far back as 09. But obviously they had Poro in their sights as an agreeable neoliberal puppet.
What’s the “Petro” short for? Petrochemical?
Repost. Any comment guys?
(U) SECRETARY CLINTON’S DECEMBER 9, 2009 MEETING WITH UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PETRO POROSHENKO
http://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09STATE129520_a.html
Try this for a supporting link:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/17753-ukraine-new-interim-government-too-many-familiar-faces
Our loyalty should not be to a person but to the truth. If the financial backers of Think Progress or TPM or Pando were involved in negotiations with the white house over regulations of overseas investment and those news magazines were refraining from any criticism of the administration for the duration, Glenn Greenwald would be the first to call them on it. It is altogether legitimate to ask whether The Intercept is holding off on further NSA revelations in order not to embarrass Omidyar in his dealings with the administration.
” It is altogether legitimate to ask whether The Intercept is holding off on further NSA revelations in order not to embarrass Omidyar in his dealings with the administration.”
Yes. At the very least, it is unseemly. Yet they appear, like NSA, to double-down on every critique. It’s a mystery why they are willing to prolong the trust issues.
You also have to look at the timeline. The aide for Omidyar was at the White House conference on June 25.
It was June 30 that Greenback$ said sorry, no fireworks folks.
Greenback$ is also back on Twitter like nothing ever happened. Does he think Greenbots are stupid? (don’t answer that) He’s posting about British royalty and Democrats who act like Republicans and all kinds of other stupid shit that nobody but a suck to power would do or care two shits about.
Here’s another interesting fact: June 30 was the closing date for election contributions reports for the 2nd quarter. Reports are due in at the Federal Elections Commission on July 15, and they are public records. Omidyar personally, or his corporate or PAC entities, might have to file reports as third-party contributors, or their names might turn up on candidates or party PAC recipient reports.
http://www.fec.gov/
Isn’t that interesting?
One of the worst apologists for Greenback$ and entrenched ruling class power. You only rival Banjo in your disturbing apologism to elitism.
I just handed you a rather large shovel, pal. You want to find their culpability, dig.
Waste of time. It’s more fun being a troll than actually doing any research, especially research that has a chance of discrediting your own arguments.
<strong<"I just handed you a rather large shovel, pal. You want to find their culpability, dig.
Right on. Put up or shut up.
““Often those that criticise others reveal what he himself lacks.”
– Shannon L. Alder
Perhaps Mr. Greenwald is not in a position to freely publish on The Intercept or elsewhere for that matter.
Perhaps he had to pass his notes along to someone else for publication.
Time will tell.
Can’t he own that and tell his “followers” that? Why the non-transparent secret bullshit? “We are checking out claims…” Right, sure you are. The “claim” is that your boss doesn’t want to hurt his chances of getting favorable legislation passed and told you to take a haircut on your “hard hitting” fireworks show. If that’s the case, just say it. Why tap dance around it?
He makes snake oil salesmen look good.
Look. There’s simply no evidence that Glenn has been gagged or threatened or bought. I would say you’re jumping the gun, but I rather suspect you’re acting on an agenda of some sort. Of course, if there’s an actual problem, that will be obvious with time, and there’s no need for your yapping.
Thanks, Jose. Let´s retain our common sense and coolness of judment by any means.
Geopolitically, Kreimhild better keep her eye on Hildebeast or she might find her Siegfried has a big hole in his hairnet. The last thing you want from your nation’s renewed nemisis is her KIssinger in a Wig compliments.
A little ot but related is an important date….July 16th
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/7/exclusive_inside_embassy_refuge_julian_assange
http://hodor.alf.nu/com/politifact/www/-/punditfact/statements/2014/jan/07/glenn-greenwald/greenwald-nsa-leaker-snowden-has-no-whistleblower-/
Seriously, WTF has happend here? Is this site just a GCHQ front? I found that while wondering what else they aren’t telling us.
great interview. just listened.
Thank you for posting this Ben Franklin.
Makes the visit to TI worthwhile.
It figures that Amy Goodman – Democracy Now (impeccable journalistic Integrity) would do this interview.
Thanks again.
Goodman’s a liberal imperialist. Somebody who tells her listeners to “make Obama do” something is just a huckster for capitalist entrenched power. She never bothers to mention what Obama does to activists who actually get out and do important work in liberating the working class.
A “journalist” who believes Obama is an improvement over Bush should be fired, especially one who claims to stand for the left.
Look PutShitIntoIt….You have a serious problem recognizing positives. Your real good with pointing out negatives but you never bring any positives to the table.
Ms. Goodman did this objective interview with Mr. Assange and you have the audacity to imply that her political affiliation and/or views might impact on that interview???
Fuck off!
@PSBI-“Goodman’s a liberal imperialist. Somebody who tells her listeners to “make Obama do” something is just a huckster for capitalist entrenched power. She never bothers to mention what Obama does to activists who actually get out and do important work in liberating the working class.”
This doesn’t make any sense, especially WRT Assange.
quote”This doesn’t make any sense, especially WRT Assange”unquote
PutStarsOnit and sense = oil and water.
No need to thank me lyra. My role is ‘petulant observer’ and i take no credit for the work of others.
‘The Sledgehammer Worldview’ – Noam Chomsky
snip..
‘The U.S.-U.K. invasion of Iraq was a textbook example of aggression. Apologists invoke noble intentions, which would be irrelevant even if the pleas were sustainable.
For the World War II tribunals, it mattered not a jot that Japanese imperialists were intent on bringing an “earthly paradise” to the Chinese they were slaughtering, or that Hitler sent troops into Poland in 1939 in self-defense against the “wild terror” of the Poles. The same holds when we sip from the poisoned chalice.
Those at the wrong end of the club have few illusions. Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of a Pan-Arab website, observes that “the main factor responsible for the current chaos [in Iraq] is the U.S./Western occupation and the Arab backing for it. Any other claim is misleading and aims to divert attention [away] from this truth.”
In a recent interview with Moyers & Company, Iraq specialist Raed Jarrar outlines what we in the West should know. Like many Iraqis, he is half-Shiite, half-Sunni, and in preinvasion Iraq he barely knew the religious identities of his relatives because “sect wasn’t really a part of the national consciousness.”
Jarrar reminds us that “this sectarian strife that is destroying the country … clearly began with the U.S. invasion and occupation.”
The aggressors destroyed “Iraqi national identity and replaced it with sectarian and ethnic identities,” beginning immediately when the U.S. imposed a Governing Council based on sectarian identity, a novelty for Iraq.’
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24796-noam-chomsky-the-sledgehammer-worldview
Same Chomsky who said back in January that there really is no “police state” in the U.S.?
Do liberal imperialists actually believe they look cool quoting Chomsky?
Noam Chomsky simply would love to lay the entire blame for the sectarian divide in Iraq (entire Middle East?) at the feet of the US. If that means lying to achieve that goal, then he’ll be happy to portray a “myth” of a sectarian divide in Iraq (prior to the US invasion of Iraq):
“……“this sectarian strife that is destroying the country … clearly began with the U.S. invasion and occupation.”……”
According to Shiapedia, these are lies or gross distortions of reality (or flat out ignorance which seems improbable for Chomsky – or any other source):
“………The Shi’as nevertheless have suffered immense persecution since the beginning of the 20th century resulting in various revolts and consequent massacres. Revolts by Shi’ite tribes in the mid 1930s against the dominating Sunni authorities resulted in the Iraqi air force and army attacking villages. Prior to the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi Shi’ites were persecuted severely by the Ba’ath Party, particularly under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein that lasted just over two decades.
Under Saddam, Ashura and Arba’een gatherings were banned and various clerics were subjected to brutal forms of torture and subsequently death. During his tenure, Saddam ensured that majority of the Shi’as in Iraq lived in constant fear and he became responsible for the deaths of thousands of Shi’ites. Some families would lose four, five or six members in a day and at times hundreds of arrested Shi’as would be killed and thrown into mass graves.[17] In 1980, Ayatullah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr along with his sister Amina bint al-Huda were imprisoned, tortured, and executed. In March of 1991, a series of anti-government uprisings took place, but were repressed with brutal and indiscriminate force of Saddam’s security forces. In the city of Karbala, the shrines of Imam Husain ibn Ali (as) and Abbas ibn Ali were heavily damaged due to artillery shelling. Kamal Hussein Majid, who was leading the assault against the Shi’ites stood on a tank outside the shrine of Imam Husain (as) and shouted “Your name is Hussein and so is mine. Let us see who is stronger now” and then gave the order to open fire.[18] Thousands of unarmed civilians were killed by indiscriminate fire from tanks, helicopters and later security forces began executing people on the streets, in homes and in hospitals. Doctors and nurses treating the wounded were arrested and killed, while patients were thrown out of hospital windows to their death.[19]
The number of Shi’ite clerics in Najaf was reduced from eight to nine-thousand in 1972 to two-thousand in 1982 and to 800 in the early 90s. Roughly 105 relatives, staff, students and senior clerics associated with Ayatullah al-Khoei were arrested after the 1991 uprisings and were never seen again.[20] Due to the brutal massacre in 1991, no plot or second uprising came near to unseating Saddam despite attempts, until the 2003 Iraq War.[21] [a war of liberation for the Shia and Kurds]…….” My addition in brackets……..”
Craig..
Please provide a link to your evidence (Shiapedia).
ps – Referenced below is a validated link w/ respect to the suspect trial of Mr. Hussein
http://www.rense.com/general74/kurds.htm
http://www.theshiapedia.com/index.php?title=Persecution_of_Shia_Muslims
Persecution of the Shia Muslims has been going on for some 1400 odd years.
Saddam’s regime was cruel to the Shias, but the Saudi hand in promoting anti-Shia sentiments is also all over.
The Saudi Monarchy has been especially active in Bahrain suppressing the political rights of the majority Shia population.
Thanks
Mr. Chomsky’s review is certainly consistent with the volume of other historical data regarding the Middle East that I have read from numerous other sources — although those sources are predominately foreign. But then, if there is a problem in Iraq which has the potential to make a global impact; it is only fair to listen to what the Iraqi’s have to say about what is occurring in their country. Russia and Iran have sided with Iraq.
Anyway, here is one supporting link:
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2014/06/us-in-iraq-geopolitical-arsonists-seek.html#more
If one does the further historical research, it becomes apparent that the basis of U.S. involvement in the Middle East is not benign.
I also found this to be thought provoking:
http://journal-neo.org/2014/07/03/the-strange-case-of-nouri-al-maliki/
WTF is this?
https://hodor.alf.nu/org/firstlook/-/theintercept/document/2014/05/19/sso-may-3-2013-mystic/
Is THIS why youse guys ain’t coming across wit da goods? Playing King Whacker? I got Plantagenet Warts. Call me when they pull out the copper tubing.
Seriously, what the fuck is that? is that where all my hobbit hopes go? Down the dark toilet?
and why is it all out of its
Ding dong…
I’d love to leave these linked sausages a moment of my dwell time, but comments are disabled at this spooky site, no? That last moment you cross west over the Blies at the old Roman road. Of course I can’t find the link to that snoopy snippet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH4L1kyecoU
Are those comments closed to you? They are to me. google has been cutting me off and leaving me out of the loop for too fracking long, John. tTme for proof of life, again, “Ding dong.”
Nope, that German Cross still flies with the GERMAN MILITARY. Achter lieber!! Who knew NATO shares…?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH4L1kyecoU
Here’s same day but a different piece of their sweep with a different source name.
Sorry to be so reverberative, but this signal just won’t quit me. Sounds like 1973. I thought the Germans didn’t LIKE folks photographing their places, but this is OK? Is that military cross really on that camera box? OMG!! I would have missed a Meatball.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/a-devastating-leak-for-edward-snowdens-critics/373991/
“The founder of Lawfare has finally declared that a national-security-state employee perpetrated a huge civil-liberties violation! Remember this if he ever again claims that NSA critics can’t point to a single serious abuse at the agency. Wittes himself now says there’s been a serious abuse.
The same logic applies to Keith Alexander, James Clapper, Michael Hayden, Stewart Baker, Edward Lucas, John Schindler, and every other anti-Snowden NSA defender. So long as they insist that Snowden is a narcissistic criminal and possible traitor, they have no choice but to admit that the NSA collected and stored intimate photos, emails, and chats belonging to totally innocent Americans and safeguarded them so poorly that a ne’er-do-well could copy them onto thumb drives. ”
True….Do you suppose that the American people will now rise to claim their inalienable rights not to mention those granted UP Amendment IV of the U.S. Constitution? Do you suppose that American people will now understand the necessity to make the individual choice to speak out against the erosion of their other Constitutional rights? Will the American people uphold the Constitution of the United States of America by defending their own rights from the numerous domestic enemies which have most certainly infiltrated the USG, and now threaten to abolish the principles upon which the Country was founded?
They should, because right now it is the only lifeline.
Or will they continue to play the stupid political and intellectual games centered upon the best laid plans and whims of the International Banking Cartel? After all…we are discussing one world government, one economic rule, one ruler over the many….one dictatorship, one feudal lord over what is left of all human serfs, one god over many slaves…..Not a pretty picture.
Just some things to think about….The answers are within each individual. Please choose wisely.
It seems that the staff and editors of The Intercept are either unwilling or unable, to provide further insight into the matter of mass government surveillance at this time. I hesitate to explore the ramifications of that, but I am grateful that the Snowden evidence went to Mr. Bart Gellman.
Thanks for post suave. Best wishes to you.
Conor cedes much benefit of the doubt in this argument, imo. He finishes:
The frame of “safeguarding data” assumes a benign intent in the first place. It takes the category of “incidental” at face value, when history both short and long suggest calculated euphemism.
“medical records sent from one family member to another, résumés from job hunters and academic transcripts of schoolchildren. In one photo, a young girl in religious dress beams at a camera outside a mosque. Scores of pictures show infants and toddlers in bathtubs, on swings, sprawled on their backs and kissed by their mothers. In some photos, men show off their physiques. In others, women model lingerie, leaning suggestively into a webcam …”
COINTELPRO collected the same exact content. We’re to assume its now stored for back door search because it’s no longer valuable? Please. The argument deserves no credulity.
this was COINTELPRO’s bread and butter. It’s no longer valuable but we need to keep it anyway. Right.
Seriously…WTF is this? Is this a form of German domestic use of security items one might get from the NSA store?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsQ2NNYTidI
You are traveling the streets of Zweibrucken at sunrise August 2013. A beautiful morning in what is more often a smokey sinkhole of fog and haze. Three ranges block the view from the east. This sweep goes on under other poster names as I know my way from Zwei to Homburg and have pieced the posts together with the help of google’s netholes.
I see no ghosts, but what about the old German Cross captured in the reflection of the passenger window when it drifts right. That’s not right. No uniform serves under that cross, today, only safe for old warriors to wear like advancing rebels. Is the camera posted on top of a box with such a cross bite on it?
What is going on in this rubbery duck of an old car? Is someone surveilling the area at sunrise to capture autos’ plates? Note the blurry faces…automatically p[erformed? That can’t be free. You know those sends you get where one must retype a word or number these days to prove you are human? How human is it to perform analysis on unsuspecting people’s plates and addresses and not GET PAID for it? Huh?
I’d LOVE to go there and look into this, but I haven’t a port to pass in.
Anyone else find it surprising that there are no comments to view at Der Spiegel’s stories ? Or is that a special POV provided for me by goog, the gog of tranpornation?
Hanging in the balance; NATO health and the West’s answer to BRICS. It’s a big deal. No doubt about it.
http://rt.com/news/170868-merkel-spy-scandal-serious/
“Washington has not yet commented on the matter, however.
Despite the uproar the double agent scandal has caused among German politicians, the government in Berlin has been quick to assure Washington that the issue will not affect ongoing talks on a free trade deal between the European Union and United States.
“The Americans are important partners for Germany including of course in economic terms, so the TTIP (Translatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) talks … are not in question or in doubt,” government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said, Reuters reported.
Time to haul out the old farts on TV to freak to folks too tired to think about this congame like it’s “NAFTA on Steroids,” which it is. Corporatism’s final blow. Contract rights trump nations’ sovereignty under that detestable and unknowable horror. But if we need to know, don’t you know we know it?
Repetition is the act of doing or saying something over and over and over again.
An example of repetition is someone constantly saying they are sorry.
Repetition is the act of doing or saying something over and over and over again.
An example of repetition is someone constantly saying they are sorry.
Repetition is the act of doing or saying something over and over and over again.
An example of repetition is someone constantly saying they are sorry.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/repetition
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Platitude?s=t
Omidyar’s senior aide at White House “conference” on June 25 to discuss the privatization of and private investment in U.S. domestic programs, among other issues (like lifting regulations on overseas investments).
http://www.omidyar.com/news/us-national-advisory-board-issues-policy-recommendations-encourage-impact-investing
better those foundations who in the past represent the private and public sectors than companies like Halliburton. All those who committed at that meeting were many names of gifters on PBS and other socially conscious affiliations. What is the beef with what he did, by your comment? Why point it out if you don’t have an opinion on it. The link shows you probably didn’t read the article, if you did what is your point. Thanks for posting it. So Omidyar is interested in investing in socially conscious issues, so what. That is a good thing, and hopefully the more wealth spread around and doing things to help society all the better. I am guessing you really were burned by Omidyar somehow. What the heck is your problem with Glenn being affiliated with him. Be specific or stop crying about their connection, it just makes you look worse the more you post here. Probably you were planted but as you know there are enough people here to refute your posts if they are confrontational. Why not read an article and make a sincere conclusion and then comment. Just setting links and using derogatory statements about GG is not productive, despite what you imagine, other than to possibly allow you to feel good when you do it.
Yes we should trust this multi-billionnaire because he’s so benevolent and has the interests of the U.S. working class at the top of his list to be benevolent towards. The best evidence we have that he respects the working class is his donations to USAID in facilitating the coup in Ukraine. Go Omidyar! What a great guy!
are all the facts out about the coup in Ukraine. My friend just fled from Crimea, a US citizen who moved there 10 years ago and even he and others still do not have all the facts on what went on there. We know there were attrocities, we know Putin is an ass and ego maniac but who was Omidyar supporting? I admit to not know the specifics on this so if you could site an article that I can read I would appreciate it. This would shed light for me.
Pando did an article on it although they did not seem to account for every single dollar.
http://pando.com/2014/02/28/pierre-omidyar-co-funded-ukraine-revolution-groups-with-us-government-documents-show/
`marianne..
Mr. Greenwald’s response to ‘pando’ article.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/01/journalistic-independence/
An interesting wikileaks cable.
(U) SECRETARY CLINTON’S DECEMBER 9, 2009 MEETING WITH UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PETRO POROSHENKO
http://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09STATE129520_a.html
I suspect that you are looking for historical data related to the US Involvement in the Ukraine. This article is not comprehensive to all of that data, but the author has written several books pertaining to the underlying motivation and objectives in that involvement. Hope it helps.
http://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/the-chocolate-king-other-fairy-tales/#more-170
You might take a look at the work of Russia scholar, Stephen F. Cohen, (Princeton, NYU)who can tell all you may wish to know of Russia since the Bolshevik Revolution up to the present.
http://www.thenation.com/article/178344/distorting-russia#
The article begins
and is quite interesting. You are familiar, from your reading GG, with the obsequiousness of the MSM and its distortions of reality that paint the US Government as the One True Democratic Government, the Final Arbiter of Truth & Justice in a world of lies and deceit.
So, marianne, are you suggesting it’s a good thing that this particular billionaire, Omidyar, donates funds from his tax exempt foundation (into which he very likely donates most of his income so as to avoid paying income taxes) to CIA front organizations which expend their efforts in overthrowing democratically elected governments and installing questionable people in new illicit governments that do the bidding of a global cabal of criminal bankers?
Is that what liberals do these days? Or by what word do you describe the political stance that supports, or at least, excuses such behaviour?
http://pando.com/2014/07/06/why-did-greenwald-agree-to-government-plea-to-hold-major-nsa-story-but-the-post-didnt/
Title of Pando article:
This article’s title immediately reminded me of a Cracked.com article from years back, titled “How to Spot a BS political story in under 10 seconds.” http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-spot-b.s.-political-story-in-under-10-seconds/
No. 4 is: The Headline Ends in a Question Mark
If you have been following the NSA stories closely, the first thing you should have asked yourself when reading this Pando article is if what Glenn was slated to report is equivalent to what the Post reported yesterday. This guy from Pando sure thought so:
Yeah, “apparently.” The problem with this dubious claim is that Greenwald said he was going to reveal the NAMES of US citizens who were either spied on or whose information was collected. The WP article DID NOT do this. It reported about “incidental” collection pulling reams of US citizen data but it didn’t name any names! This Pando piece is therefore bullshit, just read another quote from it that is filled with qualifying language and question marks
This is my favorite part. At the beginning of the article the author asked if Greenwald got scooped. But by the end of the article, this Paul Carr guy had apparently convinced himself of the answer when he says:
Pretty shoddy reporting Pando.
Worse than shoddy, it’s just plain dishonest, unless Paul Carr is a moron.
Marcy wheeler has been taking Carr to task on twitter, not only for that story but about two others (one is a dishonest crap piece about her).
From Marcy on twitter:
@paulcarr What a GREAT question that would have been to ask before you published your THIRD fictional piece in 10 days. @ggreenwald
That’s part of a series of a back and forth.
Appreciate that you’re pointing this out, Nate.
Banjo,
Greenback$’ new pivot away from his dropping the ball is saying that his “new” piece coming up (when Greenback$ when) is not “about” what Gellman wrote about. Could this asshole be any more of a disingenuous liar?
And why spending so much time on British royalty unless he’s just trying to deflect away from dropping the ball and sucking up to Omidyar. Because Boss Omidyar doesn’t want any problems getting favorable legislation passed, even if it means shutting up Greenback$. He’s paid enough $$ to shut up isn’t he?
There’s also this from Glenn:
[email protected] That excellent WashPost article relates a little to our forthcoming article, but mostly it’s a wholly different issue.
My guess is that Glenn’s piece is about surveillance of political dissidents and/or blanket surveillance by group membership, such as by race/ethnicity or political affiliation.
Wow, how shocking. I’m sure the pitchforks will come out at that “news.”
Greenback$ got pwned. Just own it.
Nobody should be taking Marcy Wheeler seriously, no matter what you think about Carr’s piece. Wheeler’s a libertarian capitalist who let greed and ignorance steer her to working for a pro Neonazi billionnaire. She also writes for the Cato Institute. What more needs to be said? 2003 called – they want their bipartisan capitalist mouthpiece back.
Wha? PSBT is defiantly off the feedbag. The green giant is having his jolly way with the poor sap’s vine. Anyone who reads here already knows the way proper gandizing rolls, sos what’s your beef with these fishes, icehole?
You aren’t one of them? You might qualify for amplifying their reason for being by being so obviously bitter, vine biter. But is that the best you guys got?
I got Engels going to Manchester to learn why social ignorance will bite your own arse off. To be honest, the wheel seems rather greasy what with all the new slick, but at least one can leave a word there edgewise. I’m obstructed like a sack of hacks under Scotland Yard’s arse in this here joint. Any chance it’s haunted?
At least have the testicular fortitude to back your dismissal of Wheeler with some actual analysis or narrative instead of just a bunch of character assassinations. Regardless of whether she wrote for CATO or any other interest group, rational people judge others on the actual content of their work, not just their associations or based on a juvenile ability to spew off a bunch of idiotic buzzwords and empty bullshit: “libertarian capitalist”! “working for a pro Neonazi billionare,” “bipartisan capitalist mouthpiece”!
Your schtick has to be just an internet persona. People aren’t this stupid in real life.
Somehow I think Marcy Wheeler’s reputation will survive the incoherent rantings of some random moron playing at being an anarchist on an obscure website.
Seems to me you blind readers can’t read between the empty space, Houston.
This joint is in shut down. They are being challenged as to whether they have the journo creds to count among those who may still weigh in like a Risen. With cover, Senate approved organs are chumming it up, but who knows what’s still in the water if you listen to those losers…
Both NYTs and WaPo covered for Tea Pot Dome until WaPo got caught in the cozy. Amazon has us covered, too, no doubt.
This Dome needs flipping off. If there are subjects to this intrusion, I for one would not want to be denied a right to know as 5000 of NewsUK’s hacking targets were obstructed that horrific view. I’ve been trying to get them to blow their lids Tea Pot Dome Style since 2008. No, GCHQ, I’m not referring to Greystone, but if you check out Chandler’s High Window, you’ll get my drift. Don’t look when you’re high, Q.
Kate Crawford, limpid on Big Data
http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-anxieties-of-big-data/
“If the big-data fundamentalists argue that more data is inherently better, closer to the truth, then there is no point in their theology at which enough is enough.”
This is a brilliant article on the anxiety of perceived control and the reality that, when in search of the absolute minimization of threats, the ends can never be met, because the means do not exist, and never will, to control and interpret the amount of information being collected.
Also implied yet forgotten is the often repeated refrain from the NSA and other intelligence analysts of yore that it isn’t the size or amount of data that matters – but how well you can interpret what you already have – all In order to have the much desired effect of protecting those who pay your salaries.
This also exemplifies the deification of fear – in that much like ancient ideologies that hold the threat of damnation over the heads of those being protected to ensure compliance during their reign on earth, the Big Data collectors hold the treat of unnamed and as yet unimagined harm over the head of those they are assigned to protect, all done in order to gain acceptability for the subjugation of civil liberties and personal individuality that must occur in order to meet these supposed, always imminent threats.
In the end the truth-sayers have the burden of proving such -in the full light of day. It is up to us tohave the courage to make that happen.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that
something else is more important than fear.”
– Ambrose Redmoon
Short answer: To protect the wealth of the ruling elites and neoliberal capitalism worldwide.
“Short answer: To protect the wealth of the ruling elites”
That’s been self evident for quite some time. As in forever.
yes, a not so distant cousin to the “1% doctrine”
*nods*
The more ‘anticipatory’ society becomes, the less ‘participation’ becomes possible.
“The more ‘anticipatory’ society becomes, the less ‘participation’ becomes possible.
Absolutely fucking nailed it. Speechless.
Thanks. Crawford asks “the big question” at the end of that piece, where is the radical potential? It’s ringing in my head. These are the stakes.
re: ‘New Progressivism’
Q: “Sounds eminently reasonable. What’s stopping us?” `silly
A: “This also exemplifies the deification of fear – in that much like ancient ideologies that hold the threat of damnation over the heads of those being protected to ensure compliance during their reign on earth” `silly
@suave – what is this ‘New Progressivism’ you speak of; and do you a specific concern? I can try to decode your rhetorical leaps and bounds, but I’d rather respond to more specific concerns to avoid any confusion.
Regards, Sillyputty
`sillyp..
re: ‘New Progressivism’
Fuk’dit.
`sillyp
re: ‘New Progressivism’
‘Any attempt to impose institutional prayer or inscribe the idea of a god upon the public, regardless of the religion, is a violation of the separation of church and state.’ [snip]
http://theprogressivecynic.com/2012/10/18/how-many-americans-misunderstand-the-separation-of-church-and-state/
“Progressives hold that all people are equal in the eyes of God”
Oh, I see. Thanks for responding a bit more clearly. I disregard any religious qualifications for any group, because I consider it irrelevant to the main point(s) of moving things forward as a diverse society.
Religion in my view is deeply personal – something that public policy is not; and the fact that I quoted Podesta word-for-word doesn’t mean that I agree with everything he says – nor do I think he does, actually – I think that these days the pronouncement of religious affectations such as this are done more for political reasons, so as not to seem intolerant to whoever Podesta and others think their “group” audience is.
So in the end I don’t misunderstand the separation of church and state at all, Podesta may; but I do recognize that some who hold religious beliefs for political or personal reasons will flout them to reach their intended audience.
It’s a relatively small thing that I often overlook in policy statements like this, realizing that pragmatically, and despite the recent oddball rulings from SCOTUS on Hobby-Lobby, et .al, that in the end the separation will remain and most likely get stronger – based largely in part to the growing audience of citizens that reject both carte-blanche corporate/government rule, as well as any form of sanctified religious governance.
“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”
– Robert A. Heinlein
Off topic comment: Last month, I wasn’t able to load The Intercept website from my browser. I had to go through TORBrowser for a few weeks. I tried this in both Windows and Linux from my laptop. Has anyone else had problems accessing this website through normal means?
I live in Ireland, my ISP is UPC, I tried to post a similar comment when I first noticed this but they never showed up in the comments. After I tried that, out of nowhere, I am able to access this website again through normal means.
Has anyone else experienced this problem?
PS: I know that my actions are stored forever by XKeyScore (because I’ve looked at (linuxjournal.com (http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/nsa-linux-journal-extremist-forum-and-its-readers-get-flagged-extra-surveillance) and am viewed as an extremist
Im curious to know, has anyone else had any same experience?
http://hodor.alf.nu/com/politifact/www/-/punditfact/statements/2014/jan/07/glenn-greenwald/greenwald-nsa-leaker-snowden-has-no-whistleblower-/
What happened here? Is this a normal glitch or is the Intercept GCHQ’s bitch? I just fell on this while wandering through this forest, Wit Acre. Something to do with Johnny One Time.
AP Using Robots For Journalism Starting In July
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ap-using-robots-journalism-starting-205847151.html
Could use a few of those here lol.
Imagine a stock crashing because of a couple of commas and periods misplaced in earning reports by the robots.
It WILL happen.
Which country does the most good for the world? The US is not even in the top 10. Surprised?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X7fZoDs9KU
The good country index http://www.goodcountry.org
And an interesting tip from our friends at EFF to Android users.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/your-android-device-telling-world-where-youve-been
Worth noting that their Deeplinks blog, and EFF (dot) org generally, are a useful and lively collection of info, very much on point to TI readers.
Sidebar: ACLU No. California rounds up info on the Stingray surveillance program.
https://www.aclunc.org/publications/stingrays-most-common-surveillance-tool-government-wont-tell-you-about
Right on!
“Most Patriotic Float”
In New Mexico, the Arroyo Seco 4th of July Parade Selects Activists As Most Patriotic
“Activists, whistleblowers, and muckrakers received an unexpected honor when Love-In-Action Taos marched in the Arroyo Seco Fourth of July Parade. Love-In-Action’s Unsung Heroes procession, joined by members of CODEPINK Taos, featured five giant puppets of Rosa Parks, Sadako Sasaki, Amy Goodman, Dolores Huerta, and Winona LaDuke; over seventy prayer flag banners honoring those who work for social change, large banners and signs, and informational fliers to hand out to the crowd.
“To the marchers surprise, they were awarded a prize for “Most Patriot” by the Arroyo Seco Merchants Association – a decision that brought whoops of joy and tears to their eyes. It is rare that activists, whistleblowers, and muckrakers are acknowledged for the important roles they play in our society.”
@Kitt – Gotta’ love this comment board…anyway, the “Right on!” above (not to take away from coram’s post) was intended for your “Most Patriotic Float” award. Brings a bit more hope back into the equation!
“It is rare that activists, whistleblowers, and muckrakers are acknowledged for the important roles they play in our society.”
With action comes change. Thanks for speaking out. Hopefully the stage is set for more to come.
Regards, Sillyputty
Dr. Alveda King speaks to Alex Jones on the topic of black genocide:
http://www.infowars.com/alveda-king-while-we-marched-in-the-sixties-planned-parenthood-was-preparing-us-a-place/
[AUDIO]
youtube.com/watch?v=fMg9MmSShLk
Will never click on a link to that piece-of-shit web site, but let me guess… it’s about abortions… they call it genocide when women have a tiny group of cells removed in a completely legal procedure to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Yes, that sure sounds like a splendid interpretation of the word genocide…. for right wing idiots that is. They could not care less about children.
These same people thing it is OK to make laws that force a women to submit to being raped by the state with a medical device in order to get an abortion.
Oh,so now its a tiny group of cells.Sheesh.You abortion lovers sure seem to like euphemisms eh?Oh,abortion,the liberal clutching of progeny destruction for convenience.Reminds me of the war of terror,killing others so we can enjoy our hedonistic lifestyle.
When you lie down in sh*t,don’t expect us to tell you it smells good.
Is it something besides a tiny group of cells? A potential human life, like a sperm and egg? Would you save all the sperm and eggs just in case they get together someday and create a potential human life? Do you support access to birth control, and sex education so there will be fewer abortions? If you don’t, you are the abortion lover, not me.
Do you vote for people who care about the children enough to not kick them and their families off of the snap program after the economy has been destroyed by powerful and unaccountable assholes? Probably not. Do you give a shit about children at all?
I am not an “abortion lover” as you have described me. I am in favor of a woman controlling her own body’s reproductive system, without interference from right wing extremists and one-issue murdering terrorists that justify killing and maiming to protect a small group of cells that has the potential to someday be a human being. Bite me.
do we own our own bodies or not ? ? ?
if so, the question of abortion answers itself…
if not, you have the morals of a psychopathic authoritarian…
(which is to say, no morals at all…)
The communists love Reggae too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaerapRPS64
Reggae is just one song, adaptively reused with alternate lyrics for different recordings and performances.
The only other one song thing I accept is “we don´t need no education” ;-)
Sorry, I did forget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NavVfpp-1L4
Your description is most apt for you own posts… not so much when it comes to Reggae music, which has the soul that is lacking in your particular brand of projectile oral effluent.
debbie can roll it nice and easy, or like Ike on crack cocaine, fog brain. You both smell to higher heaven.
Nearly half are Americans, but I note this phrasing……..
“Among the most valuable contents — which The Post will not describe in detail, to avoid interfering with ongoing operations — are fresh revelations about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html
Drip, drip drip…..
>”Drip, drip drip …”
Actually Ben, I thought the news that the NSA collected private/personal communications about the POTUS , as part of (terrorist?) SIGINT operations, 1227 times during the past four years … fairly fucking momentous.
*I awaited with baited-breath WH spokesperson explanation
Who’s in charge around here … the mind reels?
That almost seemed fake to me, just because I find it shocking that no one seems to care how dangerous that is to democracy. Of course Obama was presumably a sell out long before that, but it seems odd that people wouldn’t be more concerned about the huge potential for blackmail. And if they’ve collected that info on Obama, it’s not much of a stretch to assume that they also have files on many other elected officials.
And we’re supposed to care about the ruling class being spied on …. why? These people aren’t your friends. Unless of course you’re Pierre “Revolving White House Door” Omidyar or Glenn “I Vet Thru the USG” Greenback$.
OK, I’m thinking maybe Tourette’s syndrome perhaps? I hate to diagnose from afar (or at all really), but do you blurt this shit out to people on the street? What other excuse/reason could there be for the repetitive tics you display in every post? I knew a guy who had the syndrome, and he was a very brave man. He would say things he had no control over and he still socialized with people, some of whom had no idea why he acted the way he did. I do not think your reason/excuse is likely to be as sympathy inducing, but maybe I’m wrong.
WOW you get a gold star
I direct your attention to the fall of a state education secretary who made a redundant fool of his supporters by attacking his competition and stroking himself online under terms and conditions that created an illusion of obtuseness. What a dope. I knew our email would be monitored, but he thought his lame style wouldn’t out if he left it in the press? What a wrinkled old mess. And then there’s his lame arse.
Yes. I wonder how early he knew this, but when we elect a President we expect some intestinal fortitude, like JFK’s upright middle finger; “I’ll break CIA into a million pieces”. ( there was a rumor that someone found his Day-Timer in a gutter with cryptic words about how he didn’t want to end up like Kennedy) Coercion of a sitting President is quite momentous and it would have been nice if he had called them out publicly, instead of nibbling around the PR edges that keep his domestic policies and his reputation for being genial and professional. But my comment stands. The drip is slow enough for dehyrdration.
He might not be popular but…
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world – no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”
? Woodrow Wilson
@Rolling with the times – the first part of the quote re: unhappiness seems questionable; however the second part has plenty of evidence to back up thew Wilson quote:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Woodrow_Wilson
His and the congress’ other policies aside, this part seems particularly accurate even today:
“We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world – no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”
– Woodrow Wilson
Silly.. With respect to the ‘policies’ in question, are you referring to the ‘small group of men’ affiliated, Federal Reserve Act?
redux:
A case can be made that both Woodrow Wilson and his liberty inducing “quote”, were fraudulent..
Campaign Speech – 1911:
“A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom”
Woodrow Wilson
http://www.salon.com/2007/12/21/woodrow_wilson_federal_reserve/
Noted Sillyputty.
It isn’t information ABOUT he POTUS. Bart Gellman said those 1200+ instances were targets or incidentals mentioning the President (e.g if I typed “Prez Obama is a socialist!!”). Why that is minimized is beyond me. You’d think they’d minimize Presidential information based on sender/recipient and not mere mentionings.
The point is that your interpretation is not correct and is how misinformation spreads.
https://twitter.com/bartongellman/status/485604791867817986
Thanks Nate!
That makes much more sense. I was confused as to why blackmail information (if it exists) would be stored so insecurely, and why a bigger deal wouldn’t be made of evidence of the possibility for blackmail.
Marcy quoted this bit as significant:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/07/05/nsas-spying-medical-records-resumes-and-obama/
Marcy: “And all of this is available for back door search, for both “intelligence” and criminal purposes.”
Finally, something I have in common with the NSA.
“Minimized u.s. president
…
Some of them border on the absurd, using titles that could apply to only one man. A “minimized U.S. president-elect” begins to appear in the files in early 2009, and references to the current “minimized U.S. president” appear 1,227 times in the following four years.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html
I laughed at that too. Wondered if that’s how Hope and Change morphed into more of the same. Dismissed that idea immediately, knowing Obama had been chosen and well-groomed for the advancement of corruption long before 2009.
Analysis today from Marcy.
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/07/06/the-unaudited-tech-analyst-access-to-us-person-data/
NSA whistleblower Russ Tice: Snowden Revelations tip of the Iceberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr3xwOnietA
Did Snowden have access to the raw data?
It seems like the WP article only says he accessed minimized data. That’s still a big deal (unbelievable really that he’d have such vast access to actual intercepts, and now I’m dying to know if he actually pulled some congress men’s communications as that would cause a real uproar) but if he could access the raw data he had the most valuable information of all.
“Pentagon preparing for mass civil breakdown
Social science is being militarised to develop ‘operational tools’ to target peaceful activists and protest movements”.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/12/pentagon-mass-civil-breakdown
Occam’s razor strongly indicates constitutional authority, elected & appointed, doesn’t actually run the USA. Puppets in the show mu
…st convince themselves otherwise to sleep well.
But Occam’s Razor would also suggest an explanation of “people often act immorally and purely in their own self interest,” therefore the elected officials could certainly be willingly ceding their power (or misusing it) due to bribes and other types of corruption. We don’t need a sort of shadow government when “people are just awful” explains current events fairly well. (there are probably thousands or millions of sociopaths that get along with and manipulate people far better than I ever could, so it’s not surprising that immoral and power hungry people would gravitate to elected positions of power)
JFK told us the elected were already so compromised they have no power.
This isn’t exactly news. Are you just now figuring this out?
To Coram.
Re: Four star rating, The Fortune Cookie
I checked it out, and it was well worth seeing again.
So much to say about the movies he either directed, produced, wrote, adapted for screen, original screenplays,
I am now on a Wild bender
Watched: Some like it hot (Tony Curtis) and Irma La Douce (Jack -the hardest working actor Wider ever directed-Lemon).
Double Indemnity later and then perhaps a little Kiss Me Stupid.
I will leave some for tomorrow.
Billy Wilder a genius.
Woody Allen believes that Double Indemnity is the best movie ever made.
You can watch Wilder’s A Foreign Affair in its entirety, in 12 parts, on YouTube.
Wilder’s no hero, though. He kept his nose clean and avoided the blacklist, but made a flippant remark dismissing those who suffered because of it.
“Fortune Cookie” is also on point in this thread in that the Defendants’ law firm bugs/surveills Jack Lemmon’s apartment, and Walter Matthau spots it and takes countermeasures. This element takes up much of the film.
Indeed coram. I saw that ( I always see that). I take for granted that when you say “check it out, coram says so” that precious knowledge pertaining to the subject or matter at hand , can be found in the medium you advise..
‘Putting airs on’ thinks less of Wilder because he
<kept his nose clean and avoided the blacklistFor keeping his nose clean and avoiding the blacklist is a crime to miss contrary.
Wilder made remarkable and heroic movies of varying genres.
Thanks coram
cheers jimmy
Who ever thought that a Jacuzzi could be an effective electronic countermeasure? Fun film, esp. when Whiplash Willie speaks into the microphone, and camera, at the end and turns the tables.
I sometimes wondered what happened to the communists after their political philosophy had been discredited. For a while they moaned about the Soviet Union not being a true implementation of communism, and then they went away. I thought maybe they were in the process of revising their ideology to make it relevant.
However, I see this effort failed and they simply became comedians on Twitter. Now they spend all day tweeting ‘What a bourgeois capitalist! LMAO’. Unfortunately, they tend to be as bad at comedy as they were at politics.
Dear Zelda,
FFS!
There is more current news at the Drudge Report about Edward Snowden, than has been here in a month. You all should hang your heads in shame.
Sadly,
We were duped.
Dear CitizenSane:
It is indeed sad when an alternative media site gets co-opted by a major media player. Especially when the only “news” being presented is in the comments section.
I suspect that you are right in your final analysis and it appears that Mr. Snowden has reconsidered his decisions as well.
Such is life.
Take care.
Zelda
Greenback$
I guess this might explain why Greenback$ runs to daddy USG for permission before publishing. Because he obeys his source every moment of every day!
Snowcone: “I want to help the government, not hurt it.”
Snowcone: “The documents are being released with the assistance of government stakeholders.”
Explaining why Greenback$ has no spine.
Where exactly is yours as you sit there hiding in obscurity?
Cowardice, defined.
At what point are people going to stop acting like we are not hearing variations on the same basic story. Come on, it’s been a fucking year.
Yep.
They sure screwed the pooch on this.
Or maybe, it was “screwed the Investor”.
July 5 Washington Post story on NSA: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html
Can’t wait for you to post the July 6 WaPo story, I’m sure the Breaking! News! on the NSA! will make everybody get their signs written and descend on the White House en masses.
This is a must-read article. 90% of the intercepted communications that Snowden provided to the Post were “incidental.” That 90% may have been minimized! but was retained! as was the raw data which Snowden supposedly doesn’t have access to.
Didn’t mean to use exclamation points. Fucking iPad…
Thanks SO much for posting this link, Virginia. It got my blood to the boiling point again.
And now a nod to Citizen Sane –
Memo to The Intercept: Get with it already. It seems like other outlets are breaking NSA stories; but wasn’t that what The Intercept was founded for?
Just a thought: based on this article, it might be more sensible to just list the 5 people in the U. S. the NSA has NOT targeted or incidentally spied on.
The Washington Post has their story out about the actual thousands of communications that Snowden showed them. Something tells me the US government played Glenn again this time to delay his publishing and allow the WaPo to steal the scoop, just like Prism last year?
Approximately 25 minute radio/video interview recorded a couple of weeks ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcnHN6YVU-c
“Glenn Greenwald was recently in Los Angeles for a book tour event and spoke with Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar.”
The Greenback$ hit parade never ends. Led by Banjo on the Amend the KKKonstitution float in the Celebrate Amerikkka! walk of shame.
Do people still watch those interviews? Same old drivel. Perhaps Sibel Edmonds was right after all.
Sounds a very familiar outcome of US meddling in the affairs of others.
Here’s the English version of WHITE BOOK ON VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW IN UKRAINE (NOVEMBER 2013 — MARCH 2014) produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
http://www.mid.ru/bdomp/ns-dgpch.nsf/03c344d01162d351442579510044415b/38fa8597760acc2144257ccf002beeb8/$FILE/White%20Book.pdf
That story is from RT – http://rt.com/news/156840-ukraine-human-right-abuses/
Thanks for posting seer.
Very interesting and specific pp 30-34 of Whitebook.
Yes thank you so much seer, for posting human rights violations about Ukraine while you turn the other cheek and support oligarch billionnaires who fund the organized coups in the same soveriegn country. Could you be any more of a captitalist hypocrite. The answer is no.
But thank you seer for your fine bit of posting there.
Can one of the Greenback$ bots here tell us what it was like during his Obot period? When he was supporting Obama and telling you all to go out and vote for this asshole? What was that like? Did he get pushback from you all or did you just blindly accept Greenback$ in his chameleon change from Bush supporter to Obama supporter? And didn’t that raise any red flags for you, that possibly his entire shtick was a put-on to garner more readers and boost his celebrity but not much behind it?
Wasn’t he also supporting Democratic politicians during that time period, which by definition means he was supporting Zionists. Did you all hand his ass to him for that or did you go along with it and say “oh yes Greenback$ oh yes we will” and support all those war criminals? (looking at you Banjo)
” Posse Comitatus proscribes against cities being miltarized by U.S. military,”
Um. That..is exactly the point. These ‘gifts’ to local law enforcement are not gifts, at all. The Reconstruction growing pains made it quite evident, that, other than a National Guard presence, which is dubious under the Act to be kind, that Feds wanted to butt out completely. The excuse wrt connecting the dots, sharing intel through improved integrated communications, is due to the threat of terrorism. We know how broad and long that excuse extends, with full capitulation to higher authority, when that bell has been rung.
No, your point assumed only paramilitary–i.e., local law enforcement–beneficiaries of military equipment.
Posse Comitatus doesn’t pertain to paramilitary organizations. It pertains to U.S. military operating internally in an enforcement role.
Greenback$ definitely needs new material. Is he kidding with this shit? Who takes this guy seriously when he still believes it’s “news” that capitalist politicians don’t give two shits what side of an issue they take as long as it’s the side that benefits their class?
Oh yeah I keep forgetting, Greenback$ IS a capitalist mouthpiece. He was against the NSA before he was for it. He was against imperialists taking out Qaeda before he was for it. He was against Citizens United before he was … oh sorry, he was always for corporate protections at the expense of the working class.
I don’t recall hearing you’re opinion of Obama. Can you tell me what you think of him as the first black POTUS?
It’s your, not you’re.
Carries water for the ruling class, he’s just your basic capitalist front man for power and elites. Perfect for the job coming on the heels of Shrub and kneecapping the liberal wing, anti-war crowd, whatever. The ruling elites who put him there were aware of that when they chose him.
The POTUS can be purple, green, yellow, or puce for all I care. They’re all capitalists and they always will be capitalists, so who the fuck cares that he’s black. Well I guess you seem to care since you’re bringing it up. The liberal imperialists love them a black POTUS, no question. Makes them feel less guilty for the crimes committed in their name, I suppose. Maybe you can explain it to me.
“It’s your, not you’re.”
I think I can see your speciality. Tell me; who or what do you like?
It’s specialty, not speciality.
I think I can see that you can’t spell worth shit, but whatever. :p
Why do you care what or who I like if you disagree with what I say? Is this some kind of gotcha thingie game all the capitalists play with the anti-capitalists? Why do you care so much?
You never answered my question: did you ever vote for a democratic or a republican or other capitalist politician? Can you own up to your part in supporting the war crimes and atrocities and decimation of the working class? Unlike Banjo, I mean, who won’t acknowledge that he ever did anything wrong in voting for capitalists.
OK. Now you have permission to bugger off.
I’ll take that as a yes in response to my question.
Bourgeois apologist.
I believe “speciality” is a valid British English term.
“He was against Citizens United before he was for it. “unquote
You’re a liar of biblical proportions.
Indeed. Glenn was never against the NSA per se, either. He is against their engaging in illegal, warrantless surveillance of innocent American citizens. He was never against “taking out Al Qaeda.” And to my knowledge he has never expressed support for corporate protections at the expense of the working class. So you’re 0-for-four in that post. Enjoy your gold sombrero.
So he’s an imperialist. Thanks for helping to clear that up. That makes him an enemy of the working class. Sometimes he probably wouldn’t deny.
Yo, Grammar Gal..
What exactly are you trying to convey with this incoherent sentence?
Such complex reasoning! How do you manage it with so few working brain cells?
I think Libertarianism is a doggerel of confused and ambivalent politics. It’s easy to hide conservatism within that moniker. I have been observing it for some time and find it disingenuous. There is such a thing as left libertarianism, but it is squashed by the din of untoward comments. Just as liberals used to hide behind ‘independent’ when lynch mobs united to hand them by the neck until dead, so too conservatives seek shelter. It’s time to define the demarcation between Rand Paul conservatism and libertarians who don’t believe that highways and infrastructure should not be Federal but local. Where I agree with them is that Posse comitatus proscribes the militarization of local police with MRAPS and ordnance beyond their utility for law enforcement. The Vets returning from war and the PTSD demon afflict their families and the public when they are incorporated in a cop mentality. Taxpayer dollars funded the very suppression they were supposed to prevent.
Libertarians are reactionary capitalists who like to smoke dope and screw.They still want all the legislation that benefits their class, but the working class can take a hike as far as they are concerned.
Get used to surveillance capitalism, your boys brung it, I’m sure you voted for the capitalists who support it. Like Banjo, if you’ve ever voted, you’re part of the problem.
So they’re valueless yuppies and muppies who are take showers in their own narcissism whilst singing folk songs and quoting Hunter S. Thompson? Yeah. That sounds about right.
George Carlin identified them early on.
George Carlin was about liberty. Speech, 7 words the government wouldn’t let you say, anyone?
You could say them, just not on television. Or the radio either.
quote”Libertarians are reactionary capitalists who like to smoke dope and screw.”unquote
Says one who likes to molest little boys and expose himself to his sisters.
Feel better now? Honestly, if you’ve got nothing, just say you’ve got nothing. Those kinds of remarks are pathetic and need I say trollish.
Liberty, paleoconservatism, emphasis on increased self-responsibility only frighten your Big Government-dependency mindset, and you seek to minimize your personal launch and growth phobias with embarrassingly lightweight polemic.
“I think Libertarianism is a doggerel of confused and ambivalent politics. It’s easy to hide conservatism within that moniker. I have been observing it for some time and find it disingenuous.”
I find all political parties to be disingenuous. Issues are important, political parties are not. That is what the term “Independent” means. It allows one to view the issues without adopting a “party” perspective. An Independent can agree or disagree on any given problem issue with whatever party adopts the position and/or solution that most nearly corresponds to his/her own analysis.
In reality, on any given issue, all parties and subsets of those parties have individuals which present potential solutions that should be evaluated for merit, as opposed to discarding an opinion because it is coming from faction that one perceives to be worthless because of perceived party affiliation.
If one refuses party affiliation; one can be any combination of radical, conservative, moderate, or liberal that one wishes to be on any issue.
>em>”In reality, on any given issue, all parties and subsets of those parties have individuals which present potential solutions that should be evaluated for merit, as opposed to discarding an opinion because it is coming from faction that one perceives to be worthless because of perceived party affiliation.”
Very well said. Just as Greenwald’s and others journalism should judged on merit and accuracy rather than where it is from – so too with with ideas and solutions that are meant to address our societies misdirection.
No report on what is happening in our world and no attempt to right the wrongs of today should be discarded simply because of the ideologies of the source; because killing the messenger, pigeon-holing, and denying the facts only results in poor outcomes (Iraq war, anyone?) rather than the positive results that will move us all forward.
“Suppose that humans happen to be so constructed that they desire the opportunity for freely undertaken productive work. Suppose that they want to be free from the meddling of technocrats and commissars, bankers and tycoons, mad bombers who engage in psychological tests of will with peasants defending their homes, behavioral scientists who can’t tell a pigeon from a poet, or anyone else who tries to wish freedom and dignity out of existence or beat them into oblivion.”
– Noam Chomsky
That browser is old, tor is using a much newer browser, Knoppix is linux, its made from debian linux
Thought for the day:
“This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
– Frederick Douglass, 19th Century American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman.
In 1852, Douglass was asked to speak at the Rochester, New York, Fourth of July celebration. Here’s part of his speech:
I’m kind of surprised to see you posting quotes about power not conceding without demands. Aren’t you the one lambasting people who don’t vote and participating in the capitalist electoral process? WTF.
“I’m kind of surprised to see you posting quotes about power not conceding without demands. Aren’t you the one lambasting people who don’t vote and participating in the capitalist electoral process? WTF.”
I’m unsurprised that you are surprised; because the fact is that these two concepts are not mutually exclusive.
If one takes the time to read and reflect rather than to only react to what is being said here, one would realize that advocating a change in the electoral process and therefore using that “electoral demand” to get “power to concede” is actually what is being advocated.
“Democracy is, among other things, the ability to say ‘no’ to the boss. But a man cannot say ‘no’ to the boss, unless he is sure of being able to eat when the boss’s favour has been withdrawn.”
– Aldous Huxley, “Themes And Variations”
More on the rising tide in Germany.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
“The German constitution, as interpreted by the constitutional court, defines privacy as a basic human right. That the U.S. is so casually violating the basic human rights of all German citizens is met with utter disgust.”
Do you blame them??? I agree with their mounting disgust and am ashamed that U.S. Citizens are so busy fighting party politics that they can’t seem to comprehend that the USG is also violating the provisions of the U.S. Constitution. At least the Germans are able to cross party lines in agreement and recognition of the Supreme Laws of their Country.
“and am ashamed that U.S. Citizens are so busy fighting party politics that they can’t seem to comprehend.”
I shan’t name names but the US is awash in ‘progressive’ blogs with chronic ethnocentrism. They are totally absorbed in regional controversies (LGBT, ACA, local elections) and those things are important to the Big Pic, but they do it to the detriment of Global issues.
Mr. Greenwald’s latest project???
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/05/369999/us-spying-on-muslims-smacks-of-nazis/
“The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said American journalist Glenn Greenwald, whose reporting of documents leaked by Edward Snowden helped expose the scope and scale of US spying activities, will soon expose large-scale spying operations against American Muslims conducted by the US National Security Agency (NSA).”
I don’t think it’s a “project” of his. It’s part of what the documents he’d been writing and had planned to post last week, and will post soon, are about.
Of course.
Bring it on.
How earth shattering and fireworks inducing is this news. It’s not like it’s going to surprise anybody who has half a brain.
Can we really put stars by this? Frankly, where’s the fireworks show? The grand poobah finale?
Greenbacks is such a suck to power.
“We would reveal the big news but the government told us not to.”
A fake quotation written by PSBI attributed to Glenn Greenwald:
Real quotation posted 10 hrs ago by Greenwald on twitter:
It wasn’t govt objections – those we rejected months ago – it was an issue about accuracy of one claim – and it’s coming very soon.–GG
That “quote” I posted was actually somebody else’s tweet. I should have attributed it but now I don’t remember who it was. Trust me, the people who see through Greenback$ and his money grubbing political chameleon shtick are tweeting up a storm, and they’re hilarious. That was one of the funniest ones – “I was going to report the names but the USG told me not to.” LMAO.
You take care now Banjo. Don’t you have some robocalling to do to “amend” the KKKonstitution! :p
From your link:
“……..“After 9/11, America had a great hatred for people that didn’t look and act and think like we did, especially against Muslims. It was very easy to make Muslims the people that we hated, even though most Muslims, at least in my experience, have been very peaceful and observant,” said Dr. Walter M. Brasch in a phone interview with Press TV on Saturday…..”
You really have to enjoy that first sentence:
“……. “After 9/11, America had a great hatred for people that didn’t look and act and think like we did, especially against Muslims…….”.
Note the “Especially against Muslims” which means Americans hate all people “…..that [don’t] look and act and think like we [do]…..” (regardless of 911) since all 19 hijackers were Muslims. So we are just a nation of racists and bigots. The attacks of 911 just gave us a better excuse for hating Muslims than the one we had before. But isn’t hate just hate? The attacks of 911 really didn’t change our opinion of Muslimsl (at all) since we hated Muslims to begin with.
Just like individuals’ formative years are when they are young, civilizations also have formative years when they are young and develop certain attitudes, which last a long time.
West’s early encounters with Islam were negative. I won’t go into any details of why.
That created currents within the West that hated Islam.
These currents originally had very incorrect information about Islam. For example, they believed that the Muslims worshipped Muhammad who was anti-Christ, even though the Quran mentions Jesus in a positive way a lot, and accepts him as the Word and the Messiah and in his miraculous birth.
They even translated the Quran in the most inaccurate way to spread fear of Islam.
These anti-Islam currents within the West have existed since then.
However, there also emerged Western scholars who had a more positive view of Islam. There emergence is relatively recent in history.
In the West, a lot of effort was made to develop better interfaith understanding.
Their effort had successes.
But the evil acts of 911 committed by some Muslims, mostly Saudis, set the clock back, a few centuries, perhaps.
And now, spreading hatred of Islam is a widely accepted phenomenon in the West, not limited to those currents that hated Islam anyway.
For example, opposing the building of mosques is now more intense than it was before 911.
It’s more difficult for a Muslims to get a job now than it was before 911, especially those who look like Muslims.
Certain countries have even banned the wearing of head scarf.
The meaning of the term, Shariah, has been given such negative, and distorted, meaning that it is used now to scare people off.
Obviously, the emergence of radical Muslims and their distortions of Islam and its sacred terms is a significant factor.
But to suggest that hatred of Islam and Muslims hasn’t intensified in certain circles as a result of the evil acts of 911 is, I believe, erroneous.
This website has some interesting articles on hatred and fear of Islam.
http://www.loonwatch.com
I always enjoy your posts Sufi
I didn’t post to deny that there is racism and bigotry in the west. We know that this has existed for a long time. Certainly some of the anti-immigration in the US and Europe is driven by racism. And of course, there are always misunderstandings between cultures. A lot of bigotry and racism is driven by false characterizations of people from other cultures (including false characterizations about western culture).
My problem is with the wording by the author of the article in Lyra’s link (stated in my previous post) which gives the wrong impression of Americans. Americans and American laws are actually very tolerant. Again, this is not to deny there are racists and bigots in the US. We all have some tendencies for intolerance hidden away which spill out occasionally. For example, there was plenty of anti-Mormon bigotry that surfaced when Romney ran for President in 2012. But the author’s blanket labeling of Americans as having “great hatred” toward people that don’t look like them is blatantly false and ……well…..bigoted. The acceptance of this kind of false and misleading characterizations of Americans (especially at this site and other politically far left wing sites) is why I posted a response.
Finally, there has been a backlash against Muslims from the attacks on September 11, 2001. I think that is obvious. Muslim Americans like every ethnic, religious and racial community abide by the laws and appreciate living in a democracy. Any “labeling” of Muslims/Muslim communities is wrong. No sane person can deny that. However, some of the current blowback against Muslims comes from radical Islamists who are murdering people at an alarming rate world-wide especially in the “greater” Middle East and northern Africa to gain power like in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Iraq, Algeria, Kenya, Libya and Syria (etc.). Some comes from other spectacular attacks like 7/7 (Britain) and the Mumbai slaughter. Indeed, there are currently about 500 British Muslims fighting in Iraq and Syria which is alarming. Most attacks target civilians. None of this makes things any easier for Muslim-Americans who are as far physically and politically from that part of the world as the rest of us.
Thanks.
Hi Creg,
I agree with you.
I was just trying to point out that anti-Islam feelings have intensified in the West since the evil acts of 911, which were mostly committed by people from Saudi Arabia, a country that has been promulgating its Wahhabi, anti-Sufi/Shia, brand of Islam all over the world.
It’s this excluvist brand of Islam that begot OBL and the vicious currents within Islam that are wreaking havoc all over the world.
Thanks Sufi
Eventually the Monarchy in Saudi Arabia will run its course…..
Enjoy your weekend.
I don’t see how anyone outside of this country, seeing in the global media daily the next American drone attack killing innocent people, the next Congressman ranting about Sharia law and terrorist attacks on the homeland, the next protest with white people waving signs and screaming anti-immigrant rage…how can anyone look at that day after day and NOT think that Americans are not bloodthirsty, vengeful, insular, reactionary, dangerous people?
I think non-Americans have ample reason, given our recent behavior and what they see around them every day, to react negatively to Americans in general. Sorry your feelings are hurt being lumped in with the “bad apples,” but that’s the reality we have to live with now. We as a nation have allowed the bigots and reactionaries to lead our nation astray from the lofty ideals we used to represent. Now we live with the consequences.
“…how can anyone look at that day after day and NOT think that Americans are not bloodthirsty, vengeful, insular, reactionary, dangerous people?”
———
Given a chance, many, many non-Americans, especially from the so-called Third-World countries, would love to immigrate to America.
That’s because of the bad conditions in many of their countries, but also because there’s still a lot of tolerance, freedom and great opportunities, for higher education and jobs, in the U.S.
Despite a rise in intolerance, there are still those Americans who are reasonable and accommodating.
Had the evil acts of 911 taken place in a Muslim majority country, and carried out by a certain non-Muslim group, there would’ve been large scale massacres of innocent non-Muslims belonging to the religion of those evil doers.
As for freedoms, as a Muslim, I know that it is in the West that we can critically examine the errors of past generations and provide alternate interpretations without fearing our lives.
The same criticisms made in certain Muslim majority countries can lead to exile, and even death.
Case in point: a provincial governor called for a review of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law, which resulted in his assassination by one of his body guards, who was then openly praised by many conservative Muslims.
This is the reason, many Muslims believe that the reformation of their religion is going to happen in the U.S., and then spread across the globe.
That said, it’s also very sad that even moderate Muslims are viciously attacked by some in the West, as happened to this American Muslim woman:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/05/heritage-muslim-benghazi_n_5559981.html
Well Rob, you and I are never going to agree on US foreign policy. I understand that. We could discuss the issues for a millennium without agreement on a single US policy. For example, I support droning the fuck right out of the Taliban in Pakistan which probably means I deserve to be lumped in with the bad apples. But my complaint with Dr. Walter M. Brasch was his inflammatory lies and bigotry directed at Americans which far left wingers seem to embrace.
Sorry. I won’t accept anti-American propaganda from extreme left wing nutcases (especially in a phone interview with Press TV considering they are the long arm of the Iranian state which is an anti-democratic and racist government).
Thanks Rob.
quote”The attacks of 911 really didn’t change our opinion of Muslimsl (at all) since we hated Muslims to begin with.”unquote
WE? Fuck you. Your inclusion of the entire Western mindset into your “we” is total fucking bullshit.. Fuck you again…and again and again. Oh, did I mention…fuck you? In case I didn’t..fuck you.
I was being sarcastic you idiot. It was Dr. Walter M. Brasch that made the suggestion you hate Muslims……..you idiot. Oh did I mention you were an idiot? You idiot Chronicle.
All I know is ,post 9-11,it gave me a lot more reasons to hate Zionism and its adherents.Take that to your lobotomized group home.
Interesting perspective on the new Middle East Caliphate from Glen Ford.
snip
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/superpower-and-caliphate
@ seer:
I have also watched the Middle Eastern conflicts with an interest in US involvement. Found the following article to be worthy of consideration in evaluating casualty.
http://wtfrly.com/2014/06/29/the-chaos-in-iraq-is-by-design/
From your linked article:
Yes, I recall an incident in Basra during the second invasion when British black ops were arrested by local police – dressed as Muslims, they were caught setting a bomb in a mosque. The CIA was doing the same in Baghdad and other cities. The operation was intended to exacerbate sectarian tensions, and that mission *was* accomplished. Civil war is a useful condition for Western hegemony to exploit.
Now civil war has erupted in Ukraine, also instigated by the West.
On Ukraine, I found this article to be rather enlightening.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/18624-new-ukrainian-rulers-surrender-sovereignty-to-eu
There appears to be a unifying economic correlation between Middle East energy assets and Ukraine energy assets.
“……..Yes, I recall an incident in Basra during the second invasion when British black ops were arrested by local police – dressed as Muslims, they were caught setting a bomb in a mosque. The CIA was doing the same in Baghdad and other cities. The operation was intended to exacerbate sectarian tensions, and that mission *was* accomplished. …..”
I would love to see a source for that seer. You wouldn’t happen to have a link would you?
UK denies storming Iraqi jail to free soldiers
Reuter, 20 September 2005
British forces have freed two undercover soldiers from jail in Basra after a day of rioting in the Iraqi city that was sparked when the soldiers fired on a police patrol.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official says British forces stormed the jail using six tanks and that dozens of Iraqi prisoners escaped during the raid.
But Britain’s Ministry of Defence says the release of the two soldiers had been negotiated and it did not believe the prison had been stormed.
“We’ve heard nothing to suggest we stormed the prison,” a ministry spokesman said.
“We understand there were negotiations.”
Lisa Glover, spokeswoman for the British embassy in Baghdad, says three people have been wounded in the operation to free the soldiers.
She did not give further details of how the soldiers were freed.
The events in the mainly Shiite city are likely to worsen relations between British forces responsible for security in southern Iraq and the local population.
Police and local officials say the two undercover soldiers were arrested after opening fire on Iraqi police who approached them.
They say the men were wearing traditional Arab headscarves and sitting in an unmarked car.
“They were driving a civilian car and were dressed in civilian clothes when shooting took place between them and Iraqi patrols,” an official in Basra said.
Mohammed al-Abadi, an official in the Basra governorate, says the two men looked suspicious to police.
“A policeman approached them and then one of these guys fired at him. Then the police managed to capture them,” Mr Abadi said.
“They refused to say what their mission was. They said they were British soldiers and (suggested) to ask their commander about their mission.”
Tank ablaze
Furious crowds pelted British armoured vehicles with rocks and petrol bombs after the shooting incident.
A British soldier was engulfed in flames as he scrambled out of a burning tank during the rioting.
He was pelted with stones by the crowd.
The tank tried to reverse away from trouble after it was attacked by Iraqis flinging petrol bombs, burning furniture and tyres.
Iraqis had driven through the streets with loudhailers demanding that the undercover Britons remain in jail.
Basra, capital of the Shiite south, has been relatively stable compared with central Iraq, where Sunni Arab insurgents have killed thousands of Iraqi and US troops, officials and civilians with suicide attacks, roadside bombs and shootings.
But relations remain tense between the British military and some local groups.
British Defence Secretary John Reid confirms in a statement that the two undercover soldiers are back with British forces, but sheds no light on their mission or how they were released.
“The situation in Basra is currently calmer after a day of disturbances,” he said.
“At this stage it is not possible to be certain why these disturbances began.”
The main ally of the United States, Britain said on Sunday it would if necessary increase the number of troops in Iraq, where it has about 8,500 soldiers.
Copyright Reuters 2005
http://www.globalresearch.ca/british-undercover-soldiers-caught-driving-booby-trapped-car/972
British special forces caught dressed as Arab ‘terrorists’
British soldiers have been caught posing as Arabs and shooting Iraqis in the occupied city of Basra in southern Iraq. A group of them was caught yesterday by Iraqi police. They were driving an Iraqi car, wearing Arab clothing, and carrying weapons and explosives.
The Iraqi police were patrolling the area looking for suspected “terrorists” or “insurgents”, and they noticed that the men were acting suspiciously. Suddenly, without warning, the suspicious men started shooting at people, but the new Iraqi security forces managed to capture some of them before they could escape. Obviously, if these men had not been caught, the mass media would now be reporting the incident as just another attempt by evil “terrorists” to create civil war in Iraq.
There have been a number of incidents in this area and throughout Iraq in which police and civilians have been targeted and killed by “terrorists” or “insurgents”. But this is the first time that any of those responsible have been caught in the act, and it is now clear that at least some of them are working directly for the occupying forces, as many Iraqis have openly suspected all along.
http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=1556
–Apple 03:38, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
The following Reuters report raises some disturbing questions.
Why were undercover British “soldiers” wearing traditional Arab headscarves firing at Iraqi police?
The incident took place just prior to a major religious event in Basra.
The report suggests that the police thought the British soldiers looked “suspicious”. What was the nature of their mission?
Occupation forces are supposesd to be collaborating with Iraqi authorities. Why did Britsh Forces have to storm the prison using tanks and armoured vehicles to liberate the British undercover agents?
“British forces used up to 10 tanks ” supported by helicopters ” to smash through the walls of the jail and free the two British servicemen.”
Was there concern that the British “soldiers” who were being held by the Iraqi National Guard would be obliged to reveal the nature and objective of their undercover mission?
A report of Al Jazeera TV, which preceeded the raid on the prison, suggests that the British undercover soldiers were driving a booby trapped car loaded with ammunition. The Al Jazeera report (see below) also suggests that the riots directed against British military presence were motivated because the British undercover soldiers were planning to explode the booby trapped car in the centre of Basra:
https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Talk:Basra,_Iraq_raid_by_UK_forces_to_rescue_soldiers_from_police
And from CNN –
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/09/19/iraq.main/index.html
Seer
I appreciate your effort in providing the sources. There is some speculation in the sources (al Jazeera) that suggest that the two British soldiers (dressed in traditional Arab head garb) were there to plant bombs – or to explode a car bomb in the center of Basra. The CNN story says that the British soldiers started firing at civilians and were captured. Another source says the British soldiers fired at and killed an Iraqi police officer. But there really is nothing about the soldiers planting bombs in any Mosque. None of your sources even mention the CIA – and the mission of the British soldiers is pure speculation until that information is released (or linked).
The US held the first (true) elections in Iraqi history in January 2005. The Iraqi people voted and proudly displayed their purple fingers. There no proof (that I have seen yet) that the US was employing a divide and conquer strategy. It simply made no sense in terms of holding elections in Iraq just a few months before the incident in Basra which you suggest was a part of a coalition divide and conquer strategy (your links). It also made no sense from a geopolitical point of view. Stability helped the US cause in Iraq – especially if – as some believe – that the US invaded for oil. It made no sense in terms of rebuilding Iraq (especially bringing the oil on line), in terms of the cost of the war, in terms of an increase in US and civilian casualties, in terms of the surge which brought the Sunni and Shia to the table, and ultimately, in terms of handing over Iraq to the number one enemy of the US in the Middle East, Iran – a huge geopolitical failure of the invasion. In fact, what is the benefit for the US to initiate a civil war – after an election which the US promoted as a success of the invasion?
However, I have no clue why the British soldiers were dressed as they were and fired on police and/or civilians. That seems to make no sense what so ever. It would be interesting to find more information on the story.
Thanks.
Summers, try reading the links embedded at the sites I listed. You can put two and two together and realize the point of MI5 operatives impersonating Arab terrorists, loading car(s) with explosives, and shooting up bystanders, was intended to create chaos and sectarian violence in a traditionally Shi’ite city.
It worked.
The CIA undertook similar assignments in Baghdad and other cities with mixed or Sunni majority populations.
The original news reports on these incidents are no longer available that I could find. But if you are naive enough to believe that what the coalition did in Iraq was not intended, you are in sore need of deepening your awareness so that you may perceive reality more easily.
Your willingness to credit the MSM with reporting truth is touching, but you appear to be far older than 12 and should have awakened from your pretty slumber by now. Remember what they say: Time waits for no man.
Seer
“…….But if you are naive enough to believe that what the coalition did in Iraq was not intended, you are in sore need of deepening your awareness so that you may perceive reality more easily……”
Sorry if I want to see more than “put two and two together” and speculation about US military strategy. Bush announced “Mission Accomplished” in 2003 and held elections in Iraq in early 2005 to showcase to the world. How would inflaming sectarian tensions serve the US in Iraq? The idea of the “surge” in 2007 was just the opposite – to reduce sectarian tensions and violence.
Thanks.
I see that reading between the lines, a necessity to understanding the complexities of today’s global affairs, is not your forte. I recall back at the Graun, you challenged the report from Jane’s Defense Weekly that reported there were more al Qaeda rebels in Syria than Free Syrian Army and other moderate anti-Assad fighters. You simply insisted that report was untrue.
It appears you won’t accept facts that conflict with your overly idealistic and dangerously unrealistic view of the tactics the US and its Western allies are willing to pursue under cover of the darkness provided by the complicit well-paid (er… bribed) media.
Seer
“…….I recall back at the Graun, you challenged the report from Jane’s Defense Weekly that reported there were more al Qaeda rebels in Syria than Free Syrian Army and other moderate anti-Assad fighters. You simply insisted that report was untrue……”
The one thing I have never posted is that I am right about everything, but that is besides the point (Gondwanaland?).
“……..It appears you won’t accept facts that conflict with your overly idealistic and dangerously unrealistic view of the tactics the US and its Western allies are willing to pursue under cover of the darkness provided by the complicit well-paid (er… bribed) media……”
You are using “facts” where there is only speculation. Besides speculative, it’s conspiratorial which within the context of the invasion of Iraq make little sense. I fully understand that the US is capable of tactics like divide and rule – or lying like at the second Gulf of Tonkin incident, but the sectarian divide was well established before the US invaded. You’ll remember that Saddam invaded Iran because he feared the Mullahs would spread the Iranian revolution to Iraq and its Shia majority. The invasion of Iran cost the lives of one million people. Saddam killed tens of thousands of Shia putting down the rebellion after the first Gulf war and other incidents. The Shia and Kurds were treated as second class citizens during the reign of Saddam. Shiapedia has a whole section on how badly the Shia were treated under Saddam Hussein.
For the US, the strategy was unite after ridding the world of Saddam. The surge strategy was proof of that. However, I’ll track articles that suggest the same things because I know I can be wrong.
Another brilliant piece by Glen Ford. Remember when he was on Democracy Now exposing Michael Eric Dyson’s Obama-worship syndrome?
He forgot about the part where there is a large industrial building in a nondescript American city full of evil-scientists, with evil laughs, who are hell-bent on creating designer epidemics that will holocaust Middle East Islamic people wholesale. For the oil of course.
Oh no, wait: America needs them as capitalist slaves.
…The CIA are the middlemen dealing in American business franchise distribution. Every manager of Starbucks and McDonald’s (etc.), worldwide, are trained CIA operatives meant to eviscerate and corrupt all ancient cultures and morals as part of the larger maniacal plot to enslave the world though debt – preferably on Visa or American Express. (The CIA does not accept the Discover card.)
And remember, it was the CIA who originally invented the Internet as a project to enslave the world. Berners-Lee being a known CIA operative. [That last bit said in that irritating Noam Chomsky matter-of-fact slow and low tone of absolute factual authority.]
What America has wrought is a magnificent Middle East phoenix – all Islamic people are joined together like one big huge Rugby scrum – but they are flying free over the whole world – and they are larger than life itself – and the feeling for each will be better than poking a virgin houris all day until you pass out.
“snip”
I swear to Allah I hit [reply] to: seer 05 Jul 2014 at 10:22 am
Unlike Greenback$, the writers at BAR actually have principles.
The Tasmanian Echidna’s Four-Headed Penis
http://tvblogs.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/03/the-tasmanian-echidnas-four-headed-penis/
While this link may be a few years old, the info contained should shed some light on the current status of the NSA. As shown, even high government officials did not know to what extent the DOJ revolt in Ashcrofts hospital room affected Bush’s surveillance program at the time. Other that Bush’s relinquishing some aspects, there were parts of the program that were secret from most DOJ officials. What is not disputed..is the program continued to this day. The revolt did little. Interesting no less.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/themes/rebellion.html
‘Got Survelliance?’ you do if you read Boing Boing (Cory Doctoro)
http://www.juancole.com/2014/07/considers-target-surveillance.html
“Since the start of the Snowden story in 2013, the NSA has stressed that while it may intercept nearly every Internet user’s communications, it only “targets” a small fraction of those, whose traffic patterns reveal some basis for suspicion. Targets of NSA surveillance don’t have their data flushed from the NSA’s databases on a rolling 48-hour or 30-day basis, but are instead “
Thank you Ben.
Update 2 in that article is especially clear. “Appelbaum and others have posted an excellent English language article expanding on this in Der Erste.”
http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/aktuell/nsa230_page-1.html
Indeedy. Months back I was hearing the buzz that TOR was actually an NSA op. I hope GG doesn’t delay much longer. Shortly, we may find ourselves with just fishwrap for news and info.
Months back I read that Tor users were immediately regarded as suspect by the spooks. I’ve considered using it – gone to the site and read the documentation, but declined to download it because there’s no point to inviting even deeper surveillance.
Maybe I will later down the road apiece.
The German government has summoned the US ambassador to discuss the alleged spying on the parliamentary committee that was investigating claims of US spying. I found the following transcript on my computer, which may have been placed there inadvertently.
Deputy Foreign Minister: Mr. Ambassador, do you have a compulsive spying problem?
Ambassador: No, Mr. Minister.
DFM: Then can you remove the wire you are wearing?
A: Sure, but it’s just standard protocol.
DFM: Thank you. Can you also remove your Google Glass eyewear?
A: OK
DFM:Thank you. We’ve also asked the black van parked across the road to move on. If you would just turn off your iPhone, we can begin.
A: Wow – I’m not being recorded, I feel like a little kid again! I can say how much I dislike Germans and how I can’t wait to get assigned to some other country. This is fantastic!
DFM: Click. Thank you. That’s all we wanted to get on record. Have a nice day.
I see how a transcript got onto your computer. His iPhone records conversations even when turned off. Didn’t the Germans read that document? Take out the battery, always.
Lucky for you though, MC. ;)
One of the many reasons that you can’t remove an iPhone battery.
(well, probably not, but it certainly is convenient for one of the most popular phones to have that flaw)
Ha, ha! I didn’t know that. As you can tell – I don’t own an iPhone. I actually refused one when Steve Jobs was giving them out free in these parts. I did accept the iPods though, and gladly.
Fascinating.
Our own Jihad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VKwGVNsMKY
Excellent post.
Thanks.
Mark A. Colbrock, specialist for drones, is the new chief of United State of Bavaria ;-)
http://www.oberpfalznetz.de/zeitung/4225550-127-steile_karriere_bei_der_us_armee,1,0.html
coram, I found this regarding contraception. Some good news regarding its availability.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_OVERHAUL_FREE_BIRTH_CONTROL?SITE=PASTR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
“Preventive care” is baloney:
scientificamerican.com/article/flu-shots-may-not-protect-the-elderly-or-the-very-young/
google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=yaz+stroke
Damn, you’re special.
Preventive, yes. The cost of most contraceptives may seem inexpensive, but this is in context of health insurance the employee may very well had paid premiums and expect that a contract is a contract. Worse, an unplanned pregnancy can present large and unplanned expenses to both employee and employer. As for abortion, the Court may have made that far less accessible thanks to its recent McCullen v. Coakley decision.
BTW, on the male side of things, did Hobby Lobby or Conestoga Wood cover vasectomies and such? Just askin’.
ya’ll breaking out ur lil british flags n celebrating ur 2nd out of the closet re-dependence day?
mysterious computer trouble w this site past weeks ,; took 34minutes 2 post this. wont let me type
Took part in our local 4th of July parade this afternoon! I was with a large group of friends, with our theme for the parade being about promoting Move to Amend. Now, I realize that some don’t fall into the category of those who are convinced that attempting to amend the constitution is the best route for overturning or taking the strength and damage out of Citizens United. But, no matter, promoting the amendment is still a great way to communicate to people the importance of getting money out of politics. That is borne out by the fact that the amendment is popular and picking up steam and a following all over the US.
Our contingent consisted of an appropriately decorated flat-bed truck, which had speakers on either side pumping out a recording in a loop of a song that one from the group had written – on-subject – lyrics to the tune of, “This Land is Your Land.” He sang the lyrics while backing himself on guitar.
We all followed down the parade route, each of us with our signs in sequential order from 1 thru 28 – interspersed with a number of other people holding small signs about related issues. But rather than walking in a straight line down the middle of the parade route we all snaked back and forth along the route from one side of the street to the other. That way the crowd lining both sides of the route could easily view each sign, which made for a more interactive intimacy between us and them. Lots of cheering and whooping for us! We were well received, to say the least!
You never know how many participants will show up for such an event like that. And when you have 28 signs that need a person to hold each and every one of them, and a whole bunch of other signs that need someone to be there to make us of them, it’s delightful when it works out that plenty of people show up to make it all come together.
I’ve never been one too quick to say, “I love a parade,” but when actually participating in a parade, it can be pretty darned fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVus6eJA1yI
Left out an important bit of information. Each one of the larger signs we were carrying had one thru 27 (one on each sign) of the wording of each of the 27 amendments Then the last sign had the wording for the proposed 28th amendment.
Rock on.
iirc Lessig makes a point that amendment activism can act as a powerful form of brinksmanship, if and when it builds steam the threat of amendment is almost as affecting as amendment itself.
Curious, what do you guys think of universal basic income (or negative income tax) as another possible antidote? ie, if money is speech, and speech is free, emancipate the supply
This is definitely part of the solution:
https://movetoamend.org/wethepeopleamendment
This one additional amendment to the exisiting Constitution of the United States will nullify the 2010 SCOTUS decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commision pulling corporate voice out of the elections process. That is good.
I do not however; support an Article V Convention, where there exists the potential to re-write the entire Constitution.
The link you posted is what the group I was affiliated with at the parade is behind and working towards. That’s why we had signs with wording from each of the previously passed amendments, to make the point that passing an amendment is not outer space talk. In my original post I included that link and another link, but since that post didn’t upload here, I left out the links in my second attempt at posting about the parade. I don’t know what the people in the group, for the most part, think about Article V Convention.
You can ride on your bourgeois float in your bourgeois pro-Amerikkka parade all you want, but the bottom line is that the Constitution was written for capitalism and private property. So “amending” the sucker is worthless. It needs to be scrapped completely and written for a communist project, not a capitalist one.
You seem clueless that your bourgeois attitudes come through no matter what “bandwagon” you jump on. Amending the constitution is no less pro-capitalist than the Supremes ruling for Citizens United in the first place.
You keep on keeping on though, Banjo. The ruling class loves you!
I wasn’t on a float. And that was the least of your dishonesty about me in that comment. Dishonesty is your MO, always. Unlike one of your lies about me, I know that you’re not “clueless” about what an obvious liar you are. You just know no other way to be.
Right behind the people I walked with was another “pro-Amerikkka” demonstration about “Label GMO’s.” Lot’s of stuff about Monsanto in that one, and it was also full of more friends and acquaintances of mine, and assorted other people, who, for some reason, make PSBI feel special about her/himself because he or she is changing the world one “pro-Amerikkka” rant at a time on a comment board.
Edward Snowden recently mentioned that he does not want to give himself a parade if he returns to the United States. I want to give him a ticker tape parade in every city in the union!
This Fourth of July I am celebrating the mothers and fathers of our country – Laura Poitras, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald – and, Julian Assange, a citizen of another country who has become a martyr to the cause of bringing liberty and freedom to Americans – these are founders of a new and better United States which I believe will arise because of their sacrifices.
Last year I started a new family tradition in my home and told everyone about it that would listen. Thanksgiving’s now a 2-day celebration here and the second is called “SnowMann Day,” though the list of honorees grows.
We have Latin-American food and I bake “USA upside-down cake.”
Abut an hour or two ago I posted a story about our local 4th of July Day parade that I participated in with many friends. So far, as you can see, the post is so far a no-show here on the discouragingly intermittent Intercept comment board. If the post doesn’t show up in due time I’ll – maybe – take another shot at rewriting it. Participating in the parade was fun and exhilarating.
Similarly, in a discussion I was having with CraigSummers last night, one comment, maybe two, never appeared. It’s extremely difficult to conduct a conversation with disappearing comments.
I’m beginning to think this site is a hoax. A holding tanks of sorts, where spooks get the personal info on every visitor. I hope I’m wrong. Please, somebody tell me I’m wrong.
Einstein, try switching to a different installed browser to find comments you just made if you don’t see it on refresh, and empty the caches of all of them. You’ll find your problem most often solved.
Glad I could help.
Not to mention the problematic structure of the comment board itself.
Yeah, that too.
Only beginning to have questions, huh?
Says one who loves spending hour after hour participating in hoaxes.
“debbie” is Terrence Moonseed, sans the personality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-xSP_T0VqU#t=106
No Terrence is cool debbie is not. Who says Terry is wrong?
https://thejuicemedia.com/
The World game and Brazil
That’s what “sans the personality” means.
Terrence is wrong on some of his jive, right on some. That’s my personal opinion; the only one that I can have. I don’t know or care “who says Terry is wrong.” “debbie,” on the other hand, is just basically insane.
Kitt, I want to thank you for that link to “Rap News”.
http://www.infowars.com/indiana-cop-assaults-wheelchair-bound-man-keeps-job-faces-no-charges/
He may not have come from the grassy knoll but we seem to have a second NSA leaker. (link should go here).
The original Snowden files are said (link should go here) to be published with the assistance of Crytome.
The Intercept has been silenced.
So much for Heartbleed and all the other stories not run here.
So Glenn has been hit by a Gag order and he has remained silent on things.
The 18th of this month should see documents a plenty.
So much for the evolution of the Intercept.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI
Bruce Schnieier mentions a possible second NSA leaker:
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/07/nsa_targets_pri.html
If you saw that link on Infowars it’s only fair, and constructive, that domain sometimes be included in the post. It is supporting media that originally clued in the reader, which allows the site to reach others.
Otherwise informative sites don’t grow as much as they could have.
Very important to spread the right wing propaganda of the Screaming-Head known as Alex Jones here. Because there is just so little of that kind of coverage elsewhere. He gives run-of-the-mill fascists and bigots a bad name by being such an overwhelming douche bag… a really sad and under-appreciated little man. He makes Breitbart (rest in pieces) look like a reasonable human being… which is damn tough to pull off. He makes Glenn Beck seem like a scholar by comparison. He makes Ted Nugent sound like a compassionate school teacher who is occasionally misunderstood. More of him please.
When did that news break? Yesterday. And all us saw it here posted by coram who credited Pedinksa with the heads up, long before it was posted on infowars. As I’ve mentioned to you, infowars is a news aggregator, not an original source.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/06/18/nsa-surveillance-secret-cable-partners-revealed-rampart-a/#comment-52039
seer, that ended up as an inconspicuous update later in the day at the bottom of Schneier’s post just above comments to his blog. And the coram post made no mention of it.
You really have a small, hipster mindset about Infowars, and you’re kidding yourself if you think others don’t know that it often (but not entirely) aggregates from other current events sources. You’re not impressing anyone with such comments.
The fact is that it’s widely read enough here that many of these coincident comments are obviously timed mere hours after the appearance on the Jones site by posters here who know of and occasionally comment on, its existence.
Yes, infowars is very important. Where would we be without it? Better informed, and less propagandized I’m thinking. But hey, (not butt hay… ewww!)
Where can I get one of those hipster mindsets you speak of? Not a small hipster mind set like you suggest either. I want the big hipster mindset with a side shift and the wankle-grip…. full on deluxe for me and nothing less… cuzz freedom!
You really don’t get the concept that sites like Infowars are effective, trusted nexuses that refocus from disparate sources (including its own growing internal capability) on genuine news that readers who are disillusioned with MM can gravitate to.
But it grows–necessarily if your purported interests here are true–only if readers known to use it share that they do. And you’re not impressing anybody or doing anybody favors by badmouthing it to appear artificially above the fray.
I took part in our local 4th of July parade today with an activist group of people who have been educating the public about amending the constitution with a 28th amendment:
:
Move to Amend
I realize that, for example, Glenn and also Lawrence Lessing are not necessarily 100% in agreement that the amendment would be the best or most doable way to effect the negative particulars of Citizens United but, regardless, working towards that amendment brings attention to the problem of money in politics, and that is something that we absolutely must do something big about.; which Glenn and Lessig both agree on.
Anyway…our parade demonstration included 28 people holding signs. Each individual sign had the wording of one the 27 previously passed amendments to the Constitution, and then one had the wording of the proposed 28th. We held up our approximately 3′ by 4′ signs on sticks that reached well over our heads, and so they were really visible and readable to the parade crowd on each side of the street. We also had a number of other people interlaced between our numerical sequence signs holding other smaller signs about various issues; including the recent Hobby Lobby issue.
Our group was headed up by an appropriately decorated truck with speakers blaring out a ‘Corporations Are Not People’ lyric that was written by one of our participants, who also sang the lyric, backed by his guitar playing. (It sounded great but needs my harmonica dubbed into it for the next time). He borrowed the tune from Woody Guthrie’s, “This Land is Your Land.”
Our procession was well received by the crowd, and we were out there for quite some while, especially since we, rather than head straight down the street, snaked back and forth from one side of the street to the other. That allowed everyone to see and read each sign easily.
‘Twas a very festive Fourth! So glad that I took part in a parade!
Move to Amend’s Proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution
That slide, above, about Germany being a Third Party partner in SIGINT? NSA wasn’t kidding. This, just up at Guardian.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/germany-arrest-bnd-spying-allegations-double-agent-us
*Germany summons US ambassador over spy allegations*
“Germany summoned the U.S. ambassador on Friday after the arrest of a man who had reportedly spied for the United States, fueling tensions that had already intensified over alleged U.S. eavesdropping.”
http://thehill.com/policy/international/211370-germany-summons-us-ambassador-over-spy-allegations
U.S. Ambassador John Emerson may be forced to pay any illegal parking tickets until the matter is fully resolved. The USG is now on maximum alert.
The Theater of the Absurd, indeed.
This is the equivalent of Luis Suarez biting one of the FIFA officials investigating his biting incident. The US government needs to see a shrink asap.
Happy 4th of July to the staff of the Intercept. Wherever you are, if you actually do exist.
Tony Benn – 10 min History Lesson for Neoliberals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-P4mx1FLU&feature=kp
Antiwar superheroes unite! Presenting: Medea Benjamin.
http://my.firedoglake.com/jbade/2014/07/03/video-code-pinks-medea-bejamin-anti-war-superhero/
What are Persephone’s and Medusa’s and Pandora’s plans?
Yes! That bit wear she grabs the door frame with here splayed feet and arms while she continues her list of questions and statements as the bloated buffoon cop carries out the 102 lb woman just cracks me up and makes me feel like cheering every time I’ve watched and re-watched.
“Why are you [Mr. Brennan] lying to the American people and not saying how many innocents have been killed?”–Medea Benjamin
That Nigerian man, Mubarak Bala, who chose to be an atheist and whose family had him committed to a mental hospital, has been freed.
It’s very good to know someone in the world has freshly minted cause to celebrate his freedom today.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28158813
Mondoweiss looks at Rand Paul’s very un-libertarian attempts to pander to Israel (his latest being a surprisingly offensive op-ed), and the mixed signals he’s giving off trying to position himself.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/senator-pander-israel.html
You’re real piece of work. This is hardly pandering (from the same article):
“But Paul has to know his bill has no chance of being passed. Instead, it’s an attempt to assuage concerns over previous statements on Israel, including a budget plan that would have cut off U.S. aid to Israel and to all other countries. Paul crossed a sacred red-line in Washington with that 2011 proposal. His other non-interventionist positions on drones and U.S. war in Iran and Syria have only fueled doubts in the hawkish, neoconservative wing of the Republican Party that Paul is not a man to trust–especially in the White House.”
You’ve got a really strange, blockheaded, stubborn, weirdly-subjective opinion about the Pauls, singing Ron into the heavens while continually deriding the same congressman who is consistent on eliminating PATRIOT, NDAA, SOPA and derivatives.
You evidently don’t think he’s giving off mixed signals. I do. I’m impressed by much of what he says, but this aspect seems particularly unfortunate to me.
You’re being disingenuous. And you’ve been driving this specious argument for years.
You can’t read, can you? What Cindy said is, “Rand Paul’s very un-libertarian attempts to pander to Israel (his latest being a surprisingly offensive op-ed)”
She said nothing of a disapproving nature in regard to the LIBERTARIAN positions he’s taken.
Here, read his own words:
He’s saying that since Israel has not yet committed total genocide of the Palestinians, it shows they are remarkably restrained. Of course, they savage the people whose land they are stealing by inflicting collective punishment on innocent Palestinians for a crime committed by one or a very few. Collective punishment is immoral, inhuman, and illegal, and illegal even according to Israeli law.
What a dick Paul the Small has developed into. Must be them golden dollar signs dancin’ in his head.
http://israellawresourcecenter.org/internationallaw/studyguides/sgil1d.htm
seer, your first and second sentences are at diametric odds.
You’re functionally illiterate.
As he knows that the Zionists own the media which makes or breaks candidates,he is doing a little fence mending.Unfortunate,but it is a political reality,that the Israelis own US,and will do anything to prevent an American nationalist from regaining the POTUS after 60 years or so,though I guess Nixon wasn’t on their payroll,with their hatred of him.
quote”You’re real piece of work.”unquote
Says the bleating fool while smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying his alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired him and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done. Indeed..work of art.
Spy vs spy update (from BBC News).
A German spy was arrested in Germany for spying for the US on the German committee investigating US spying on Germany.
More from the Guardian, further on in the thread.
Happy 4th of July y’all !
Glenn Greenwald and the Intercept are very quickly loosing the confidence of readers. In part because there is nothing to read, and, in other parts, because they are quickly becoming as unreliable as Clapper.
Well, lookee here. Hillary tells the Guardian that Snowden should have the right to a defense in the US. She doesn’t get too specific on what happens to him in pretrial lockup, or what happens when the defense tries to proffer evidence during discovery. It’s up to the court to decide what’s admissible and what’s not, and that’s even before we get to the justification defenses (see US v. Schoon, 939 F. 2d 826 (9th Cir., 1991).
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/edward-snowden-legal-defence-hillary-clinton-interview
Mr. Snowden is wise to continue to seek amnesty in Russia.
_”NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden wants out of Russia“_
“But is denied asylum from 20 countries”
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2352072/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-wants-out-of-russia
_”NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden wants out of Russia“_
“But is denied asylum from 20 countries…”
“because of threats from the United States government.”
you really are a fucking asshole.
Well, that’s generous of Hillary. Giving Snowden the right to a defense and all. *she must be running for office or something.
ps. personally, I think much/most of the last two Presidential Administrations should also have the right to a defense, along w/ Snowden, … and let justice sort it out.
quote”ps. personally, I think much/most of the last two Presidential Administrations should also have the right to a defense, along w/ Snowden, … and let justice sort it out.”unquote
priceless.
“Hillary tells the Guardian that Snowden should have the right to a defense”
Mind-boggling that such an educated person can actually get on the airwaves and propound these ideas that sound noble but are, in the end, self-serving and make themselves appear the fool for even uttering them. Even more tragic is that most will believe that she’s actually offering credible alternatives to an expatriated American citizen – one who’s shown more rationality and integrity than most of our elected representatives combined.
““The world isn’t fair, Calvin.”
“I know Dad, but why isn’t it ever unfair in my favor?”
– Bill Watterson, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury
She used to be an attorney, I’m told.
Apropos of that, coram nobis recommends, as a parable of the American legal profession, the 1966 Billy Wilder film, “The Fortune Cookie,” with Walter Matthau in an Oscar-awarded role as Whiplash Willie, the crooked torts lawyer. Four stars.
Wasn’t Hillary bemoaning the fact, just a day or two ago, that she and Bill are not yet rich enough to not pay taxes? I feel quite sorry for her.
It *is* big of her to grant Snowden actual *access and use* of his innate, protected, and guaranteed right. I doubt he’ll vote for her though. Doubt you will, also.
Hillary Clinton is a corporatist militarist with an ‘entitled to the presidency’ attitude, appealing to no one who actually thinks. I believe the establishment rigs the vote results as needed (electoral college being the determining factor and not the popular vote, of course), so whether or not people vote for her is possibly a moot point – though of course the elite have to make it look good/believable. I don’t know any Democrat who’d vote for her “unless there’s no other choice,” a horrible qualification I think the establishment is taking to heart just as they did by providing/allowing only morons to challenge Barack Obama.
quote “It *is* big of her to grant Snowden actual *access and use* of his innate, protected, and guaranteed right.”unquote
Yeah, well when the SHTF, she’ll be in the sights of every 4th Gen warrior in Murka. Fuck this cunt. Vs all the bullshit nationalistic crap being spouted from every platform in WDC tonight, real patriots are speaking the truth..
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2014/07/there-is-storm-coming-my-short-speech.html
Storm indeed. Ya don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing.
But of course she’d make a better president than Rand.
As I said, I believe the voting results are RIGGED. Vote for whoever the hell you want. It makes no difference.
Please do one good deed today to help free the People of the United States of America from tyranny.
Start here: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/07/04/aclu-end-swat-team-terror-in-the-us/
Direct link to petition site in the article.
Let freedom ring.
Thanks for the link Lyra1 – yet another troubling encroachment on ordinary citizens that needs the push-back that petitions can provide.
Enjoy your holidays, everyone, and stay safe.
Except for the fact that for minorities, native peoples, blacks, and others, that encroachment of violence and brutality overwhelmed them beginning in the late 15th Century, spreading like a virulent cancer throughout the continent.
You wouldn’t want to have been Crow anywhere near the Sioux, or on the losing end of an internecine gambit in the proximity of the Ivory Coast.
If blacks aren’t minorities, what are they?
“Picture us coolin’ on the 4th of July! And if you heard we were celebrating, that’s a woldwide lie!”
–Public Enemy
Happy Independence Day to all.
Im a yankee doodle dandy … a real live portrait of my uncle Sam born on th 4th of July. (full quote)
My father thanks you, my mother thanks you, my sister thanks you and I thank you
*Yankee Doodle Dandy
In contrast to what globalists would have you believe, just these reminders:
You don’t live in a homeland, and your country isn’t North America.
Individual liberties and free markets–which made this country the envy of the world–are under sustained attack by racism- and equality-chanting progressive collectivists who want Big Government to create an authoritarian, centrally planned economy.
People for equality support “racism” and progressives fighting far more to end Big Brother than CONServatives somehow want authoritarian Big Government…
Uh huh, piss on your own leg and claim it’s raining.
Also, you’re not half the realist you claim or you’d know “free markets” have never existed and were always ‘fixed’ for the benefit of the largest investors. Look no further than the petroleum vs. renewable/agrarian/hemp (and a century-old lie) economic model that’s currently killing OUR planet for the few’s profits, and tying a world to a company store.
OUR country’s free market has always been a myth.
You support Big Brother directly by promoting Big Government; they are one and the same.
By contrast, conservatism–paleo-, libertarian–is the antithesis of an authoritarianism that progressive leftists worship.
Progressive leftists are all about totalitarian control, define control, demand control: gun restrictions, income equality, coverage impositions and participation mandates on individuals, asset redistribution, climate taxes, compulsory public unions.
When the public is soured on their leaders, just frantically try to rewite history and say well-publicized Sozialisten attracted conservatives, down is up, left is right, now as then.
WHAaaa…? Where’d your “free markets” go?
Must’ve filled your shoes with piss on that one…
Free markets mean I don’t need to buy contraception or goofballs for somebody under threat of Big Government penalty. They mean I can fire you at will. They mean I don’t need to buy public-employee union representation as part of compulsory Big Government.
They mean that progressive leftists on Wall Street like Paul Warburg weren’t shipping 10 million dollars on a Sealed Train from Zurich to St. Petersburg along with V. I. Lenin to fund a socialist revolution–instead of doing just that–and aren’t now likewise engaged in that same kind of cronyism–where Wall Street went 2-1 for Obama over McCain.
And there it is; ALL progressives are communist revolutionaries because free markets mean these 3 things and nothing else…
Get those bladder problems checked, or is it prostate…?
Was the founding an ultimate lesson in having your cake and eating it, too? Did those first American oligarchs possibly write eloquent words of a man’s inalienable rights just to appear on a higher road, while really starting a revolution because England was already criminalizing slavery – and fortunes had to be protected? Those words of representative democracy still ring hollow today when much of the country’s still racist enough to try suppressing the vote of someone without pinkish-beige skin. Now, that slightly evolved white-man’s War Party oligarchy seeks permanent economic dominance of the entire world, having proven since WWII they’ll use criminal military force and orwellian surveillance tactics without conscience.
OUR country’s Independence Day might find truer meaning by ending Big Brother’s funding – forever.
“…….Did those first American oligarchs possibly write eloquent words of a man’s inalienable rights just to appear on a higher road, while really starting a revolution because England was already criminalizing slavery – and fortunes had to be protected?….”
Yep. That’s what the 56 people who signed the Declaration of Independence were all thinking. I would call your insight very similar to Michel Chossudovsky’s at GlobalResearch.EA
“…..What the NIC report fails to mention______….”
and you fill in the blank. So you filled in the blank with: the Boston Tea Party was a sham. It was really the Boston nigger party.
Thanks for the insight.
My, my, didn’t you eagerly use that word quite inappropriately…?
That your initial argument proposes an absolute all-or-nothing interpretation concerning the motives of each and every white man that signed the Declaration, is followed by a seemingly insane assertion taxed-tea thrown in the drink somehow held greater value to those same wealthier colonials than their slaves and the slave-trade keeping money in their northern banks – forces me to conclude you also like having your cake and eating it, too. Good luck with that.
The Boston Tea Party was merely a symbolic gesture, it’s the current tea party that’s “a sham.”
Slavery was an important part of the pre and post revolutionary American economy. No one can deny that. However, directly following the revolution, the northern states ABOLISHED slavery. Britain didn’t abolish slavery until 1833. So independence really didn’t have anything to do with ensuring the survival of the slavery in America although the fledgling government left the decision up to the individual states. The economy of the south was far more dependent on slavery.
The American revolution was driven by the rejection of British authority (you know – taxation without representation?) and – in reality – had very little to do with slavery. But you can make up what ever story you want.
“……..it’s the current tea party that’s “a sham.”…..”
I’m not sure how you got from the Boston Tea Party to the current Tea Party, but whether you disagree or agree with the Tea Party, it’s been a very influential movement in US politics.
Thanks
I’m sorry, I can’t understand you. You have bigotry on your face.
Nothing you ever again write could possibly matter more than that.
The “current Tea Party” is a myth. They are just hardcore right-wing Republicans, nothing more or less.
Your re-naming of the Boston Tea Party was, to put it very mildly, uncool.
When Israel is out of your picture,you can say some truths.How about that.
Gator90
I didn’t rename anything, but thanks for the credit. However, I think you make a reasonable point since the movement was founded less on taxing than spending by the government.
@ NFTAKFA:
“OUR country’s Independence Day might find truer meaning by ending Big Brother’s funding – forever.”
That would be the ultimate victory and should be the prime objective of anyone who is unhappy with the concept and reality of being a slave to the few for the profit of few.
Any discussion centered solely around politicians and political parties is mute when one considers that the Central Bankers own everyone.
Thanks for posting NFTAKFA.
‘Mom, Apple-Pie, & Guantanamo..’
“I know the ambassador, but I don’t know if I agree with that. We do have friends and we do have alliances. We need to balance that against our security needs and that’s why the president has restrained collection against heads of state of our friends and allies. I’m not going to go into the details of this, as you may expect. But with respect to what German citizens think, the United States has a pretty good track record of standing up for values of global democracy, of free expression, of protecting the rights of individuals, of trying to ensure that people are not discriminated against, of not suppressing free speech. Every country has a history of going over the line, and ours is no exception. But our democracy is self-correcting.”
John Podesta
ht`coram
It’s so slow trying to post when accompanied by GCHQ, and very annoying.
Everyone: Be Sure to see The Internet’s Own Boy
http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy
This is one giant reason why I’m imploring you all to see “The Internet’s Own Boy.” Aaron Swartz, almost single-handedly, managed to motivate people to move beyond their usual complacency in order to defeat a bill that was on its way to breezing through congress. But we are up against it all over again, because these disgusting liars and thieves (Dianne Feinstein being one of the very worst) never stop stealing or trying to steal again and again, more and more and more.
Meet CISA, the internet’s new enemy in Washiington
A new cybersecurity bill proposed in the U.S. Senate could dramatically impact how the U.S. government and corporations exchange Internet users’ confidential information. But thanks to vague language and a range of privacy and Internet freedom issues, the legislation is already shaping up to be one of the most hotly contested bills the Internet—and Washington—has ever seen.
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) was written to facilitate the flow of “cyber threat” information between private companies, such as Verizon or Google, and government agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The bill is currently being considered by members of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, including those who introduced it, Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.).
If enacted, CISA would have a major impact on a variety of Internet related issues, including privacy, corporate liability, freedom of information, law enforcement and national security.––Dell Cameron The Daily Dot
thanks Kitt~watched The Internet’s Own Boy” last night with my 22 yr old daughter. We were both crying at the end. What a horrible government we have. I keep trying to be supportive of the little things Obama accomplishes but then see a film like this and feel like ripping all my hair out and mailing it to him. Its so frustrating that a genius soul like this could be bullied so bad. Who knows what he could/would have accomplished had he not died? I don’t want to think of it. I implore all the viewers on this site to see this film. It can only make you stronger, no matter what your views are. ps the editing was incredible!
We have all benefited from Aaron Schwartz’s genius and activist endeavors. I was very saddened during his persecution by the US government for trying to make the net free and felt a personal loss when he met with his demise on this planet.
He would have fought to fight CISA just as he fought CISPA and SOPA. We must carry on for him.
Thanks for posting and thanks for your activism.
This is the anniversary of Americans declaring their right to privacy and the institution of a government forbidden from issuing general search warrants. They rejected the principle of ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’, recognizing that everyone has something to hide, and that an entire people should not be forced as a consequence to live in fear.
In practice it turned out a little different, but it was a nice idea.
The right to privacy was decreed for a few rich white men. It worked pretty well for them. When that and other rights were extended to women, minorities, and the poor, it was too threatening to the power elite who run the government. They want to keep an eye on everybody to see if their power is being questioned.
zzzzz
Every generation has to fight the same battles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-P4mx1FLU&feature=kp
It is easy to control governments and humanity on planet Earth when they are placed under the absolute economic tyranny of the Central Bankers.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks for support :-)
lokah samasthah sukhino bhavanthu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usJl7oiZPnc
Very nice…thank you for the share.
“The problem with humans is that with very few exceptions humans mistake ‘being opinionated and having nothing to learn’ with actual reflection, critical thinking and originality.”
H/T – Cindy.
ACLU Legislative Counsel issues statement to Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-human-rights/dear-privacy-board-its-us-95
Nice to know that the concepts of liberty and justice are still alive on Independence Day.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Preamble-Constitution of the United States
Matt Bruenig on lord hobby lobby, aka the road to hobbydom
Wouldn’t it be funny if hobby lobby inadvertently led the socialist American apocalypse?
“Wouldn’t it be funny if hobby lobby inadvertently led the socialist American apocalypse?”
http://rt.com/usa/170356-faith-leaders-obama-lgbt-order/
The Hobby-Lobby decision only added insult to injury. I’m in the Libertarian camp on this one.
http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/libertarians-respond-to-hobby-lobby-ruling
“We favor restoring and reviving a free market health care system.”
It’s about family.
“Family.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/hobby-lobby-is-already-creating-new-religious-demands-on-obama/373853/
I got mine Jack (and Jill, and the kids, and the dog, and the mortgage).
It’s clearly not enough:
_”Insurers face a push for new benefits“_
“Advocates seek more coverage for disabilities”
“Massachusetts legislators this year have filed a flurry of bills – more than 70 in all – that, if passed, would substantially expand the medical services insurers are required to cover for patients but also potentially raise healthcare costs.”
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/07/27/mass_legislators_consider_bills_to_widen_insured_care/
The people need these services and treatments too, and the general mandate framework is in place under the rubrik of the catch-all “health care reform.”
Correction: “people” should be written “folks.”
If everyone itsn’t creeped out enough already…
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-military-doesnt-want-you-to-quit-facebook-and-twitter/373918/
The part about SnapTrends is especially creepy.
“sentiment analysis”
Decadent jackasses. They have no idea what the data really means- it’s irreversibly complex. But there is an enormous and growing semantic capacity to decide what they want it to mean. That’s the scary bit.
What’s insidious about Intelligence is that it has nothing to do with intelligence.
Sentiment analysis? So creepy I’d better read the article again!
BTW, BenjaminAP, “decadent Jackasses” has a great ring to it :-) . Reminds me of Matlock, which I still enjoy in reruns.
There hasn’t been much discussion here of that facebook study controversy.
I can’t get it out of my mind. I invite all to visit my blog (have not linked to it here before) where I have 2 posts with giving an overview of what’s going on.
the blog: http://observergal.blogspot.com
The social media sites, especially FB, are specifically designed to promote business (rife with advertising cookies and trackers) and assist governments to conduct mass surveillance (crawling with CIA and NSA ops) upon their citizens. People would be prudent to heed your advice.
“I think it is probably time for users to leave facebook. I know folks get hooked, but I really feel the only way to make a statement is to leave. ”
You are right. Dump FB.
Follow-up article: http://www.ibtimes.com/privacy-group-files-complaint-ftc-over-facebook-mood-experiment-1619126
Thanks much, Lyra1 – for your kind words and for the link on the complaint, which I will definitely checkout ASAP.
I left Facebook and twitter, three years ago.
But they play games on comment boards and sites all over the net.
This playing of “games” has a real Paperclip feel.
Thank you for sharing.
Good links embedded in your blog,
Cheers to a True Blue
“Cinnamon Girl”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAdtUDaBfRA&feature=kp
Thanks, Tom Brown –
Glad you found my blog helpful. And thanks for “Cinnamon Girl” – of course I LOVE that song!
Thanks for posting the link to your blog. It makes the site more interesting. I hope others follow your example.
Thanks, Rolling –
Hope you and others will visit often!
Hi Rolling –
First attempt seems to have disappeared. But thanks. I hope you and others will visit often.
Thank you both @feline16 and @Lyra1. Both links are appreciated. I’m not surprised at the suggestion the DoD may have assisted in the funding of FB’s experiment. Psy-ops within the government isn’t new, but it’s been proven to exact scientific results in taking the public’s temperature regarding hot topics and swaying public opinion.
I would say that it would be easy to manipulate and track peoples emotions with this FB experiment. Don’t advertisers attempt to do this all the time? It’s just as it’s easy peasy to do in MSM … Fox has made an entire new’s industry of it and they still seem to be at the top of the steaming pile. So has every channel in the line-up … all you gotta do is pick your poison and !boom! – your checked out. Some might call it innocent escapism … other’s in the industry call it “programming”.
I’m personally more interested in what they learned about neutralizing people’s emotions. There is an element of the reporting on this experiment that seems to be avoiding this little nugget of gold. At what point do people simply “tune out”? To me – this is a much more diabolical and dangerous tool. How to make people numb to those things that should enrage (or at least engage) them. These types of people are what truly nefarious and evil thinkers prey upon. Then it’s merely a matter of divide and conquer. Makes it so much easier to identify and isolate those whose conscience openly reject and resist the status quo – then deign to rise up against it.
The ability to find that sweet spot between compliance and disobedience … that’s where the true psy-ops dwells.
HI El B (so glad you found those links of value)-
You gave some very thoughtful comments. I would say though, that this facebook study is just a bit different from what might be considered ” normal” advertising. However, there certainly have been instances of subliminal messages in advertising. And although we don’t have a “smoking gun”, I wouldn’t at all be surprised at DoD involvement, knowing of their PsyOps involvement and this recent Minerva Initiative.
You raise a GREAT (emphasis) point about numbing the populace. I think that’s exactly what’s been happening. We’re given so many violent images in our entertainment, we’re getting numbed to that. We’re given distractions in the form of celebrity scandals and reality tv. To me, it so evokes the old Roman “Bread and Circuses.” Only the bread is increasingly expensive and for too many, harder to come by due to safety net cutbacks.
Dear NSA, Privacy is a Fundamental Right, Not Reasonable Suspicion –Electronic Frontier Foundation
Learning about Linux is not a crime—but don’t tell the NSA that. A story published in German on Tagesschau, and followed up by an article in English on DasErste.de today, has revealed that the NSA is scrutinizing people who visit websites such as the Tor Project’s home page and even Linux Journal. This is disturbing in a number of ways, but the bottom line is this: the procedures outlined in the articles show the NSA is adding “fingerprints”—like a scarlet letter for the information age—to activities that go hand in hand with First Amendment protected activities and freedom of expression across the globe.
What we know
The articles, based on an in-depth investigation, reveal XKeyscore source code that demonstrates how the system works. Xkeyscore is a tool which the NSA uses to sift through the vast amounts of data it obtains. This source code would be used somewhere in the NSA’s process of collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data to target certain activities. According to the Guardian, XKeyscore’s deep packet inspection software is run on collection sites all around the world, ingesting one or two billion records a day.–EFF
Big Government advocates on the progressive left may chafe at their expensive nanny, but the attributes of nannies is you don’t get to choose them.
Other than the fact that your sentence structure sucks… big government is simply sloganeering used by ignorant people that do not have any specific critiques… big populations by definition require big governments unless you are an anarchist, in which case I would respect you more than I do now…. get it : ) ?
Such as…”gun rights advocates?”
Groups join Electronic Frontier Foundation in NSA lawsuit
Aside from the implications for privacy, the groups involved in the lawsuit, many of them political advocacy organizations and gun rights advocates, are concerned about the First Amendment issues that it could bring up. At the teleconference, Buttar, along with two other plaintiffs from the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles and the Calguns Foundations, expressed concern that their members (and the general public) will no longer feel free to associate with certain controversial organizations, if their association with the group can be easily discovered by the government.
“The issue for [Calgun] is that it’s already hard enough to be a gun owner….Californians aren’t fond of people who carry arms,” Gene Hoffman, Calguns foundation chairman said. “The idea that people that people want to be able to advocate for things that matter to them…is important. Knowing that big brother’s watching means that most people [who you] won’t think of as being gun owners, classic Democrats and those who don’t fit the mold,… are more likely to be afraid of the government keeping record.”
More importantly, the plaintiffs want the case out in the open, to ensure a fair process.
Your critical thinking problem is understanding that gun rights advocates–unlike the authoritarian progressive left–are almost uniformly aligned on the idea of wholesale reduction of size of gov’t. The former understanding clearly that Big Governments which leftists build and promote are self interested entities that defend Big remuneration, turf, policy initiatives, and budgets.
I don’t what the fuck you think you’re saying — and you sure as hell don’t — but the fact is, gun rights advocates are teamed up with Electronic Frontier Foundation in a law suit against NSA, regardless of your incessant drivel.
And that surprises you?
Continuing to make shit up.
What’s going on with this site? I went from can’t wait for the next Greenwald article on Salon to the unbelievable checking daily for the next one on the Guardian to… stop. We’re going through withdrawals Glenn, where are you?
More blowback after the Hobby Lobby decision. Supreme Court issued a decision today regarding an exclusion for contraception at Wheaton College, a nonprofit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/us/politics/supreme-court-order-suspends-contraception-rule-for-christian-college.html
Unsigned decision, but the dissent by the 3 female justices says that the Court has broken a promise made in Hobby Lobby on Monday. From the document hyperlinked in the story:
That’s a linear effect. It’s only blowback for a thwarted, frustrated, totalitarian progressive left.
Um, in exactly what way is it “linear” when they say one day that it’s acceptable to use “religious belief” as an excuse since the government will cover for that necessary care, only to say the next day that “religious belief” allows Wheaton to refuse to sign the forms allowing that government covered care?
I certainly hope that this harms Wheaton, though I’m sure the effect will be minimal due to the desire for academic positions.
The reason I brought it up was (1) because this order, more in the nature of a writ than a ruling, came after the Court term, an extraordinary thing, (2) that it shows they’ll construe the ruling a lot wider and a lot sooner than many experts thought and (3) it’s going to lead to considerable mischief by the religious right.
See, e.g.,
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/hobby-lobby-is-already-creating-new-religious-demands-on-obama/373853/
Among other things, the ruling and this decision mean that the standard of “substantially burden” is going to have a very low threshold indeed.
haha, I’m sorry for facilitating poor responses to your post. That Atlantic article is especially troubling, and I’m shocked that it would happen so quickly. (not to say that the discrimination against women is any less terrible, but it’s shocking that this excuse for discrimination will immediately spread to every other pet hate of misled and draconian religious groups)
I expect that this will eventually lead to a subsequent “reasonable” backlash and then a just result, but it is always depressing to see that the discrimination will be allowed and even encouraged for a very very long time.
Salon.com is up in arms:
_”What Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia don’t understand about contraception“_
“An IUD is a month’s pay for a woman earning minimum wage.”
To which I would reply the woman would probably prefer to have the equivalent either in higher wages, or in the job it took away.
If that’s what you would reply you are again displaying your ignorance and/or your bad intentions.
It would be far better were you to reply that that form of contraception is covered by HHS in the event a woman’s employer is not required to provide insurance coverage for birth control. In fact, all FDA approved birth control methods are covered under HHS as yesterday’s SCOTUS ruling notes.
To which I would reply then they can try asking Health and Human Services for paying jobs, or IUDs.
You don’t get it do you? They can continue to work for Hobby Lobby or Conestoga or whomever else, and receive birth control coverage from HHS.
Your flippant attitude towards other people reveals exactly how anti-human-being you are. My understanding of true conservatism is that it appreciates and is concerned for the well-being of the individual – nothing like what you demonstrate. So, debbie, you’re not conservative either. You’re just an ordinary obnoxious malcontent.
Do you understand that HHS is still lifting money from Mom ‘n Pop to pay for these treats? Money that could be used to hire people who want to work, or to pay them more.
Conservatism is about conservation of resources, something about which you’re clearly not.
And don’t forget the insurance:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=IUD+damage
What contraception should be covered by a health plan?
Whatever you want, if you assume the responsibility for it, and strictly among only like-minded consumers of the insurance product. I draw the line at you making me help you buy your phobic choice of health product abetted by the muzzle of state violence.
Tell it , Binney.
“A former NSA technical chief has told Germany’s parliament that the US agency has become a “totalitarian” mass collector of data. German public broadcasters say the NSA targets individuals who use encryption services.”
http://www.dw.de/nsa-totalitarian-ex-staffer-tells-german-parliament/a-17757008
“Tell it , Binney”
Agreed – need to get this fellow and his first hand account on the record and in the media as often and as widely as possible – perhaps the First Look/Intercept gang can help in this effort.
I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Marcy Wheeler in depth on PCLOB prevarications, false claims, reach arounds, silences, non-mentions and just all around transparent propaganda effort.
“At the beginning of the report, PCLOB repeated the government’s claim this is primarily about emails; here in the guts of it, it obliquely references other categories of collection, without really considering whether these categories present different privacy concerns.
“Remember, too, that the original, good version of USA Freedom Act remains before the Senate Judiciary Committee. That bill would disallow the use of upstream 702 for any use but counterterrorism and counterproliferation. Did PCLOB ignore this use of Section 702 just to avoid alerting Senators who haven’t been briefed on it that it exists?”–Marcy Wheeler
The problem with Americans is that with very few exceptions Americans mistake ‘being opinionated and having nothing to learn’ with actual reflection, critical thinking and originality.
That’s a characteristic of Mankind, and not a singular American fault.
“That’s a characteristic of Mankind, and not a singular American fault.
Agreed. No need to pigeon-hole nationalities, among other things. Divide & conquer isn’t what we need right now.
Perhaps, but a few other cultures genuinely promote courtesy, open-mindedness and politeness as well to offset the dangers of escalating belligerence.
“Perhaps, but a few other cultures genuinely promote courtesy, open-mindedness and politeness as well to offset the dangers of escalating belligerence.”
I’ll reiterate – that is a broad, over-generalization that does nothing to further or promote “courtesy, open-mindedness and politeness as well to offset the dangers of escalating belligerence.”
To use your own words.
““For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.”
Noam Chomsky, Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World
I believe that pointing out what I consider one of the peculiar flaws that make America uniquely violent for a western nation is indeed promoting something better, more courteous etc. You can think it is an over-generalization (that few Americans realize how their arguments are inappropriately belligerent and closed-minded), but it is an observation that seems true to me.
The entire culture, not just the politics, is transfixed by a counterproductive mentality instilled by the media, and has no semblance of ‘dignity’ beyond the shallowness of jingoism and the power of being more desired than others. Confidence is equated with bulldozing others, for example, and art is largely a matter of dominant commercialism. I find this cultural malaise a problem because it is widespread and unquestioned, but perhaps you don’t. I find that (what I think of as) typical American belligerence interferes with communication very often, personally.
“The entire culture, not just the politics, is transfixed by a counterproductive mentality instilled by the media, and has no semblance of ‘dignity’ beyond the shallowness of jingoism and the power of being more desired than others.
The entire culture. Again with the broad-brush approach of labeling an entire society for problems presented, not by the citizens themselves, but by what those in power allow to be regurgitated on main stream media.
That’s not a peculiar flaw of any nation anymore – if it ever was one.
It’s called propaganda.
What this perspective fails to recognize – which is utterly amazing given the discussions held here and the evidence all around – is that for the most part and across most of the planet, the corporations control the politicians and the information sources – hence the message that is being seen does not reflect the true cultures – arguably in many, if not most nations today.
This is why the “entire culture” and not just the politics seems so “uniquely violent” (forgetting the peculiar flaws of the pseudo-westernized countries around the world and Russia for the moment).
It is only because the information presented is biased towards an acknowledged, corporately owned government and political structure; one that believes that such a belligerent stance on the political stage serves it’s purposes – and damn the citizenry who they are supposed to represent – that this false idea that America is therefore a culture incapable of “actual reflection, critical thinking and originality” can hold any traction whatsoever.
What American citizens lack under such an information-controlling paradigm is the means – not the desire – to be in control of their own message.
I also find that this typical over-generalization interferes with communication very often, personally.
”“We become slaves the moment we hand the keys to the definition of reality entirely over to someone else, whether it is a business, an economic theory, a political party, the White House, Newsworld or CNN.”
– B.W. Powe, Towards A Canada Of Light
@Cindy – here is a video segment that may help explain, in part, what under-represented Americans are fighting for and why.
If you wish to find the media responsible for its influence, I congratulate you on this step, yet still it is true that other cultures import our media and do not become would-be belligerent enforcers of their own view as a result. The American populace is rather obviously not merely a plaything for its manipulators but too often a participant, a willing exhibitor of pro-active belligerence most apparent when (proven or even suggested to be) incorrect. If this were only a result of the media, other western countries importing our media would be the same way, but they are largely not – precisely because, as I said, their promotion of courtesy, open-mindedness and politeness offsets the escalation of problematic opinionatedness.
Note that I said the entire culture is transfixed by this default belligerence but some (very few) within the nation resist it. The politicians and the elite are at fault, certainly, but so is the populace for allowing the culture to become so shallow, defensive, belligerent, and oddly indifferent to the violence and corruption of its leaders except when it suits their party or ‘side.’
“If you wish to find the media responsible for its influence, I congratulate you on this step”
I suppose what is most puzzling to me is that the self-evident (again, we’ve been discussing this paradigm here on this site for months) yet patronizing tone has, just now, somehow become a talking-point for you.
” it is true that other cultures import our media and do not become would-be belligerent enforcers of their own view as a result”
With all respect, can you cite these “other cultures [who] genuinely promote courtesy, open-mindedness and politeness” despite the influence of corporate/moneyed media?
If so, in fairness, please note if these are nation-wide examples as you cite in the scale of America as far population, first, and wealth & political influence second. I think you’ll find some direct proportionality of aggression towards others (physical or political) in your examples.
My sense is that in large part, perceived cultural attributions aside, the reality is that those that do not project their belligerence isn’t because they do not “culturally” want to, but rather that geo-politically and/or financially they are unable to.
But again, you’ve made the claim of unilateral American belligerence carte-blanche, citizen-wide, so it is up to you to back that claim up.
I say that the video I posted is just one example among many that refutes this stance, but I do look forward to seeing more evidence suggesting otherwise.
In the end, I disagree with any blanket-statement that begins and concludes that any relatively modern country today, despite there being a very few outcasts within them, constitutes that “the entire culture is transfixed by this default belligerence,” simply because the evidence to back it up hasn’t been presented here.
That you may feel this way is understandable – but proclaiming that it is the default behavior ignores what a large segment of not only American, but many other societies and cultures around the world are struggling to free themselves from – an oligarchical-corportacracy that now transcends national and cultural boundaries – thus undermining the basic human rights of every one of us on the planet, no matter where we live.
““A patronizing disposition always has its meaner side”
– George Eliot
I guess now I think YOU are being patronizing. Does that make us equal?
“I guess now I think YOU are being patronizing. Does that make us equal?”
As has been the case in this entire discussion, what you think is up to you to explain, not me.
I will note, however, that I have rebutted your claims with specifics, and as yet you have not done so. Trying to make it personal on either of our parts would be side-stepping the issue, which is not my intent.
““When you engage with people, you build your own insight into what’s being discussed. Someone else’s understanding complements yours, and together you start to weave an informed interpretation. You tinker until you can move on.”
Marcia Conner, The New Social Learning: A Guide to Transforming Organizations Through Social Media
http://www.infowars.com/impeach-obama-protestor-charged-for-flying-infowars-gadsden-flag/
In Nassau Co., immediately to the east of NYC.
How sad, do you also point out every time someone elses 1 st amendment rights are constricted? For instance were you upset when Occupy protesters were beaten, and sprayed with chemical weapons? The right wing carries weapons to protests threatens the war monger-in-chief and nothing happens to them, the left gets arrested, beaten and charged with felonies for 1st amendment protected speech
The right wing carries weapons in the open to remind immigrants, newer generations, recent interstate arrivals, complacent others, in open carry regions that guns are historically commonplace, responsible, are not contraband, nothing to be hidden away.
You’ve mixed up your post with unsubstantiated other assertions.
Another words, as a cowardly threat…. mostly because they have small dicks, small minds, and they live in fear. Violence or the threat of violence is some people’s first choice always. As to unsubstantiated assertions, infowars of full of them and “it”, as are you.
Nobody’s threatening anybody, John. The left, on the other hand, has a horrific history of that.
As for fear, why are you so afraid of guns?
I’m not afraid, I am concerned that we have~10K deaths a year, thousands of injuries, and unstable paranoid dildos with semi automatic weapons brandishing them around and complaining about how their rights to carry a gun are being infringed on. Nothing is further from the truth.
A challenge I have made to other gun fetishists for several decades… perhaps you will be the one to step up for all the cowards who have failed to take up the challenge before….
For every case of someone defending their life or somebody elses with a gun, I will find you 20 or more accidental deaths by morons cleaning their guns, crimes of passion between couples, suicides, and paranoid murderers who thought someone was breaking in when they were asking for directions. I won’t even bring up the mass murderers we all know about.
I’m waiting. I will not be holding my breath, because I know you cannot do it.
Your fear is palpable, John. There are going to be people like yourself who are always going to be uncomfortable around guns.
The fact is that I won’t waste the time by spending hours on John Kelly in unproductive arguments with a fearful progressive leftist. I’ll only link here to these:
1. Penn & Teller, Bullshit: Gun Control
youtube.com/watch?v=_YY5Rj4cQ50
2. Mom fires assault rifle to protect family during home invasion
youtube.com/watch?v=hGBEDCxmyzs
3. Georgia Mother Shoots Home Intruder: 911 Tapes
youtube.com/watch?v=JcDk85ZOJUQ
4. _”Home invasions the new ‘fad’ [in Australia since most guns were banned]”_
dailytelegraph.com.au/home-invasions-the-new-fad/story-fn6b3v4f-1226311651859
5. _”Murder Victims, by Weapons Used“_
infoplease.com/ipa/A0004888.html
(Then look up cars.)
You are an intellectual coward. I gave you a chance to bolster your idiotic position and you can’t, because the facts are not on your side. The fearful ones are the ones with guns and paranoid fantasies about what they will do when the (fill in the blanks) attack them for no fucking reason. Statistically these cowardly assholes will die in car crashes, by bee stings and by their own guns, not by the hand of some dangerous criminal. News-flash for the painfully bleeding stupid: you are more likely to be shot if you have a gun in your house… you dumb-asses! The worst part is that your children are more likely to be shot if you have a gun than not… and they never had a choice.
What you want is defenseless serfs, without rights to self defense, of an ever more authoritarian hyper-state apparatus that tells you help is coming.
1. def: democide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide
2. From the school of hard knocks (and tactical amputations), 2012:
_”Sierra Leone legalises civilian use of arms and light weapons“_
http://www.africareview.com/News/Sierra-Leone-legalises-civilian-use-of-arms-and-light-weapons/-/979180/1469098/-/qfe8syz/-/index.html
How did pre-2012 work out for them?
The Founders knew a thing ot two about tyrannies.
Thanks for telling me what I want. How would I know otherwise? You are sadly mistaken and doing what the mental health community would call projecting. I am anti-authoritarian to the core. I simply believe that people should not be able to carry a death stick around and pretend that is has anything to do with a well regulated militia. Are bazookas OK for the consumer as well? How about a bracelet that lets you push a button and vaporize anyone in your path? How about a cell phone that shoots death darts controlled by thoughts alone? Is there anything to dangerous and deadly for you? How about cars with spears mounted on the front of them? Why not?…. after all it is in the 2nd amendment if you are a delusional and breathtakingly ignorant reactionary paranoiac. Now if you want to carry your muzzle loader single shot antique around, have at it, but these modern weapons of war are bad enough in a war zone… when let loose on city streets they are beyond anything the founders ever dreamed of, and the 2nd amendment does not have anything to do with them or your “rights” to have a mass person-killer at hand.
This kind of authoritarian state intervention is attractive to you, John:
_”Doctors’ kitchen knives ban call“_
“Doctors say knives are too pointed”
“A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.
“A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase – and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.”
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm
BTW:
1. google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=fbi+crime+drops+in+areas+were+guns+
2. _”Study: Despite drop in gun crime, 56% think it’s worse“_
usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/07/gun-crime-drops-but-americans-think-its-worse/2139421/
3. def: democide [(or murder by governments)]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide
4. From the school of hard knocks (and strategic amputations), 2012:
_”Sierra Leone legalises civilian use of arms and light weapons“_
africareview.com/News/Sierra-Leone-legalises-civilian-use-of-arms-and-light-weapons/-/979180/1469098/-/qfe8syz/-/index.html
The Founders understood what tyrannies are, and that they don’t evolve.
“I am anti-authoritarian to the core. I simply believe that people should not be able to carry [, or own, self-defensive implements–and advocate for a totalitarian ban on anybody but the state’s legitimate monopoly].”
Instead of putting quotation marks around something I did not say and attributing it to me, perhaps you should say that you believe you are paraphrasing what I said? In any event, wrong again as per usual…. and you did not answer my questions. I should not be surprised.
Actually.. I must apologize to “debbie”. I was wrong about the gun deaths per year. It is not 10K, more like 32K per year…. but who cares, because freedom!
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/04/10_states_where_guns_are_most_and_least_likely_to_kill_people_partner/
Sorry,the show of guns by citizens with no threat against them is just a show of fear and insecurity.A very curious turn in the land of the free and home of the brave,and a policy carried out internationally.Why are the most belligerent nation states the most insecure?
What’s the answer to this conundrum,more force?A gun in every pocket,like a chicken in every pot?
As there is an overwhelming Zionist presence in Nassau Co.,they are in every govt. capacity,you can bet they will stifle any attempt by Americans to break free from their Zionist shackles,and control of info.And as their have been a multitude of welcome home hero signs for our troops plastered over these same overpasses since 9-11,this is obviously a silencing attempt by the poohbahs of idiocy and disaster.Infowars makes some good points at times,despite their obvious ideological parameters.
Questions:
1) WHY are my fucking comments NEVER published?
2) Where are the fucking ‘REVELATIONS” you promised?
Seen this?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/interview-with-obama-advisor-john-podesta-on-nsa-and-cyber-security-a-978297.html
Hey, what’s a little spying between friends?
Oh, and there’s also this.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/11424624
There’s probably more of this elsewhere on the Web; this is just the preliminary report.
The NATO partnership must be kept healthy, at all costs.
Thanks coram – Trying to think of any of the “misconceptions” told by Podesta to the US citizens over the years….from the article:
“In order to develop the technological expertise, those performing the oversight end up being so embedded and invested in the system and the bureaucracy itself that they become captive of it. So I think it’s important to have independent analysts, but it’s then incumbent upon them to take the time to really try to understand and do a “deep-dive” on the technology. – John Podesta
But will it happen? Here’s Podesta’s take from his 2008 book on being “progressive:”
“progressive values [are] based on four core lessons: 1) Progressives stand with people, not privilege; 2) Progressives believe in the Common Good and a government that offers a hand up; 3) Progressives hold that all people are equal in the eyes of God and under the law; and 4) Progressives stand for universal human rights and cooperative global security.”
Sounds eminently reasonable. What’s stopping us?
” I’m a Progressive. Much in the same way our founding fathers – who, oddly enough, wouldn’t get elected today – were Progressives.”
– Will Ferrell
Another move on the chessboard:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/10942680/Saudi-Arabia-sends-30000-troops-to-Iraq-border.html
‘…threat of jihadism’ in Saudi Arabia …?
-like the House of Saud for instance?
Chossudovsky’s recent contribution: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-islamic-state-caliphate-project-and-the-global-war-on-terrorism/5389530
‘In a bitter irony, the caliphate project as an instrument of propaganda has been on the drawing board of US intelligence for more than ten years. In December 2004, under the Bush Administration, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicted that in the year 2020 a New Caliphate extending from the Western Mediterranean to Central Asia and South East Asia would emerge, threatening Western democracy and Western values.’
Read your link yesterday.
Excellent article.
Yes, Myers, exactly! It’s not Terrorism™ if our immoral, illegal, unconstitutional governments’ policies are strengthened by it; it’s heaven-sent justification for expanding them.
The American Conservative article by Philip Giraldi that Cindy linked to yesterday is excellent as well. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-to-understand-the-isis-threat/
“……..What the NIC report fails to mention is that US intelligence in liaison with Britain’s MI6 and Israel’s Mossad are covertly involved in supporting both the terrorists and the caliphate project……”
Only an imbecile believes most of what GlobalResearch.com publishes. But they are good for a laugh anyway.
So, do tell Summers, why did US/UK go into Iraq twice under the guise of delivering Freedom™ and instead left them in chaos, destruction, and death?
When US government spokespersons utter the words Freedom and Democracy, as if they cared about them, they should not be believed under any circumstances. Plain incompetence is also a plausible explanation.
The US didn’t invade under the guise of democracy, but to get rid of Saddam. The US Congress passed a bill in 1998 calling for regime change in Iraq – and to support democratic movements within Iraq. Of course, as we have seen in Syria, democratic movements there were crush using tanks, heavy artillery and and the Syrian army.
“……..The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 is a United States Congressional statement of policy calling for regime change in Iraq.[1][2] It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, and states that it is the policy of the United States to support democratic movements within Iraq. The Act was cited in October 2002 to argue for the authorization of military force against the Iraqi government……The bill was introduced as H.R. 4655 on September 29, 1998. The House of Representatives passed the bill 360 – 38 on October 5, and the Senate passed it with unanimous consent two days later. President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act into law on October 31, 1998.[3]…..”
The US invaded in 2003 specifically to oust Saddam Hussein – and was successful. Once the mission “was accomplished”, it became one of installing a democracy (remember the purple fingers?) before the insurgency brought the country to a standstill.
The US didn’t leave by executive order, but because the Iraqi government (most certainly under pressure from the Iranians) could not reach an agreement with the US. That was a huge mistake by Maliki and all Iraqis are paying the price today just like all Syrians are paying the price for Assad’s decision to crush the democratic movement in Syria..
No, only an imbecile believes what comes out of Craig Summers crap trap. And he’s not even good enough for a laugh.
btw, halfwit,.here is the author’s credentials…
quote:”About the author:
Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal and Editor of the globalresearch.ca website. He is the author of The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003) and America’s “War on Terrorism”(2005). His most recent book is entitled Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War (2011). He is also a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writings have been published in more than twenty languages.”unquote
vs your bullshit.
GR is an anti American conspiracy site which is why you are so quick to defend it. “Professor” has such a professional and credible sound to it. Chossudovsky is in Wikipedia:
“…….Terry O’Neill, in the Western Standard included Chossudovsky on the list of “Canada’s nuttiest professors, those whose absurdity stands head and shoulders above their colleagues”;[13] criticizing Chussodovsky’s thesis and views — that the U.S. had knowledge of the September 11 attacks before they happened; that Washington had weapons that could influence climate change; and lastly, that the large banking institutions are the cause of the collapse of smaller economies — as “wild-eyed conspiracy theories”.[13]……”
Yep, PRIOR knowledge of 911. You have zero credibility when you say something that fucking stupid. Do you buy it Chronicle?
Well, chronicle?
Well,as there were a myriad amount of warnings to the Shrub and his circle jerk of traitors and moles prior to the event that changed everything,calling a person who points it out as unreliable,makes one laugh when you remember how unreliable all the monsters are and were with every policy disaster since.
And the traitors and moles haven’t left that inner sanctum of power since Obombas election,they’ve just rearranged the seating,witness their track record of absolute futility ,unless one calls nation destroying an accomplishment.
@Summers
Right Summers. But the difference between what the stated intent is and what really happens is an unbridgeable chasm. Prior to our first invasion I recall that our ambassador to Iraq gave Saddam verbal confirmation that the US had no interest in his relations with Kuwait. What he did was his business and his alone. He told her what he was going to do and she assured him we’d not interfere.
Why would the ambassador be instructed to misrepresent US intentions?
The guise was that the Iraqi people were going to be freed from their dictator, our well paid strong man. It was a party with beer guzzling and cheering with each hideous strike. The CNN audience behaved as if they were watching a football game with fireworks. And it was under the guise of bringing democracy, just as you said, “… to support democratic movements within Iraq.”
Thanks for your measured responses. Saledin, like Saddam was from Tikrit and I wonder if there is both courage and sage members of Arab culture who can lead in this morass in the ME. We can only hope for sane voices and behaviors.
“……Why would the ambassador be instructed to misrepresent US intentions?…..”
She wasn’t. The idea that we gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait is incorrect. The Ambassador never gave anyone a green light to invade and annex Kuwait. Why would the US do that? That has been misstated time and time again. Saddam was strapped for cash after the war with Iran and made the decision to invade. It’s possible he misunderstood the US Ambassador. I don’t know.
“…….The CNN audience behaved as if they were watching a football game with fireworks. And it was under the guise of bringing democracy, just as you said, “… to support democratic movements within Iraq.”…..”
Well, it’s clear that removing Saddam was an act of liberation (under all circumstances), but the idea of the invasion was primarily to remove Saddam from power – especially in light of 911. Remember that Saddam had used WMDs on the Kurds and Iranians , attempted to develop nuclear weapons, had invaded two countries, had played cat and mouse games with the inspectors for years and had launched missiles capable of carrying chemical weapons at Israel (unprovoked). So removing Saddam from power became a priority for the Bush administration after 911.
However, the US did bring a democratic vote to Iraq – and the Iraqis (legitimately) voted for the first time in their history before the insurgency gained momentum.
Thanks.
Might I add, as a postcript to the above, I believe T.E Lawrence derived his philosophy directly from Saledin. Truly a remarkable man.
@Summers
From the World Association of International Studies at Stanford:
“Saddam Hussein – As you know, for years now I have made every effort to reach a settlement on our dispute with Kuwait. There is to be a meeting in two days; I am prepared to give negotiations only this one more brief chance. (pause) When we (the Iraqis) meet (with the Kuwaitis) and we see there is hope, then nothing will happen. But if we are unable to find a solution, then it will be natural that Iraq will not accept death.
U.S. Ambassador Glaspie – What solutions would be acceptable?
Saddam Hussein – If we could keep the whole of the Shatt al Arab – our strategic goal in our war with Iran – we will make concessions (to the Kuwaitis). But, if we are forced to choose between keeping half of the Shatt and the whole of Iraq (i.e., in Saddam’s view, including Kuwait ) then we will give up all of the Shatt to defend our claims on Kuwait to keep the whole of Iraq in the shape we wish it to be. (pause) What is the United States’ opinion on this?
U.S. Ambassador Glaspie – We have no opinion on your Arab – Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary (of State James) Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960’s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America. (Saddam smiles)
On August 2, 1990 four days later, Saddam’s massed troops invade and occupy Kuwait.
and
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1990
Excerpts From Iraqi Document on Meeting with U.S. Envoy
GLASPIE: I think I understand this. I have lived here for years. I admire your extraordinary efforts to rebuild your country. I know you need funds. We understand that and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait. I was in the American Embassy in Kuwait during the late 60’s. The instruction we had during this period was that we should express no opinion on this issue and that the issue is not associated with America. James Baker* has directed our official spokesmen to emphasize this instruction. We hope you can solve this problem using any suitable methods via Klibi or via President Mubarak. All that we hope is that these issues are solved quickly. With regard to all of this, can I ask you to see how the issue appears to us?”
You’ll recall at the time, Summers, that James Baker was Secretary of State, formerly Reagan’s Chief of Staff, who had close relations with the CIA. He’d helped set up Zapata Petroleum for Bush (43), in conjunction with CIA’s Operation Zapata in the Caribbean. We’re not talking about above board people who love freedom and democracy. If James Baker told Glaspie to tell Saddam something, he had a very good, I mean bad, reason.
http://wais.stanford.edu/Iraq/iraq_andambassaprilglaspie22303.html
I’m familiar with the dialogue seer, but I went back to review some of the statements by Gillespie. Acccording to the New York Times (Gillespie):
“…….My assessment after 25 years’ service in this area is that your objective must have strong backing from your Arab brothers. I now speak of oil. But you, Mr. President, have fought through a horrific and painful war. Frankly, we can only see that you have deployed massive troops in the south. Normally that would not be any of our business. But when this happens in the context of what you said on your national day, then when we read the details in the two letters of the Foreign Minister, then when we see the Iraqi point of view that the measures taken by the U.A.E. and Kuwait is, in the final analysis, parallel to military aggression against Iraq, then it would be reasonable for me to be concerned. And for this reason, I received an instruction to ask you, in the spirit of friendship – not in the spirit of confrontation – regarding your intentions…….”
There is nothing in that statement which suggests that the US supports any kind of invasion by Iraq. The Ambassador shows “concern” for the “massive” troop buildup near Kuwait in conjunction with statements that Saddam has made recently and her concern about a possible invasion is detailed in this statement.
“……..Normally that would not be any of our business……”
According to Wikipedia:
“…….According to Richard E. Rubenstein, Glaspie was later asked by British journalists why she had said that, her response was “we didn’t think he would go that far” meaning invade and annex the whole country. Although no follow-up question was asked, one might assume that what the U.S. government thought in July 1990 was that Saddam Hussein was only interested in pressuring Kuwait into debt forgiveness and to lower oil production.[30]……”
In addition, Saddam had stated that a meeting was set up with Kuwait in a couple of days and Gillespie congratulated him. He invaded in four surprising the Arab world and the US (and Russia). It seems to me that Saddam simply misinterpreted the Ambassador’s statements. But I admit that she should have been far more direct. Regardless, the US reaction to the invasion is clear evidence that the US did not support an invasion of Kuwait – and it’s a real stretch to suggest that the US wanted an invasion so they could oust Hussein militarily.
Thanks.
Wasn’t there another family in Saudi that was making trouble? Ben Ladle or something like that?
The first clue to GlobalResearch is when they say………..
“………What the NIC report fails to mention……..”
So he (the author) filled in the blank. He could have said:
“……What the NIC report fails to mention……” is that the US, Israel and Britain are secretly supporting the reemergence of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact – and supported the Russian annexation of Crimea. This “provides a justification in the eyes of public opinion for America to intervene Worldwide…..”
What reason do you have in your pocket that explains why USAID, the CIA, and the State Department instigated a coup in Ukraine?
And remember the last ten or more years have seen NATO and US establishing missile shield defense systems aimed at Russia. Of course, Russia was definitely indulging in conspiracy theory to have noticed and then get all riled by those peaceful acts.
“……..What reason do you have in your pocket that explains why USAID, the CIA, and the State Department instigated a coup in Ukraine?……”
I think you are leading the witness – something I am sure Mona has done during her career. First you have to establish that there was a western-inspired coup(?), don’t you think? At the same time, you have just insulted the Ukrainian people. After all, many spent decades under Soviet rule so protesting democratically against the Ukrainian government because they turned down an economic package with the EU seems like a fair reaction to continued Russian domination in their internal affairs. Some people (Intercept included) even had the nerve of accusing the west of interfering in the “interests” of Russia. Russia has no inherent right to anything in Ukraine.
How many other eastern European countries joined the EU and NATO after the USSR self destructed? What was their reasoning, and were they all coups? Why don’t we start with a better economic future and an opening to bolt from Russian domination i.e., out of the Russian sphere of influence. Many understood quite rightly that the “bear” may not be down for long.
There didn’t need to be a “coup”. Russia just needed to continue acting like her former self. The illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula only accelerated the inevitable – and the new President of Ukraine just signed a deal with the EU. Now if they can just get rid of the Russian separatist who keep shooting down helicopters with advanced weaponry………
@Summers
From Peter Hitchens:
Who is using spies and lies to grab power in Kiev? We are
~
What would you think if Russia’s spy chief had been discovered last week, roaming round Ukraine?
The British media would have been raging and howling about sinister Kremlin meddling.
Well, as far as I know, no such visit took place. But something just as astonishing did happen. John Brennan, Director of the CIA, was, in fact, in Kiev last week, and I do not think he was there for the nightlife.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2608679/PETER-HITCHENS-Who-using-spies-lies-grab-power-Kiev-We-are.html
@Summers
From Michael Shank, Ph.D., associate director for legislative affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation and adjunct faculty at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and Daniel L. Davis, a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army who has deployed into combat zones four times.
Dirt on Our Hands
Misguided U.S. foreign policy is partly to blame for the crisis in Ukraine
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2014/04/29/american-hubris-partly-to-blame-for-the-ukraine-russia-crisis
First of all, by mid April, Crimea had been annexed and eastern Ukraine was directly being influenced – according to Hitchens – by Russia. That the CIA was working with the new Ukraine government is certainly consistent with providing intelligence on Russian troop movements and Russian separatist in eastern Ukraine. The US has exceptional military intelligence capability. This no proof that the US staged a coup anymore than the EU signing the recent agreement with the new elected government of Kiev was because they participated in a coup with the US – and it’s ridiculous to suggest otherwise.
The key here is that you PREFER a story where the US overthrew the “legitimately elected” government of Ukraine. But the protest began because of Russian “influence” in the Ukraine economy. The protest began because the Ukraine government turned down closer economic ties with the EU (How does that involve the US?). It was Viktor Yanukovych that cracked down on innocent protesters killing about 100. This is likely to have been prodded by Russia. The government went into hiding and the Ukraine legislature ousted Victor.
Finally, it was Russia that illegally annexed the Crimea Peninsula. That broke their own agreement recognizing the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Why is this OK with you, seer?
There is no proof of a coup by the US – and Russia certainly has no more of a right to interfere in Ukraine than the US. The Ukrainian government has every right to develop economic ties with whomever they choose even if they are in the Russian “sphere of influence”.
Just out of curiosity, even IF Glenn were to finally publish this so called “list”, exactly WHAT do you think it will accomplish? As far as I’m concerned, notwithstanding enlightening the entire planet to the reality of the NSA surveillance state, Congressional reaction to said revelations has resulted in almost ZERO repercussions on a Statute level. The only real piece of legislation is the piece of shit known as The Freedumb Act. And we all know what it does. Ha! So, what do you think publishing this list will accomplish…besides letting certain people know they are on the list?
damn, this was supposed to be a reply to Ben Franklin below. My bad.
“besides letting certain people know they are on the list?”
GG said he was saving the best for last; that it was a ‘blockbuster’. Naming names puts a public face on it, but how do we know what lurks therein? Obviously, the US is concerned, and not just about danger to individuals who might be exposed to harm, including the State apparatus.
Saladin wasn’t an Arab,but a Kurd.They sure seemed to get along a lot better than before that splinter(Israel) was inserted into the region,eh?In fact,I can’t remember any western tales of ethnic collisions in the region other than Turks and Armenians post WW1.IOW;It’s all a Zio and Western destabilization campaign of divide and conquer,ala the Yinon Plan.
And the Kurds have been unable to establish a nation for the last 2000 years and now we and Israel will?Sheesh,expect the woist,in NYese.
The results are quite predictable. Mainstream reaction will be to justify anything that’s revealed by arguing that the targets either deserved to be under surveillance, or that it’s not at all surprising that they would be under surveillance.
Glenn; Publish or Perish. You don’t want to be ‘scooped’.
BTW, have there been any confirmed sightings of Glenn in the last 48 hours or so? Disappearance has a sinister meaning in that part of the world.
I’m more concerned that Matt Taibbi has been incommunicado since Feb.
He’s still a-tweetin’ Ben. https://twitter.com/mtaibbi
Thx seer. I don’t tweet but I’m glad he’s got his toes in the water.
For that matter, the canary in Glenn’s mineshaft is still tweeting for now.
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald
Should’ve checked over there, and not in the nest here.
A student from Erlangen, Germany (my birthplace) is specifically target of the NSA. Do they seek enlightment? ;-)
“erleuchtung zu erlangen kann verglichen werden mit wasser, das sich von trübstoffen klärt…”
“becoming enlightened can be compared to water cleared of sediments, gold cleansed of impurities, or the sky cleared of clouds.”
http://www.linguee.de/deutsch-englisch/uebersetzung/erleuchtung%20erlangen.html
Supporting documentation.
http://cryptome.org/2014/07/nsa-tor-de.htm
RT is also running an article today entitled: “XKeyscore exposed: How NSA tracks all German Tor users as ‘extremists’.” 3 Jul 14 1315
That’s a hint for chronicle above. A NATO partnership breech is a genuine threat to the conspiracy.
That it is and it is happening.
“Breech.” That’s one way of putting it.
Breech, as in when the head comes out last.
More on the problem with Tor (h/t Pedinska)
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/07/nsa_targets_pri.html
Plenty of hyperlinks.
Wonder if this is the reason for the sudden silence?
Fun fact: tomorrow, the people of the former United States observe the Fourth of July, in which they celebrate the blessings of liberty. Well, the beer and fireworks are still good, anyway.
You don’t have to be a paranoid troll to wonder what the hell is going on. Greenwald said many times that “this is not for anyone’s entertainment” so the statement comparing the latest story to a fireworks display seems out of character I would say. Three of the most prolific progressive journalists — Greenwald, Scahill, and Taibbi have stopped publishing since becoming associated with Omidyar. It doesn’t take nine months to set up a website.
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/
I now spend more time at infowars then would normally held to be healthy.
Minervia facebook and the intercept.
Psych ops and you are the playees.
Game over humans
everyman for himself.
Supporting link: http://rt.com/usa/169848-pentagon-facebook-study-minerva/
All is not lost yet.
But much truth here: “Psych ops and you are the playees.”
TI possibly the largest playground.
Take care tombrown’s schooleddaze’….I have enjoyed your poetry.
Soon we can see the Snowden documents for ourselves and this waiting for Glenn will cease.
Good old Cryptome and Wikileaks they publish the docs not stories.
That is the spirit . Publish or be damned.
http://www.vocativ.com/tech/hacking/snowden-leaks-way/
(snip)
I noticed that yesterday and bookmarked both sites.
Thanks for posting.
GG’s recent accommodation to US.gov may mean time is limited for release
‘Prior restraint’, for now, is a voluntary action.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/cryptome-snowden-docs-released-july-prevent-war-2/193362/
We do what we do and, all voluntarily – that’s the mark of a democracy. Do you need more proof? >:\
I suspect the freedumb we enjoy, in it’s current form will be a distant memory, longed for, as in the good ol’ days.
ISIS: The New Taliban
Ahmed Rashid
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/jul/02/iraqs-new-taliban/?insrc=wbll
Good article. Ahmed Rashid is very knowledgeable. I believe he is from Pakistan and has worked in that area for a very long time.
Thanks. Yes, he wrote one of the most definitive books on the Taliban. Descent into Chaos is also a very good book.
http://www.amazon.com/Descent-into-Chaos-Disaster-Afghanistan/dp/014311557X
I’ve read the “Taliban”, but not “Decent Into Chaos” which I’m sure would be well worth reading.
Thanks.
Rashid left out the important detail that the old Taliban and IS, formerly ISIS, were/are both funded and armed by the West, primarily the US & UK.
“…….Rashid left out the important detail that the old Taliban and IS, formerly ISIS, were/are both funded and armed by the West, primarily the US & UK……”
Yea, how could we have overlooked that? We also (accidentally) left out that the US secretly funded the Soviet…..a Russian annexation of Crimea. I’m sure that Greenwald will eventually cover that topic.
@Summers
No, we did not fund that, but we sure did instigate it. What do you think the US would do if Mexico managed to entice the mayor of San Diego to re-join the federal republic of Mexico, thereby threatening to take with him the multitude of military bases in the environs of San Diego to Mexico? I’ll wager you’d support the US moving to prevent that unthinkable event. You’d do it in a flash!
Seer, you are wrong. The U.S. was not a primary financier of the Taliban. That would be Pakistan. The U.S. was mostly disengaged from Afghanistan during the 1990s when the Taliban rose to power and other than the Stinger repurchase program and maybe some small sums, The US was not a big financier of the Taliban.
You and Summers should have a Ziokumbaya,if you haven’t already.No,the guilty hands of Zionism and AlCIAda are not all over the ME,Pakistan and Africa,and the world,it’s all a figment of our imagination,and Israelis are the finest most wonderful people ever created.
sheesh.Hey,if I give you 200 foreskins of dead Philistines,can I marry your daughter?
“…….No,the guilty hands of Zionism and AlCIAda are not all over the ME,Pakistan and Africa,and the world,it’s all a figment of our imagination,and Israelis are the finest most wonderful people ever created…..”
Those pesky Jews. Got their hands in everything – especially our wallets. And those three teenagers from Israel had it coming.
As always dahoit, your posts are a pleasure.
Correct Nate.
The Intercept seems like it is a million/billion dollar failure. Predictions by Cryptome and others suggested there would be 40 + yrs of relevant and important data at current release rates back in 2013. The only rational conclusions: there is no more data, Intercept and Staff has been compromised or there is no more relevant data now GG is trying to profit by selling books, hats, pens and speeches suggesting there might be more when there really is not.
Greenback$ is withholding the list of victims being spied on, and we’re supposed to be okay with that while he “clears” it with the imperialists who maintain the list. Guess those poor people are just going to have to hold their horses a little while longer because Greenback$ has to cash in on his celebrity just a little bit more with this “oh wait sorry the fireworks barge never left the pier don’t Put Stars By It yet.” And doesn’t explain any of it. For all we know, he’s lying about USG “claims.”
#mediaopportunist #toxicshitspew #reactionarycapitalist #transparencycanwait #daddygreenbacks
Again, you now sound very peculiar, and self-parodying.
@ PutShitIntoTheEquation:
Your act is quite weak. May I suggest that you refine your trolling skills?
Your ability to discredit Mr. Greenwald is threatened by your own robotic remarks.
Does the NSA provide refresher courses?
What the heck is your problem, seriously? First off, there’s no evidence The Intercept is clearing anything with the US government. But it’s basic journalism to get their comments and counter-claims. Second, of course they shouldn’t publish names without the consent of the targets, for reasons that should be fairly obvious.
The PCLOB Report on the Surveillance Program Operated Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
http://www.pclob.gov/All%20Documents/Report%20on%20the%20Section%20702%20Program/PCLOB-Section-702-Report.pdf
*The EFF Calls Gov (PCLOB) Report Supporting Surveillance ‘Legally Flawed And Factually Incomplete.’*
“The EFF, often the voice of dissent on this sort of issue, called the report ‘legally flawed and factually incomplete.’ Its core argument against the report is that it fails to properly deal with the issue of upstream collection, that it doesn’t handle privacy protection for non-U.S. persons, and that the document hides ‘behind the ‘complexity’ of the technology’ employed by the U.S. government in its surveillance efforts… The EFF also dismisses the PCLOB’s constitutional analysis, stating that the Fourth Amendment ‘requires a warrant for searching the content of communication’ and that under ‘Section 702, the government searches through content without a warrant.'”
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/02/the-eff-calls-gov-report-supporting-surveillance-legally-flawed-and-factually-incomplete/
Hard-hitting! Shouldn’t this be, you know, #breaking news?
Liberal “freedom” enterprise finds USG report inaccurate. News at zzzzzzzzzz.
Everybody relax. The “EFF” is on it!
I think we all appreciate your detailed commentary. Please tell us more about everyone you hate
Thanks Cindy, I still have a lot of reading to do to see if EFF’s complaints resonate but part of me is skeptical of the EFF’s claims. Like so many advocacy groups, stuff’s all good when people agree with them (i.e. EFF’s comments on the PCLOB’s Section 215 analysis @ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/privacy-oversight-board-agrees-eff-mass-surveillance-illegal-and-must-end) but since their isn’t enough teeth it is “legally flawed and factually incomplete”…I’ll reserve judgment until I read for myself.
That there is even debate about the constitutionality is depressing to me (I think the NSA have overreached way too much, and been grotesquely deceptive), but I guess that’s what this is about – hashing out just what we as a nation will tolerate.
“hashing out just what we as a nation will tolerate.” cannot be the defining nature of who we are. Either we have a constitution and we live by and within it’s precepts or we throw it out and try something else. I believe the constitution was a very well crafted document and is worth fighting for.
Perhaps you misunderstand me. I agree with you, John. It appears others think the Constitution is more open to interpretation than you and I consider it to be. When I said I didn’t like the idea of debating whether or not the NSA’s behavior is constitutional I meant that I consider it obviously not constitutional, but it seems this is not the nation’s prime directive, and this I find depressing.
The ‘hashing it out’ thing is based on Edward Snowden’s wish that the American people will make their decisions based on the revelations, and it is nothing short of tragic that the Constitution is so ‘up for grabs’ at this precarious moment, when that should indeed be the defining factor – to my mind the establishment is telling us they will interpret it, not we the people after all.
I don’t want hashing it out to define who we are either, but it has come to that evidently because the corporatism and militaristic overreach are now entrenched, and Constitutionalists are being told what their document may or may not mean by the elite.
“it is nothing short of tragic that the Constitution is so ‘up for grabs’ at this precarious moment, when that should indeed be the defining factor – to my mind the establishment is telling us they will interpret it, not we the people after all.”
Well said – extremely frustrating is an understatement – a travesty is more like it.
There is also this about the PCLOB:
“They say if we’re collecting everything from Egypt that’s not bulk, everything from [area code] 202 that’s not bulk, everything from gmail.com that’s not bulk, and that’s just bullshit,” said Jennifer Granick of the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.
Thanks.
For somebody who supposedly “co-authored” the BIG!! SKY FULL OF STARS!!! FIREWORKS!! COINTELPRO!! FED GOV TAKEDOWN!!! article, “Maz” Hussein has spent an awful lot of time twittering in the past two days.
Is he the shiny object? Look over here while Greenback$ jives your liberal and reactionary asses from that-away.