When Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of a government the Founding Fathers had formed, his response was 'A Republican if you can keep it.' It might seem that we have willingly surrendered what was created.
Obama to Putin: Do
as I say, not as I do...
By
Adrian Salbuchi
Putin echoes Russia's and the world's growing
weariness with America's hegemonic carrot-and-stick strategy, and its double
talk.
Demonizing Russia/Putin: Obama says US will
'pause and reassess' relations with Putin and Russia:
President cites 'a number of emerging
differences' on matters including Syria and human rights - but diplomatic talks
continue
Obama describes Putin as 'like a bored kid':
President Barack Obama said the Russian
president can sometimes appear "like a bored kid in the back of the
classroom."
Obama Tantrum and US Global Terror Alert Belie
Washington's Inner Panic over Russia and Snowden
By
Finian Cunningham
President Obama and senior officials at the
NSA have been lying to the American Congress and people about the invasiveness
of the surveillance. That is an impeachable offence under US law.
The
Power of Edward Snowden
By Philip
Weiss
An ordinary citizen, acting in conscience, can
exercise power over a president.
4 Minute Video
The Pentagon has a program that teaches
federal workers to view colleagues as potential "insider threats" if they are
vocally critical of U.S. foreign policy.
N.S.A. Said to Search Content of Messages to
and From U.S.:
The National Security Agency is searching the
contents of vast amounts of Americans' e-mail and text communications into and
out of the country, hunting for people who mention information about foreigners
under surveillance, according to intelligence officials.
DOJ
memo asserts that all US phone calls are 'relevant' to terrorism:
Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the
government to collect business records if they are "relevant" to a terrorism
investigation. The NSA has acknowledged that it has been using the provision to
force phone companies to turn over records on all U.S. phone calls.
The
NSA Intends To Fire 90% Of Their System Administrators To Eliminate Future
Leaks:
The National Security Agency, hit by
disclosures of classified data by former contractor Edward Snowden, said
Thursday it intends to eliminate about 90 percent of its system administrators
to reduce the number of people with access to secret information.
Obama had secret meeting with tech executives
to discuss govt surveillance:
US President Barack Obama met in private with
executives of prominent technology firms to discuss government surveillance on
Thursday. Those present in the talks included CEOs of Apple and
AT&T.
Another encrypted Internet service shutting
down after Lavabit:
Shortly after the owner and operator of
Lavabit.com wrote that his nine-year-old encrypted email service was shutting
down in order to avoid becoming "complicit in crimes against the American
people," Silent Circle said Thursday they'd be following suit.
German Web firms to launch encrypted email as
standard following NSA-snooping furor:
Two of Germany's biggest Internet service
providers said Friday they will start encrypting customers' emails by default in
response to user concerns about online snooping after reports that the U.S.
National Security Agency monitors international electronic
communications.
How
I Exposed an Undercover Cop:
Spying on protesters is the worst violation of
our freedom.
This is USA?
Vietnam War Veteran Arrested in Wisconsin
Capitol While Standing Up for Free Speech - Video - -
Mike Harrington, a Vietnam War veteran with
Veterans for Peace, was arrested ofor participating in the Solidarity Sing
Along. They handcuffed Harrington and marched him out of the rotunda, followed
by his fellow Veterans for Peace activists and a crowd of outraged
supporters.
NSA
Loophole Allows Warrantless Search for US Citizens' Emails and Phone
Calls
By
James Ball and Spencer Ackerman
Exclusive: Spy agency has secret backdoor
permission to search databases for individual Americans' communications.
The U.S. Empire Provokes
Terrorism
By Sheldon Richman August 09, 2013 "Information Clearing House - Perhaps we’ll never know if intercepted chatter between al-Qaeda leaders — which prompted the U.S. government to close dozens of diplomatic missions in the Muslim world and to issue a worldwide travel alert — was serious or not. But mischief shouldn’t be ruled out. Without cost or risk, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen), can have a big laugh as they send American officials running around as though their hair were on fire. Why should they attempt to pull off some spectacular but risky action when they can disrupt things — closing embassies is no small deal — so easily? As a bonus, President Obama’s claim about al-Qaeda’s degradation is revealed as an empty boast. (Yemeni officials claim they foiled a plot. But who knows?)
By Sheldon Richman August 09, 2013 "Information Clearing House - Perhaps we’ll never know if intercepted chatter between al-Qaeda leaders — which prompted the U.S. government to close dozens of diplomatic missions in the Muslim world and to issue a worldwide travel alert — was serious or not. But mischief shouldn’t be ruled out. Without cost or risk, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen), can have a big laugh as they send American officials running around as though their hair were on fire. Why should they attempt to pull off some spectacular but risky action when they can disrupt things — closing embassies is no small deal — so easily? As a bonus, President Obama’s claim about al-Qaeda’s degradation is revealed as an empty boast. (Yemeni officials claim they foiled a plot. But who knows?)
The United States has been
fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan for a dozen years, but not because the
former rulers are a direct threat to the American people. Rather, the Bush and
Obama administrations insisted, if the Taliban was not defeated, Afghanistan
would again become a sanctuary for al-Qaeda. Now we see (if we hadn’t already)
that this was a mere rationalization for the projection of American power.
Al-Qaeda doesn’t need Afghanistan. Bin Laden wasn’t found there. Al-Zawahiri
presumably isn’t there. And the latest alleged unspecified threat comes from
Yemen, 2,000 miles from Kabul. Doesn’t that expose the 12 years of
American-inflicted death and destruction, not to mention the expenditure of
hundreds of millions of dollars, as a monumental waste of life and
treasure?
If the Obama administration
has any doubts about the seriousness of the chatter, it’s not displaying them in
public. CNN reports that the U.S. military has been readied for possible
strikes against “potential al-Qaeda targets if those behind the most recent
terror threats against U.S. interests can be identified.” Moreover, the
Globe and Mail reported earlier that “a suspected U.S. drone killed four
alleged al-Qaeda members in Yemen.”
Yet we can assume that the
administration’s conduct would be the same whether or not it took the chatter
seriously. Let’s remember that the “war on terror” (George W. Bush’s label) is
an industry from which many both inside and outside the government profit
handsomely. Since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. response has poured trillions of
dollars into the government-industrial complex. Agencies have multiplied and
grown, and bureaucrats have acquired new power and prestige. None would want to
give any of it up. But if things were to become too quiet, those Americans who
pay the bill might wonder if it’s all worth the great cost. Quietude breeds
complacency.
So a little heightened alert,
from the complex’s point of view, would be welcome.
Of course, al-Qaeda did attack
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, as well as various other
targets outside the United States before and afterwards. One of its so-called
affiliates could certainly strike.
Does that mean the U.S.
government must maintain a global empire in order to eradicate the sources of
anti-American terrorism? Absolutely not — quite the contrary. It is the global
empire that provoked the al-Qaeda attacks in the first place. Contrary to the
popular notion that the organization struck U.S. “interests” out of the blue
while our country minded its own business, the U.S. government for decades has
supported violent regimes in the Middle East and North Africa: from Saudi
Arabia’s corrupt and brutal monarchy, to the Egyptian military dictatorship, to
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, to Israel’s unconscionable occupation of Palestine.
American administrations, Republican and Democrat, have directly inflicted death
and suffering on people in the Muslim world — through the 1990s economic
sanctions on Iraq, for example. (Today’s sanctions on Iran now impose hardship
on another group of Muslims.) Every time an al-Qaeda official or operative has
the chance, he points out that his hatred of America stems not from its
“freedoms” but from this bloody record. Unrelenting U.S. drone attacks on
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia, in which noncombatants are killed,
don’t win friends.
They recruit enemies bent on revenge.
It follows therefore that the
best way to dramatically reduce, if not eliminate, the threat of terrorism is to
dramatically change U.S. foreign policy — from imperial intervention to strict
nonintervention.
Sheldon Richman is vice
president of The Future of Freedom Foundation and editor of FFF's monthly
journal, Future of Freedom. - fff.org
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35802.htm
Some Of Us Have a Conscience: Cornel West & Chris Hedges
Video
Army whistleblower Bradley Manning was acquitted of 'Aiding the enemy,' on July 30, 2013, while convicted of 20 other charges. On August 4 Cornel West was joined by former NYT correspondent Chris Hedges and members of the Bradley Manning Support Network for a discussion of the threat to whistleblowers and government transparency posed by Bradley Manning's trial. Visit www.bradleymanning.org for more information. The event took place at the Friends Meeting of Washington D.C.
Posted August 10, 2013
Some Of Us Have a Conscience: Cornel West & Chris Hedges
Video
Army whistleblower Bradley Manning was acquitted of 'Aiding the enemy,' on July 30, 2013, while convicted of 20 other charges. On August 4 Cornel West was joined by former NYT correspondent Chris Hedges and members of the Bradley Manning Support Network for a discussion of the threat to whistleblowers and government transparency posed by Bradley Manning's trial. Visit www.bradleymanning.org for more information. The event took place at the Friends Meeting of Washington D.C.
Posted August 10, 2013
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