Tag Archives: imperialism
US limits airspace for Maduro’s trip to UN
In a speech in the capital Caracas, Nicholas Maduro also accused the US of refusing to issue a visa to a top official in order to attend a UN meeting next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24173124 US officials have not confirmed or commented on the claims. Venezuela’s relations with the US have been often been strained, both under […]
FISA court says NSA justified and blames tech companies
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday offered its most extensive public explanation for why it has allowed the government to keep records of all Americans’ phone calls, releasing a previously classified opinion in which it said the program was constitutional and did not violate Americans’ privacy rights. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/opinion-by-secret-court-calls-collection-of-phone-data-legal.html?hp In a 29-page opinion that quoted […]
Russia to tie chemical attack to Syrian rebels at UN
Russia will give the Security Council evidence implicating Syrian rebels in a chemical attack on 21 August, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24140475 Syrian officials supplied the evidence. A UN report released on Monday concluded the nerve agent sarin was used in the attack in Damascus, which the US blames on the Syrian […]
Brazil looks to separate from NSA spy grid
Brazil is considering ways to make local use of the internet less dependent on US-based services, following leaks about Washington’s cyberspy operations. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24145662 The South American nation has suggested forcing internet firms to open data centres in Brazil, which would be used to store locally generated material. It is also pursuing a plan to build […]
Mysterious circumstances surround Navy Yard shooting
Aaron Alexis, 34, is the alleged lone shooter in the Washington navy yard shooting which happened just after 8am on Monday as many of the 3,000 employees were arriving for work on the base. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/17/washington-naval-yard-shooting-suspect-arrested-guns However, The Washington Post, citing police sources, reported that three shooters, including one in military fatigues, were involved. The attackers […]
UN chemical report inconclusive in assigning blame
A United Nations report’s authors did not assign blame for the attack on the outskirts of Damascus, the details it documented included the large size and particular shape of the munitions and the precise direction from which two of them had been fired. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/world/europe/syria-united-nations.html?hpw The main point of the report was to establish whether chemical […]
JPMorgan Banksters admit “groundbreaking” wrongdoing
JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay about $800 million to a host of government agencies in Washington and London — and make a groundbreaking admission of wrongdoing — to settle allegations stemming from a multibillion-dollar trading loss. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/jpmorgan-set-to-pay-fines-for-whale-trading-losses/?emc=eta1 The settlements, expected this week, will help the nation’s biggest bank move beyond last year’s $6 billion […]
Saudi Arabia supports Al Qaeda in Syrian destabilization
Saudi Arabia, cooperating with American and British intelligence and other Arab governments, has increased deliveries of weapons to rebels fighting in southern Syria. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/world/middleeast/syrian-rebels-say-saudi-arabia-is-stepping-up-weapons-deliveries.html?ref=world Leaders in Saudi Arabia and allies like Qatar chafed as rebel leaders fumed that their larger need — a way to shift the balance in the two-year-old civil war and […]
American undercover operative killed by fellow jihadists
An american jihadist, Omar Hammami, known for his rap-infused propaganda videos for the Shabab, a brutal Islamist group in Somalia, was reported killed in an ambush on Thursday morning. If true, his death would bring to a close one of the more unusual chapters in more than two decades of american involvement in the Horn […]
Erdogan shows true globalist colors as US Syria strike fades
On Thursday, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strong advocate for military intervention in the Syrian war, reacted angrily to the United States’ decision to delay a military strike there — a decision analysts said had left Mr. Erdogan more politically vulnerable at home. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/world/middleeast/for-turkeys-leader-syrias-war-worsens-his-problems-at-home.html?ref=world In a speech to a trade group, […]
Putin tries to warn americans of war pretext pitfalls
The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?pagewanted=all A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could […]
Court rules Google breaks law with Wi-Fi snooping
A US judge has ruled that Google did break the law when it scooped up unsecured wi-fi data while collecting images for Streetview. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24047235 Google had hoped to have the case dismissed, arguing that its “mistaken collection” of the data did not break wire-tapping laws. Privacy experts called it a “landmark decision for internet […]
Elite benefit as economy stagnates for most
The top 10 percent of earners took more than half of the country’s total income in 2012, the highest level recorded since the government began collecting the relevant data a century ago. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/the-rich-get-richer-through-the-recovery/?_r=0 The top 1 percent took more than one-fifth of the income earned by Americans, one of the highest levels on record since […]
US uses border security measures to illegally seize material
Newly released documents reveal how the government uses border crossings to seize and examine travelers’ electronic devices instead of obtaining a search warrant to gain access to the data. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/business/the-border-is-a-back-door-for-us-device-searches.html?ref=world The documents detail what until now has been a largely secretive process that enables the government to create a travel alert for a person, who […]
NSA and GCHQ conspire in spying against their citizens
The US National Security Agency (NSA) is reported have cracked the security codes which protect data on iPhones, Blackberries and Android devices. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24009342 German news weekly Der Spiegel says documents suggest the NSA and the British GCHQ made joint efforts to gather intelligence. Teams looked at each phone to crack its privacy codes, Der Spiegel […]
Study shows most americans against war with Syria
A broad majority of Americans, exhausted by nearly a dozen years of war and fearful of tripping into another one, are opposed to a military strike on Syria. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/world/middleeast/poll-majority-of-americans-oppose-military-strike.html?ref=world Those findings illustrate the depth of the challenge facing President Obama as he tries to win support for a limited strike from a deeply reluctant […]
Assad warns US aggression will lead to larger conflict
Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned there will be “repercussions” against any U. S. military strike launched in response to a chemical weapons attack in his country. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/09/09/us/politics/ap-us-syria-assad-interview.html?hp&_r=0 “You should expect everything,” Assad said in an interview with CBS taped in Damascus. “Not necessarily from the government. It’s not only the government … in this […]
NSA and Big Oil spy on national oil company of Brazil
The National Security Agency spied on Petrobras, Brazil’s giant national oil company, according to a report here on Sunday night by the Globo television network, in the latest revelation of the agency’s surveillance methods that have raised tension between Brazil and the United States. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/world/americas/nsa-spied-on-brazilian-oil-company-report-says.html?ref=world The company is controlled by Brazil’s government and ranks among […]
US drone strike kills civilians in Afghanistan
Underscoring the continued threat to civilians in Afghanistan, a drone strike in an eastern province killed up to 16 people, Afghan officials said Sunday. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/world/asia/two-deadly-attacks-in-afghanistan.html?ref=world&_r=0 The drone strike occurred Saturday afternoon in the Watapur district of Kunar Province. Afghan officials said the drone was targeting four insurgents who were picked up along the road by […]
Within the decade smart cars will fill driverless roads
Germany’s Daimler AG plans to start selling a self-driving car by 2020 as part of its campaign to regain the top spot among premium carmakers. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/09/08/business/08reuters-autoshow-frankfurt-daimler.html?hp&_r=0 “We want to be the first to launch autonomous functions in production vehicles. You can be sure: we will accomplish that in this decade,” Daimler head of development Thomas […]
Dirty Babylon 