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Bradley Manning Wrongfully Sentenced
by Stephen Lendman
On July 30, he was wrongfully convicted on 20 of 22 charges. They included multiple Espionage Act violations. It's a WW I relic.
It belongs in history's dustbin. It's unrelated to exposing serious government wrongdoing.
Manning revealed what everyone needs to know. He disclosed grave war crimes. Perpetrators are free to kill again. Doing the right thing got Manning convicted.
Judge Col. Denise Lind sentenced him to 35 years. It's by far the longest ever punishment for leaking government information.
Manning will be 26 years old in December. He'll be eligible for parole in around eight years. Chances appear slim to none. His conviction and sentencing sent a message. It warns other potential whistleblowers not to reveal what Washington wants suppressed.
Manning will serve hard time. Initially he's heading for Fort Leavenworth, KS incarceration. He faces potential Supermax harshness.
The Syrian Chemical Weapons Use Canard
by Stephen Lendman
Throughout months of conflict, Assad faced repeated accusations of chemical weapons use. No evidence whatever suggests it.
Clear evidence suggests otherwise. Wrongful accusations persist. They ring hollow. They lack credibility. It doesn't matter. They repeat with disturbing regularity.
On August 21, The New York Times headlined "Syrian Rebels Accuse Government of Chemical Attack."
They claimed rockets targeting areas east of Damascus "carr(ied) poison gas. (They said) people had been killed in their sleep and that local hospitals were filled with casualties."
Reports are conflicting. Some suggest hundreds died. "The attacks will undoubtedly increase the pressure on a team sent to Syria by the United Nations to investigate allegations of chemical weapons that was to begin working on Monday," said The Times.
Britain's War on Freedom
by Stephen Lendman
Arguably America, Israel and Britain are the developed world's most repressive states. Democracy's a convenient illusion. It exists in name only.
Police state ruthlessness reflects policy. It's not new. It's worse than ever now. Modern technology makes it easy. It's used oppressively. It targets ordinary people. It's done for any reason or none at all.
On August 18, UK authorities detained Glenn Greenwald's partner, David Miranda. Washington was conspiratorially involved. It didn't surprise. Both countries operate lawlessly.
They partner against freedom. They're waging war on fundamental rights. They want them entirely destroyed. They want unchallenged power. They'll stop at nothing to get it.
Miranda was held incommunicado for nine hours. He was denied legal counsel. A counterterrorism law pretext was used to do so.
He was in transit from Berlin to Rio de Janeriro. He threatened no one. He violated no laws. His laptop, cell phone, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and game consoles were confiscated. It was done lawlessly. Police states operate this way.
Britain matches some of the worst. It's waging war on social justice. It wants freedom destroyed. It wants opposition to anti-populist repressiveness eliminated.
Militarized Peacekeeping for Palestine?
by Stephen Lendman
So-called Blue Helmets stoke conflict. They don't preserve peace. They don't anywhere. They're imperial enforcers. They're human rights abusers.
Vulnerable people they control suffer horrifically. NATO's worse. It's a killing machine. It's mission is war, not peace. More on that below.
In 1948, UN peacekeeping operations began. UNTSO's mission (UN Truce Supervision Organization) monitored the first of two failed Arab/Israeli truces. It did so in June 1948.
It's still there. Peace remains distant. It was never achieved. UN Blue Helmets play no active role. They never did. They don't now. They waste money. They take up space. They report selectively. They serve Israeli and Western interests.
It shows in longstanding Palestinian persecution. It's in systematic land theft. It shows militarized occupation doesn't work. It shows Blue Helmets do more harm than good.
rever they're deployed, it's the same. Haiti was the first ever lawless mission. MINUSTAH enforced coup d'etat authority. It did so against a democratically elected leader.
Fukushima operator pleads for international help as radiation crisis deepens
Link: http://rt.com/news/fukushima-international-iaea-leak-866/
TEPCO admits it needs help to contain the radioactive fallout, countries outside of Japan have experience decommissioning reactors, we hope we can consult them and use their experience. UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is “taking this matter seriously ready to provide assistance on request."
Egypt's Reign of Terror
by Stephen Lendman
Mark Twain once said history doesn't repeat. It rhymes. French history includes la Terreur (the Reign of Terror). Dickens called it the best and worst of times.
It began in 1789. It promised "liberte, egalite and fraternite. It lasted a decade. It ended a millennium of monarchal rule. It was socially and politically disruptive. It was violent.
The wrong people gained power. Jacobins initially were revolutionary moderates. They were patriots. They turned violent. Thousands were arrested. Civil liberties were suspended.
Laws passed designating counter-revolutionaries state enemies. Undefined crimes against liberty were charged. Orwell called them "thoughtcrimes."
Vigilante justice was imposed. Kangaroo tribunals pronounced guilt by accusation. Guillotine executions killed thousands. Promised liberte, egalite and fraternite was illusory.
U.S. Economic Hegemony: Consolidation and Deepening of the Pacific Alliance Trade Bloc
By Dana Gabriel
In a short period of time, the Pacific Alliance has emerged as one of the leading economic integration projects in Latin America. It aims to succeed where others have failed by creating a gateway to Asian markets and building a Pacific-rim trade deal. The U.S. and Canada are both pursuing deeper ties with the group and have been granted observer status. This is part of efforts to revive and expand their presence in Latin America. In some areas of integration, the Pacific Alliance has surpassed NAFTA. By merging the two together, it could be used to fill the void left by the collapse of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The Pacific Alliance was officially launched by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru in June 2012. Its objectives include to construct, “an area of profound market-driven economic integration that will contribute to the free movement of goods, services, capital and persons.” The group also seeks to, “become a platform for economic and commercial integration as well as political coordination with global outreach, particularly towards the Asia Pacific.”
Trayvon and the Matrix
The Trayvon Martin affair was one of the most important media events in recent memory. The major networks spent endless hours of prime time discussing it, but what made the episode so exceptional was who benefited from the incredible amount of coverage.
At the heart of the story were two young men who both made poor decisions- one died, and the other almost wound up in prison for life. But is this so exceptional in America?
In fact, it’s all to common. Data from 2008 shows that more than four minors (under 18 years) were murdered a day in the US- four Trayvons a day. Was it the racial aspect of the case that was so exceptional? Yes, but not for the obvious reasons. More than 80% of interracial violent crimes are black on white, which would make one think it more likely that a black on white crime would galvanize the nation, but that wasn’t the case.
“ … None So Blind….”
'Phillip Farruggio'
I am writing this to not only all the city council members throughout the towns of my county of Volusia, Florida, but to you, its citizens out there. Look around you. See that, since 2006, the fine and important library system of our county has had its budget cut by nearly 33 %! All of the services: firefighting, policing, hospital care, education… everything we need more of is going down, not up! City and County governments think that the best, most viable solution is to privatize more and more. They think that this will help ease the pain of fiscal shortfalls. Oh yes, why not just sell the library system off to big corporations and our firefighting and policing too? Go and watch the great 1975 film Rollerball and see how a corporate owned and dominated world might look.
Egypt’s Painful Birth Pangs
By Dr. Elias Akleh
The evacuation of the deposed pro-Morsi Islamist Muslim Brotherhood camps from Rabi’a al-Adawiya and al-Nahda squares had revealed, clearly and without any ambiguity, that these camps have not been peaceful sit-ins, rather terrorist military occupations; pre-meditatedly planned, financed, armed and orchestrated by the Global Council of Muslim Brotherhood during their last July 7th meeting in Turkey.
Broadcasts of many Egyptian TV channels of the evacuation events, including videos taken by police helicopters, showed those Islamist Muslim Brotherhood (MB) terrorists using all kinds of weapons against the police forces. These weapons included advanced steel-penetrating sniping rifles, whose bullets had penetrated anti-bullets vests worn by police personnel. The videos also showed these terrorists setting fire to their own tents using Molotov bombs. They have also burnt the mosque in an attempt to destroy any incriminating evidence such as weapon, documents, communication systems, and murdered and tortured bodies of local residents, who tried to disobey and oppose MB leaders of the camps. Large cache of automatic weapons, Molotov bombs, gas canisters, bullets, TNT explosives and white weapons were discovered in these two camps.
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