MatrixLeaks

Usa and 6th generation fighter jets

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 18:07:00 +0000

How an Artificial Intelligence ‘Co Pilot’ Will Boost America’s Upcoming Sixth Generation Fighter

The U.S. reportedly conduced the first flight of its sixth generation combat aircraft near the end of 2020, which is widely speculated to be an advanced technology demonstrator, the first aircraft of the new generation are expected to enter service near the end of the decade.

These will provide the Air Force with a successor to the F-15 Eagle and F-22 Raptor of the fourth and fifth generations, and is a priority program for the Pentagon with widespread speculation that China could be first to field a sixth generation fighter. Several sixth generation jets are currently under development - including two and possibly three in the United States itself, the MiG-41 hypersonic interceptor in Russia and the Tempest in Britain among several others.

Unlike the previous generation, the aircraft will placed a lower emphasis on stealth capabilities as countermeasures against these continue to grow, and is instead expected to place a greater emphasis on electronic warfare. Among the new technologies the aircraft is expected to benefit from are hypersonic air to surface missiles, laser weapons, APAA guided air to air missiles and artificial intelligence (AI). The possible applications of AI on the fighter have been cause for considerable speculation among analysts, with some details having already been revealed.

U.S. Navy Sixth Generation Fighters - concept art

While limited applications of artificial intelligence can already be seen on some fighters, with the new Russian MiG-35 using a basic AI pilot assistant from 2019, the new U.S. Air Force fighter will have an AI co-pilot capable enough to take over flying and fighting in the plane to prevent the human pilot from being overwhelmed.

It its expected that, much like the Tempest, Japan's F-3 and future variants of the Russian Su-57, that AI will be advanced enough to allow the sixth generation fighter to be flown in both manned and unmanned modes. Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Will Roper, compared the “AI-assisted copilot” to the fictional fighter assistant R2D2 from the Star Wars franchise, which was capable fo taking over piloting, performing limited repairs and informing the human pilot of upcoming threats.

This kind of human-AI partnership which takes advantage of the strengths of both may well be what the Air Force is seeking to replicate. Even relatively basic AI ‘pilots’ can assist in communications, monitoring for threats, navigation and network security, allowing them to effectively advise human pilots. They notably have the advantage of being able to download thousands of hours of fighting ‘experience,’ which is potentially very useful if they are themselves forced to take over flying and weapons for combat, and the fact that they do not require life support systems or much space potentially makes them highly attractive.

Bill Gates and his relationship with Big Farma

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Mon, 11 May 2020 19:48:00 +0000

Bill Gates' Obsession With Vaccines

On Tuesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, took to social media and shared a lengthy message about billionaire Bill Gates and his "obsession with vaccines":

"Vaccines, for Bill Gates, are a strategic philanthropy that feed his many vaccine-related businesses (including Microsoft's ambition to control a global vac ID enterprise) and give him dictatorial control over global health policy — the spear tip of corporate neo-imperialism.

"Gates' obsession with vaccines seems fueled by a messianic conviction that he is ordained to save the world with technology and a god-like willingness to experiment with the lives of lesser humans.

Bill Gates is fond of using his bully pulpit to talk about “miracles” and “magic.” Gates has featured one or both words in nearly all of his annual wrap-up letters for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017), most often in reference to the Gates Foundation’s outsized financial and ideological support for global vaccine programs. As Gates says, “In the same way that during my Microsoft career I talked about the magic of software, I now spend my time talking about the magic of vaccines.”

Gates’s words give us an immediate clue that he is engaging in his own brand of magical thinking—which social scientists define as “illogical causal reasoning.” How else to explain his simplistic endorsement of vaccines as a miraculous intervention with unmitigated benefits and no down side? The Gates Foundation’s global spreadsheet appears to have no room to tally the massive flood of vaccine injuries afflicting children worldwide, despite abundant evidence that this damage is standing the vaccine risk-benefit calculus on its head and turning childhood into an extended round of Russian roulette.

Is it a clash of giants Kennedy against Gates or is it a question of fighting good against evil?

Let’s Report History Accurately

In a widely cited 2014 blog post on the “miracle of vaccines,” Gates expressed enthusiasm about the “inspiring” data on vaccines and the “fantastic” and “phenomenal” progress being made to expand vaccine coverage. There is one major problem with Gates’ professed reliance on “data,” which is that the philanthropist ignores fundamental historical facts governing infectious disease and vaccine timelines.

There is one major problem with Gates’ professed reliance on “data,” which is that the philanthropist ignores fundamental historical facts governing infectious disease and vaccine timelines.

Vital statistics data reveal that in the U.S. and elsewhere, fatalities from diseases such as scarlet fever - in the absence of any vaccine - had become quite rare by the mid-20th century. Mortality from infectious diseases such as measles and whooping cough (pertussis) also had declined rapidly, well before the introduction of the corresponding vaccines . A meticulous review of U.S. mortality data from 1900–1973 concluded:

“Medical measures [such as vaccines] contributed little to the overall decline in mortality in the United States since about 1900—having in many instances been introduced several decades after a marked decline had already set in.”

The same researchers, in another article, chastised the medical establishment for its misplaced confidence in “magic bullets” (there is that word “magic” again!). Instead, if the decline in infectious disease incidence and mortality in the last century represented any kind of “miracle,” the phenomenon was, by all honest accounts, attributable to classic and long-term public health measures such as better sanitation and, especially, improved nutrition. A study of 20th-century mortality trends in Italy found a significant association between increased caloric intake and declining mortality, reflecting “progress in average nutritional status, lifestyle quality, socioeconomic level and hygienic conditions.” Moreover, mortality dropped most sharply in Italy’s youngest age groups - who were “probably the most sensible to the changes in nutrition and wellness.” Even early 20th-century epidemiologists who were inclined to give some credit to vaccines recognized that other factors were at play, including changes in “human resistance and bacterial quality” as well as factors yet to be determined.

Source: http://drsuzanne.net/dr-suzanne-humphries-vaccines-vaccination/

Oh Miracle, Where Art Thou?

Even if one leaves 20th-century vital statistics behind, there is a glaring piece of evidence that gives the lie to Bill Gates’ disingenuous assertions about vaccine miracles: vaccines are not actually making or keeping children healthy. Instead, in the U.S. (where children are the most highly vaccinated in the world), over half of all young people have a chronic illness - a trend that coincides with the expansion of the nation’s vaccine schedule. Similar patterns of chronic illness are emerging worldwide, including for potentially life-threatening conditions such as food allergies and asthma.

…there is a glaring piece of evidence that gives the lie to Bill Gates’ disingenuous assertions about vaccine miracles: vaccines are not actually making or keeping children healthy.

The World Mercury Project’s Campaign to Restore Child Health has been documenting parents’ first-hand accounts of serious adverse outcomes experienced by their children following vaccination. These testimonials, which represent the tip of the iceberg, cover a panoply of disorders that were rare or even unheard of a few decades ago:

~ Thirteen percent of U.S. children are in special education.

~ One in six American children has a developmental disorder such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

~ Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects nearly 11% of American children.

~ One in 20 children under the age of five has epilepsy.

~ Peanut allergies are the most common cause of food-related death.

~ Women who receive flu and Tdap vaccines during pregnancy are at greater risk of miscarriages and other problems.

~ Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal or other infections (PANDAS or PANS) may affect as many as 1 in 200 children in the U.S., including up to 25% of children diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and tic disorders.

~ Sensory processing disorder (SPD) often co-occurs with ADHD and ASD.

~ In the U.S., the infant mortality rate, including from sudden infant death syndrome(SIDS), is double the rate in many other high-income countries. In Africa, a comparative study in Guinea-Bissau found that infant mortality was at least twice as high (10%-11%) in children who received the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) and polio vaccines as in children who did not receive the vaccines (4%-5%).
…large foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation exert influence not just through their “enormous resources” but also “by shaping development concepts and policies.”

Cui Bono?

A recent German report on global philanthropy observes that modern philanthropy has its roots, first and foremost, in business tycoons’ self-interested desire to shield income from taxation while “garner[ing] prestige and influence in the U.S. and world affairs.” The report’s authors note that large foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation exert influence not just through their “enormous resources” but also “by shaping development concepts and policies.” The Gates Foundation—established in 2000 with an initial endowment of $42.9 billion and amplified by an additional $30 billion from Warren Buffet in 2006 - has become the world’s leading global health player as well as the largest non-state funder of the World Health Organization (WHO). As a result of the Gates Foundation’s “tremendous agenda-setting power,” the global health community designated 2010–2020 as the Decade of Vaccines; developed a Global Vaccine Action Plan; and created the public-private Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance), which receives almost one-fourth of its funding from the Gates Foundation.

While Gates has rhapsodized that vaccines are a fantastic investment, the vaccine industry, in fact, is a primary beneficiary of Gates Foundation largesse. According to the German analysts, for example, the Gates Foundation’s support of the GAVI Alliance has incentivized manufacturers to increase production of specific vaccines. These incentives have resulted in payments of over $1 billion to Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Some reporters have described this arrangement as “a leg-up for pharmaceutical companies ‘seeking to expand into faster-growing, lower-income countries.’” However, as the German report notes, the non-governmental organization Doctors without Borders (MSF) has questioned the GAVI Alliance’s overall impact on vaccine affordability, stating that “the cost to fully immunize a child was 68 times more expensive in 2014 than it was in 2001.”

The German analysts and others have outlined key features of the Gates Foundation’s close partnership with the pharmaceutical industry, including the revolving door between the staff of the Foundation and pharmaceutical companies such as Merck and GSK; the preponderant focus of the Foundation’s largest global health awards (20/50 or 40%) on research and development of new vaccines and drugs; and the Foundation’s $52 million equity stake in CureVac (a German pharmaceutical company) to speed up development of mRNA-vaccines. The Gates Foundation also has increased its direct support for the biotechnology industry, which is of considerable relevance to the vaccine industry due to the rapidly increasing use of biotech in modern vaccine manufacturing. Recent articles have pointed out, moreover, that the Gates Foundation routinely pays public relations firms to manipulate scientific decision-making in favor of the risky genetic engineering technologies that the Foundation supports.

What these observations make apparent is that Bill Gates’s vaccine philanthropy indeed represents a “miracle”—but the miracle’s beneficiaries are the corporations and stockholders who are laughing all the way to the bank, and certainly not the children and adults around the world who are bearing the brunt of unsafe vaccines. Dr. Arata Kochi, the WHO’s former director of malaria research, chose to call a spade a spade in 2008 when he described the Gates Foundation as a cartel that suppresses diversity of scientific opinion and is “accountable to no one other than itself.”

Land ownership in Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 23:16:00 +0000

The second largest country in the world by total area, Canada, is one of the most highly urbanized globally. However, none of its citizens have the right to own physical land in the country.
Land in Canada is solely owned by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who is also the head of state.

Canadian law in most provinces evolved from British common law, so instead of directly owning land, Canadians have land tenure. That means they can only own an interest in an estate.

If you think Canadians are the rightful owners of their land, then you have been fooled

Only 9.7 percent of the total land is privately owned, while the rest is Crown Land. It is administered on behalf of the Crown by various agencies or departments of the government of Canada.

Of the land owned by the Queen, 50 percent is managed by the provincial government and the rest by the federal government. All of those lands are held as public (known as Crown Lands) and mainly used as national parks, forests, private homes, and for agriculture.

According to the latest United Nations estimates, the current population of Canada is more than 37 million people.

The British Royal Family is the original Coronation Street – a long-running soap opera with the occasional real coronation thrown in. Its members have become celebrities, like upmarket film stars, attracting often fawning coverage.

So it’s easy to feel that we know the Windsors and that, in some ways, they are just like us. Yet the truth is that the disconnect between the Royals and the public is vast, not least in terms of the extraordinary fortunes they have quietly amassed for themselves.

Some Royal wealth is conspicuous. Take Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, for example: both were bought with public funds and qualify for taxpayer support when they are used for official business. They remain the Queen’s private property, all the same.

Less obvious are the breathtaking tax breaks, the lavish state subsidies and an all-encompassing secrecy that hides the Windsors’ gluttonous excesses.

The wealth of the British royal family is vast and steadily growing, thanks to budgetary funds, the National Queen and Family Foundation and royal royal royalties and wealthy possessions throughout the United Kingdom.

The reality is best summed up by Prince Charles himself, when he said: ‘I think it of absolute importance that the monarch should have a degree of financial independence from the State… I am not prepared to take on the position of sovereign of this country on any other basis.’

Which is to say that the State should provide him with copious amounts of public money, free from taxation – or other irritations such as accountability.

We as citizens should worry that our future king has subscribed to a view familiar to autocrats down the ages, one more in line with the practices of his ancestor Henry VIII than a modern democracy.

Just how much money have the Windsors accumulated? Regular attempts to nail down the private wealth of the Queen and her family are rebuffed by courtiers who argue that these are private matters. I take a different view: if their wealth has in part been created by unique tax breaks to the disadvantage of the public purse, or from simple exploitation of public money, then the Windsor millions are very much a public concern.

In 2001 this newspaper calculated that the Queen was worth £1.15 billion, excluding those items held in trust for the nation by the Crown, with her investment portfolio valued at £500 million. Her stamp collection alone was put at £100 million. It is a safe bet to assume her wealth has increased substantially since then. Exact figures are hard to come by, however, and no wonder: the Royal Family likes it like that. The highly unusual way they treat legacies is a good example. Wills are public documents, as everyone knows. Indeed, they have always been open for inspection in this country as an essential safeguard to prevent theft and malpractice.

Tony Blair

Ever since 1911, however, the Royals have been allowed to ‘seal’ selected wills – or declare them private – in the interests of upholding the dignity of the Crown.

The catalyst was the death of Prince Francis, brother of George V’s wife Queen Mary, in 1910. Prince Francis’s will had scandalously left prized family jewels to his mistress, the Countess of Kilmorey, with whom he was rumoured to have had a child. The Royal Family responded in characteristic fashion: they hushed it up.

Queen Mary persuaded a judge to ban public access to the will and the countess was paid £10,000 – around £700,000 today – to return the jewels. A precedent was set and today, Royal wills are locked up in a metal safe behind an iron cage in Somerset House.

The power to seal wills is certainly useful for those wishing to avoid awkward questions.

In May 2002, I asked the then Prime Minister Tony Blair to publish the Queen Mother’s will after her death earlier that year. He refused, referring to ‘the longstanding convention’ that Royal wills are private.

The will of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, who also died in 2002, was similarly ruled out of bounds. Why, we might wonder? Is the Royal Family pathologically wedded to secrecy or would it have been embarrassing to reveal just how much money was sloshing around?

Although the details of Margaret’s will remain inaccessible to this day, it was eventually estimated that the Queen’s sister had left an estate of some £7.6 million – having previously disposed of £12 million of assets to her family, including her house on the Caribbean island of Mustique, to minimise death duties. Where did the heavy-spending Princess get £20 million? The Royal Family is not inclined to tell us.

If Margaret’s fortune raises eyebrows, the Queen Mother’s reputed £70 million legacy raises serious questions. Take the case of the valuable jewellery that she had supposedly given to her grandchildren back in 1993. This was more than seven years before she passed away, which meant that no death duties were payable.

All these items were found in one of her cupboards after her death, which might be construed as deception, yet the Inland Revenue decided to let it go. So where did the Queen Mother’s £70 million come from? Perhaps part of the answer to the mystery can be found in a 1942 windfall, when she was left a large hoard of jewels by an heiress to the McEwan brewing fortune, a collection known as the Greville inheritance. Was this hoard given to her personally or as consort to George VI? Did the jewels truly belong to her, or to the State? And why were no death duties paid on the £70 million? It could be, of course, that there is nothing untoward in these wills. If so, why seal them?

Princes Margaret

The Windsors have almost complete exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, too, and special protection from the National Archives at Kew.

The National Archives are releasing ever more of our historical documents as the years go by, and from earlier and earlier. But some stay locked up beyond 30 years and it is no surprise that the biggest proportion of these relate to Royal matters. When I visited Kew, I found there were 3,629 closed files on the Royal Family.

There was no fooling the Royal Family on April Fools’ Day in 2012. Far from it. Because this was the day the Sovereign Grant Act came into force, sweeping away the long-established Civil List and replacing it with a remarkably generous new source of public funding.

The figures speak for themselves. Between 2001 and 2010, the old Civil List had been set at £7.9 million annually. In 2011, it grew to £13.7 million.

But then, in 2012, the first year of the Sovereign Grant, financial support to the Royals more than doubled to £31 million, and this was just the start of a cash bonanza.

In the most recent financial year, 2018-2019, the Sovereign Grant payout to the Royal Family reached a staggering £82.8 million.

This method of paying for our monarch and her family was not merely novel, it overturned more than 250 years of a settled scheme.

In 1760, on ascending the throne, George III did a deal with the government: he would surrender land across Britain to the nation in return for money from the government to support him and his lifestyle.

As part of the deal the government would take over responsibility for funding the Armed Forces, the secret service, the judiciary and other public functions.

Read more - HERE

Behind Syria chemical attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 18:59:00 +0000

Germany, Britain, America, Israel - VT provides proof of chemical warfare and war crimes.

[Editor’s Note: VT has long covered the “aiding and abetting” of terrorists by the US coalition, and by derivation NATO, for some time now. We view its going on unchecked as a major national security threat to all countries.

Unfortunately Western corporate media, with financial resources far beyond VT, has played Mickey the Dunce on this whole story, the case usually being that the respective country intelligence agencies have warned them to stay away from it all, or suffer the consequences.

VT has also followed closely the long series of false flag chemical weapons attacks, both sarin and military-grade chlorine because we knew the Syrians would never be so stupid as to hand their heads to the US Coalition in a silver platter by doing something with no chance of any gain, but exactly the opposite.

We were also concerned that the longer “they” got away with doing this, the more innocent people would be murdered by the alleged protectors of freedom and democracy in the world, but who we know to be currently among the worst enemies of mankind.

Unfortunately, despite our best labors, the citizens of these countries have done almost nothing to hold those accountable in their own countries.

Now that might have changed, with our long pleadings for the Syrians to give us photographic proof of the chemical weapons assets they have been capturing – serial numbers and all – so we could cram it down the throats of the guilty, thinking maybe someone inside the respective countries might want to start asking some hard questions.

The flurry of military accidents also caught our attention, as we know historically that this method is used by the military to hide overseas combat deaths for which any public investigation would be embarrassing.

In Vietnam, if a thousand of our troops were lost in one week, the announcement would be spread out, the families lied to. Welcome to the dark underside of America.

The impending attack on Damascus by the US was partially due to what the SAA might uncover in East Ghouta; and because they were able to move fast, they overran the US Coalition’s chemical weapons operations faster than anyone thought possible.

Our pleading with Syria has been rewarded with these new photos. The SAA has US Coalition chemical weapons officers in custody; and Russia has told the US, Brits, Israelis, and Saudis that they will have to deal with Damascus.

How long US media and our own Congress can pretend they know nothing about who some of the major terrorist elements are that most are afraid to mention? Their house of cards is crumbling, and “they” will be more dangerous in that situation, as we are talking about some serious crimes here.

We are suspicious of why the Brits would throw together what appears to us to have been a sloppy false flag, even to use against Russia, for putting Russia’s feet in the fire to get the Brits people back from Syria and keep this story out of major news distribution.

Is now the time for some of the really guilty to have to pay the piper? We shall see. But for that to happen, what is left of non-compromised public institutions has to step up to the plate, when they have shown a hesitancy to do so when their countries really needed them.

We hope they will get to see this and start asking the obvious questions… Jim W. Dean ]

Last week, Russia and Syria announced the capture of British chemical weapon stockpiles in East Ghouta along with the capture of a “coalition” command and chemical weapons facility with all personnel. Taken from the combined statement censored from the western press, from March 25, 2018

Chlorine gas-filled shell from Porton Down, Salisbury, found in East Ghouta with al Qaeda

“The Syrian Arab Army and with the help of Russian captured a shipment of chemical weapons destined for the Eastern Ghouta. These were British weapons produced at Porton Down in Salisbury.

Russian suspects that the Skripal incident is related as by their records, Skiripal was working at Porton Down as a chemical weapons trafficker in partnership with a Ukrainian firm. Russia denies attacking Skripal but admits he was under surveillance for his activities involving support of terrorism in Syria and arms trafficking.

Russia also confirms that there are British, American, Israeli and Saudi intelligence officers who were caught by the Syrian army in one of the heavily fortified operations rooms during the invasion of the Syrian army and its allies of the East Ghouta.”

VT asked the Syrian government for serial numbers and closeup photographs of chemical weapons used. Syria sent them to us today.

Today, the Syrian Army captured the following German made poison gas shells, shipped into Syria though Ukraine and Turkey and delivered to Jeish al Islam by a US CH53 helicopter, according to statements “allegedly” gotten from POW interrogations.

American, British and Israeli military personnel captured in Syria have confirmed they were ordered to stage chemical attacks in East Ghouta by their governments.

The Americans are still being held along with Israeli’s while British prisoners are being negotiated for. Sources in Damascus told us that representatives of Oman in Damascus approached the Russian Office of Reconciliation on behalf of Britain for the return of British chemical warfare personnel.

Russian officials in Syria informed Britain through Oman that they would have to directly deal with Syria for the return of their personnel. We have received no further information since, Damascus has remained silent on how or if negotiations were proceeding.

We do know that US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a US Army combat veteran of Iraq, met with both President Assad and Donald Trump, in order to arrange for covert exchange, for substantial financial consideration, of captured Americans.

Initial introductions for this meeting were done by VT.

Israel bought back a Brigadier General (they claimed he was a colonel) in 2015 that we know about.

The recent gas attack in Syria, timed as the last terrorists were surrendering for relocation inside the Douma region of the Ghouta pocket, was planned personally by nominated presidential advisor John Bolton and President Donald Trump personally, according to highly placed sources.

Our sources in Russia, highest level, told us the attack was coming based on information they received from US and Israeli prisoners taken in East Ghouta after an evacuation attempt failed.

US casualty announcements in this effort have been released over the past few days as happening in other areas to cover US complicity in terrorism. This dishonors families of the dead, not just in the misuse of service members to support terrorism but in lying to families about combat deaths. This shame goes directly to coward Trump!

“The Marine Corps identified four Marines killed on Tuesday in a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crash near El Centro, Calif. The Marines were assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 465, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

“The loss of our Marines weighs heavy on our hearts,” Maj. Gen. Mark Wise, commanding general of 3rd MAW, said in a statement.

“Our priority is to provide support for our families and HMH-465 during this critical time.”

The four Marines killed in the crash were Capt. Samuel A. Schultz, First Lt. Samuel D. Phillips, Gunnery Sgt. Derik R. Holley and Lance Cpl. Taylor J. Conrad.”

Other US casualties were listed as a US Air Force F16 that allegedly crashed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and up to 6 Americans who the US claims were killed by “Kurdish forces” in the north of Syria.

All died in a failed combined US/Israel rescue operation to remove not only communications and command personnel but also chemical weapons operations teams as well.

Last week, VT Damascus received evidence that Americans, US Army Special Forces along with Israeli chemical weapons officers had been captured in East Ghouta. We were told that not only was a command facility captured with modern weapons but a stockpile of British made 81mm poison gas mortar shells, numbering in the hundreds, was seized as well.

The shells in the above video are identified as VX gas from British stockpiles.

Video’s were viewed by former MOD weapons specialists who identified the green stripe on the shells seized in East Ghouta as VX gas from British stockpiles.

The Obama administration investigated alleged chemical attacks in 2012 and 2013 and advised Syria to turn over chemical stockpiles as a way of discouraging terrorists from continuing to stage chemical attacks to blame on Damascus.

Most efforts had their roots in Britain’s MI6 and its affiliates, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the White Helmets.

The US is currently facing combined military operations against its occupied zone in Syria by Iraq, Syrian and Russian forces. The US has been told to remove forces from Syria or face a wider conflict.

The US and Russia have been at war against one another inside Syria for about a month now.

Mysterious Metal Towers Pop Up Overnight in New York

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 21:10:00 +0000

What ARE the mysterious $100M metal towers popping up at tunnels and bridges all over New York and why won’t the MTA say?

Everyone knows New Yorkers are tough to rattle, but even the most machismo Manhattanites are mumbling nervously about some mysterious metal towers that seemingly appeared overnight at the openings of tunnels around the city. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has an answer, but no one who’s used the New York subway system trusts what they say. To make things more sinister, the towers are rumored to be connected to Homeland Security and the MTA chairman was very evasive when questioned. Conspiracy theory, here we come!

The story was broken by CBS2 in New York City. According to the report, little is known about the mysterious towers project except the price — $100 million. That alone is enough to cause concern because government officials looking to get re-elected are normally cutting costs, not spending on secret projects. It apparently has been known for some time that New York’s antiquated toll booths at tunnel and bridge entrances would be replaced by something more technologically up-to-date, but no one expected them to be metal monstrosities that defy the imagination of those who see them.

“It’s a bit mind-boggling that the MTA is approving $100 million for what appears to us to be big, decorative pylons.”

That’s the description given by John Kaehny of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany. However, he knows the metal bases and towers of what appear to be lights are much more because MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said so.

“The base of these new pieces that are going up include whatever fiber optics are necessary for those Homeland Security items.”

Homeland Security? New Yorkers rate them only slightly higher than the bottom of the barrel where MTA resides, and for good reason. When asked for details about these huge devices that will be pointed at New Yorkers 24/7, like whether they will be capable of facial recognition, Lhota said:

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that.”

Well, that’s slightly better than “No comment” … which was the response of Cedrick Fulton, MTA’s bridges and tunnels manager.

Even some MTA board members are concerned about how little information is available. “A lot of the board members felt they didn’t have all the details they would have wanted, myself included,” said New York City Transportation Manager Polly Trottenberg.

But an organization called Reinvent Albany has been working hard to shed some light on the details surrounding the structures. “It’s a bit mind-boggling that the MTA is approving $100 million for what appears to us to be big, decorative pylons,” says John Kaehny, Executive Director and founding board member of the watchdog organization. “What we’re asking for is transparency from the MTA.”

Kaehny told Anti-Media that they discovered plans for Governor Cuomo’s “Gateway Towers” while researching budget documents for another one of Cuomo’s pet projects, Harbor Lights, a $200 million plan to “transform New York’s magnificent structures into world-renowned tourist attractions.”

According to a press release from Governor Cuomo’s office, these “art deco” towers will “bring back public art aboveground.” Each structure will be covered in decorative artwork constructed with chainmail fabric, displaying a “wave effect.” All MTA bridges and tunnels will be equipped with LED lights that change color according to a “dawn to dusk” schedule, with “spectacular, multi-color light shows that will be visible for miles.”

With that kind of evasive action, the purpose of the towers is wide open for conspiracy speculation and comments, which included but were not limited to:

Bomb sniffers
Radiation detectors
Cell phone data readers
Directional sound weapons
Non-lethal radio wave emitters
Access denial devices
Gunshot detectors
Surveillance towers
Mind control systems

No one seemed to have any suggestions indicating they believed the towers were put up for anything good. Most seem to agree with one of the people interviewed:

“I’m going to guess that it’s not just a decoration.”

What do YOU think these mysterious metal towers are? Would let them be installed in YOUR city? Do you think you’d be given a choice?

Be careful, think what you talk on the phone!

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 16:07:00 +0000

NSA collected over 151 million phone records last year despite having only 42 warrants

The NSA collected over 151 million phone records from Americans last year, while having warrants for only 42 terrorist suspects, an annual report shows. In 2015, the agency's snooping powers were cut following Edward Snowden's revelations.

The new transparency report revealing the agency's haul was released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The records include communicational "metadata," showing who contacted whom, but not what they said. The amount of collected data is still lower compared to previous years, when the National Security Agency (NSA) collected "billions of records per day," according to a 2014 report.

The 151 million records, however, do not represent the actual number of phone calls or people who had their data collected, the report explained, because this volume includes multiple calls made to or from the same phone numbers. Apart from that, a single phone call logged by two phone companies counted as two records.

The number, however, is still significant, since the NSA only obtained warrants through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for only 42 terrorist suspects in 2016, along with a number of suspects left over from 2015, according to the new report. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the FISC or FISA court, oversees requests for surveillance warrants from law enforcement agencies involving suspects in the US.

The NSA can provide the collected data, which involves the "US persons" (USP) to other security and intelligence agencies. In 2016, according to the report, the number of "unmasked" USP identities was "much lower," compared to the previous year.

Thanks to the information revealed by Edward Snowden, US intelligence services briefly reduced the amount of massive interception and surveillance.

The names of 1,934 USPs were "unmasked" in intelligence reports last year in response to specific requests, compared with 2,232 in 2015. The identities of 1,200 USPs were originally revealed in the requested reports. The transparency report, however, did not identify which agencies requested the names or on what grounds.

The agency provides the true identity of the masked person only if an official requesting it has a legitimate "need to know," according to the transparency report.

"NSA is allowed to unmask the identity for the specific requesting recipient only where specific additional controls are in place to preclude its further dissemination and additional approval has been provided by a designated NSA official," the report reads.

The "unmasking" mechanism might be the key to determining the source of media leaks damaging to the Trump administration, as some media reports indicated that then-President Barack Obama's aides requested the disclosure of the names of Trump's election team members.

The agency disclosed even more information than required by law, the report said, stating the intelligence community was "committed to sharing as much information as possible with the public without jeopardizing mission capabilities."

Despite the law, called the "Freedom Act" of the US intelligence service, and most notably the NSA, are still massively eavesdropping on US citizens, more precisely they are placed above the law itself. What democracy?

This quest for "transparency" largely came as a result of Edward Snowden's revelations, who disclosed the NSA's secret operation to gather information on American citizens and residents. The bulk collections previously authorized under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act were banned in 2015 under the bipartisan USA Freedom Act.

"This year's report continues our trajectory toward greater transparency, providing additional statistics beyond what is required by law," Office of the Director of National Intelligence spokesman Timothy Barrett said, according to Reuters.

The Seeds Of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 17:12:00 +0000

Warning: This article contains disturbing photos

From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Why Are Indian Farmers Committing Suicide and How Can We Stop This Tragedy?

In a land where reincarnation is a commonly held belief, where the balance sheet of life is sorted out over lifetimes, where resilience and recovery has been the characteristic of the “kisan,” the peasant cultivation, why are Indian farmers committing suicide on a mass scale?

200,000 farmers have ended their lives since 1997.

Farmers’ suicides are the most tragic and dramatic symptom of the crisis of survival faced by Indian peasants.

Rapid increase in indebtedness is at the root of farmers’ taking their lives. Debt is a reflection of a negative economy. Two factors have transformed agriculture from a positive economy into a negative economy for peasants: the rising of costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities. Both these factors are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corporate globalization.

In 1998, the World Bank’s structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto and Syngenta. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds, which need fertilizers and pesticides and cannot be saved.

Corporations prevent seed savings through patents and by engineering seeds with non-renewable traits. As a result, poor peasants have to buy new seeds for every planting season and what was traditionally a free resource, available by putting aside a small portion of the crop, becomes a commodity. This new expense increases poverty and leads to indebtness.

Photo taken recently in a Vietnamese home for children with severe birth defects caused by Monsanto's pesticide "Orange"

The shift from saved seed to corporate monopoly of the seed supply also represents a shift from biodiversity to monoculture in agriculture. The district of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh used to grow diverse legumes, millets, and oilseeds. Now the imposition of cotton monocultures has led to the loss of the wealth of farmer’s breeding and nature’s evolution.

Monocultures and uniformity increase the risk of crop failure, as diverse seeds adapted to diverse to eco-systems are replaced by the rushed introduction of uniform and often untested seeds into the market. When Monsanto first introduced Bt Cotton in 2002, the farmers lost 1 billion rupees due to crop failure. Instead of 1,500 kilos per acre as promised by the company, the harvest was as low as 200 kilos per acre. Instead of incomes of 10,000 rupees an acre, farmers ran into losses of 6,400 rupees an acre. In the state of Bihar, when farm-saved corn seed was displaced by Monsanto’s hybrid corn, the entire crop failed, creating 4 billion rupees in losses and increased poverty for desperately poor farmers. Poor peasants of the South cannot survive seed monopolies. The crisis of suicides shows how the survival of small farmers is incompatible with the seed monopolies of global corporations.

The second pressure Indian farmers are facing is the dramatic fall in prices of farm produce as a result of the WTO’s free trade policies. The WTO rules for trade in agriculture are, in essence, rules for dumping. They have allowed wealthy countries to increase agribusiness subsidies while preventing other countries from protecting their farmers from artificially cheap imported produce. Four hundred billion dollars in subsidies combined with the forced removal of import restriction is a ready-made recipe for farmer suicide. Global wheat prices have dropped from $216 a ton in 1995 to $133 a ton in 2001; cotton prices from $98.2 a ton in 1995 to $49.1 a ton in 2001; Soya bean prices from $273 a ton in 1995 to $178 a ton. This reduction is due not to a change in productivity, but to an increase in subsidies and an increase in market monopolies controlled by a handful of agribusiness corporations.

Complete generations of Indian peasants are poisoned by banned Monsanto pesticides and insecticides.

The region in India with the highest level of farmers suicides is the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra — 4000 suicides per year, 10 per day. This is also the region with the highest acreage of Monsanto’s GMO Bt cotton. Monsanto’s GM seeds create a suicide economy by transforming seed from a renewable resource to a non-renewable input which must be bought every year at high prices. Cotton seed used to cost Rs 7/kg. Bt-cotton seeds were sold at Rs 17,000/kg. Indigenous cotton varieties can be intercropped with food crops. Bt-cotton can only be grown as a monoculture. Indigenous cotton is rain fed. Bt-cotton needs irrigation. Indigenous varieties are pest resistant. Bt-cotton, even though promoted as resistant to the boll worm, has created new pests, and to control these new pests, farmers are using 13 times more pesticides then they were using prior to introduction of Bt-cotton. And finally, Monsanto sells its GMO seeds on fraudulent claims of yields of 1500/kg/year when farmers harvest 300-400 kg/year on an average. High costs and unreliable output make for a debt trap, and a suicide economy.

While Monsanto pushes the costs of cultivation up, agribusiness subsidies drive down the price farmers get for their produce.

Cotton producers in the US are given a subsidy of $4 billion annually. This has artificially brought down cotton prices, allowing the US to capture world markets previously accessible to poor African countries such as Burkina Faso, Benin, and Mali. This subsidy of $230 per acre in the US is untenable for the African farmers. African cotton farmers are losing $250 million every year. That is why small African countries walked out of the Cancun negotiations, leading to the collapse of the WTO ministerial.

The rigged prices of globally traded agriculture commodities steal from poor peasants of the South. A study carried out by the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) shows that due to falling farm prices, Indian peasants are losing $26 billion annually. This is a burden their poverty does not allow them t bear. As debts increase — unpayable from farm proceeds — farmers are compelled to sell a kidney or even commit suicide. Seed saving gives farmers life. Seed monopolies rob farmers of life.

Typical suicide by hanging Indian peasants destroyed by Monsanto's greed

Farmers suicides in the state of Chattisgarh have recently been before in the news. 1593 farmers committed suicide in Chattisgarh in 2007. Before 2000 no farmers suicides are reported in the state.

Chattisgarh is the Centre of Diversity of the indice varieties of rice. More than 200,000 rices used to grow in India. This is where eminent rice scientists Dr. Richaria did his collections and showed that tribals had bred many rices with higher yields than the green Revolution varieties.

Today the rice farming of Chattisgarh is under assault. When indigenous rice is replaced with green Revolution varieties, irrigation becomes necessary. Under globalization pressures, rice is anyway a lower priority than exotic vegetables. The farmers are sold hybrid seeds, the seeds need heavy inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as intensive irrigation. And crop failure is frequent. This pushes farmers into debt and suicide.

Chattisgarh is also a prime target for growing of Jatropha for biofuel. Tribals farms are being forcefully appropriated for Jatropha plantations, aggravating the food and livelihood crisis in Chattisgarh. The diesel demand of the automobile industry is given a priority above the food needs of the poor.

The suicide economy of industrialized, globalised agriculture is suicidal at 3 levels - it is suicidal for farmers, it is suicidal for the poor who are derived food, and it is suicidal at the level of the human species as we destroy the natural capital of seed, biodiversity, soil and water on which our biological survival depends.

The suicide economy is not an inevitability. Navdanya has started a Seeds of Hope campaign to stop farmers suicides. The transition from seeds of suicide to seeds of hope includes :

· a shift from GMO and non renewable seeds to organic, open pollinated seed varieties which farmers can save and share.

· a shift from chemical farming to organic farming.

· a shift from unfair trade based on false prices to fair trade based on real and just prices.

The farmers who have made this shift are earning 10 times more than the farmers growing Monsanto’s Bt-cotton.

FBI mess - arrest of the undercover agents

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 18:37:00 +0000

Did The FBI Get Confused And Arrest One Of Its Own Informants For Helping Create One Of Its Own Plots?

For a few years now, we've been writing about how the FBI has been arresting a ton of people for "terrorism" who were really guilty of little more than being gullible and naive and pushed by FBI undercover agents and informants into taking part in a plot that wouldn't exist but for the FBI itself. These so-called own plots seem to be a huge part of what the FBI does these days.

Somewhat ridiculously, courts have (mostly) allowed these, claiming that if, eventually, the accused person expressed some support for terrorism or terrorist groups, it shouldn't be considered entrapment. But, over and over again, you see cases where it's clearly the FBI doing not just the majority of the plotting, but also pushing and pushing targets to "join" the plot, even when they show sustained resistance. The more details you read about these cases, the more ridiculous they get.

However, in just the latest example of this -- the arrest of Erick Hendricks for supposedly trying to recruit people to carry out attacks for ISIS -- there's been something of an odd twist. Hendricks claims he has no idea why he was arrested because he's been an FBI informant for years, helping the FBI find other gullible souls to entrap in these "own plots." As Marcy Wheeler notes, it's possible the FBI lost track of one of its own informants and ended up having him "caught" in one of the plots where he thought he was helping the FBI find possible terrorists. Wouldn't that be something.

Erick Jamal Hendricks

Has the FBI simply lost track of who are real and who are the people it is paying to play a role? Or is it possible someone from another agency, claiming to be FBI, recruited Hendricks (don’t laugh! That’s one potential explanation for Anwar al-Awlaki’s curious ties to US law enforcement, a story that wends its way through a related mosque in VA)?

Sure, maybe Hendricks is making all this up (at the very least, it may necessitate the BoP to protect him in prison since he has now publicly claimed to be a narc). But FBI’s network of informants sure is getting confusing.

Either way, if Hendricks really was an informant, it appears that the "plots" he was engaged in may have been all confidential informants or undercover agents (and possibly one mentally disturbed internet troll).

This sounds like the plot to a potentially entertaining movie -- but back in the real world, it seems pretty fucked up. And it's yet another reminder of just how stupid these FBI "own plots" really are. It doesn't seem to really be about keeping people safe from attacks. Instead it seems to be about figuring out ways to push gullible and naive people to agree to do something stupid so that the FBI can get headlines for "keeping us safe" from attacks that would never actually happen.

Microsoft workers ‘forced to watch’ child porn

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sat, 14 Jan 2017 19:45:00 +0000

Ex-employees of the company’s online safety team say they had to watch horrific online videos of child abuse, bestiality, and murders—and that Microsoft ignored their PTSD.

As part of their job, moderators for social websites have to view some of the most disturbing videos and photos on the internet. Once the employees have determined that the images violate the company’s community standards and the law, they delete the accounts of the people who posted them and report the incidents to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, per federal law.

Unsurprisingly, having to watch upsetting content like that every day takes a toll on moderators. But two Microsoft employees say their company, one of the largest in the world, failed to provide them with proper support as their mental health deteriorated and they began showing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

In a lawsuit filed in King County, Washington Henry Soto and Greg Blauert allege that they were part of Microsoft’s Online Safety Team, formed in 2007 in response to new federal legislation and complaints from customers about disturbing imagery being stored and distributed using the company’s products.

Soto claims he was assigned to the team and didn’t have any choice in the matter. Both Soto and Blauert say Microsoft did not fully prepare them for what the Online Safety Team would be doing — going through users’ accounts and communications and viewing haunting images of children being abused, sexually exploited and even killed.

According to CourthouseNews.com, Soto said he and his wife had always dreamed of working for Microsoft and moved to Washington specifically to work for the company. However, once he and Blauert were assigned to the Online Safety Team, they were forced to remain there for 18 months before they could request a transfer.

And in those 18 months, both men claim they suffered from continually reviewing disturbing content.

“He had trouble with sleep disturbance, nightmares,” Soto’s lawyers alleged, per the Daily Beast. “He suffered from an internal video screen in his head and could see disturbing images. He suffered from irritability, increased startle, anticipatory anxiety, and was easily distractible.”

After watching a video of a young girl being abused and murdered, Soto says he began to experience “auditory hallucinations.”

Meanwhile, “Mr. Blauert became noticeably withdrawn in the workplace and at home,” court documents posted by CourthouseLaw. com say. “He became listless and avoidant in the workplace. Supervisors authorized him and others to leave work early when they broke down or became overwhelmed by the trauma associated with viewing the depictions. Leaving early on occasions of breaking down was part of the ‘Wellness Plan.’ However, Mr. Blauert was criticized in employment reviews for following his wellness plan.”

Microsoft told McClatchy that employees are not permitted to view the offensive imagery at home or on a personal device and are not allowed to spend their entire work day viewing them.

Still, Blauert suffered from nightmares and outbursts of anger, he claims in the lawsuit.

Microsoft provided counseling sessions for members of the team suffering from “compassion fatigue,” a non-official mental illness characterized by anxiety, tension and apathy towards violence, per the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project. In those sessions, however, the counselor suggested Blauert take more breaks to walk, smoke and play video games during the day, according to the lawsuit.

It didn’t work, he says. Blauert suffered a “physical and mental breakdown,” with symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, uncontrollable crying and PTSD, per the lawsuit.

Both men say their work has damaged their relationship with their families, especially their children, made it difficult for them to go out in public and severely limited their ability to even go onto the internet.

The lawsuit in its entirety can be read HERE.

But while both men applied for worker’s compensation while taking medical leaves due to their PTSD, their claims were denied, per the Daily Beast.

“The worker’s condition is not an occupational disease,” their rejection letters each read.

Soto and Blauert also allege that while Microsoft provided dedicated counseling and funding for a different department dealing with many similar issues, the Digital Crimes Unit, the company violated state law by failing to provide a safe workplace for them and should have realized how harmful viewing such images should have been for their employees.

The men’s lawyers say they provided Microsoft with the results of their investigation before filing suit, but the company did not provide any “material corrections.”

In a statement to McClatchy, a Microsoft spokesperson denied that the company was negligent in regards to its employees’ mental health.

“We disagree with the plaintiffs’ claims. Microsoft takes seriously its responsibility to remove and report imagery of child sexual exploitation and abuse being shared on its services, as well as the health and resiliency of the employees who do this important work,” the statement read.

“This work is difficult, but critically important to a safer and more trusted internet. The health and safety of our employees who do this difficult work is a top priority. Microsoft works with the input of our employees, mental health professionals and the latest research on robust wellness and resilience programs to ensure those who handle this material have the resources and support they need, including an individual wellness plan. We view it as a process, always learning and applying the newest research about what we can do to help support our employees even more.”

In addition to seeking damages for their medical bills and ongoing PTSD, the men requested that Microsoft implement new policies to help other employees in similar situations, including mandatory meetings with psychologists and spousal support programs.

However, Microsoft told McClatchy that the company already provides mandatory monthly meetings with a psychologist for employees, as well as group meetings with a psychologist. In addition, the company said it uses certain techniques, such as blurring, to prevent employees from being exposed to the full realism of the images.

Happy birthday, Guantánamo! 7

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:37:00 +0000

Each Year in January, MatrixLeaks will publish the same article - "Happy birthday, Guantanamo!" - until the cruel cage will not be closed - as Mr. Obama promised in January 2010.

"I intend to close Guantánamo, and would not give it up. Many times I have repeated that the United States does not conduct torture and I will make sure that indeed be so. I will make every effort to increase America's moral reputation in the world", Barack Obama said during his election campaign, in which, among other things, promised to be one of the first things you will do will be closing the Guantánamo base. Base Guantánamo will be closed to 22. January 2010., believe me."

We are already in 2017. Barack Obama is still two weeks the president of the United States. After two mandates, and after eight years as president. Gunatánamo this week have the birthday cake candles. Fifteen years of existence and there is no indication that it will close the base.

The camp for prisoners at Guantanamo was opened in 2002, under the Bush administration, and its purpose is, how then said - keeping al-Qaeds members who are or will one day be accused of terrorism. The intention was to quit and other individuals who are considered risky for the security of the United States. It all happened while they were extremely fresh wounds from the so-called terrorist attacks of September 11, so the American public greeted the project with Bush's approval. The base is a large 116 square kilometers and consists of several camps, which, because of the treatment of prisoners, can be called concentration camps. The most important are Delta and Iguana Camp. The first twenty prisoners arrived at Guantánamo 11. January 2002. Since then, the base marched hundredth person, some were released, some convicted, all tortured and changed forever.

Amnesty International sends the years appeals to the U.S. government, saying the violation of the rights of prisoners, and one of their reports, in 2005 George W. Bush commented, it seems to me that they do some of their decisions based on the world and accusations of prisoners, people who hate America , people who are trained not to tell the truth. Indeed, America is a free country you do not have the right to hate. Why the hate, you ask? Gunatánamo is the best illustration of the tactics of intimidation, torture by the U.S. government applies worldwide. Just drape the flag of democracy and crime can begin. In peace, for freedom!

As in the cage

It has already been written about the case of Omar Khadra, "child of Guantanamo". Recently, his sister, Zaynab Khadra, gave an interview for the site Cageprisoners.

Zaynab Khadra said, among other things, how to work with Omar first heard in 2006, four years after being caught. After that, her and her family were allowed two phone calls a year, why they had to travel to Ottawa, because the conversation could be done only from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From the calls of 2009 can be performed via the Red Cross, so now the family is able to hear with Omar even three to four times a year. Zaynab said her brother grew up, his voice is more mature, his dialect is changed, such that the same person, and yet completely different. Omar does not believe in the legal system, the only way to find faith and rare interviews with his family. It acts more powerful than all of us, "said Zaynab.
Numerous other interviews can be found at the above-mentioned website. Cageprisoners is a British non-profit organization founded by former inmates of Guantanamo. On their website you can find personal testimonies, reports and latest news related to Guantánamo. Their goal is to be the voice of those who can not speak.

Omar Khadra at the time of his arrest and today (talkleft.com)

Update 2017

Omar Khadr turns 30 today. Released on bail in May 2015, he still faces limitations to his freedom and legal challenges ahead. Canadians must not be complacent about our obligation to him. For 14 years, we allowed grave violations of his fundamental rights, including torture and abuse when he was a child. Our individual liberties and equality before the law depend on the universal enforcement of rights, and remedy for rights that have been violated. On Omar’s 30th birthday, we must acknowledge all the ways Canada failed him.

THE OFFICIAL FREE OMAR CAMPAIGN - FREE Omar Khadr NOw

Death as a way

When you torture, humiliate, intimidate, offend, and they themselves may be unsure why, when you are about to end power and a better tomorrow eludes you every day, as the only way you might see them - death. By 2008, at Guantanamo were recorded four committed suicide and hundreds of attempts. It is a fact known to the public, and can only guess at the actual figures, which are assumed to be higher. Only in August 2003 there were eight three p.m. suicide attempt, which the Pentagon described as "manipulative behavior". 10 June 2006, three prisoners were found dead. The official statement was that the Pentagon appears to have committed suicide pact. Prison commander Admiral Harry Harris said the reason for suicide could not be despair, because the reasons for the despair and depression inmates had. I tried to kill himself, said Shad Muhammad, of twenty from Pakistan, was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and sent to Gunatánamo 2002. I tried four times, because we are disgusted by my life. We needed more blankets, but they did not listen. They never listened, "he said. Washington Post reported that documents on the methods of all sorts torture in Gunatánamo - exposure to hot and cold during sleep, bright light, extremely loud music, hard tests.

Admit it and you will receive medication

Adel El-Gazzar, former prisoner Gunatánama, the base has arrived with injured leg, after twenty to give a long journey from Pakistan. Twenty-five days he spent in what was then Camp X-ray (the camp was established in 2002, later repealed, and the prisoners were transferred to Camp Delta). After these twenty-five days after being rushed to the hospital to his amputated leg. El-Gazzara asked that he cleaned the wound and change dressings every day, as though to avoid amputation, but his request was denied. Wound was opened and forced him to a shower several times a day, and every new contact with water it was very painful. One day is spent crying in pain. There was a doctor with painkillers. I'll give you a drug, and the pain will go away for ten minutes, you just have to first sign a confession that you are a member of al-Qaeda, he said. El-Gazzara has refused to sign a confession. Shortly after his leg was amputated. During his stay in the database, even thirteen prisoners amputated leg. He says that the problem was not in wounds, and which were not great, but the inadequate medical treatment for which he came to amputation. Despite the pain the prisoners were able to sleep only at certain times and certain number of hours. If they violate the rules, hit them in the head, they took blankets, denied food, and threatened with further abuse.
Adel El-Gazzara after eight years was released from Gunatánamo and sent to Slovakia, the first thing I did was that I cried like a baby. I was really, really happy to leave this awful place, but also sad because my brothers who remained there. I wondered how I'm going to start a new life in an unfamiliar country, with an uncertain future. Prisoners in Gunatánamo my brothers, with them, I've spent more years than with his own wife and children. We suffered together under the same conditions. We are one big family, and I am sorry that I left them on the site. You know, it sounds strange - but Gunatánamo world outside is cold, cold place. There are, even in suffering, were together, side by side. Outside, everyone looks at their job, nobody cares for others.

The future?

Obviously not enough sad that it closed. Announced the relocation of prisoners in long-Thomson Correctional Center in Illionis. However, on 30 April, 2010th year, the base is closed. Another new year prisoners were greeted with the good old Gitmo, no reason to celebrate. They are one hundred and seventy four pending, they should not move, they need freedom, they want to return to their homes from which they were drawn because they are dark and worship Allah. On their face bonded with a label "terrorist ", they are to blame for all the woes of the great American people on behalf of that with them you can handle whatever the big ones will. Nine years ago, before the eyes of the entire world, with prisoners be treated as the biggest vermin, scum who should be removed from this otherwise vibrant planet. Muslims are guilty!

They hang up first, so they are tried. As the Wild West. Just as the Wild West were both good cowboys, brave fighters who would proudly rode into the sunset.

Guantanamo Bay - The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a US military prison located in Cuba. It was established in January 2002 by the Bush Administration to held, without charge or trial, detainees captured all over the world as part of the War on Terror. Notorious for its abuses and denial of due process, it is widely recognised as “the Gulag of our time”.

780 men, all Muslim and aged from 13 to 89, have been detained there outside any legal framework. The US authorities refused to apply the Geneva conventions protecting the rights of the prisoners of war. Instead, they were labelled ‘enemy combatants’ even though many of them were not captured on any battlefield.

Initially portrayed as “die hard terrorists”, US data shows that 92% of the detainees were not regarded as Al Qaeda fighters by the US government.

658 detainees have been released from Guantanamo Bay after years of detention without charge or trial. Out of the 122 remaining detainees, 54 have been cleared for release and 35 have been designated for ‘indefinite detention’ but cannot be charged with a crime due to the lack of evidence. Nine detainees have passed away while in custody at Guantanamo Bay.

Note: The first article was written a six year ago can be read here.
I hope that I would not write about this inhumanity who looks like that is from the 14th century!!!

Private Military Companies

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 14:15:00 +0000

Private Military Companies in Service to the Transnational Capitalist Class

Globalization of trade and central banking has propelled private corporations to positions of power and control never before seen in human history. Under advanced capitalism, the structural demands for a return on investment require an unending expansion of centralized capital in the hands of fewer and fewer people. The financial center of global capitalism is so highly concentrated that less than a few thousand people dominate and control $100 trillion of wealth.

The few thousand people controlling global capital amounts to less than 0.0001 percent of the world’s population. They are the transnational capitalist class (TCC), who, as the capitalist elite of the world, dominate nation-states through international trade agreements and transnational state organizations such as the World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, and the International Monetary Fund.

The TCC communicates their policy requirements through global networks such as the G-7 and G-20, and various nongovernmental policy organizations such as the World Economic Forum, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberger Group. The TCC represents the interests of hundreds of thousands of millionaires and billionaires who comprise the richest people in the top 1 percent of the world’s wealth hierarchy.

The TCC are keenly aware of both their elite status and their increasing vulnerabilities to democracy movements and to unrest from below. The military empire dominated by the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) serves to protect TCC investments around the world. Wars, regime changes, and occupations performed in service of empire support investors’ access to natural resources and their speculative advantages in the market place.

When the empire is slow to perform or faced with political resistance, private security firms and private military companies (PMC) increasingly fulfill the TCC’s demands for the protections of their assets. These protection services include personal security for TCC executives and their families, protection of safe residential and work zones, tactical military advisory and training of national police and armed forces, intelligence gathering on democracy movements and opposition groups, weapons acquisitions and weapon systems management, and strike forces for military actions and assassinations.

The expanding crisis of desperate masses/refugees, alienated work forces, and environmental exhaustion means an unlimited opportunity for PMCs to engage in protections services for the global elite.

Estimates are that over $200 billion a year is spent on private security employing some fifteen million people worldwide. G4S is the largest PMC in the world with 625,000 employees spanning five continents in more than 120 countries. Nine of the largest money management firms in the world have holdings in G4S. Some of its more important contractors are the governments of the UK, the US, Israel, and Australia. In the private sector G4S has worked with corporations such as Chrysler, Apple, and Bank of America. In Nigeria, Chevron contracts with G4S for counterinsurgency operations including fast-response mercenaries. G4S undertakes similar operations in South Sudan, and has provided surveillance equipment for checkpoints and prisons in Israel and security for Jewish settlements in Palestine.

Security: The controversial firm G4S has seen a 20 per cent increase in its income from the UK government, raising fears of an over-reliance on a 'private army'

Another private military contractor Constellis Holdings—formerly Blackwater and Triple Canopy—is a leading provider of security, support, and military advisory services to the US government, foreign governments, multinational corporations, and international organizations. Constellis is managed by an all male board of directors including billionaire Red McCombs; John Ashcroft, the former attorney general; retired admiral Bobby Inman; and Jack Quinn, a leading Democratic advisor who served as chief of staff to vice president Al Gore and as counsel to President Clinton.

Hundreds of private military contractors now play an important role in TCC security in the evolving 21st century neo-fascist corporate world. Capital will be free to travel instantly and internationally to anywhere that profits are possible, while nation-states will become little more than population containment zones with increasingly repressive labor controls. For these reasons, PMCs must be understood as a component of neoliberal imperialism that now supplements nation-states’ police powers and could eventually substitute for them.

The trend toward privatization of war is a serious threat to human rights, due process, and democratic transparency and accountability. The US/NATO military empire sets the moral standards for denial of human rights by using pilotless drones to kill civilians without regard for international law in various regions of resistance to empire. Labeling dead civilians as insurgents and terrorists, the complete lack of due process and human rights belies any standard of governmental moral legitimacy. This lack of moral legitimacy in turn sets standards for private military companies to operate with much the same malice in the shadow of the empire.

The globalization of PMC operations alongside transnational capital investment, international trade agreements, and an increasing concentration of wealth in the TCC means that the repressive practices of private security and war will inevitably come home to roost in the US, the European Union, and other first-world nations.

The 99 percent of us without wealth and private police power face the looming threat of overt repression and complete loss of human rights and legal protections. We see signs of this daily with police killings (now close to a hundred per month in the US), warrantless electronic spying, mass incarceration, random traffic checkpoints, airport security/no-fly lists, and Homeland Security compilations of databases on suspected resisters.

Each time we look past the crimes of the empire we lose a portion of our integrity of self. Ignoring repression becomes part of continuing compromise in our daily lives leading to a moral malaise and increased feelings of helplessness. We must stand up and demand democratic transparency and the international enforcement of human rights. Unless we collectively challenge the empire, we face a world that is evolving into a new dark age of neo-feudal totalitarianism unlike any previously known.

About Blackwater You can read more - here

By Peter Phillips

Peter Phillips is a professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and president of Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored. For a longer footnoted version of this report see: here (pdf)

The Orlando mass murderer

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 16:12:00 +0000

Orlando Killer Worked Inside the Global Security System

The Orlando mass murderer, Omar Mateen, worked for G4S, one of the largest private security employers in the world. G4S has some 625,000 employees spanning five continents in more than 120 countries. As a private security company it provides services for both governments as well as corporations. Some of its well-known contractors are with the British Government, the United States, Israel, Australia and many more. G4S providers a range of services in the areas of corrections, policing, and security of important facilities. In the corporate sector it has worked with such well-known companies such as Chrysler, Amtrak, Apple, and the Bank of America.

A statement from G4S, published by The Independent June 12 says that: “We are shocked and saddened by the tragic even that occurred at the Orlando nightclub. We can confirm that Omar Mateen had been employed with G4S since Sept 10 2007. We are cooperating fully with all law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, as they conduct their investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the friends, families, and people affected by this unspeakable tragedy.”

Mateen worked with the company since 2007. G4S provides security personnel for the Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Protection at the US-Mexico border, and helps transport undocumented immigrants from urban areas.

Mass killings like the one in Orlando directly benefit private security firms like G4S by increasing fears and demands for higher security services. Estimates are that over $200 billion is spent on private security globally with higher amounts expected yearly. The industry currently employs some 15 million people worldwide.

Omar Mateen

G4S offers security guards, alarms, management and transportation of cash and valuables, prison management, and electronic monitoring of offenders in 120 countries worldwide. They are the second largest private employer in the world. Their annual revenue in 2014 was $10.5 billion. Increasingly G4S operates in “complex environments” and accepts jobs national armies are not trained to do like land mine clearance, and military security in active war zones.

Chevron Oil in Nigeria contracts with G4S for counter insurgency operations that deploy armed groups of fast-response mercenaries both on land and on delta water patrol boats mounted with machine guns. G4S maintains a similar operation in South Sudan. G4S also provides surveillance equipment to checkpoints and prisons in Israel.

G4S has been plagued with problems in the last decade, most noticeably with the botched contract at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. They failed to provide the 10,000 plus trained employees they had promised under contract. Instead G4S had roughly 2,000 people properly trained, with many more getting only a few weeks’ worth of preparation. The result led to the British Military being called in to provide security with some 13,000 troops alongside G4S.

In June of 2014, G4S was accused of violently removing protesters from outside its own offices in London, a claim the company denies, and a few months after that G4S had to pay $100,000 for unlawfully restraining youths in a secure training facility. In 2011, a double amputee was improperly secured in one of G4S’s ambulance services and died when the unsecured wheelchair tipped over backwards as he was being transported to the hospital. It was found that the G4S staff was not sufficiently trained to move patients safely from their homes to hospitals. And as far back as 2004, a 15-year-old died when three G4S employees at Rainsbrook Secure Training Center restrained him. None of the officers were charged in that incident.

A protester holds posters against the G4S security company outside Israel's Ofer Prison in May 2013 (screen capture: YouTube)

G4S is a transnational security company in direct service to the global corporations and the transnational capitalist class. G4S protects capital and assets around the world and is increasingly taking a private military style approach as needed. As a multi-billion-dollar public company major investors come from the financial core of the transnational capitalist class including; Blackrock, UBS, Vanguard, Barclays, State Street, Allianz, J.P. Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, and FMR. Even the State of California and New York have holdings in G4S. Nine of the thirteen largest most connected money management firms and banks in the world have direct investments holdings in G4S. Omnicom, the largest public relations and propaganda firm in the world, handles media for G4S and undoubtedly is currently in full crisis management mode to protect the company and minimalize links to Omar Mateen.

G4S is a part of neoliberal imperialism that is leading to the substitution of and privatization of state police. Inside G4S’s 625,000 employees are undoubtedly a number of reactionary individuals with extreme racist, homophobic, and xenophobic feelings similar to Omar Mateen. These folks are armed walking time bombs that can individually or collectively unleash disruption and chaos on humans anywhere in the world. The resulting chaos and fear will be used to justify even more demands for private security, including even martial law, all resulting in improved profits for G4S.

By Peter Phillips

Peter Phillips is a Professor of Political Sociology as Sonoma State University and president of Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored. Fully footnoted research on G4S is available on line at http://projectcensored.org/private-military-companies-in-service-to-the-transnational-capitalist-class/

Historical Places You Are Not Allowed to Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 19:29:00 +0000

Lascaux Caves: A Complex of Caves Famous for Its Paleolithic Cave Paintings (France)

Lascaux Caves is a complex of caves in southwestern France that is famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. They contain 900 of the most perfect surviving examples of Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old. They primarily consist of images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time.

The caves, which have been banned to the public since 1963, have been menaced in recent years by a series of unexplained, and only partially controlled, fungal invasions. Any human presence in the caves is regarded as potentially destructive. Normally, they are entered only once a week by one security guard for a few minutes at a time.

In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère Valley, France.

Poveglia: A Very Small Island Near Venice Suspected of Being Haunted (Italy)

Poveglia is a small island located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy.

For centuries Poveglia has been a refuge, a stronghold, a place of exile, and a dumping ground for the diseased and deceased.

In 1348, the Bubonic Plague arrived in Venice and Poveglia, like many other small islands, became a quarantine colony. Fearing the unbridled spread of the disease, Venice exiled many of its symptom-bearing citizens there. At the island’s center the dead and the dying – who were mistaken for dead bodies – were burned on giant pyres. These fires would burn once more in 1630 when the Black Death again swept through the city.

In the 20th century the island was again used as a quarantine station, but in 1922 the existing buildings were converted into a hospital for the mentally ill. This went on until 1968, when the hospital was closed and the island once again became uninhabited.

Legends surround the island of hauntings by the victims of plague and war, as well as a crazy doctor of the mental institution who supposedly butchered and tortured patients.

Today, the island is closed to locals and tourists. In recent years, Italian construction crews attempted to restore the former hospital building, but unexpectedly stopped without reason.

The Vatican Secret Archives: The Archives Themselves are Off Limits to Everyone Except a Few People

The Vatican Secret Archives, located in Vatican City, is the central repository for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See. The entrance to the Archives building is adjacent to the Vatican Library off the Piazza of St. Peter’s. The archives also contain the state papers, correspondence, papal account books, and many other documents which the church has accumulated over the centuries. In the 17th century, under the orders of Pope Paul V, the Secret Archives were separated from the Vatican Library, where scholars had some very limited access to them, and remained absolutely closed to outsiders until 1881, when Pope Leo XIII opened them to researchers, more than a thousand of whom now examine its documents each year.

The use of the word “secret” in the title “Vatican Secret Archives” does not denote the modern meaning of confidentiality. Its meaning is closer to that of the word “private,” indicating that the archives are the Pope’s personal property and do not belong to any particular department of the Roman Curia or the Holy See. The word “secret” was generally used in this sense in phrases such as “secret servants,” “secret cupbearer,” “secret carver,” or “secretary,” much like an esteemed position of honor and regard comparable to a VIP.

In other words, you can view any document you wish because the archives are not secret, despite their name. However, you cannot enter the archive. You must submit your request for a document and it will be supplied to you.

The Vatican Secret Archives have been estimated to contain 52 miles (84 km) of shelving, and there are 35,000 volumes in the selective catalogue alone. The only documents you can’t access are those which are not yet 75 years old (in order to protect governmental and diplomatic information). Indexes are available for people who want to see if a document exists in the archives.

Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion: Due to the Holiness of a Very Important Biblical Object Which is Preserved There, Only a Qualified Monk Has the Privilege of Entering the Temple (Ethiopia)

The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion is found in Ethiopia, and it is impossible to access because it’s claimed to contain one of the most important biblical objects, the original Ark of the Covenant, which according to tradition came to Ethiopia with Menelik I after he visited his father King Solomon.

Due to the holiness and relevance of the ark, only a specially chosen monk has the privilege of entering the temple, and no one else is allowed to lay eyes on it or even get close.

The Jiangsu National Security Education Museum: A Spy Museum So Secret that Foreigners are Banned (China)

The Jiangsu National Security Education Museum in China is home to top secret documents about the history of Chinese espionage. There are a range of documents and gadgets dating from 1927, when the Communist Party’s Central Committee espionage department was founded, to the 1980s. There is also a collection of tiny pistols, guns disguised as lipstick, miniature cameras, concealed wiretaps, hollowed-out coins used to conceal documents, and maps hidden in decks of cards.

People are allowed to enter, but they have to be Chinese nationals due to the fact that they don’t want such sensitive spy information to be exposed to foreigners. In other words, you can only access it if you are citizen of the People’s Republic. However, no photography is allowed inside the museum, even if you’re Chinese.

Niihau: An Exotic Hawaiian Island Closed to Most Visitors in Order to Preserve Its Indigenous Culture and Wildlife

Niihau is the seventh largest of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands. This island has no paved roads. There are no stores, no restaurants, no electricity, and no indoor plumbing. On the other hand, Niihau has the only school in Hawaii—and perhaps the only one in the country—that relies entirely on solar power for its electricity.

Elizabeth Sinclair purchased Niihau in 1864 from the Kingdom of Hawaii and private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinson family.

In 1915, Sinclair’s grandson, Aubrey Robinson, closed the island to most visitors with the purpose of preserving its indigenous culture and wildlife. Even relatives of the inhabitants could visit only by special permission.

Today, the island is generally off-limits to everyone except relatives of the island’s owners, the natives, U.S. Navy personnel, government officials, and invited guests. There are very rare helicopter tours to the isle so you can wander along one of the beaches, but getting anywhere near the locals is strictly forbidden, giving it the nickname “The Forbidden Isle.”

Pine Gap: Only Area in Australia Designated as “Prohibited”

Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a satellite tracking station approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) southwest of the town of Alice Springs in the center of Australia which is operated by both Australia and the United States.

The facility consists of a large computer complex with 14 radomes protecting the antennae. It has over 800 employees.

The location is strategically significant because it controls America’s spy satellites as they pass over the third of the globe which includes China, parts of Russia, and Middle East oil fields. Central Australia was chosen because it was too remote for spy ships passing in international waters to intercept the signal.

The Negev Nuclear Research Center: A Nuclear Installation Located in the Desert (Israel)

The Negev Nuclear Research Center is an Israeli nuclear installation located in the Negev desert, about thirteen kilometers southeast of the city of Dimona, Israel.

Its construction commenced in 1958 with French assistance, according to the Protocol of Sèvres agreements.

Information about the facility remains highly classified. But in 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, fled to the United Kingdom and revealed to the media some evidence of Israel’s nuclear program and explained the purpose of each building, also revealing a top-secret underground facility directly below the installation.

In January 2012, media reports indicated that the Israel Atomic Energy Commission had decided to, at least temporarily, shut down the research center’s reactor. The site’s vulnerability to attack from Iran was cited as the main reason for the decision. In October and November 2012, it was reported that Hamas had fired rockets at Dimona (rather Negev Nuclear Research Center), but the facility was not harmed or damaged in any of the attempted strikes.

Of course the airspace over it is closed to all aircraft. They also implement the necessary measures to prevent unauthorized entry, so the area around it is heavily guarded and fenced off.

Ise Grand Shrine: The Holiest and Most Important Shrine in Japan

Ise Grand Shrine in Japan is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami. The Ise Jingu Shrine consists of two main shrines and about 125 additional shrines.

The shrine is one of Shinto’s holiest and most important sites. Access to the site is strictly limited; the only person who can enter is the priest or priestess, who must be a member of the Japanese imperial family. The general public is allowed to see little more than the thatched roofs of the central structures, which are hidden behind four tall wooden fences.
Every twenty years, the two main buildings inside the Ise Jingu Shrine are rebuilt. The shrines that are rebuilt are Naiku, or the “Inner Shrine,” and Geku, or the “Outer Shrine,” and they, as well as other parts of the complex that undergo any rebuilding, are rebuilt according to the original design blueprints from over 1,000 years ago. This rebuilding tradition is part of the Shinto belief in the transience of life and the renewal that follows death. It is also an invaluable way to pass on ancient building techniques from one generation to the next.

Metro-2: Purported Secret Underground Metro System in Russia

Metro-2 in Moscow, Russia is the informal name for a purported secret underground metro system which parallels the public Moscow Metro. The system was supposedly built, or at least started, during the time of Joseph Stalin and was codenamed D-6 by the KGB. It is supposedly still operated by the Main Directorate of Special Programs and the Ministry of Defense.

The length of Metro-2 is rumored to exceed that of the public Metro. It is said to have four lines that lie 50 to 200m deep. It is said to connect the Kremlin with the Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters, the government airport at Vnukovo-2, and an underground town at Ramenki, in addition to other locations of national importance.

In 1994, the leader of an urban exploration group, the Diggers of the Underground Planet, claimed to have found an entrance to this underground system.

Sadly, all available information is speculative and unsupported by documentation such as photographs. Also, there are narratives told by people who say that they helped build Metro-2, and urban spelunkers claim to have “seen” Metro-2, but there are no explicit “firsthand” accounts.

Source:

www.oddee.com

Happy birthday, Guantánamo! 6

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 16:55:00 +0000

Each Year in January, MatrixLeaks will publish the same article - "Happy birthday, Guantanamo!" - until the cruel cage will not be closed - as Mr. Obama promised in January 2010.

"I intend to close Guantánamo, and would not give it up. Many times I have repeated that the United States does not conduct torture and I will make sure that indeed be so. I will make every effort to increase America's moral reputation in the world", Barack Obama said during his election campaign, in which, among other things, promised to be one of the first things you will do will be closing the Guantánamo base. Base Guantánamo will be closed to 22. January 2010., believe me."

Already we in 2016., and Barack Obama president of the nearly seven years. Gunatánamo this week have the birthday cake candles. Fourteen years of existence. There is no indication that it will close the base, which thinks about its one hundred and seventy four inmates - um, who do they ask?

Amnesty International sends the years appeals to the U.S. government, saying the violation of the rights of prisoners, and one of their reports, in 2005 George W. Bush commented, it seems to me that they do some of their decisions based on the world and accusations of prisoners, people who hate America , people who are trained not to tell the truth. Indeed, America is a free country you do not have the right to hate. Why the hate, you ask? Gunatánamo is the best illustration of the tactics of intimidation, torture by the U.S. government applies worldwide. Just drape the flag of democracy and crime can begin. In peace, for freedom!

As in the cage

It has already been written about the case of Omar Khadra, "child of Guantanamo". Recently, his sister, Zaynab Khadra, gave an interview for the site Cageprisoners.

Zaynab Khadra said, among other things, how to work with Omar first heard in 2006, four years after being caught. After that, her and her family were allowed two phone calls a year, why they had to travel to Ottawa, because the conversation could be done only from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From the calls of 2009 can be performed via the Red Cross, so now the family is able to hear with Omar even three to four times a year. Zaynab said her brother grew up, his voice is more mature, his dialect is changed, such that the same person, and yet completely different. Omar does not believe in the legal system, the only way to find faith and rare interviews with his family. It acts more powerful than all of us, "said Zaynab.
Numerous other interviews can be found at the above-mentioned website. Cageprisoners is a British non-profit organization founded by former inmates of Guantanamo. On their website you can find personal testimonies, reports and latest news related to Guantánamo. Their goal is to be the voice of those who can not speak.

Omar Khadra at the time of his arrest and today (talkleft.com)

Death as a way

When you torture, humiliate, intimidate, offend, and they themselves may be unsure why, when you are about to end power and a better tomorrow eludes you every day, as the only way you might see them - death. By 2008, at Guantanamo were recorded four committed suicide and hundreds of attempts. It is a fact known to the public, and can only guess at the actual figures, which are assumed to be higher. Only in August 2003 there were eight three p.m. suicide attempt, which the Pentagon described as "manipulative behavior". 10 June 2006, three prisoners were found dead. The official statement was that the Pentagon appears to have committed suicide pact. Prison commander Admiral Harry Harris said the reason for suicide could not be despair, because the reasons for the despair and depression inmates had. I tried to kill himself, said Shad Muhammad, of twenty from Pakistan, was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and sent to Gunatánamo 2002. I tried four times, because we are disgusted by my life. We needed more blankets, but they did not listen. They never listened, "he said. Washington Post reported that documents on the methods of all sorts torture in Gunatánamo - exposure to hot and cold during sleep, bright light, extremely loud music, hard tests.

Admit it and you will receive medication

Adel El-Gazzar, former prisoner Gunatánama, the base has arrived with injured leg, after twenty to give a long journey from Pakistan. Twenty-five days he spent in what was then Camp X-ray (the camp was established in 2002, later repealed, and the prisoners were transferred to Camp Delta). After these twenty-five days after being rushed to the hospital to his amputated leg. El-Gazzara asked that he cleaned the wound and change dressings every day, as though to avoid amputation, but his request was denied. Wound was opened and forced him to a shower several times a day, and every new contact with water it was very painful. One day is spent crying in pain. There was a doctor with painkillers. I'll give you a drug, and the pain will go away for ten minutes, you just have to first sign a confession that you are a member of al-Qaeda, he said. El-Gazzara has refused to sign a confession. Shortly after his leg was amputated. During his stay in the database, even thirteen prisoners amputated leg. He says that the problem was not in wounds, and which were not great, but the inadequate medical treatment for which he came to amputation. Despite the pain the prisoners were able to sleep only at certain times and certain number of hours. If they violate the rules, hit them in the head, they took blankets, denied food, and threatened with further abuse.
Adel El-Gazzara after eight years was released from Gunatánamo and sent to Slovakia, the first thing I did was that I cried like a baby. I was really, really happy to leave this awful place, but also sad because my brothers who remained there. I wondered how I'm going to start a new life in an unfamiliar country, with an uncertain future. Prisoners in Gunatánamo my brothers, with them, I've spent more years than with his own wife and children. We suffered together under the same conditions. We are one big family, and I am sorry that I left them on the site. You know, it sounds strange - but Gunatánamo world outside is cold, cold place. There are, even in suffering, were together, side by side. Outside, everyone looks at their job, nobody cares for others.

The future?

Obviously not enough sad that it closed. Announced the relocation of prisoners in long-Thomson Correctional Center in Illionis. However, on 30 April, 2010th year, the base is closed. Another new year prisoners were greeted with the good old Gitmo, no reason to celebrate. They are one hundred and seventy four pending, they should not move, they need freedom, they want to return to their homes from which they were drawn because they are dark and worship Allah. On their face bonded with a label "terrorist ", they are to blame for all the woes of the great American people on behalf of that with them you can handle whatever the big ones will. Nine years ago, before the eyes of the entire world, with prisoners be treated as the biggest vermin, scum who should be removed from this otherwise vibrant planet. Muslims are guilty!

They hang up first, so they are tried. As the Wild West. Just as the Wild West were both good cowboys, brave fighters who would proudly rode into the sunset.

Guantanamo Bay - The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a US military prison located in Cuba. It was established in January 2002 by the Bush Administration to held, without charge or trial, detainees captured all over the world as part of the War on Terror. Notorious for its abuses and denial of due process, it is widely recognised as “the Gulag of our time”.

780 men, all Muslim and aged from 13 to 89, have been detained there outside any legal framework. The US authorities refused to apply the Geneva conventions protecting the rights of the prisoners of war. Instead, they were labelled ‘enemy combatants’ even though many of them were not captured on any battlefield.

Initially portrayed as “die hard terrorists”, US data shows that 92% of the detainees were not regarded as Al Qaeda fighters by the US government.

658 detainees have been released from Guantanamo Bay after years of detention without charge or trial. Out of the 122 remaining detainees, 54 have been cleared for release and 35 have been designated for ‘indefinite detention’ but cannot be charged with a crime due to the lack of evidence. Nine detainees have passed away while in custody at Guantanamo Bay.

Note: The first article was written a five year ago can be read here.
I hope that I would not write about this inhumanity who looks like that is from the 14th century!!!

Corporate News Ignores Connections Between Extreme Weather and Global Warming

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:09:00 +0000

one of the most censored news in 2014

Student Researchers: Noah Tenney, Kayla Silva, Cydney Shorkend, and Carla Cardenas (Sonoma State University), and Nicholas DePietro (Florida Atlantic University)

Faculty Evaluators: Peter Phillips, Ervand Peterson, and Andy Lee Roth (Sonoma State University), and James F. Tracy (Florida Atlantic University)

As extreme weather becomes increasingly common, it has received a fair share of coverage during network news broadcasts. Often missing from these reports, however, is any mention of climate change and its connection to extreme weather events. As Peter Hart reported for Extra!, the nightly news covers extreme weather events as unusual and newsworthy, but usually without explanation of climate change as an underlying cause.

A study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) found that extreme weather events in 2013 resulted in 450 news segments, of which only sixteen mentioned climate change. As for specific evening news shows, CBS Evening News only used terms like “global warming” and “greenhouse gases” in two of 114 extreme weather reports. ABC World News only mentioned climate change in eight reports out of 200, and NBC Nightly News only mentioned it in six reports out of 136. There was also a CBS report on the unsupported notion that there had been a “pause” in global warming.

The effects of a drought can be seen at a water reservoir in this photo taken in February 2013 in Kiwitahi, New Zealand. (Christine Cornege/New Zealand Herald/Associated Press)

There continues to be serious scientific debate on the extent to which current weather events and climate change should be linked. Nonetheless, a majority of American public still makes the connection between climate and weather despite the media’s failure to report on it.

Writing for Tomdispatch, Dahr Jamail reported on the increasingly high stakes of ignoring the scientific evidence for climate change. Jamail reported the perspectives of scientific experts who do not figure in corporate news coverage of our “extreme weather.” Concerns range from the costs of Arctic methane releases to a December 2013 study by eighteen eminent scientists concluding that “continuation of high fossil fuel emissions, given current knowledge of the consequences, would be an act of extraordinary witting intergenerational injustice.”

Although Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippines in November 2013, received ample corporate news coverage, Jamie Henn reported for YES! Magazine that it should not be thought of as a “natural” disaster but, instead, as a “climate disaster”—driven by coal, oil, and gas companies that “continue to pour billions of tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, disrupting our climate.” Henn reported on the growing fossil fuel divestment campaign that now includes over 500 universities, cities, and religious institutions across Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. “It’s time,” Henn wrote, “to tell our public institutions to divest from disaster.”

Climate-related disasters like flooding are on the rise. Photo:IRIN/Tung X. Ngo

Though climate engineering is often touted as a technological answer to climate change, German researchers have argued that attempts to artificially engineer the earth’s climate would likely cause worse effects than presently forecasted climate change trends. David Keller and colleagues from the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, reported findings based on an earth system model that replicated five different strategies to reduce global warming and help prevent wide-scale climate change.

Climate engineering, or reducing the levels of sunlight hitting the planet’s surface through “solar radiation management,” could change rainfall patterns, worsen conditions in arid zones, or cause irreversible harm once the technology’s use ceased. After considering other technological fixes, the study’s authors concluded that any such measures would have limited effectiveness without further cutbacks in carbon-based greenhouse emissions.

Sources:

Peter Hart, “Weather—Without Climate,” Extra! (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), December 2, 2013, http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/weather-without-climate

Dahr Jamail, “The Climate Change Scorecard,” Tomdispatch, December 17, 2013, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175785/tomgram%3A_dahr_jamail,_the_climate_change_scorecard

Jamie Henn, “In the Wake of Haiyan, We Must Divest from Fossil Fuels,” YES! Magazine, November 12, 2013, http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/divesting-from-disaster

Europe in Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 09:16:00 +0000

The head of Austria's opposition Freedom Party has censured the United States and the NATO for sparking the ongoing refugee crisis that has engulfed European countries.

"The USA and NATO have destroyed Iraq and Libya with their military intervention, bombs and missiles; provided financial, logistical and military support to the opposition against President [Bashar al-] Assad in Syria, and thus made possible the destruction, chaos, suffering," and Takfirism in the region, Heinz-Christian Strache wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.

Strache also scorned what he called US President Barack Obama's suggestion that Europe should bear the main responsibility for dealing with the influx of asylum seekers hailing from conflict-stricken parts of the globe in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

"The USA for decades has started fires in the Middle East and then has … the chutzpah to claim that responsibility for the flood of refugees unleashed lies with Europe. That's geostrategic destabilization at its finest," he wrote.

A cameraman films refugees in the Austrian town of Nickelsdorf on September 5, 2015. © AFP

Also on Saturday, thousands of refugees streamed into Austria, hoping to continue their long journey to reach Germany after days of standoffs with Hungarian authorities in Budapest's main train station.

In the Austrian capital Vienna, large groups of asylum seekers boarded trains for Germany and arrived in Munich later in the day.

The refugees were given temporary accommodation in Munich and will be distributed to other German cities in coming days.

According to Austria's Interior Ministry, some 10,000 people were expected to reach Austria on Saturday. German police also said they expected to receive 10,000 people during the day.

In recent months, Europe has been facing a huge influx of refugees, mainly coming from war-ravaged countries like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Most of the refugees land in Italy or Greece, and then head for the wealthier countries of northern Europe by transiting through countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, like Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary.

Nearly 340,000 asylum seekers reached the borders of the European Union during the first seven months of the year, up from 123,500 during the same period in 2014, according to the bloc's border agency Frontex.

The refugee crisis has been exacerbated by the failure of European officials to take coordinated measures to help those who have fled their countries.

Worst refugee crisis since WWII

Europe's refugee crisis has been dubbed the worst since WWII with a record number of 107,500 asylum seekers crossing the EU's borders in July. Tens of thousands of people are fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and North Africa to start a new life in Europe, but many meet a tragic end there.

Hungary organized a corridor from Budapest to the Austrian border on Friday night, deploying over one hundred buses to clear refugee camps in the capital and pick up hundreds of asylum seekers traveling the main highway towards Vienna.

Exhausted families were happy to leave Budapest on their way to a “new life,” while the Austrian Red Cross prepared to host, feed and shelter thousands of new arrivals at their border reception center. But as hundreds were leaving for Austria, hundreds more could be seen squatting and sleeping rough at the Budapest terminal. The future of these new arrivals remains undecided.

Migrants sleep near the Keleti railway station in Budapest, Hungary, September 3, 2015. © Bernadett Szabo / Reuters

Berlin appears to have overstated its intentions earlier, as some centers in the capital prove to be struggling with the sheer number of new arrivals. Volunteers looked to be the only force to manage the situation at times.

Some politicians are speaking out against the message of hope the EU has been sending the refugees.

"We have sent very bad signals to these migrants," MEP Aymeric Chauprade of the National Front Party told RT. "We said from the beginning that we accept all these people... This is absolutely stupid, and the result is that now, we have a very huge wave of migrants. And it's a disaster for the future of Europe, regarding demography and statistics of migrants...", he added, as hundreds more were arriving to Germany through Munich.

According to a police spokesman, some 450 new arrivals could be seen in the early afternoon at the southern-German terminal, with a city train waiting to escort them to registration centers nearby, according to Reuters.

Despite the unfolding chaos, a number of European politicians continue to be in favor of a humane approach to the crisis that emphasises rights and dignity - the underlying principles Europe believes in.

“Our answer must be in line with our history and our values, in line with what Europe is about,” Europe's Economic Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Friday in Turkey, following Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Thursday statements regarding the future of Christianity in Europe.

“To be European means to care about humanity and to care about human rights.

“When the world and Europe face such a drama, the answer should never be nationalistic. Never to close borders, never to renounce our values. Never,” the impassioned Moscovici added.

ISIS and Islam: The Ugly Truth

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 08:31:00 +0000

The world has not seen such brutality and savagery in modern times. Horrible Stories were told about the Celts, the Aztecs and the Mongols; nevertheless they always remained stories of the remote past. But what the militants of the so called “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – ISIS” are doing is something else, what they are perpetrating defy any literary power to try and put it into words.

Driven by what they see as divine command and wreaking havoc and devastation only thought possible in Hollywood productions the Islamic militant group ISIS has pushed the definition of terrorism to a new and scary limit.

Their ongoing banquet of carnage has to be seen, not only to be believed but to grasp how religion, that should have united humans in peace, could turn into a license to lawless slaughter. (Watch this extremely graphic video of ISIS brutal mass execution of Iraqi civilians and soldiers – watch at your discretion HERE)

Contrary to what most commentators have said, it is not the graphic scenes of mass execution and beheading of hundreds of innocent civilians by ISIS that I find most repulsive, the American war on Iraq has left thousands killed in cold blood and countless numbers born with anomalies caused by US radioactive lethal weaponry (Hi-tech savagery that often go unreported by MSM)

What I personally find really scary in the ISIS militants is that they carry out their onslaught seemingly without any shred of guilt or shame. The militants/Mujahideen go about their business as usual; beheading their opponents’ minutes after they fall into their captivity. And minutes later they all go and join each other in a humble prayer to god.

Following the scripture literally

Now what’s interesting, or rather shocking, is the fact that those hideous acts of terrorism are executed by people who claim they are devout Muslims.

I know that the whole world, including the Islamic world, is viewing ISIS Mujahideen as the ultimate example of brutal terrorism and modern time’s savagery.

But this world view doesn’t concern me as much as how those Muslim terrorists really view themselves. Moreover, why a supposedly devout Muslim would/should end up as a global terrorist just for merely doing what his faith oblige him to undertake.

Ladies and gents, regardless of who is funding ISIS and the fact that many of their militants, including Abu Bakr El Baghdadi have been trained in US military base in Jordan and maybe some of their top leaders have been also recruited by CIA, one fact remains so obvious and yet so bewildering.

Those ruthless ISIS terrorists sincerely believe they are pious devotees of Islam’s god “Allah” and that they act according to his holy scripture “Quran” and they are the true followers of his prophet “Mohamed”

You won’t believe this but in a strange way those ISIS terrorists are telling the truth, or what they were made to believe is the truth.

The ugly truth is that ISIS terrorists are acting literally according to some of the many Quran’s verses that incite fighting and killing non-Muslims in almost cold-blooded way.

“Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not.” Quran (2:216)

Now, and before we elaborate any further, let’s get this one thing about Quran straight. Like Judaism, Islam is a religion of laws. Actually Judaism and Islam are so much alike the Quran, not the Christian Bible, should be labeled “The New Testament” … after all, both Quran and the Tanakh are the product of the same Arabic nomadic culture.

While the Gospels of Christianity have been influenced/softened by the Greco-Roman philosophy and separated from the state by the power of Jesus’ famous line “”Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” The Tanakh and Quran kept their strong tribal culture and binding laws unmitigated over the centuries.

As a Christian, as long as you believe in Jesus Christ, you only need the scripture as a spiritual guideline but in Judaism and Islam you’re bound by the canon of your faith to embrace their rules as the instruction book of your day to day life.

The Hebrew/Muslim laws tell their followers what to eat and what not to eat and drink, how to get married, how to get divorced, how to get into the bathroom … and yes how and when to kill the non-believers.

The key point here is how should the Holy Scripture especially those of Islam be interpreted? The verses of any holy scripture should be interpreted in accordance with their historical context, but that is not what the Muslims, at least nowadays, do. (This is the focal source of all extremism and terrorism)

Islam’s dilemma

The dilemma of Islam, it has been for a while actually, is that its theologians, Imams and clerics refuse/fail to view the scripture, especially the verses that promote fighting and jihad, within the frame of its historical context.

They’d rather keep them open-ended as part of an eternal and always relevant words of Allah. Most conservative Muslim clerics are under the impression that binding many of the verses to its historicity might restrain the authority of a big chunk of the scripture, and consequently the influence of the Islamic clergy.

This dilemma has been ignored for centuries, thus paving more ways and opening more doors for ultra-conservative literalism, also known as fundamentalism (closest backdoor to violence and terrorism)

That said, the more any Muslim conservative reads verses from Quran and memorize Hadith (sayings) by prophet Mohamed, the more he is likely to take it absolutely literally and automatically apply it to his current life and affairs. (Not to mention that piles of Hadith are of doubtful source and purpose)

“Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority”. Quran (3:151)

If we to interpret the above verse in its historical context we will learn that some Pagan tribes of the Arab Peninsula were terrified and finally defeated by the raids of Mohamed and his followers back in the early seventh century.

But if we to interpret it literally and maybe relevant to the present point in time, then we are talking about ISIS mujahideen casting terror, by mass execution and beheading like the early Muslim fighters used to do, into the hearts of the followers of the infidels Bashar Al-Assad of Syria and Al- Maliki of Iraq, for they ruled not according to Islamic Sharia.

Do you see how terrifyingly simple this is, and how terrifyingly complicated this has become?

At this point in my article I expect many to be offended by my candid exposition and they might try and refute my thesis by irritably commenting “Early Muslims and Mujahideen never killed fellow Muslims” and my reply would be “yes they did; Sunnis killed Shia in Karbala (680 A.D) and a bloody perpetual conflict between the two sects has ensued ever since till this very day. (Not to mention the massacres perpetrated by Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates)

Bad Dogma

While everybody is agitatedly following the news and videos of ISIS, nobody is asking the logical question “How did such a group of dangerous fanatics create in the first place?

ISIS has created not only due to militarization by US army nor recruitment by CIA but primarily because of misinterpreted scripture and bad dogma.

Another ugly truth is the fact that early Muslims of the Arab Peninsula, during and following the death of Mohamed, were so brutal in their fighting and raids.

The early Muslims "Sahabah" were economically desperate; as a newly formed community they needed money and craved for influence so they began by raiding trade caravans in the Peninsula (the ancient spices and incense road) and ended up raiding Persian, Roman and Egyptian territories.

Beheading the enemies, as a means to evoke fear, was a common practice in the ancient Arabian tribal wars. Khalid ibn al-Walid the military commander of the early days of the Islamic state never hesitated to behead the fighters of his enemies.

The Islamic records reveal that Bin Walid after the battle of Ullais 633 A.D, aka the battle of blood river, spent a whole day and night beheading 7000 soldiers and dumping them in the river(flowing it with their blood) in rejoice and gratitude for Allah’s brought-victory over the Persians.

Submit to Islam and be safe. Or agree to the payment of the Jizya, and you and your people will be under our protection, else you will have only yourself to blame for the consequences, for I bring the men who desire death as ardently as you desire life. (Khalid Bin Walid’s letter to the Sassanid Persians before he raided their empire – very similar to ISIS raid threats)

Now, could you see the example ISIS mujahidin are following. What ISIS did to the Christians of Mosul is no different than what Bin Walid had earlier done, with the blessings of Islam’s Caliphate at the time, to the Christians of the Sassanid Empire.

Contrary to what the clergy or Islamic media claim, ISIS and Al Qaeda is not the exception, the millions of so called moderate Muslims around the world are.

Those fundamentalist Islamists who are casting terror into the heart of the civilized world are but a copycat of the mujahidin of early Islam. Whether we like it or not this is the ugly truth.

The reason why the majority of Muslims does not act like ISIS nor condone its crimes is because those millions of the so called moderate Muslims have not been prone to fundamentalist Islamic teaching through indoctrination (intellectual hypnosis)

Once they are, even if they were brought up in western communities, a considerable faction of them especially those with assimilation and economic problems will turn into dogmatic Jihadists ready to be recruited by ISIS.

Another important factor that many tend to overlook is that the majority of world’s Muslims act according to preconceptions that their own indigenous culture and traditions have mainly contributed to and not only Islam. Hence the term “moderate Muslims” denotes an attitude/mindset brought about by a blend between different cultures, be it Egyptian, Syrian or Persian and Islam.

And indeed that intercultural blend is the reason why the fundamentalist and harsh Bedouin side of Islam has been ameliorated enough to allow millions of Muslims to coexist with their fellow men of other creeds and theology over the long centuries.

Reforming Islam

ISIS could be a peril to Islam’s reputation and future around the world, but there is a good flip-side to this situation. Never before in recent times have the Muslim clergy had the opportunity and the imperative to embark on reforming Islam.

Jihadist groups and the rise of political Islam won’t be eradicated or even curbed by air power and drone attacks. ISIS, Al Qaeda, al-Nusra front and Muslim Brotherhood won’t be dismantled except by reforming and changing the mainstream narrative of Islam. For Muslims, nothing short of that will be like burying their heads in the sand.

ISIS is a reason enough for high profile Muslim scholars to start purifying the Hadith from tons of controversial sayings and teachings, doing more harm than good, claimed to have been told by Mohamed.

ISIS is a reason enough to start a new approach in interpreting the Quran’s verses especially those narrating the chronicles of Mohamed and followers’ battles against pagans.

Launching a new school of credible and enlightened Muslim scholars that will respect the historical context of the scripture verses is the first step toward reforming Islam.

This couldn’t have been more urgent a time, for world Muslims have been leaning dangerously towards fundamentalism and extremism throughout the last 80 years (ever since the establishment of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and following the rise of Wahhabi tide in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan)

If this rare opportunity for reforming Islam passed unnoticed and unexploited, then we will suffer from endless and more powerful tides of fundamentalist Jihadist groups.

And we have to beware of the fact that the groups that will follow ISIS will be more cruel and tougher and they will definitely attract huge numbers of mujahideen, so huge no military coalition will be able to break them down.

Most probably the current coalition led by US will be able to dismantle ISIS militarily but not ideologically. The task of dismantling ISIS bad ideas and dangerous dogma is the vital battle that Muslims themselves led by their scholars and clergy should undertake.

70 years Since the Great Victory!

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sun, 10 May 2015 08:40:00 +0000

By André Vltchek

To Be Russian 70 years since the great Victory, 70 years since the Soviet people saved the world by smashing Nazism, 70 years since they, almost immediately, joined yet another fight, against Western imperialism and colonialism.

27 million Soviet people, mainly Russians, lost their lives defending our planet against Hitler’s hordes. Then hundreds of millions of others dedicated their lives to building a much better, and egalitarian world.

Without the Soviet Union, without the Russian people, there would be no freedom, no independence for Asian, African and the Middle Eastern countries. There would be no revolutions possible in Latin America.

This is why the West hated the Soviet Union, and that is why it hates the Russian people. It lost its colonies, it lost its propaganda war, and it lost its monopoly on defining everything under the sun.

On May 9 1945, the entire world changed. Humanity began moving forward, again. Slowly, unevenly, often making terrible blunders and detours, but forward nevertheless! Colonial shackles began breaking. People on all continents were dreaming again, about true freedom, equality and the brotherhood of men. That beautiful red flag flying from the roof of Reichstag in Berlin made these dreams possible.

The Soviet people had proven that human dignity and freedom are worth any sacrifice. The Victory Ode was written with their blood, in the most generous way, so it could inspire generations to come!

The symbol of victory - the Soviet flag in Berlin 1945th

But the greed and nihilism of the West refused to die. The obsession with controlling and plundering the world had reached an unimaginable peak. All the forces of the Empire were mobilized. Light and hope were confronted by darkness and cynicism. Beautiful and pure dreams were antagonized by corruption. In an orgy of dirty tricks and deceptions, the Soviet Union was destroyed.

In one single historical moment, the oppressed of the world lost their most powerful guardian.

What followed was complete horror. The Empire began destabilizing one country after another: in Africa, Asia, in the Middle East and even in the former Eastern block. Millions of people were destroyed, exposed, unprotected, totally abandoned.

Fascist hordes thought that this time, finally, they had won. In Moscow, Yeltsin, an alcoholic and lackey of the West, began shooting his own people on the street, and bombing his own Parliament. That was “democracy” the newspapers in Paris, London and New York wrote almost immediately. This was what the West dreamed about: a weak destabilized Russia, mad, drunk, on its knees, at mercy of the Empire.

I travelled to Moscow and Siberia. I saw Russian scientists in Novosibirsk selling their libraries in the bitter cold, at metro stations. I saw old war veterans begging, and selling their medals. I saw Russian workers starving, their salaries unpaid for months.

Then something happened. Russia never kneels for too long. It rapidly detected the lies coming from abroad; it recognized the trap. In just a few, short, dreadful years the Russian people experienced life under the fascist boot of the Empire. It was like a war. Life expectancy went to dogs. Country lost tens of millions.

Russia had to raise or die, as always in its history. It rose. Indignant and determined! And as always in the past, when it stood up to confront the evil, it was doing it not only for its own people, but also for all humanity!

Russia has regrouped under new Russian flag. It is not perfect and not as ‘socialist’ as many of us would like it to be, but there is a great Soviet inertia in Russia’s foreign policy, as there is great pride and determination to improve the world, to protect the weak.

70 years since the Great Victory! This year, Russia is not only celebrating an anniversary. It is rejoicing over its rebirth.

André Vltchek (born 1963) is a novelist, philosopher, investigative journalist, filmmaker, photographer and playwright. He has covered dozens of war zones and conflicts from Bosnia and Peru to Sri Lanka, DR Congo and Timor-Leste. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in Asia and Africa..

America Hell-Bent on War

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 11:08:00 +0000

80-Year-Old Analyst Has Never Been More Afraid

“I'm 80 years old. I was never scared throughout the Cold War years. I'm very scared now.” That is what Stephen Lendman, a Research Associate for the Centre for Research on Globalization told Sputnik in an exclusive interview regarding recent developments related to the military conflict in Ukraine.

As the Normandy Four are set to meet in Minsk on Wednesday to discuss possible ways out of the deteriorating military conflict in eastern Ukraine, Stephen Lendman forecasts that the US won’t drop its idea of waging a full-size war in the region.

Washington under the Democrats or Republicans wants war, not peace, he said. "In the post-9/11 era alone, not a single day of peace has followed. Multiple US direct and proxy wars rage. US Special Forces (trained killers) operate covertly and overtly in over 130 countries disruptively."

Stephen Lendman is one of the best American analysts of world political situation

‘Ignore What Germany and France Say Publicly; Follow What They Do’

He says that "Merkel and Hollande (Germany and France) are bedrock US-dominated NATO members." "Ignore what they say publicly; follow what they do," he advised. "Throughout the Ukrainian crisis, they haven't gone their own way against Washington…nor has Britain's David Cameron."

"I'm sure Merkel and Hollande tried to get Putin to largely bend to Washington's will; in other words, [they] do nothing to stop its chokehold on Ukraine, including NATO forces encroaching on Russia's borders."

America maintains an empire of bases in over 150 countries, he added, noting that Russia and China are increasingly surrounded by US bases, which he called "so-called defensive missiles for an offense target: their heartlands."

Washington wants all sovereign independent governments eliminated, Lendman stated. "Replaced by pro-Western stooge ones. America's ultimate aim is unchallenged global dominance; it's willing to wage wars to achieve its objectives."

‘Peace is Anathema. US-Banker Led War Lobby Demands Wars’

The political analyst said that wars are hugely profitable. "The US-banker led war lobby demands them. Peace is anathema. Putin is right: Russia has been targeted for centuries, more than ever now since Hitler's Barbarossa campaign."

Regarding the role the US left for Russia, Lendman forecast the following.

Washington wants to plunder Russia's resources," he said. "Exploit its people. Balkanize the country like Yugoslavia for easier control."

"America ousted Ukraine's legitimate government," in "the most brazen European coup since Mussolini's 1922 march on Rome. Neo-Nazi thugs run things", Lendman said of the 2014 Maidan events, calling the post-Maidan government there mob rule. "War policy is made in Washington."

"CIA, FBI and US Special Forces infest Kiev: Top US officials like Joe Biden, John Kerry, Victoria Nuland and John Brennan show up to deliver marching orders."

"Kiev is a hotbed of fascist, militant gangsterism, murdering its own citizens in Donbas [for] wanting only democratic rights free from Kiev-style tyranny."

"Kiev's military is a proxy US force," Lendman went on. "One observer said America will wage the war down to the last Ukrainian. What's ongoing is a pretext to blame Moscow for US/Kiev high crimes against peace."

Smiling ultra right-wing President of Ukraine Poroshenko with slightly revised flag of Europe. What was it funny while being photographed with Nazi characteristics?

‘Putin Will Keep Doing What's Best for Russia’

"Putin will keep doing what's best for Russia, not America or other NATO countries", the analyst said. However, Lendman greatly fears how things will turn out.

"Washington has been heading for conflict with Russia throughout Putin's tenure."

Lendman says that the US Congress almost universally demonizes Putin, and that the US media has sunk to its lowest depths in his lifetime. He fears a possible US-instigated war with Russia, and suspects a major false flag will be used as justification.

“I'm 80 years old. I was never scared throughout the Cold War years. I'm very scared now,” he stated.

Happy birthday, Guantánamo! 5

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 12:48:00 +0000

Each Year in January, MatrixLeaks will publish the same article - "Happy birthday, Guantanamo!" - until the cruel cage will not be closed - as Mr. Obama promised in January 2010.

"I intend to close Guantánamo, and would not give it up. Many times I have repeated that the United States does not conduct torture and I will make sure that indeed be so. I will make every effort to increase America's moral reputation in the world" , Barack Obama said during his election campaign, in which, among other things, promised to be one of the first things you will do will be closing the Guantánamo base. Base Guantánamo will be closed to 22. January 2010., believe me."

Already we in 2015., and Barack Obama president of the nearly six years. Gunatánamo this week have the birthday cake candles. Thirteen years of existence. There is no indication that it will close the base, which thinks about its one hundred and seventy four inmates - um, who do they ask?

Note: The first article was written a four year ago can be read here.
I hope that I would not write about this inhumanity who looks like that is from the 14th century!!!

5 Myths About Marijuana Debunked

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 09:59:00 +0000

The more research is released, the more legalization makes sense.

Back in the 1930s, the arguments to criminalize cannabis were bizarre and openly racist. The anti-pot crusader Harry Anslinger made all sorts of over-the-top claims, such as, “Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters.”

Nowadays more than 100 million Americans say they’ve smoke pot, millions use cannabis regularly to treat illnesses and it is as legal as alcohol in two U.S. states. However, it remains illegal under federal law largely due to scare tactics ingrained in our society, which date back even prior to Anslinger.

Today, pot legalization opponents try a little harder to sound reasonable, but their claims don’t do much better than Anslinger’s under scrutiny. Recent studies have picked apart the justifications for criminalizing marijuana. Here are five of the most popular arguments against cannabis legalization that are easily undermined by objective data.

1. Pot leads to crime

If alcohol prohibition taught us anything it’s that prohibition itself leads to crime, not what is prohibited. While cannabis has shaken the psychotic Reefer Madness reputation over the years, the association between weed and crime is still alive and well in certain realms of the media, which are happy to present data without appropriate statistical caveats.

As for the studies that carefully and objectively examine their data, they find no association between cannabis and crime. A recent study in the journal PLOS One found that in states that legalized medical marijuana between 1990 and 2006 the crime rate either remained the same or decreased.

Another study looked at the Lambeth borough of London, which depenalized cannabis for 13 months in 2001-2002. The study found that this actually reduced other types of crime, because Lambeth police could focus their energy elsewhere.

These results fit with common sense. Cannabis has a range of effects on mood and behavior, but they don’t include violence, impulsivity or other traits that would turn otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals.

2. The gateway theory

The gateway theory has long been the stock response of marijuana opponents to the notion that cannabis itself isn’t that bad for you. They falsely claim it leads to harder stuff, and insist that what starts with a joint ends with a heroin needle.

While it’s true that most users of hard drugs used marijuana and alcohol first, that doesn’t prove that cannabis use leads to harder drugs. Correlation does not equal causality—most heroin users have worn jeans at some point in their lives, but it’s unlikely that one leads to another.

But is it at least plausible that cannabis use creates a bridge to experimenting with more dangerous chemicals? The research says no.

A RAND Institute study using data collected from 1982-1994 found that drug use patterns in American youths can be explained without resorting to a gateway effect. People who are interested in mind-altering substances are likely to have tried pot, as it is the most popular and available illicit drug. This and other circumstantial factors related to drug availability and how old someone was when they first used cannabis were sufficient to explain drug use patterns. Since then, numerous peer-reviewed studies have been published supporting RAND’s basic conclusions.

Holland provides a good natural experiment in the effects of cannabis use, as marijuana has been legal there for citizens since 1976. A RAND Corporation study from 2011, titled What Can We Learn From The Dutch Coffee Shop Experience? found no causal relationship between using cannabis and harder drugs. In fact, because legalization meant that people went to a coffee shop, not a dealer, to get high, RAND found that legal cannabis likely reduced rates of harder drug use.

3. Cannabis has no medicinal purpose

Even though it has been slain many times over at this point, this idea is worth mentioning because cannabis is still listed as a Schedule I substance by the U.S. government, which implies that the official federal stance is that it has no medical use and is “dangerous.” However, just the opposite is true according to the actual facts. Almost half the states in the U.S. already have some kind of medical marijuana law (20 plus Washington D.C.) and many more are likely to legalize medical marijuana in this year’s elections.

Cannabis has been shown to effectively treat a slew of conditions including seizure disorders (often quite dramatically), glaucoma, and symptoms related to chemotherapy. There is even evidence it can reduce certain types of cancerous tumors.

This is all well known and well documented, and yet cannabis remains a Schedule I drug. While it’s hard to find anyone who will still defend this policy, it remains the law of the land, and a major stumbling block on the path to reform.

4. Marijuana is addictive

The addiction claim has been contained over time, but never fully eradicated. Cannabis faces some guilt by association. How could alcohol, tobacco, heroin and cocaine all be clearly addictive and yet weed somehow isn’t?

Furthermore, with words like stoner and pothead in the lexicon, our culture has a firm grasp of the weed-dependent stereotype. When we think of marijuana addiction, an image comes to mind. He (usually a he), smokes pot and eats all day, is smelly and unshaven, watches too much TV and/or plays too many video games, and has a crappy job if he has a job at all. And sure, a lot of people actually do know someone like that, but the research show that, that someone is probably choosing their lifestyle rather than trapped in it by an actual addiction.

Regardless of how the addiction myth has stuck around, it is just that: a myth. The most commonly cited study on cannabis dependence declared that 4% of Americans 15-54 are dependent on cannabis. That’s compared to 24% who are dependent on tobacco and 14% on alcohol. Among users, they found that 9% of cannabis users who try it get hooked, as compared to 32% for tobacco and 15% for alcohol.

So cannabis seems to show some propensity for dependence, but for every dependent user, there are 10 who don’t develop that sort of issue, and this rate is better than that of popular legal drugs.

Furthermore, even the 9% figure is likely inflated. A subject in the oft-cited study was deemed “dependent” if they answered yes to at least three of seven questions. The survey included questions that would take a very different meaning with legal drugs than illegal, such as if “a great deal of time was spent in activities necessary to get the substance, taking the substance, or recovering from its effects.”

This study was conducted in the 1990s, before any state had recognized the medical use of cannabis, and acquiring it regularly involved considerable effort. Because of this, it’s not hard to imagine that users would experience “important social, occupational, or recreational activities given up or reduced because of use,” which was another criterion for dependence. It is quite possible the survey mistook habitual use for dependence in some cases.

We can be sure that cannabis is significantly less habit-forming than alcohol, and especially tobacco, and the degree to which people become dependent is probably overstated.

5. Pot makes users lazy

This idea is the most persistent: we rarely question the cultural belief that getting high saps one’s motivation. If there is any truth to that, it has been difficult to find in studies. What seems to be going on instead is that about 5-6% of the population has “amotivational syndrome,” and there is no significant difference in this between cannabis users and everyone else. One study looked at daily pot smokers and compared them to people who never touch pot. This found no significant difference between the two groups. There was a small difference in “subjective well-being” (how happy the subject says he or she is) favoring non-smokers, but the study authors ascribed much of this to medical conditions some of the subjects were taking cannabis to mitigate.

More than anything, the idea that stoners are lazy seems to be confirmation bias. We shrug off the examples that contradict that notion as special cases and nod sagely when our suspicions are confirmed. Furthermore, we fail to group unmotivated non-users with unmotivated users.

Conclusion

As the stigma against cannabis research has disappeared and more good data has been made available, the arguments against legalization have fallen. If cannabis is a plant with legitimate medical uses, does not lead to crime or harder drugs, is not addictive and doesn’t make you lazy, what argument for prohibition remains?

If there are still legitimate reasons to keep cannabis criminalized, let’s talk about them, but if not, let’s cut out a major revenue stream of Mexico’s vicious drug cartels, grant easy access to medicine for people who need it, provide a major boost to our economy, and legalize already.

Another Fake Bin Laden Story

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 09:39:00 +0000

RT, one of my favorite news sources, has fallen for a fake story put out by the Pentagon to support the fantasy story that a SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden, who died a second time in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a decade after his first death from illness and disease. http://rt.com/usa/202895-navy-seal-shot-binladen/

This fake story together with the fake movie and the fake book by an alleged SEAL team member is the way the fake story of bin Laden’s murder is perpetrated. Bin Laden’s alleged demise at the hands of a SEAL team was a propaganda orchestration, the purpose of which was to give Obama a hero’s laurels and deep six Democratic talk of challenging his nomination for a second term.

Osama bin Laden died in December 2001 of renal failure and other health problems, having denied in his last recorded video any responsibility for 9/11, instead directing Americans to look inside their own government. The FBI itself has stated that there is no evidence that Osama bin Laden is responsible for 9/11. Bin Laden’s obituary appeared in numerous foreign and Arabic press, and also on Fox News. No one can survive renal failure for a decade, and no dialysis machine was found in the alleged Abbottabad compound of bin Laden, who allegedly was murdered by SEALs a decade after his obituary notices.

Additionally, no one among the crew of the ship from which the White House reported bin Laden was buried at sea saw any such burial, and the sailors sent messages home to that effect. Somehow a burial was held onboard a ship on which there are constant watches and crew on alert at all hours, and no one witnessed it.

Additionally, the White House story of the alleged murder of bin Laden changed twice within the first 24 hours. The claim that Obama and his government watched the action transmitted live from cameras on the SEALs’ helmets was quickly abandoned, despite the release of a photo of the Obama regime intently focused on a TV set and alleged to be watching the live action. No video of the deed was ever released. To date there is no evidence whatsoever in behalf of the Obama regime’s claim. Not one tiny scrap. Just unsubstantiated self-serving claims.

Osama bin Laden

Additionally, as I have made available on my website, witnesses interviewed by Pakistan TV reported that only one helicopter landed in Abbottabad and that when the occupants of the helicopter returned from the alleged bin Laden compound, the helicopter exploded on takeoff and there were no survivors. In other words, there was no bin Laden corpse to deliver to the ship that did not witness a burial and no SEAL hero to return who allegedly murdered an unarmed bin Laden. Moreover, the BBC interviewed residents in Abbottabad, including those next door to the alleged “bin Laden compound,” and all say that they knew the person who lived there and it was not bin Laden.

Any SEAL who was so totally stupid as to kill the unarmed “Terror Mastermind” would probably have been courtmartialed for incompetency. Look at the smiling face of the man Who Killed Bin Laden. He thinks that his claim that he murdered a man makes him a hero, a powerful comment on the moral degeneracy of Americans.

So what is this claim by Rob O’Neill about? He is presented as a “motivational speaker” in search of clients. What better ploy among gullible Americans than to claim “I am the one who shot bin Laden.” Reminds me of the western movie: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. What better way to give Rob O’Neill’s claim validity than for the Pentagon to denounce his revelation for breaking obligation to remain silent. The Pentagon claims that O’Neill by claiming credit has painted a big target sign on our door asking ISIS to come get us.

Policemen stand guard near the partially demolished compound where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces, in Abbottabad February 26, 2012.(Reuters/Faisal Mahmood)

What unbelievable nonsense. ISIS and anyone who believed Obama’s claim to have done in bin Laden already knew, if they believed the lie, that the Obama regime claimed responsibility for murdering an unarmed bin Laden. The reason the SEAL team was prevented from talking is that no member of the team was on the alleged mission,

Just as the ship from which bin Laden was allegedly buried has no witnesses to the deed, the SEAL unit, whose members formed the team that allegedly dispatched an unarmed Terrorist Mastermind rather than to take him into custody for questioning, mysteriously died in a helicopter crash when they were loaded in violation of procedures in an unprotected 1960s vintage helicopter and sent into a combat zone in Afghanistan shortly after the alleged raid on “bin Laden’s compound.”

For awhile there were news reports that the families of these dead SEALS do not believe one word of the government’s account. Moreover, the families reported receiving messages from the SEALs that suddenly they felt threatened and did not know why. The SEALs had been asking one another: “Were you on the bin Laden mission?” Apparently, none were. And to keep this a secret, the SEALs were sent to their deaths.

Anyone who believes anything the US government says is gullible beyond the meaning of the word.

Kids For Cash

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 09:01:00 +0000

Inside One of the Nation’s Most Shocking Juvenile Justice Scandals

As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the landmark Supreme Court decision that gave poor defendants the right to counsel, it would be nice to celebrate. That case, taken together with the 1967 decision In re Gault, which gave juveniles the same rights in court as adults, stands for the principle that process matters in our system of justice; when faced with the awesome power of the state, the accused — rich or poor, old or young — must be properly armed.

Two recent books put a damper on the celebration, revealing just how random and impoverished justice can be, and how flimsy the right to counsel. In “Kids for Cash,” the investigative reporter William Ecenbarger tells the story behind a corruption scandal so brazen and cruel it defies imagination. Between 2003 and 2008, two Pennsylvania judges accepted millions of dollars in kickbacks from a private juvenile detention facility in exchange for sending children — girls and boys, some as young as 11 — to jail.

It is a harrowing tale, lucidly told by a journalist with a good eye for detail. The children’s stories continue to unsettle long after the book ends: the 13-year-old incarcerated forthrowing a piece of steak at his mother’s boyfriend; the 15-year-old for throwing a sandal at her mother; the 11-year-old for calling the police after his mother locked him out of the house; the 14-year-old for writing a satirical Myspace profile. Another 14-year-old, an A student, was sentenced for writing “Vote for Michael Jackson” on a few stop signs; she had a seizure while in detention, banging her head so hard she cracked her dental braces.

Mark Ciavarella is the judge who sent away all those children — and several thousand others — in cahoots with Judge Michael Conahan. Ecenbarger calls what took place “a routine and systematic form of child abuse.” After the briefest of hearings — the average length was four minutes — kids were dispatched to detention centers in which the judges had a financial interest. If parents were unable to pay the costs of detention, their children were sometimes held longer. One teenager’s Social Security survivor’s check, from his father’s death, was garnished to pay the costs.

Mark Ciavarella

What happened in Luzerne County, formerly known for coal and now for organized crime and public corruption (in certain districts, teachers have to pay for teaching jobs), was not a case of rogue judges acting alone. In a “festival of injustice,” prosecutors, public defenders, teachers and court employees saw it all and did nothing. At Ciavarella’s direction, juvenile probation officers talked kids out of exercising their right to counsel.

There are some heroes: local reporters who broke the story; a whistle-blowing family court judge; Juvenile Law Center attorneys who represented two of the detained children and petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to stop the widespread waiver of counsel; parents who did everything they could to fight for their kids. There is some vindication: Ciavarella and Conahan are serving lengthy prison terms, and the children’s records have been expunged. But there is no happy ending. Many children were traumatized by being shackled and summarily shipped off to jail only to be shunned by friends when they were released. Seven years after his incarceration, the young man accused of steak-throwing (he denied the charge) still has “a lost look about him,” Ecenbarger writes, “as though he has been permanently startled.”

In “The Injustice System,” the lawyer and writer Clive Stafford Smith (author of the excellent “Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantánamo Bay”) makes a strong case that Krishna Maharaj, a British man sentenced to death for a double murder in Miami 26 years ago, is innocent. Smith (no relation) took up the case after Maharaj had been on death row for seven years and succeeded in getting the death sentence thrown out. Ironically, this may have hurt his client’s fight: prisoners who merely die in prison don’t receive the attention or resources of those on death row.

Maharaj is now 74 and in a wheelchair. He recently filed a post-conviction challenge based on newly discovered evidence, which the State of Florida is contesting. Previous appeals have been rejected. If Maharaj is turned away from the courts once more, his hope will lie with the governor of Florida.

The book is a complicated whodunit, with the likely perpetrators still at large or dead. The murder victims, a father and son who were apparently involved in nefarious, lucrative activities, some connected to Colombian drug cartels, knew plenty of people who might have wanted to kill them. Maharaj’s supposed motive — resentment over the breakup of a business partnership and wounded vanity over an unflattering newspaper portrayal — is convoluted by comparison. In the course of recounting the crime, trial and appeals, Smith paints a bleak picture of criminal justice in America — this is Miami, after all, not some backwater town. There are dishonest cops, smug prosecutors, a feckless defense lawyer (now a judge) and venal witnesses.

Although Maharaj was once wealthy and well traveled — he was an importer of exotic fruit — he had no idea what he was in for when he was arrested. He spent little on a lawyer because he believed a jury would easily see he wasn’t guilty. Maharaj remains bewildered by a system that seems to care more about finality than anything else. One judge forbade his lawyer to even mention the word “innocent.”

Notwithstanding the book’s unfortunate title, which suggests a polemic, “The Injustice System” is really a love story — a moving tale of devotion by an extraordinary lawyer who nearly bankrupts himself and his fledgling public-interest law office to fight for his client’s life and liberty. Smith is at his best when he shares small stories — his first visit with Maharaj; his talks with Maharaj’s wife, Marita, who has stood by her husband all these years; his visit with Maharaj when he was shackled to a hospital bed after surgery for a flesh-eating disease contracted in prison — and his own feelings of despair. Sometimes the book gets lost in detail and reads too much like a brief. It is not always easy to be both a storyteller and an advocate.

"Kids for Cash" and “The Injustice System” reveal the deep gap between cherished ideals and harsh reality in a country addicted to incarceration. A majority of the children in Luzerne County who did time had no legal counsel. Krishna Maharaj no longer has a right to counsel; he has a great lawyer by sheer luck. But, a half-century after Gideon, justice in this country is not supposed to depend on something as capricious as luck.

( Bad ) Karma Amerikana

noreply@blogger.com (Matrix) — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 15:08:00 +0000

Here are a couple of definitions of karma: A) the total effect of actions and conduct during successive phases of existence, regarded as determining destiny; B) the principle of retributive justice determining one's state of life. So, there you have it, as the man who hundreds of millions worship as Lord had put it: " As ye sow so shall ye reap." One need not be too deep in the study of American history to realize that we , as a nation, sure as hell sowed a lot of evil and selfish deeds.

Let us simply look at the 20th and early 21st centuries to browse a bit. To really study in more depth the scope of what our country has done to others, please get William Blum's book Rogue Nation. This writer, for this commentary, will focus on a few tidbits of the Karma we have created, and , as Chalmers Johnson so aptly phrased it: Blowback.

Perhaps we should sit down with those angry white males and females who wish to close our Southwestern borders to the ' hordes ' of illegals. All those areas of our country, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico ( aptly named ) and southern California were once... parts of Mexico!

In this Jan. 18, 2009 file photo, a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle sits parked in front of a crowd of people peering through the U.S.-Mexico border fence at Border Field State Park in San Diego. At one time, before the enhanced border fence in the area, the San Diego area held the most popular routes for illegal immigrants heading into the U.S. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Using the false flag propaganda of Manifest Destiny and a strong military we robbed those regions from Mexico. Now, they are all coming back to live in what was there's to begin with! Of course, most of those who are able to make it here are not the gun toting drug cartel thugs that our media plays up. No! The overwhelming majority of these people are the ones who mow the lawns, wash the dishes, clean the hotel rooms and do the shit jobs that most Americans refuse to work.

When you visit one of the countless Indian casinos to roll the dice and pull the levers, it is the American Indian tribes that have ownership ( though a corporate paleface machine is behind the scenes operating and profiting from these places ).Will all the centuries of massacres and brutalities thrown at these people be washed away because they now make a buck from us?

No, but for some Indians ( and not enough ) it softens the anger a bit. If only the tribes who profit from this arrangement would do more for their fellow Indians who don't... but that's what makes capitalism so great: faulty moral compasses.

When the Reagan gang funded and supported the Mujahedeen to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan, we accomplished two things: A) We helped give strength to what later became Al Qaeda and B) we allowed the Afghan drug lords to send more and more poison to the veins of our kids here at home. What a blowback that still reverberates some 30+ years later!

The ' piece de resistance ' was the illegal and immoral invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Boy, did the Bush/Cheney gang do some job! They fermented such anti Amerikan rage in that region , which became the greatest recruiting tool for morons like the current Isis nuts.

While destroying perhaps one million Afghans and Iraqis combined, not to mention their infrastructures ( which of course cronies of the Bush/ Cheney gang made billions repairing), our economy has been devastated. When over half of our federal tax revenue goes to the Military Industrial Empire... our cities wither. With the current stooge in the White House, we all can only hope there is some change left to spend on we working stiffs!

So, my fellow suckers, saps and lollipops, keep focusing on those sneaky Mexicans who are here to bleed us dry. Keep focusing on the gays who are subverting our morality or the minorities who are getting over on us all with those entitlements. Don't realize the fact that one Boeing Apache Helicopter costs you taxpayers ... are you ready for this... 52 million dollars! How many welfare cheats does that equal?

Focus on the fact that those who run things here have hijacked both our flag and our patriotism. They love to honor our troops by what... keep sending them to invade, occupy and kill in places we have no business being in! Of course, if you work for Halliburton, General Dynamics , KBR and the other cronies, then , like the Robert Duval character in Apocalypse Now, you " love the smell of Napalm in the morning!"

Related:

Ten Companies Profiting Most from War

Legal drug cartel