Monthly Archives: August 2013
Snowden releases US intelligence budget, Post withholds info
The top secret budget request for the current fiscal year was obtained by The Washington Post from the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden and published in part on its Web site on Thursday. The newspaper said it was withholding most of the 178-page document at the request of government officials because “sensitive […]
Cameron hears the people, Brits vote “no” on war with Syria
The stunning parliamentary defeat on Thursday for Prime Minister David Cameron that led him to rule out British military participation in any strike on Syria reflected British fears of rushing to act against Damascus without certain evidence. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/world/middleeast/syria.html?pagewanted=2&hp British legislators rejected a motion urging an international response to the chemical weapons attack by […]
UN tries to forestall US aggression in Syria
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, cut short a European trip and rushed home on Thursday to prepare for a weekend briefing by his team of chemical weapons inspectors on the ground in Syria. He implored President Obama to refrain from a threatened military strike and to allow the procedures enshrined in […]
End to marijuana prohibition a historic day in Drug War
The Justice Department on Thursday said it would not sue to block laws legalizing marijuana in 20 states and the District of Columbia, a move that proponents hailed as an important step toward ending the prohibition of the drug. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/us/politics/us-says-it-wont-sue-to-undo-state-marijuana-laws.html?ref=us Marijuana advocates praised the decision as a potentially historic shift in the federal government’s attitude […]
Agribiz food at risk for Cyclospora cayetanensis contamination
Taylor Farms, the large vegetable producer whose salad mix has been linked to hundreds of sickened people in 22 states, has had an unusual number of voluntary recalls for potentially tainted products in the last three years.The recent recall of greens used at Olive Garden, Red Lobster and possibly other restaurant chains is Taylor Farm’s […]
Congress begs for consultation before war begins in Syria
“We strongly urge you to consult and receive authorization from Congress before ordering the use of U.S. military force in Syria,” read a letter, signed by 98 Republicans and 18 Democrats in the House. “Engaging our military in Syria when no direct threat to the United States exists and without prior Congressional authorization would violate […]
US Justice Department rules against reporter in CIA case
The Justice Department on Monday asked a full federal appeals court not to hear arguments from lawyers for a New York Times reporter, James Risen, whom prosecutors have subpoenaed to testify in a criminal leak case against a former C.I.A. officer, Jeffrey Sterling. A three-judge panel of the appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled in […]
China asks for evidence in West pretext for war with Syria
China, clinging to a longstanding policy of noninterference, said on Wednesday that it opposed military action against Syria and insisted that the truth about the chemical weapons attack against civilians last week remained unclear. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/world/asia/culprit-in-syrian-chemical-attack-is-unclear-china-insists.html?ref=world As momentum built for Western military strikes against Syria, China was unmoved by the conclusions of Western governments that […]
Americans draw parallel to Iraq WMD lie in Syria
A grim-faced secretary of state reading a bill of charges against a rogue Arab leader. The White House promising intelligence that will provide proof about weapons of mass destruction. Frenetic efforts to piece together a coalition of the willing. Breathless news reports about imminent bombing raids. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/world/middleeast/on-syria-a-drumbeat-with-some-echoes-of-iraq.html?ref=world The days since the deadly chemical weapons […]
Brits, Iran call for evidence in Syrian attack as war looms
In London, government enthusiasm for a rapid retaliatory strike against Syrian government targets seemed to evaporate late Wednesday when British leaders, facing dissent among lawmakers, signaled that they would await the inspectors’ findings. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government, aware of the sensitivities created by the Iraq war, said unexpectedly that a separate vote would be […]
Middle East questions validity of US pretext for war
Why would Syria’s Bashar Hafez al-Assad launch a deadly chemical attack on a scale not yet seen in his country’s civil war — as American and allied officials assert his loyalists did last week — when he seemed to be holding his own in the stalemated conflict, and just as international weapons inspectors arrived in the […]
Facebook gives over 21,000 users data to the US government
Governments around the world requested information on about 38,000 Facebook users in the first six months of 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23852230 Facebook’s Global Government Requests Report, released on Tuesday for the first time, offered details on official requests from 74 countries. The US made by far the most requests, asking for information on between 20,000 and 21,000 […]
US and West looking for World War 3 in Syria
Iranian lawmakers and commanders issued stark warnings to the United States and its allies on Tuesday, saying any military strike on Syria would lead to a retaliatory attack on Israel fanned by “the flames of outrage.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/world/middleeast/strike-on-syria-would-cause-one-on-israel-iran-declares.html?ref=todayspaper The warnings came against a backdrop of rising momentum among Western governments for a military intervention in the […]
Julian Assange exposes Google collaboration with NSA et al
It has been revealed today, thanks to Edward Snowden, that Google and other US tech companies received millions of dollars from the NSA for their compliance with the PRISM mass surveillance system. http://cryptome.org/2013/08/assange-google-nsa.htm So just how close is Google to the US securitocracy? Back in 2011 I had a meeting with Eric Schmidt, the […]
American Civil Liberties Union lives up to their creed
In a detailed legal attack on the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ phone call data, the American Civil Liberties Union argued in court papers filed Monday that the sweeping data gathering violates the Constitution and should be halted. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/us/nsa-phone-data-collection-is-illegal-aclu-says.html?ref=us The A.C.L.U. cited the writings of George Orwell and the comprehensive East German surveillance portrayed […]
Egypt turns police state focus from Muslim Brotherhood
The Egyptian authorities have begun cracking down on other dissenters, sometimes labeling even liberal activists or labor organizers as dangerous Islamists. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/world/middleeast/egypt-widens-crackdown-and-meaning-of-islamist.html?pagewanted=1&ref=middleeast Ten days ago, the police arrested two left-leaning Canadians — one of them a filmmaker specializing in highly un-Islamic movies about sexual politics — and implausibly announced that they were members of […]
Tens of thousands protest corruption in Philippines
Tens of thousands of Filipinos protested in Manila on Monday, outraged over accusations that an estimated $141 million in public money had been diverted into the coffers of politicians and their associates. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/world/asia/filipinos-stage-anticorruption-protest-in-manila.html?ref=world The peaceful four-hour rally was fueled in part by photographs posted on social media sites by the daughter of one of the […]
Spanish police arrest JPMorgan bankster
Spanish police say they have arrested a former JPMorgan Chase trader wanted for allegedly falsifying bank records to cover up $6 billion in trading losses. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/business/former-jpmorgan-employee-arrested-in-spain.html?hp&_r=0 A statement said that Javier Martin-Artajo, 49, was arrested Tuesday after he presented himself at a police station in Madrid. U.S. prosecutors earlier this month filed criminal charges against […]
Egyptian people: US, islamists allied in Divide and Conquer
When the conversation in Egypt turns to politics, the predominant topic is the conspiracy between the United States and the Muslim Brotherhood to destroy Egypt. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/world/middleeast/as-egyptians-ignore-curfew-talk-of-a-us-brotherhood-conspiracy.html?ref=world The idea is widespread among supporters of the military, which ousted the Muslim Brotherhood’s elected president, Mohamed Morsi, last month. For journalists who ventured out Saturday night in violation […]
Dirty Babylon 