Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy

[Wook]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-g...1757.story

SANFORD, Florida -- George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges on Saturday for the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in this central Florida town in February of last year.

If he had been convicted, the 29-year-old former neighborhood watch volunteer, who claimed he acted in self-defense, could have been sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder or up to 30 years for manslaughter.

A panel of six women jurors rendered its verdict in the case, which sparked a national debate on issues including race and profiling, after a trial that began in Seminole County court on June 10. George Zimmerman has been found not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

The panel of six women, sequestered since the trial began last month had to decide among second-degree murder, manslaughter or acquittal for Zimmerman, who says he shot the teen in self-defense. The jury must reach a unanimous verdict of second-degree murder, manslaughter or acquittal for Zimmerman, who says he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense.

Zimmerman, 29, claimed Martin attacked him on the rainy night of February 26, 2012, in the central Florida town of Sanford, where Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch coordinator in his gated community.

The jury had to reach a unanimous verdict, heard 12 days of testimony and two days of closing arguments under Seminole County Judge Debra Nelson.

The panel deliberated more than three hours on Friday and began again on Saturday morning. On Friday, the jurors asked the judge for a full inventory of evidence in the case.

The six women worked through lunch on Saturday.

The case started on the night in February when Zimmerman called police to report a suspicious person, who was Martin, and a fight broke out between the two.

Zimmerman suffered several head injuries in the tussle, which ended when he shot Martin once through the heart with a Kel Tec 9 mm pistol fully loaded with hollow-point bullets.

Police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, believing his account of self-defense. That provoked demonstrations, which spread nationwide, accusing Zimmerman of racial profiling and demanding his arrest. He was charged with second-degree murder 45 days after the shooting.

The case drew the attention of President Barack Obama, who said, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."

Local Sanford police said they did not expect violence after the verdict but were prepared for any eventuality.

[Wook]

http://rt.com/news/snowden-us-nightmare-greenwald-064/

Former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden possesses dangerous information which could potentially lead to America's “worst nightmare” if it is revealed, according to the journalist who first published Snowden's leaked documents.

“Snowden has enough information to cause more damage to the US government in a minute alone than anyone else has ever had in the history of the United States,” Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist responsible for publishing some of Snowden’s first leaks, told Argentina-based newspaper La Nación.

“But that's not his goal. His objective is to expose software that people around the world use without knowing what they are exposing themselves to, without consciously agreeing to surrender their rights to privacy. He has a huge number of documents that would be very harmful to the US government if they were made public,” Greenwald said.

He added that Washington should be exercising care in dealing with the Snowden because he has the potential to do further damage to the US.

“The US government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare,” he said.

Greenwald said that “the most important thing [for Snowden] is not to end up in US custody,” describing  the government’s approach to people who reveal uncomfortable truths as “vindictive.”

When asked whether he believed that someone would attempt to harm or kill the whistleblower, he said that Snowden has “already distributed thousands of documents and made sure that several people around the world have their entire file,” stating that it would be beneficial for anyone to attempt assassination.

He added that the US should be praying that no one would attempt to take Snowden’s life. 

“If something happens, all the information will be revealed, and that would be [America’s] worst nightmare,” he said.

[Wook]

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013...e-on-ufos/

Dr. Robert Wood: Aerospace Engineer Veteran Blows The Whistle On UFOs
July 7, 2013 by Arjun

Dr. Robert wood is a man of many experiences. Coming from a rigid academic environment straight into research and development projects for an aerospace manufacturer and defence contractor, you would probably experience a few things that are out of the norm for the average human being.  I’m not trying to prove the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrials with this article, because at the end of the day this is just a man sharing his experience. Individuals with verified backgrounds should be heard with an open mind, especially now halfway through 2013,  given that there is a large amount of evidence available in the public sphere that sheds light and credibility  on the UFO/extraterrestrial phenomenon.

Dr. Robert Wood has a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Colorado, and a Ph.D. in physics from cornell. He had a 43-year career at McDonnell Douglas, managing research and development projects. McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer and defence contractor. It’s famous for a number of commercial and military aircraft.

I’ve provided a quotation of his statements so you can follow along with the video. The testimony by Robert Wood was given to several former United States Senators, Congressmen and women.  You can learn more about that hearing here. And you can watch short interviews with the reaction of the former senators here and here.


One day after I reported to a couple of VP’s on how we were doing, one of them asked me personally if I was doing anything interesting outside of my job. ‘You’re not going to believe this, but i’ve read about 50 books on UFOs’, I said, and ‘the amazing conclusion I have come to is that they are very real extraterrestrial craft’. The only thing that’s uncertain is whether we find out how they work before or after our competitor lockheed. After a moment of silence one of them (VP) said, ‘how much would it cost to take a look at that question’? Therefore we started a project, quite low key to take a look at the question of how they work.

We did a lot of interesting projects, such as measure the effects of the huge magnetic field on the speed of light, interview an abductee, try to invent the physics that would permit travelling faster than the speed of light, develop an instrumented van to observe craft sightings anywhere anytime, and spawn magnets into space to try and change their weight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHx1f_ozy...r_embedded

This is an interesting testimony in my opinion as it seems Dr. Wood is extremely cautious in what he says and how he says it. A corporation like McDonnell Douglas having programs like this is alarming enough, they must be extremely top secret. I’m sure Dr. Wood knows much more than what he states. I find it interesting how he makes it clear that his belief in UFOs comes from himself, and does not link that part to his work within the industry.  His story also corroborates to many others stories from military personel that confirm the reality of back-engineering extraterrestrial crafts to figure out how they work.

Official documents released by dozens of  governments and three letter agencies, like the NSA, already admit to having programs that study the UFO phenomenon (you can view in the later part of this article). Hiring private contractors to help them investigate it makes sense, doesn’t it? Governments that hire private contractors have no oversight from congress, they can basically do whatever they want.


We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity. Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do. We have the technology to take ET home. – Ben Rich, former Director of Lockheed’s Skunk Works from 1975-1991

Below is evidence taken from a previous article I wrote:  Wikileaks Cables Confirm Existence of Extraterrestrial Life. I thought I would add some more in just incase you wanted to browse through some more stuff that’s related.

In early May, researchers, activists, political leaders and high ranking military/agency personnel from around the world testified to the reality of the UFO/extraterrestrial phenomenon in front of several former United States members of congress. To watch an interview with the former 2008 presidential candidate and ex-congressman Mike Gravel (who participated in the hearings) click here.  You can watch interviews with all of the senators that participated in the event here.

Prior to the recent hearing on UFOs and extraterrestrial life, we’ve had explosive statements made by NASA astronauts and professors, you can watch some of those statements here and here. Not only has the world heard from all of these credible people, it has also been privy to official documentation released by dozens of governments worldwide that outline the reality of the UFO phenomenon. Documents indicate that UFOs are of concern to governments, and they put a significant amount of  time, effort and resources into studying them. Apart from governments, agencies like the National Security Agency also released official files regarding UFOs, you can view some of these previously classified documents here.

It’s now a fact that UFOs are tracked on radar, performing maneuvers that defy our idea of physics. Jets are constantly scrambled to take a closer look at them. This is no longer a conspiracy theory, it’s a fact. Files were released starting in early in 2007 with the UK, among many others. Since then, they’ve released thousands of pages every year, with the latest ones published in June 2013 made available at the UK’s National Archives. You can view them here.

Much Love,

Thanks for watching/reading!

[Wook]

http://rt.com/news/mercosur-countries-am...urope-030/
S. American states to recall ambassadors from Europe over Bolivian plane incident

South American countries belonging to the Mercosur trade bloc have decided to withdraw their ambassadors for consultations from European countries involved in the grounding of the Bolivian president’s plane.

"We've taken a number of actions in order to compel public explanations and apologies from the European nations that assaulted our brother Evo Morales," explained Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, who revealed some of the agenda debated during the 45th summit of Mercosur countries in Uruguay's capital, Montevideo. 

The decision to recall European ambassadors was taken by Maduro, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, and Uruguay’s President, Jose Mujica, during the meeting.


Member states attending the summit expressed their grievances with “actions by the governments of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal” over the July 2 incident, when the aircraft  carrying President Evo Morales back to Bolivia after attending an energy summit in Moscow was denied entry into the airspace of a number of EU member states.

The small aircraft, which required a stop-over before completing its flight, was forced to make an emergency landing in Austria after a circuitous flight path.

It was later revealed that the European countries’ actions were prompted by accusations made by the US ambassador to Austria, William Eacho, who alleged that American whistleblower Edward Snowden had been taken on board to help him gain political asylum in Latin America.


“The gravity of the incident - indicative of a neocolonial mindset - constitutes an unfriendly and hostile act, which violates human rights and impedes freedom of travel, as well as the treatment and immunity appropriate to a head of state,” the Mercosur nations affirmed in the joint statement.

The incident was further described as a “discriminatory and arbitrary” decision by European countries, as well as a “blatant violation of international law.”


By intervening in what they thought were South America’s attempts to grant Snowden asylum, the United States and its allies are undermining the fundamental principles of international law, British human rights activist Peter Tatchell told RT.

“What the United States government is seeking is to obstruct Edward Snowden’s bid to seek asylum. Not to get asylum, but to seek asylum,” Tatchell said. “It has bullied and threatened and menaced other countries around the world to not grant him asylum and to not grant airspace so that a flight can take him to another country. That is a direct attack upon the United Nations’ refugee conventions, and it is shocking and appalling that a supposedly democratic government, in collusion with European governments - including the government in Britain - has been conspiring to not allow Mr. Snowden to make a valid asylum application.”

[Wook]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...fVk#at=212
NSA Blackmailing Obama? | Interview with Whistleblower Russ Tice

[Wook]

http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/n...s-2/50237/

The boisterous picket in this wealthy neighborhood—organized by the Coalition for Grassroots Progress, an organization of progressive democrats—featured colorful signs declaring “One nation under surveillance” and denouncing ‘big brother.’

A recent poll by Pew Research Center shows that democrats have flipped on civil liberties violations under Obama: while a majority of democrats declared NSA spying unacceptable under former President George Bush, a majority of democrats now think NSA spying is acceptable under Obama

[Wook]

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/oldsite/...p?ID=11713


George Washington’s Prophecy of America



Musing’s of a Dead Man – November 28, 2009

The father of our country, George Washington, was a man of prayer. We have all read of how he went to the thicket many times to pray during the winter his army was at Valley Forge. However, little publicity has been given to the vision and prophecy he received at that time. The account of this vision was given in 1859 by an old soldier. He gave it to a writer, Wesley Bradshaw, who published it. In the vision God revealed to George Washington that three great perils would come upon the Republic. He was given to know that America was going through the first peril at that time. The old soldier who told the story of the vision said that the nation would soon see the account verified by the second peril descending upon the land. We give the account here as it was reprinted in the U. S. war veterans' paper The National Tribune, in December, 1880. The National Tribune is now called The Stars and Stripes. This article was reprinted in the Stars and Stripes December 21,1950. Here is the report of this phenomenal and most important heavenly message for us at this hour. Wesley Bradshaw wrote: The last time I ever saw Anthony Sherman was on the fourth of July 1859, in Independence Square. He was then ninety-nine years old, and becoming very feeble. But though so old, his dimming eyes rekindled as he gazed upon Independence Hall, which he came to visit once more.


MESSAGE DISCLOSED

"Let us go into the hall," he said. "I want to tell you of an incident of Washington's life-one which no one alive knows of except myself; and if you live, you will before long see it verified. Mark the prediction, you will see it verified." "From the opening of the Revolution we experienced all phases-of fortune, now good and now ill, one time victorious and another conquered. The darkest period we had, I think, was when Washington after several reverses, retreated to Valley Forge, where he resolved to pass the winter of 1777. Ah! I have often seen the tears coursing down our dear commander's care-worn cheeks, as he would be conversing with a confidential officer about the condition of his poor soldiers. You have doubtless heard the story of Washington's going to the thicket to pray. Well, it was not only true, but he used often to pray in secret for aid and comfort. And God brought us safely through the darkest days of tribulation." "One day, I remember it well, the chilly winds whistled through the leafless trees, though the sky was cloudless and the sun shone brightly. He remained in his quarters nearly all the afternoon, alone. When he came out I noticed that his face was a shade paler than usual, and there seemed to be something on his mind of more than ordinary importance. Returning just after dusk, he dispatched an orderly to the quarters of an officer, who was presently in attendance. After a preliminary conversation of about half an hour, Washington, gazing upon his companion with that strange look of dignity which he alone could command, said to the latter:


AN UNINVITED GUEST

"I do not know whether it is owing to the anxiety of my mind, or what, but this afternoon, as I was sitting at this table engaged in preparing a dispatch, something in the apartment seemed to disturb me. Looking up, I beheld standing opposite me a singularly beautiful being. So astonished was I, for I had given strict orders not to be disturbed that it was some moments before I found language to inquire the cause of the visit. A second, a third, and even a fourth time did I repeat my question, but received no answer from my mysterious visitor except a slight raising of the eyes." "By this time I felt strange sensations spreading through me. I would have risen but the riveted gaze of the being before me rendered volition impossible. I assayed once more to speak, but my tongue had become useless, as if paralyzed. A new influence, mysterious, potent, irresistible, took possession of me. All I could do was to gaze steadily, vacantly at my unknown visitor." "Gradually the surrounding atmosphere seemed to fill with sensations, and grew luminous. Everything about me seemed to rarefy, the mysterious visitor also becoming more airy and yet more distinct to my sight than before. I began to feel as one dying, or rather to experience the sensations, which I have sometimes imagined, accompany death. I did not think, I did not reason, I did not move. All were alike impossible. I was only conscious of gazing fixedly, vacantly at my companion."


FIRST GREAT PERIL

"Presently I heard a voice saying, 'Son of the Republic, look and learn,' while at the same time my visitor extended an arm eastward. I now beheld a heavy white vapor at some distance rising fold upon fold. This gradually dissipated, and I looked upon a strange scene. Before me lay, spread out in one vast plain, all the countries of the world-Europe, Asia, Africa and America. I saw rolling and tossing between Europe and America the billows of the Atlantic, and between Asia and America lay the Pacific. 'Son of the Republic,' said the same mysterious voice as before, 'look and learn.' "At that moment I beheld a dark, shadowy being, like an angel, standing, or rather floating in mid-air, between Europe and America. Dipping water out of the ocean in the hollow of each hand, he sprinkled some upon America with his right hand, while with his left he cast some over Europe. Immediately a cloud arose from these countries, and joined - in mid-ocean. For awhile it remained stationary, and then it moved slowly westward, until it enveloped America in its murky folds. Sharp flashes of lightning gleamed through it at intervals, and I heard the smothered groans and cries of the American people.

(I believe this is a prophecy of the Revolutionary War which was continued in the War of 1812.)


SECOND GREAT PERIL

"A second time the angel dipped water from the ocean and sprinkled it out as before. The dark cloud was then drawn back to the ocean, in whose heaving billows it sank from view." "A third time I heard the mysterious voice saying, 'Son of the Republic, look and learn.' I cast my eyes upon America and beheld villages and towns and cities springing Up one after another until the whole land from the Atlantic to the Pacific was dotted with them. Again, I heard the mysterious voice say, 'Son of the Republic, the end of the century comes, look and learn." "And this time the dark shadowy angel turned his face southward. From Africa I saw an ill-omened specter approach our land. It flitted slowly and heavily over every town and city of the latter. The inhabitants presently set themselves in battle array against each other.

As I continued looking I saw a bright angel on whose brow rested a crown of light, on which was traced the word 'UNION.' He was bearing the American flag. He placed the flag between the divided nation and said, 'Remember, you are brethren.' "Instantly the inhabitants, casting down their weapons, became friends once more and united around the National Standard." "Again I heard the mysterious voice saying, 'Son of the Republic look and learn.' At this the dark, shadowy angel placed a trumpet to his mouth, and blew three distinct blasts; and taking water from the ocean, he sprinkled it upon Europe, Asia and Africa.

(This has reference to the Civil War, which erupted over the slavery issue. In spite of England and France's (Illuminati Bankers') best efforts to divide the country through war, the division was healed. I believe they encouraged this division in order to establish a European mandated peace which included a US National Bank)

"The war had a direct bearing on the United States' foreign relations and the relations that were most important were those with the two dominant powers of Europe, England and France. Each country was a monarchy, and a monarchy does not ordinarily like to see a rebellion succeed in any land. (The example may prove contagious.) Yet the war had not progressed very far before it was clear that the ruling classes in each of these two countries sympathized strongly with the Confederacy-so strongly that with just a little prodding they might be moved to intervene and bring about Southern independence by force of arms.

The South was, after all, an aristocracy, and the fact that it had a broad democratic base was easily overlooked at a distance of three thousand miles. Europe's aristocracies had never been happy about the prodigious success of the Yankee democracy. If the nation now broke into halves, proving that democracy did not contain the stuff of survival, the rulers of Europe would be well pleased." (Source)

In fact, war between England and the Northern States almost broke out when an American vessel stopped a so-called English "Neutral Vessel" and boarded her (the "Trent Affair"):

" Jefferson Davis had named two distinguished Southerners, James M. Mason of Virginia and John Slidell of Louisiana, as commissioners to represent Confederate interests abroad, Mason in England and Slidell in France. They got out of Charleston, South Carolina, on a blockade-runner at the beginning of October and went via Nassau to Havana, where they took passage for England on the British mail steamer Trent.

Precisely at this time U.S.S. San Jacinto was returning to the United States from a long tour of duty along the African coast.. She put in at a Cuban port, looking for news of Confederate commerce raiders which were reported to be active in that vicinity, and there her commander, Captain Wilkes, heard about Mason and Slidell. He now worked out a novel interpretation of international law. A nation at war (it was generally agreed) had a right to stop and search a neutral merchant ship if it suspected that ship of carrying the enemy's dispatches. Mason and Slidell, Wilkes reasoned, were in effect Confederate dispatches, and he had a right to remove them. So on November 8, 1861, he steamed out into the Bahama Channel, fired twice across Trent's bows, sent a boat's crew aboard, collared the Confederate commissioners, and bore them off in triumph to the United States. (Ibid)

The Russian Czar seemed to be the only friend the Northern States had. He had wintered his ships in American ports to act as a deterrent to any action by the British or the French.(Ibid)

Interestingly enough, much of the Southern Aristocracy could trace its roots back to the Illuminati and the Knights Templar. The Episcopal Church (the Church of the Southern Aristocrats) was founded shortly after the Revolution from England's official "Anglican Church". Also, many loyalists had fled to England after the revolution and, without a doubt, their children and grandchildren looked at English intervention in the Civil War as an opportunity to get their lands back in the South. (Source)

Back to the vision of George Washington...


THIRD AND MOST FEARFUL PERIL

"Then my eyes beheld a fearful scene. From each of these continents arose thick black clouds that were soon joined into one. And throughout this mass there gleamed a dark red light by which I saw hordes of armed men. These men, moving with the cloud, marched by land and sailed by sea to America, which country was enveloped in the volume of cloud. And I dimly saw these vast armies devastate the whole country and ~ the villages, towns and cities which I had seen springing up." "As my ears listened to the thundering of the cannon, clashing of the swords, and the shouts and cries of millions in mortal combat, I again heard the mysterious voice saying, 'Son of the Republic, look and learn." Where the voice had ceased, the dark shadowy angel placed his trumpet once more to his mouth, and blew a long and fearful blast."

I believe the "Red Cloud" symbolizes the combined forces of Russia and China with their Allies in South America (Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, El Salvador etc) attacking the United States. I have experienced visions of this encounter myself and it played out in the following manner:

The Chinese and Russians used their economic clout to influence the United States to permit their troops on American soil. In exchange for lending us money, they have secured the Panama Canal (Source)

"China is building a large facility including an ammunition plant in Adelanto, California to distribute its products with 1,000 Chinese workers expected to move in. There are plans to build similar facilities in Charleston, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. U.S. tax payers are subsidizing a $138 million loan guarantee to build ships for the China Ocean Shipping Co.(COSCO) in Alabama.

This company is controlled by the Chinese military. In addition, Panama recently agreed to lease the port on each end of the Panama Canal to a COSCO subsidary, Hutchinson Corporation. According to the March 29, 1997 Charleston Daily Mail, "Panama peremptorily closed the bidding, secretly changed the rules, and simply awarded the contract to Hutchinson before the American or other firms could even know what was happening." Documents show that at least 3 more lucrative deals offered by U.S. companies were rejected. Obviously Panama would not have done this without U.S. urging.

Rep. Traficant complained in Congress that Red China is now going to manufacture boots for the U.S. Army. On April 1, 1997 the AP said for the first time since the 1950s Chinese ships can now dock near U.S. military installations with only a day's notice. And there are plans to bring Chinese troops to the U.S. for training exercises. Yet currently 450 Chinese businesses are under federal investigation for espionage, and China continues to be attacked in the press for illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic/Republican Party.As occurred in the 1930s when the U.S. transferred vast resources to the Nazis, in recent years the U.S. has transferred much economic and military technology to China"(More).


HEAVEN INTERVENES

"Instantly a light as of a thousand suns shone down from above me, and pierced and broke into fragments the dark cloud which enveloped America. At the same moment the angel upon whose head still shown the word UNION, and who bore our national flag in one hand, and a sword in the other, descended from the heavens attended by, legions of white spirits. These immediately joined the inhabitants of America, who I perceived were well-nigh overcome, but who immediately taking courage again, closed up their broken ranks and renewed the battle." "Again, amid the fearful noise of the conflict I heard the mysterious voice saying, 'Son of the Republic, look and learn.' As the voice ceased the shadowy angel for the last time dipped water from the ocean and sprinkled it upon America. Instantly the dark cloud rolled back, together with the armies it had brought, leaving the inhabitants of the land victorious."

"Then once more, I beheld the villages, towns and cities springing up where I had seen them before, while the bright angel, planting the azure standard he had brought in the midst of them, cried with the loud voice: "While the stars remain, and the heaven send down dew upon the earth, so long shall the UNION last." And taking from his brow the crown on which blazoned the word 'UNION,' he placed it upon the Standard while the people, kneeling down, said 'Amen."


THE INTERPRETATION

The scene instantly began to fade and dissolve, and I, at last saw nothing but the rising, curling vapor I at first beheld. This also disappeared, and I found myself once more gazing upon the mysterious visitor, who, in the same voice I had heard before, said, 'Son of the Republic, what you have seen is thus interpreted; Three great perils will come upon the Republic. The most fearful for her is the third. But the whole world united shall not prevail against her. Let every child of the Republic learn to live for his God, his land, and UNION" With these words the vision vanished, and I started from my seat and felt that I had seen a vision wherein had been shown me the birth, the progress, and the destiny of the United States.'"

'Such, my friends," the venerable narrator concluded, were the words I heard from Washington's own lips, and America will do well to profit by them."
http://deadmanmusings.blogspot.com/2009/...art-1.html


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[Wook]

http://www.storyleak.com/ww3-brews-as-na...rtin-case/

WW3 Brews As Nation Distracted By Trayvon Martin Case


Anthony Gucciardi
by Anthony Gucciardi
July 14th, 2013
Updated 07/14/2013 at 5:13 am
 

 

 
As the world reacts to the Trayvon Martin case, including prominent rappers calling out the media over its race baiting, reports detail around 160,000 Russian troops were called to ‘combat readiness’ following an Israeli strike on Russian-made missiles in Syria.

israel-bomb-russian-troopsIs the nation too distracted by the George Zimmerman trial’s 24/7 news cycle to even know about this developing situation that coincides with escalating tensions between Russia and US-affiliated nations around the world?

First up is the new revelation that Israel was behind an attack on Syria that targeted Russian-made anti-ship missiles. According to the Israeli National News sources within the U.S., Israel recently launched an attack on Russian missiles that were apparently sold to Syria and stationed at a critical point within the country. Until now, it was unknown who had initiated the bombing that had rocked Latakia on July 5th.

Ultimately bombing the ‘critical point’ holding the Russian’s Yakhont anti-ship missile, Israel is believed to have initiated the bombing via aircraft or a ship in the Mediterranean. According to the anonymous U.S. official who corresponded with CNN:


“This attack was either by air raid or long-range missiles fired from boats in the Mediterranean.”
.
Now enter new reports surfacing from the Russian Defense Ministry on orders of Vladimir Putin that the largest military ‘state of full combat readiness’ drill is taking place with around 160,000 troops ordered to report from all corners of the military. Specifically, the translated reports detail how Putin is calling together not just Armed Forces of Russia troops, but all forms of long-range aircraft, 70 naval ships, bomber and fighter aircraft, and so on.

According to a syndicated Russian announcement:


“On Friday, during a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu Russian, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an unexpected military drill, urging all forces to enter a state of full combat readiness on the night of July 13.”
.

In other words, these reports says that Putin is essentially assembling the entire military in the largest such event since the Soviet Union. This is coming in from the Russian language version of Forbes and other Russian sources translated to English.

Is this massive ‘state of full combat readiness’ initiated on July 13th just a training exercise with no further intention, or is it related to to the attack by Israel on Russian-made missiles in Syria? Whether this is truly the initiation of a massive conflict between world powers or not, it’s certainly worth the attention of the media and general public. While it does take a lot of digging to sort through all of these Russian language announcements and get to the bottom of the story, it’s much more important than what George Zimmerman’s lawyers ate for breakfast this morning


Read more: http://www.storyleak.com/ww3-brews-as-na...z2Z4A6B8QO

[Wook]

[Wook]

President Obama called the death of Trayvon Martin a tragedy on Sunday. But after a verdict that sparked charged reactions nationwide, he urged Americans to focus on "calm reflection."

"I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher," Obama's statement read. "But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken

http://main.aol.com/2013/07/14/_n_3562115.html


http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/...n-Violence

President Barack Obama issued a long-awaited response Sunday afternoon to the acquittal of George Zimmerman Saturday evening, reminding Americans to temper "passions," and that "we are a nation of laws and the jury has spoken."

He added that Americans should "honor" the life of Trayvon Martin by committing to "stem the tide of gun violence," and "ask ourselves if we are doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion in our communities."

In March 2012, Obama had lent his political weight to those pressing for Zimmerman's prosecution, saying that "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." In his statement Sunday, he did not comment on calls by the NAACP and others for a Department of Justice prosecution of Zimmerman on civil rights grounds.

Obama's push for gun control laws foundered earlier this year in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

The full statement is as follows:


The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy.  Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America.  I know this case has elicited strong passions.  And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher.  But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken.  I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son.  And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities.  We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis.  We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this.  As citizens, that’s a job for all of us.  That’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin

[the gardener]

Yes... now that Michael Jackson can't be used to pop up in mainstream news though his daughter... lol oops, his daughter is being shuttled off to a rehab in UTAH... for some therapy.

No missing blonde girls to occupy the tv waves... so this ugly mess is taking over the television, streets and talking heads. 

[Wook]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebu6Yvzs4Ls
AFTERBURNER w/ BILL WHITTLE: The Lynching

[Wook]

http://www.zengardner.com/its-about-to-blow/

by Zen Gardner

People aren’t going to take it much longer. There are too many good, honest and awakening people who are being forced to take a stand. Their backs are against the wall in so many areas of their lives they cannot in good conscience let things go on much longer.

When it gets to the point where you know you’re about to face virtual death via incarceration in a totalitarian state; when you’re watching your fellow man being bulldozed into a spiritual, political, economic and social mass grave of permanently suspended truth; when the evidence of political, military and draconian law enforcement thuggery becomes overwhelming; when the population grows sicker and weaker by the hour and you realize all of this toxicity is being engineered by these same psychopathic rulers…

I’ll tell you what – they’d better head for their bunkers. Because decent, caring and responsible humanity will not take it much longer. And they know that.

More Lies, More Suppression

George “Magog” Bush, the elder warlock, reportedly told this to an interviewer some time ago:


“If the American people knew the damage we have done to their Country, they would hang us from the nearest lamp post.”

Why do you supposed the government is arming itself to the teeth – domestically? What’s quite the phenomenon to behold is how they’re letting it be known how corrupt everything is. Bringing it into conscious awareness is a very surreptitious way to not only get “permission” by there being no real concerted outrage and public rejection of all the crooked programs and surveillance, but to also instill new levels of fear as the conscious and subconscious awareness work together to actually help create the reality they want implemented – a cowed and overwhelmed nation that embraces its slavery.

False flag shootings and bombings and whatnot are an American mainstay, but they’ve been abounding in the US of late to keep the massive militarization and Orwellian crackdown “justified” in the public mind. But don’t be fooled by the media downplay of who’s on to them and how many there are. A lot of people know exactly what’s going on, just as millions know what 9/11 really was, including hundreds of thousands of firefighters, police, military and of course corporate and political leaders. These people not only know exactly what a controlled event looks like and have witnessed government cover ups all their lives, but clearly realize the obvious motives of the whole staged ritual.

But things are about to unravel.

Aside from the chief perpetrators and inside accomplices whose motives are as dark and satanic as they come and would never tell the truth, what has kept these other well placed people in check has been first and foremost job security and the safety of themselves and their families. Speaking up always costs in a corrupt world. Another big conscience snuffer is this misplaced sense of loyalty and so-called patriotism. Many of those keeping the darker secrets that the cabal holds feel they are part of some vague greater good or have a misplaced sense of needing to protect “America’s interests and security” however they may disagree with some of its sordid policies and means of implementation.

Again, this is about to fall apart. That paradigm is soon to come crumbling down at which point it’s “all bets are off” for this social contract to protect this increasingly rogue government which clearly has no “national interests” in mind. When people witness not only the repeated absolutely insane levels of affronts on human dignity, but finally come to realize their very lives and children’s lives are in direct and immediate peril from this mad dog fascism, they will sooner than later reach a tipping point.

What will surprise many it that it’s going to come from all walks of life. People are talking and they’re going to take action. The press will deny it and try to ignore it, but even many of them will turn on their masters when they see they and their families are also in the crosshairs. Expect a lot of distractions when this begins because the last thing they want is to see a real spiritual and social rebellion catch fire.

Because courageous activism is contagious!

The Trayvon Lynching
The recent Trayvon Martin engineered drama to stir up racial strife is a perfect example, not just of how corrupt the government and complicit media are, but how manipulation is as routine as breathing for the ruling class and their minions. With Obama and Holder jumping in with inane comments that were clearly staged to fan the flames of racism and unrest, we might just be very near the “over the top” point for whole new levels of society.

The following video is extremely compelling as well as telling regarding this phenomenon that is brewing in the psyche of truly concerned Americans, whatever political or social “persuasion” they may have come from. Please watch it all the way through and don’t let any political shibboleths get in your way. Try to see this as an example of what I’m driving at here – many strata of society are hitting the breaking point and understandably so.

Plug-Pullers Unite!

Exposing the lie being perpetrated on humanity is our number one calling. Information and knowledge give power to humanity. What separates us from the fullness of being that we inherently are is basically a magic show, a very dark intentioned magic show by forces that do not want an empowered humanity but rather a channeled and harnessed work force and energy source.

We are being mined, farmed, milked and bled to death. The encasement of this illusory matrix-driven world system needs to be shot full of holes so everyone can see it for the ensnaring veil of lies that it is. Think of it as a giant row boat we’re all paddling by some obscure design of its creators. What if we were to wake up to the fact that this very machination we think is so essential to cross the sea was what was keeping us from joining the Ocean of fullness – the very place where we’d find total activation, fulfillment and unity with each other and our divine Source? Wouldn’t you want to sink the damn thing, and in a hurry?

They tell us to patch it up, keep it floating, we can’t live without it. Fear, worry, scarcity, death, need controls, need a system to provide for us. “You can’t live without our boat. You’ll drown out there on your own without us to protect you..”  etc. etc.



Oh yeah? I say pull the flipping plugs! All of ‘em! Separate the planks, chuck the paddles! Or stab or shoot the lying containment system full of holes with anything you’ve got! In other words, expose the lie for what it is in any way we can and may it sink into oblivion!

And may I add one more thing – we need to stop sucking on its teats! If we don’t believe in or subscribe to this idiocy then we need to stop feeding off of it, stop listening to and even repeating their lies and dogma and bullshit, wittingly or unwittingly. We need to get to the real truth before we utter another word lest we keep the lie alive. It’s time to get militant about this. Where are we coming from? A place of knowing, conscience, awareness, love and genuine concern for our home here and the lives of those around us?

The wake up is us. Each of us. That has to happen fully first. Once we’re truly awake and aware we’ll do the right thing. Just don’t resist doing what comes to you as a result of waking up or you’ll not miss the boat….you’ll be stuck in their boat of lies, unable to join the ocean of Universal Love as you were meant to do.

Keep on. Very weird times we’re living in and more important than ever to remain vigilant and prepared spiritually and physically.

Proud to be fighting by the side of such wonderful souls…

Love, Zen

ZenGardner.com

[Wook]

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/201...mails.html

Tuesday, July 23, 2013NSA Says It Can’t Search Its Own Emails
By Justin Elliott


The NSA is a "supercomputing powerhouse" with machines so powerful their speed is measured in thousands of trillions of operations per second. The agency turns its giant machine brains to the task of sifting through unimaginably large troves of data its surveillance programs capture.
But ask the NSA, as part of a freedom of information request, to do a seemingly simple search of its own employees' email? The agency says it doesn’t have the technology.
"There's no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately," NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week.
The system is “a little antiquated and archaic," she added.
I filed a request last week for emails between NSA employees and employees of the National Geographic Channel over a specific time period. The TV station had aired afriendly documentary on the NSA and I want to better understand the agency's public-relations efforts.
A few days after filing the request, Blacker called, asking me to narrow my request since the FOIA office can search emails only “person by person," rather than in bulk. The NSA has more than 30,000 employees.
I reached out to the NSA press office seeking more information but got no response.
It’s actually common for large corporations to do bulk searches of their employees email as part of internal investigations or legal discovery.


Read the rest here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul...row-defeat

NSA surveillance: narrow defeat for amendment to restrict data collection

First major challenge to NSA's bulk collection of phone records defeated by only 217 votes to 205 in House of Representatives
• The full roll call of votes

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http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/...mongering/

Endless State Of Fearmongering

Posted on July 25, 2013 by stevengoddard


If you don’t give up your money and cheap readily available energy, the climate will come and kill you.

If you don’t give up your rights, terrorists will come kill you.

If you don’t give up your ability to defend your family, someone will come kill you.

If we don’t borrow an extra trillion dollars, the economy will collapse.

If you drink a large soft drink, you will die.

If we don’t get Snowden, evil people will attack the country.

If we don’t convict Zimmerman of something, the KKK will take over.

If we don’t give a trillion dollars to the banks, the economy will collapse.

Thank goodness we have dear leader to protect us from all this imaginary evil.

[Wook]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTsidZAIFUE
They Come to America (Trailer 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU3BL8O5Gac
Scene from THEY COME TO AMERICA II

http://www.theycometoamerica.com/

[Wook]

http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/14...g-defeated
Amash amendment to defund NSA snooping defeated

The House voted against the Fourth Amendment last night after a heated debate about the amendment that Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) introduced which would defund the NSA’s unconstitutional spying programs.

The vote was remarkably close, with 94 Republicans and 111 Democrats voting for the Amash amendment. More remarkable still was the unanimous opposition to the Amendment by both Republican and Democratic Leadership. As Roll Call reported:


The vote made for strange bedfellows. Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., all voted against the amendment. Pelosi spoke against the Amash’s amendment at a behind-closed-doors Caucus meeting Wednesday, according to a source in the room.

This debate really gets at the heart of the problem with the NSA spying programs. Those that spoke out against the bill said that it would cripple our national security. Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) said that it would set us back to where we were on “September 10.”

While of course national security is important, there is no reason for the NSA to collect millions of phone records and emails without a cause – and without a warrant. This is the exactly situation that the Fourth Amendment was written for, and it looks like a majority of our elected officials in the House are willing to destroy it.

As Representative Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) said last night, “It’s a question of balancing privacy and security. It’s a question of who will do the balancing. Right now, the balancing is being done by people we do not know, people we do not elect.”

[Wook]

http://usawatchdog.com/u-s-a-lawless-sta...g-roberts/

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts says, “The country is not being run by the President.  It is being run by spy agencies and private interest groups, Wall Street and military security complex . . . They run the country.  The President is a puppet, a figurehead.”  Dr. Roberts contends, “If you are a lawless state, which the United States is, it obeys no international law.  It does not obey the Geneva Convention . . . It tortures people.  It doesn’t obey the Constitution.  It doesn’t obey anything.  It does what it wants. . . . If you are a lawless state, you disguise yourself as a democracy.”  Former President Jimmy Carter agrees.  Just last week, Carter said, “The U.S. has no functioning democracy at this moment.”  Why hasn’t the mainstream media picked up this astounding comment from a former Democratic President?  Dr. Roberts says, “Five firms now own what used to be a large dispersed independent media.  Nobody can open their mouth, they’d get fired.  They have become a propaganda ministry for government and corporations.”  Dr. Roberts goes on to say, “My prediction or expectation is by winter, the second downturn of the Great Recession will be in place.  Unemployment will explode, more foreclosures are coming.  It’s going to be worse than the Great Depression.”  Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with economist Dr. Paul Craig Roberts. 

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_p...ingle.html

Did George Zimmerman get away with murder? That’s what one of his jurors says, according to headlines in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other newspapers. Trayvon Martin’s mother and the Martin family’s attorney are trumpeting this “new information” as proof that “George Zimmerman literally got away with murder.”

The reports are based on an ABC News interview with Juror B29, the sole nonwhite juror. She has identified herself only by her first name, Maddy. She’s been framed as the woman who was bullied out of voting to convict Zimmerman. But that’s not true. She stands by the verdict. She yielded to the evidence and the law, not to bullying. She thinks Zimmerman was morally culpable but not legally guilty. And she wants us to distinguish between this trial and larger questions of race and justice.

ABC News hasn’t posted a full unedited video or transcript of the interview. The video that has been broadcast—on World News Tonight, Nightline, and Good Morning America—has been cut and spliced in different ways, often so artfully that the transitions appear continuous. So beware what you’re seeing. But the video that’s available already shows, on closer inspection, that Maddy has been manipulated and misrepresented. Here are the key points.

Advertisement

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1. The phrase “got away with murder” was put in her mouth. Nightline shows ABC interviewer Robin Roberts asking Maddy: “Some people have said, ‘George Zimmerman got away with murder. How do you respond to those people who say that?’ ” Maddy appears to reply promptly and confidently: “George Zimmerman got away with murder. But you can’t get away from God.” But that’s not quite how the exchange happened. In the unedited video, Roberts’ question is longer, with words that have been trimmed from the Nightline version, and Maddy pauses twice, for several seconds, as she struggles to answer it. “… George Zimmerman … That’s—George Zimmerman got away with murder. But you can’t get away from God.”

You have to watch her, not just read her words, to pick up her meaning. As she struggles to answer, she looks as though she’s trying to reconcile the sentiment that’s been quoted to her—that Zimmerman “got away with murder”—with her own perspective. So she repeats the quote and adds words of her own, to convey what she thinks: that there’s a justice higher than the law, which Zimmerman will have to face. She thinks he’s morally culpable, not legally guilty.

2. She stands by the verdict. ABC’s online story about the interview ends with Maddy asking, “Did I go the right way? Did I go the wrong way?” But that’s not the whole quote. In the unedited video, she continues: “I know I went the right way, because by the law and the way it was followed is the way I went. But if I would have used my heart, I probably would have [gone for] a hung jury.” In another clip, she draws the same distinction: “I stand by the decision because of the law. If I stand by the decision because of my heart, he would have been guilty.” At one point, she says that “the evidence shows he’s guilty.” Roberts presses her: “He’s guilty of?” Maddy answers: “Killing Trayvon Martin. But as the law was read to me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can’t say he’s guilty.” That’s the distinction she’s trying to draw here: Killing is one thing. Murder or manslaughter is another.

3. She thinks the case should never have gone to trial. According to ABC News, when Roberts asked “whether the case should have gone to trial,” Maddy answered, "I don't think so. … I felt like this was a publicity stunt.”

4. The jury was not ethnically divided on Zimmerman’s culpability. Unlike Juror B37, who spoke to CNN, Maddy doesn’t say—at least not in the edited clips—that Zimmerman was a good man or that Martin shares the blame. But some white jurors seem to have shared Maddy’s feelings. “A lot of us had wanted to find something bad, something that we could connect to the law,” she says. “We felt he was guilty,” she adds in other comments quoted by ABC News. “But we had to grab our hearts and put it aside and look at the evidence."

5. Race wasn’t discussed, and she didn’t focus on it. Unlike Juror B37, Maddy knows what it’s like to be profiled. She says it has happened to her while shopping. But she withholds judgment as to the role of race in this case. Roberts asks: “How do you respond when you see people who are making this about race, who are saying, had Trayvon not been a young black man, that the conversation would be different?” Maddy tilts her head noncommittally and responds: “Is it true? That’s the question to be asked.” In another clip, Roberts says, “That was something that a lot of people from the outside thought must have been the discussion in the deliberations, about race, about color. But that wasn’t the case?” Maddy affirms, “It was not the case.” When the verdict was announced and she was released from sequestration, she was dismayed to discover the national outrage. “I didn’t know how much importance” was attached to the trial, she says, “because I never looked at color. And I still don’t look at color.”

The value of colorblindness is controversial. Some people believe that when you don’t talk about race in a case such as this one, you’re excluding racial bias. Others believe that you’re simply overlooking that bias. But Maddy’s comments indicate that sequestration worked. The jurors focused not on the meaning of the case to outsiders, but on the evidence and the law.

6. She was no pushover in the jury room. “I was the juror that was gonna give them the hung jury,” she says. “I fought to the end.” Roberts asks: “Did you feel a little, for lack of a better word, bullied in the deliberations?” ABC News seems to have cut the video here, so we don’t know what was taken out. But in the edited video, Maddy’s next words are, “I don’t know if I was bullied. I trust God that I wasn’t bullied.” Roberts asks, “Do you feel that your voice was heard?” Maddy assures her, “My voice was heard. I was the loudest.”

7. To the extent she feels racial or ethnic pressure, it’s against Zimmerman. In the Nightline video, Roberts notes that Maddy could have hung the jury. Roberts asks: “Do you have regrets that you didn’t?” Maddy pauses, tilts her head, and thinks about it. “Kind of. I mean I’m the only minority. And I feel like I let a lot of people down.” In the GMA version, Maddy’s reference to being the only minority has been seamlessly edited out. But this theme returns in other clips. “I couldn’t do anything about it. And I feel like I let a lot of people down,” she says. And again: “I feel like I let ’em down. We just couldn’t prove anything.” She feels the anger and the cosmic injustice. But they don’t change her legal judgment.

8. Acquittal is not personal—or national—exoneration. This is what she’s really trying to convey. “Maybe if they would put [out] the law, and a lot of people would read it, they would understand the choices that they gave us,” she says. The tragedy of the case, and the long-standing sense of racial injustice that surrounds it, shouldn’t and didn’t dictate the verdict.

But by the same token, the verdict doesn’t absolve the tragedy or the injustice. “I want Trayvon’s mom to know that I’m hurting,” says Maddy. “And if she thought that nobody cared about her son, I can speak for myself. I do care.” And it’s not just about the Martins. “There’s no way that any mother should feel that pain,” says Maddy. In another clip she adds, “My hope is that we stop walking around looking at color.” Martin’s mother, in a statement responding to Maddy’s interview, says the case “challenges our nation once again to do everything we can to make sure that this never happens to another child.” Amen.

William Saletan's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter:

[Wook]

[Wook]

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2013/07...l-the-end/

HELEN THOMAS: INTEGRITY TILL THE END

July 28, 2013 at 12:45 (Celebration of Life, Human Rights)

Helen had great integrity and believed the media was important to protect and preserve democracy. “Let the people know the facts and the country will be safe,” she would say, quoting Abraham Lincoln.

Helen Thomas: defender of democracy
Rosemarie M. Esber*


Woman writes on notepad as man sits on desk
Helen Thomas at a White House press conference with President Gerald Ford, 1976.

(Marion S. Trikosko / Library of Congress)

Helen Thomas’ life was a relentless search for the truth, without fear or favor. It was her calling, profession and duty.

She loved being a journalist, and she strived daily to deliver accurate news to the American people. “If your mother says she loves you,” she was fond of saying, “get a second opinion.”

Helen burned with outrage at injustice. As the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, she was at the receiving end of racism and discrimination growing up in Detroit.

The memory of slurs hurled at her as a child still stung. She decried the racism and segregation she found in Washington, DC in the 1940s, arriving as a young ambitious reporter.

But she was gratified to eventually witness the civil rights transformation, covering Martin Luther King Jr’s march on Washington, and thrilling to Marion Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial.

She pushed fearlessly into the male-dominated press corps, enlisting Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson to help advance women in journalism and government. Unpretentious, Helen encouraged young journalists and supported their careers, remaining approachable with a common touch.

She admired the first ladies as women of character and thought they all served the country well — sometimes better than their husbands.

“Unnecessary war”

Helen questioned ten presidents during her career. They didn’t like it. She didn’t care. When she was moved to the back of the White House pressroom and her questions ignored, she remained tenacious in seeking the truth. She minced no words.

Operation Iraqi Freedom, she wrote in her book Watchdogs of Democracy, was “an unnecessary war that has cost thousands of lives of innocent civilians, American and foreign military, and journalists,” noting that the alleged “weapons of mass destruction were never discovered.”

On television, challenging the president of the United States — the most powerful man in the world — Helen seemed ten feet tall to me. In reality, she was petite. “How tall are you, Helen?” I asked one day. “Five foot three — and a half,” she exclaimed.

“How then did you learn to ask such big questions?” I queried. “I ask big,” she replied, “for the American people.”

Integrity

Helen had great integrity and believed the media was important to protect and preserve democracy. “Let the people know the facts and the country will be safe,” she would say, quoting Abraham Lincoln.

She found the current media’s lack of fight against “the manipulation of government officials who play the fear card” astounding. She lamented that so many “reporters became stenographers instead of interrogators.” Passionately anti-injustice, Helen believed she had to speak for those who had no voice.

For Helen, that meant speaking out about the Middle East conflict. Ironically for someone who had defended the freedom of the press all her life, furor over her poorly worded comments forced her to retire.

In time, however, her critics will find that Helen correctly evaluated the injustice of the conflict, and not because she was biased, but because she was an excellent journalist and had verified the facts.

She knew that Israeli forces expelled the overwhelming majority of the indigenous Palestinians from their homeland during the Nakba — catastrophe — of 1948, and later the 1967 war. She remained outraged at Israel’s ongoing oppression of the Palestinians.

As the dean of the White House press corps, “Thank you, Mr. President,” was Helen’s signature close to presidential press conferences for so many years. America has lost a national treasure, a vigilant watchdog of democracy, a truth seeker, and a proud patriot. Thank you, Ms. Helen Thomas.

You will be well remembered by your profession, by this nation, and throughout the world for your courageous stand for truth and justice. You have fought the good fight, and you have finished the race.

*Rosemarie M. Esber is co-producing a documentary of Helen Thomas’ life.





Editorial AT

[Wook]

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/ro...vote=00195

Rand Paul
Earlier today, the Senate voted to table my amendment and thus voted to continue to illegally aid Egypt. This vote shows how out of touch Congress is.

Click here to see how your Senator voted:

[Wook]

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/31/nsa-pro...d=webmail1

Further leaks have revealed an NSA project called X-Keyscore that, with a few keystrokes, can give a data analyst access to nearly everything a user does on the Internet – from chat sessions to email to browsing habits.

The system requires an email because many behaviors online are completely anonymous and it is only via some sort of identifier – a username and domain – that the system can scour the database of collected Internet traffic and metadata.

As Snowden said to the Guardian on June 10, “I, sitting at my desk could wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email.” X-Keyscore is how it is done.

[Wook]

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/07/snow...i-and.html

Sunday, July 28, 2013Snowden's Dad SCHOOLS Obama, Pelosi, and Holder in Open Letter

Dees Illustration
Activist Post
Re: Civil Disobedience, Edward J. Snowden, and the Constitution

Dear Mr. President:

You are acutely aware that the history of liberty is a history of civil disobedience to unjust laws or practices. As Edmund Burke sermonized, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Civil disobedience is not the first, but the last option. Henry David Thoreau wrote with profound restraint in Civil Disobedience: “If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.”

Thoreau’s moral philosophy found expression during the Nuremburg trials in which “following orders” was rejected as a defense. Indeed, military law requires disobedience to clearly illegal orders.

A dark chapter in America’s World War II history would not have been written if the then United States Attorney General had resigned rather than participate in racist concentration camps imprisoning 120,000 Japanese American citizens and resident aliens.

Civil disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act and Jim Crow laws provoked the end of slavery and the modern civil rights revolution.



We submit that Edward J. Snowden’s disclosures of dragnet surveillance of Americans under § 215 of the Patriot Act, § 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments, or otherwise were sanctioned by Thoreau’s time-honored moral philosophy and justifications for civil disobedience. Since 2005, Mr. Snowden had been employed by the intelligence community. He found himself complicit in secret, indiscriminate spying on millions of innocent citizens contrary to the spirit if not the letter of the First and Fourth Amendments and the transparency indispensable to self-government. Members of Congress entrusted with oversight remained silent or Delphic. Mr. Snowden confronted a choice between civic duty and passivity. He may have recalled the injunction of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.” Mr. Snowden chose duty. Your administration vindictively responded with a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Espionage Act.

From the commencement of your administration, your secrecy of the National Security Agency’s Orwellian surveillance programs had frustrated a national conversation over their legality, necessity, or morality. That secrecy (combined with congressional nonfeasance) provoked Edward’s disclosures, which sparked a national conversation which you have belatedly and cynically embraced. Legislation has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and Senate to curtail or terminate the NSA’s programs, and the American people are being educated to the public policy choices at hand. A commanding majority now voice concerns over the dragnet surveillance of Americans that Edward exposed and you concealed. It seems mystifying to us that you are prosecuting Edward for accomplishing what you have said urgently needed to be done!

The right to be left alone from government snooping–the most cherished right among civilized people—is the cornerstone of liberty. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson served as Chief Prosecutor at Nuremburg. He came to learn of the dynamics of the Third Reich that crushed a free society, and which have lessons for the United States today.

Writing in Brinegar v. United States, Justice Jackson elaborated:

The Fourth Amendment states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
These, I protest, are not mere second-class rights but belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. And one need only briefly to have dwelt and worked among a people possessed of many admirable qualities but deprived of these rights to know that the human personality deteriorates and dignity and self-reliance disappear where homes, persons and possessions are subject at any hour to unheralded search and seizure by the police.

We thus find your administration’s zeal to punish Mr. Snowden’s discharge of civic duty to protect democratic processes and to safeguard liberty to be unconscionable and indefensible.

We are also appalled at your administration’s scorn for due process, the rule of law, fairness, and the presumption of innocence as regards Edward.

On June 27, 2013, Mr. Fein wrote a letter to the Attorney General stating that Edward’s father was substantially convinced that he would return to the United States to confront the charges that have been lodged against him if three cornerstones of due process were guaranteed. The letter was not an ultimatum, but an invitation to discuss fair trial imperatives. The Attorney General has sneered at the overture with studied silence.

We thus suspect your administration wishes to avoid a trial because of constitutional doubts about application of the Espionage Act in these circumstances, and obligations to disclose to the public potentially embarrassing classified information under the Classified Information Procedures Act.

Your decision to force down a civilian airliner carrying Bolivian President Eva Morales in hopes of kidnapping Edward also does not inspire confidence that you are committed to providing him a fair trial. Neither does your refusal to remind the American people and prominent Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate like House Speaker John Boehner, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann,and Senator Dianne Feinstein that Edward enjoys a presumption of innocence. He should not be convicted before trial. Yet Speaker Boehner has denounced Edward as a “traitor.”

Ms. Pelosi has pontificated that Edward “did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents.” Ms. Bachmann has pronounced that, “This was not the act of a patriot; this was an act of a traitor.” And Ms. Feinstein has decreed that Edward was guilty of “treason,” which is defined in Article III of the Constitution as “levying war” against the United States, “or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

You have let those quadruple affronts to due process pass unrebuked, while you have disparaged Edward as a “hacker” to cast aspersion on his motivations and talents. Have you forgotten the Supreme Court’s gospel in Berger v. United States that the interests of the government “in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done?”

We also find reprehensible your administration’s Espionage Act prosecution of Edward for disclosures indistinguishable from those which routinely find their way into the public domain via your high level appointees for partisan political advantage. Classified details of your predator drone protocols, for instance, were shared with the New York Times with impunity to bolster your national security credentials. Justice Jackson observed in Railway Express Agency, Inc. v. New York: “The framers of the Constitution knew, and we should not forget today, that there is no more effective practical guaranty against arbitrary and unreasonable government than to require that the principles of law which officials would impose upon a minority must be imposed generally.”

In light of the circumstances amplified above, we urge you to order the Attorney General to move to dismiss the outstanding criminal complaint against Edward, and to support legislation to remedy the NSA surveillance abuses he revealed. Such presidential directives would mark your finest constitutional and moral hour.

Sincerely,
Bruce Fein
Counsel for Lon Snowden
Lon Snowden

Bruce Fein & Associates, Inc.
722 12th Street, N.W., 4th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: 703-963-4968
bruce@thelichfieldgroup.com

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http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/...nts/65684/
Is Big Pharma Standing in the Way of Curing the New SARS?

Middle East Respiratory Symptom coronavirus (MERS-CoV), better known as the new SARS cousin that is efficiently killing people in Saudi Arabia, has been described by the World Health Organization as "a threat to the entire world." Like most deadly diseases — and there seem to be a lot going around these days — finding a cure won't be easy. But there may be one majorly complex — and already controversial — pharmacological debate standing in the way of pressing life-saving treatments: A couple Dutch scientists have already patented part of the disease, and they're not the only ones looking to profit on it.

CNN reports that, to date, there have been 49 known infections of MERS-CoV (formerly known just as NCoV), and 27 have resulted in death — that's 55 percent — with infections reported in five new people in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, three of whom have already died. This virus knows how to kill, which it does by way of pneumonia and eventual kidney failure. "The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself. The novel coronavirus is a threat to the entire world," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said at an intentional meeting this week.

As with bird flu, SARS, ebola, AIDS, and all the other new infectious nightmares before it, MERS-CoV needs a cure. Which seems possible — with one very big hitch. As The Verge's Carl Franzen notes, a group of scientists at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands filed a patent for a sequence in the disease late last year patented a sequence in the disease, a patent that was filed late last year, when the novel coronavirus was still very novel. Now, as Bloomberg's Simeon Bennett reported, critics insist the patent could slow a quick fix, cut off the WHO's international coalition, and bring Big Pharma into the mix too fast. If that sounds like a bad sequel to Contagion or The Constant Gardener, remember that this is very real in Saudia Arabia, where health officials are speaking out against the patent process, as an out-of-country business operation in cahoots with "vaccine companies and antiviral drug companies" that "should not happen." To that, "the Dutch team contends a patent will spur investment from pharmaceutical companies into drugs and vaccines," Franzen reports. As we know, investment and and the pharmaceutical companies take time and money, neither of which the infected in Saudi Arabia have much time for right now.

Yes, then comes the bigger debate about the monetization of healthcare, and scientists who say they're using the free market to spur creation the cure. "If we don't patent it, no company will develop vaccines or diagnostic tests with it, because they won't be able to acquire clear ownership," Ab Osterhaus, one of the Dutch researchers, is quoted as saying over at The New Scientist. And it's sort of grim, though not really surprising, to think that a pharmaceutical company might only get involved if it was going to make money or obtain ownership. Just look at how much is spent on erectile dysfunction each year. And there are probably more people worldwide suffering from ED at the moment than from MERS-CoV. But if some Big Pharma player does get involved, it would stand to reason that the doctors at Erasmus would see a big payday.

As it stands, there is currently no vaccine or medicine to treat the coronavirus. A select team of doctors is testing the effectiveness of available drugs against the disease, while a majority of doctors — as Paul E. Sax, the Clinical Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital points out — wouldn't even know if a MERS-CoV patient was coughing in their face. Sax writes:


If someone walked into our emergency room tomorrow with fever, cough, and respiratory symptoms, would we know how to distinguish MERS-CoV from the hundreds (ok, thousands) of other causes of similar illnesses?

Initially, not a chance. The denominator of people with these complaints is just too gargantuan. It will probably take someone with a particularly severe respiratory illness, along with the appropriate exposure (“He just returned from a 10-day business trip to Riyadh”) for an astute clinician to make the connection.

Of course, Sax is speaking about doctors in the U.S., but his point about sharing knowledge and keeping all international parties informed isn't far off from what WHO officials and critics of the patent have stressed. "Making deals between scientists because they want to take out IP and be the first to publish in scientific journals, we cannot allow that. No intellectual property should stand in the way of you protecting your people," Chan said at the WHO meeting. The world's foremost public-health organization, as CNN notes, "is calling for the world to pull together its resources to study and tackle the virus." That presumably includes the guys with the patent in hand, paycheck or no.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at aabadsantos@theatlantic.com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

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and if?
you really wanted to secure the Border
bring 10,000 Marines Home to Patrol the Border
and Problem over.

[Wook]

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/08/amer...dited.html

Thursday, August 1, 2013America Discredited
Paul Craig Roberts
Activist Post

As Washington loses its grip on the world, defied by Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and now Russia, the US government resorts to public temper tantrums. The constant demonstration of childishness on the part of the White House and Congress embarrasses every American.

Washington’s latest outburst of childish behavior is a response to the Russian Immigration Service granting US whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum in Russia for one year while his request for permanent asylum is considered. Washington, having turned the US into a lawless state, no longer has any conception of legal procedure. Law is whatever serves Washington. As Washington sees it, law is nothing but Washington’s will. Any person or country that interferes with Washington’s will is behaving unlawfully.

Because Obama, like Bush before him, routinely disobeys US law and the US Constitution, the White House actually thinks that Russian President Putin should disobey Russian and international law, overturn the Russian Immigration Service’s asylum decision, and hand over Snowden to Washington.

Washington expected Russia to hand over Snowden simply because Washington demanded it. Like a two-year old, Washington cannot conceive that its demands don’t take precedence over international law and the internal legal procedures of every country. How dare Russia stand up for law against “the indispensable nation.”

The White House spokesman, who is so unimpressive that I cannot remember his/her
name/gender, declared that the White House moron might punish Putin by not going to visit him in Moscow next month. I doubt Putin cares whether the WH moron shows up.



The WH moron’s term of office is close to an end, but Putin, unless the CIA assassinates him, will be there for another decade. Moreover, every Russian leader has learned that a US president’s word means nothing. Clinton, the two Bushes and the current WH moron violated every agreement that Reagan made with Gorbachev. Why would the president of Russia, a nation ruled by law, want to meet with a tyrant?

Not to be outdone by the WH in childish behavior, members of the House and Senate added their two-bits to America’s embarrassment. Congressional morons “reacted furiously,” according to news reports, and warned “of serious repercussions in US-Russian relations.” Here we have another extraordinary demonstration of Washington’s hubris. Only Russia has to worry about repercussions in the relationship. Washington doesn’t have to worry. His Imperial Majesty will simply deny Putin an audience.

Congress seems unaware of its schizophrenia. On the one hand Congress is outraged about the National Stasi Agency’s illegal and unconstitutional spying – especially on Congress – and is attempting to defund the Stasi Agency’s surveillance program. The amendment to the military spending bill by Justin Amash, a Republican from Michigan, almost passed. The amendment was barely defeated by votes purchased by the spy industry.

On the other hand, despite its outrage over being spied upon, Congress wants the scalp of the brave hero, Edward Snowden, who informed them that they were being spied upon. Here we have a demonstration of the historical stupidity of government – shoot the messenger.

Only a few right-wing crazies believe that universal surveillance of every American is necessary to US security. The National Stasi Agency will fight hard and blackmail every member of the House and Senate, but the blackmail itself will lead to the National Stasi Agency’s wings being clipped, or so we can hope. If it is not done soon, the Stasi Agency will have time to organize a false flag event that will terrify the sheeple and bring an end to the attempts to rein in the rogue agency.

The United States is on the verge of economic collapse. The alleged “superpower,” a bankrupt entity, was unable after 8 years of efforts to occupy Iraq and had to give up. After 11 years the “superpower” has been defeated in Afghanistan by a few thousand lightly armed Taliban, and is now running for cover with its tail between its legs.

Washington compensates for its military impotency by committing war crimes against civilians. The US military is a great killer of women, children, village elders, and aid workers. All the mighty “superpower” can do is to lob missiles shot from pilotless drones into farm houses, mud huts, schools, and medical centers.

The schizophrenic denizens of Washington have made Americans a hated people. Those with the foresight to know to escape from the growing tyranny also know that wherever they might seek refuge, they will be seen as vermin from the most hated nation and subjected to being scapegoated as spies and evil influences, and at risk of being decimated in reprisals against Washington’s latest atrocity.

Washington has destroyed the prospects of Americans both at home and abroad.



This article first appeared at Paul Craig Roberts' new website Institute For Political Economy.  Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His Internet columns have attracted a worldwide following

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[ArniK]

I'm usually an Obama supporter, but this Snowden thing is something else.  We got embarrassed.  So kill the messenger.  At least that seems to be the message we are putting out and the rest of the world laughs at us while they figure out how to keep us out of their business.  This is not the America of my ideals.  TSA and all the additional crap from 9/11 has just been designed to take away our rights and privacy.  Kerry admitted building 7 was rigged to be demolished.  Well if no one working there new that, how did it happen?  If they were planning to blow up my building, I'd hope they would tell be before the explosives were in place.  I wander off topic.

What recourse do we have?  I don't want everything I do recorded in one data base.  I work hard not to be in data bases.  That must look bad, so they look at me harder.  How are some of you feeling?  I feel like I'm a fart in a hurricane by complaining.  They ignore and just continue on.  I'm waiting for the police stop when the cop says, "oh, you voted for X, sorry, your back taillight is out, smash, oh, you lifted your hand, you threatened me," BANG  "We need an ambulance.  An officer was attacked and had to defend himself."

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...acked.html
CIA 'running arms smuggling team in Benghazi when consulate was attacked'
The CIA has been subjecting operatives to monthly polygraph tests in an attempt to suppress details of a US arms smuggling operation in Benghazi that was ongoing when its ambassador was killed by a mob in the city last year, according to reports.

Up to 35 CIA operatives were working in the city during the attack last September on the US consulate that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, according to CNN.

The circumstances of the attack are a subject of deep division in the US with some Congressional leaders pressing for a wide-ranging investigation into suspicions that the government has withheld details of its activities in the Libyan city.

The television network said that a CIA team was working in an annex near the consulate on a project to supply missiles from Libyan armouries to Syrian rebels.

Sources said that more Americans were hurt in the assault spearheaded by suspected Islamic radicals than had been previously reported. CIA chiefs were actively working to ensure the real nature of its operations in the city did not get out.

So only the losses suffered by the State Department in the city had been reported to Congress.

[Wook]

Company with ties to Terry McAuliffe is under SEC investigation

An electric-car company co-founded by Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over its conduct in soliciting foreign investors, according to law-enforcement documents and company officials.

The SEC subpoenaed documents in May from GreenTech Automotive and bank records from a sister company, Gulf Coast Funds Management of McLean. The investigation is focused, at least in part, on alleged claims that the company “guarantees returns” to the investors, according to government documents.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/c...clpolitics

SEC investigating company co-founded by Terry McAuliffe

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the green car company founded by Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe over concerns that it allegedly guaranteed returns for its investors.

The SEC has subpoenaed the bank records of GreenTech’s funding arm, the McLean-based financing company Gulf Coast Funds Management, LLC.

Documents attached to a July 31 letter from Sen. Charles E. Grassley also raise more questions on the extent of the interaction between officials at the two companies and Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013...y-mcaulif/

http://investmentwatchblog.com/sec-inves...red-flags/

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/01-4
Bureau Investigation Finds Fresh Evidence of CIA Drone Strikes on Rescuers
If proved, US targeting of rescuers who respond to scene of earlier explosions are clearly "war crimes"
by Chris Woods with additional reporting by Mushtaq Yusufzai

A field investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in Pakistan’s tribal areas appears to confirm that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) last year briefly revived the controversial tactic of deliberately targeting rescuers at the scene of a previous drone strike. The tactic has previously been labelled a possible war crime by two UN investigators.

The Bureau’s new study focused mainly on strikes around a single village in North Waziristan – attacks that were aimed at one of al Qaeda’s few remaining senior figures, Yahya al-Libi. He was finally killed by a CIA drone strike on June 4 2012.

The Bureau’s field researcher found five double-tap strikes took place in mid-2012, one of which also struck a mosque

Congressional aides have previously been reported as describing to the Los Angeles Times reviewing a CIA video showing Yahya al-Libi alone being killed. But the Bureau’s field research appears to confirm what others reported at the time – that al-Libi’s death was part of a sequence of strikes on the same location that killed up to 16 people.

If correct, that would indicate that Congressional aides were not shown crucial additional video material.

The CIA has robustly rejected the charge. Spokesman Edward Price told the Bureau: ‘The CIA takes its commitment to Congressional oversight with the utmost seriousness. The Agency provides accurate and timely information consistent with our obligation to the oversight Committees. Any accusation alleging otherwise is baseless.’