CLG: Expert urges California nuclear plant closure over earthquake threat, CDC whistleblower exposes massive autism cover-up perpetrated by government agency, American Army general again accused of obstructing probe of US-funded 'Auschwitz-like' Afghan hospital

News Updates from CLG
26 August 2014

http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

Previous edition: 'FBI, Homeland Security Bulletin Asks Police to Be Aware of ISIS,' which Google relegated to the trash bin. Google subscribers: Google Filter Instructions for CLG Newsletter.

Foley murder video 'may have been staged' 25 Aug 2014 The video of James Foley's execution may have been staged, with the actual murder taking place off-camera, it has emerged. Forensic analysis of the footage of the journalist's death has suggested that the British jihadist in the film may have been the frontman rather than the killer...A study of the four-minute 40-second clip, carried out by an international forensic science company which has worked for police forces across Britain, suggested camera trickery and slick post-production techniques appear to have been used. A forensic analyst told The Times that no blood can be seen, even though the knife is drawn across the neck area at least six times...One expert commissioned to examine the footage was reported as saying: "I think it has been staged."

US 'set to launch air strikes' on senior Isis leaders in Syria 23 Aug 2014 The United States was said to be considering air strikes aimed at eliminating individual leaders of Islamic State as Turkey came under mounting pressure to stem the flow of jihadists across its border into Syria. As Washington on Saturday debated extending air strikes into Syria, senior British politicians urged Ankara to act to block recruits from the UK and other countries from entering Syria via Turkey, en route to joining Islamic State (formerly Isis)...Isis wants to establish dominance in the area to make it easier for potential recruits to gain safe passage and to allow the movement of vital supplies, including weapons and oil.

RAAF jets and Army SAS ready to wage war on ISIS in Iraq 26 Aug 2014 RAAF fighter jets could be deployed in a possible operation against Islamic militants in northern Iraq. The plan is part of a wider set of contingency options being drawn up by the Defence Department's military planners in Canberra and inside American units in the US. News Corp Australia has been told that the contributions in support of a US-led mission could include: A squadron of RAAF Super Hornet fighters; special-forces troops; an expanded humanitarian mission.

Hundreds dead as Islamic State seizes Syrian air base: monitor 24 Aug 2014 [Mossad-trained, US-armed] Islamic State militants stormed an air base in northeast Syria on Sunday, capturing it from government forces after days of fighting that cost more than 500 lives, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 346 Islamic State fighters were killed and more than 170 members of government forces had died since Tuesday in the fight over Tabqa base, making it one of the deadliest confrontations between the two groups since the start of Syria's war.

10,000 more Israeli reservists called up 25 Aug 2014 The Knesset authorised the government's request to call up another 10,000 reservists on Monday morning (Australian time). The request came on the same day that Israel's struck more than 50 targets in Gaza overnight, including senior Hamas operative Muhammed al-Aoul, who is responsible for transferring funds.

Israeli spy drone downed near Iran's Natanz nuclear plant - Revolutionary Guards 24 Aug 2014 Iran has shot down an Israeli spy drone trying to penetrate the "nuclear off-limits area" of the Natanz nuclear site, the Revolutionary Guards said on their website. "The downed aircraft was of the stealth, radar-evasive type and it intended to penetrate the off-limit nuclear area in Natanz...but was targeted by a ground-to-air missile before it managed to enter the area," Reuters quotes the statement by the Revolutionary Guards. Iran's forces fired a missile at the drone as it neared its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, more than 300 kilometers south of Tehran.

89 Palestine families wiped out by Israel's Gaza campaign 25 Aug 2014 At least 89 entire families have been killed in Gaza since Israel started its military campaign, Palestinian health officials said. The Judeh family, a woman and her four children, died after an airstrike hit their house reportedly without warning. The incident happened in Tel Azatar, in the northern part of the Gaza strip and the family of five was killed instantly, after the Israeli Defense Forces launched their attack, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. Locals said no warnings were given that airstrikes were imminent.

Lavrov: Russia to send another humanitarian convoy to Ukraine 25 Aug 2014 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced plans for a second humanitarian convoy to be sent to eastern Ukraine, urging foreign actors and agencies to participate in continuing efforts at relieving the crisis. Failure to do so would constitute a violation of international law, he warned...FM Lavrov stressed that as the indiscriminate shelling of areas such as Lugansk continues, the humanitarian need for water and food grows. This has been acknowledged by humanitarian agencies and international actors at large.

Reposting this key story, since the last newsletter didn't reach everyone:

American Army general again accused of obstructing probe of US-funded 'Auschwitz-like' Afghan hospital 19 Aug 2014 A two-star Army general, reprimanded once already for misconduct, is being accused of obstructing another investigation into patient abuse and fraud at a U.S.-funded hospital in Afghanistan made infamous for its grisly conditions, according to a new watchdog report. The Project on Government Oversight recently published a redacted version of the Pentagon inspector general report on Maj. Gen. Gary S. Patton. It's the second time in less than a year Patton has been cited for his role in obstructing an official investigation into the conditions at Dawood National Military Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dawood, which has gotten millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer support, has been plagued by graphic accounts of abuse. Congressional hearings in 2012 aired accounts of "Auschwitz-like" conditions at the facility. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, at the time pointed to evidence of Afghan soldiers enduring starvation and "botched operations," and accounts that doctors conducted procedures "without anesthesia or painkillers." Doctors and nurses, he said, demanded bribes for care, and left patients who didn't pay to die "in their hospital beds."

Shooter at U.S. Army base in Virginia wounds self, sparks lockdown 25 Aug 2014 A female soldier shot and wounded herself at Fort Lee, Virginia, on Monday, sparking a lockdown of the U.S. Army installation, the base said on its Facebook page. The soldier turned the weapon on herself inside the Combined Arms Support Command Headquarters and fired one shot, the statement said. Her condition was unknown. The base, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Washington, was locked down at about 9 a.m. EDT after a report of a shooter, the base said.

CDC whistleblower exposes massive autism cover-up perpetrated by government agency 25 Aug 2014 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been engaged in a massive campaign of deception concerning the alleged safety of the combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, also known as MMR. A top-level scientist from the agency, who recently came forward as an anonymous whistleblower, confessed that the CDC deliberately concealed data showing that MMR can cause autism, particularly in African American boys who are vaccinated before the age of three. Speaking to Dr. Brian Hooker from the Focus Autism Foundation (FAF), the whistleblower reportedly filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking original data on a study that the CDC routinely cites as evidence of MMR's safety.

First Briton With Ebola Virus Lands in UK 25 Aug 2014 A British man who caught the ebola virus in Sierra Leone has arrived in the UK on a Royal Air Force jet. The healthcare worker, understood to be called William, landed at RAF Northolt near Heathrow just before 9pm on board a specially equipped C17 plane. An ambulance transporting the man to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London travelled there under a police escort to stop other vehicles from interrupting the journey.

British Man With Ebola on Flight Back to UK 24 Aug 2014 A British healthcare worker who has tested positive for ebola has left Sierra Leone on a Royal Air Force jet bound for the UK. The man known to local staff as 'William' is being flown to RAF Northolt near Heathrow from where he will be taken to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London. The flight on a specially equipped C17 plane will take about eight hours...It is unclear whether RAF personnel travelled to the area or just received the patient at the airport.

As with Gaza, US-funds illegitimate regimes -- Israel, a GOP-appointed 'Emergency Manager' -- whose goal is to kill as many citizens as possible: Detroit water shut-offs return 25 Aug 2014 Detroit can expect more controversy, and more people paying up, as a month-long moratorium against shutting off water for those behind on their bills expires at the end of the day Monday. Crews are set to resume water shutoffs Tuesday.

Former FBI director Freeh seriously injured in car crash 25 Aug 2014 Former FBI director Louis Freeh was seriously injured in a car crash Monday afternoon in Barnard, the Vermont State Police confirmed Monday night. State police in Royalton received a 911 call at 12:16 p.m. regarding a one-vehicle crash near 2762 Vermont 12. Troopers responded, along with rescue and fire personnel from the Barnard area. Freeh, 64, of Wilmington, Del., was airlifted from Barnard to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., for treatment, police said.

Expert urges California nuclear plant closure over earthquake threat 25 Aug 2014 A senior federal nuclear expert is urging regulators to shut down California's last operating nuclear plant until they can determine whether the facility's twin reactors can withstand powerful shaking from any one of several nearby earthquake faults. Michael Peck, who for five years was Diablo Canyon's lead on-site inspector, says in a 42-page, confidential report that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not applying the safety rules it set out for the plant's operation...Continuing to run the reactors, Peck writes, "challenges the presumption of nuclear safety."

Napa earthquake: Hundreds hurt, dozens of buildings condemned after 6.0 jolt 24 Aug 2014 (Updated) The biggest Bay Area earthquake in a quarter-century rattled the region early Sunday morning, with a 6.0 shaker causing as many as 200 injuries, knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers and causing heavy damage to at least 100 buildings. The South Napa Earthquake, as it's being called, woke up people at 3:20 a.m. as far north as Ukiah and as far south as Salinas, with an epicenter between Napa and American Canyon about 6.7 miles below the surface, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Those close to the epicenter reported strong, even violent shaking, while further away in the East Bay and South Bay, residents reported an intense swaying.

Iceland volcano: Eruption under ice-cap sparks red alert 23 Aug 2014 Iceland has issued a red alert to aviation after indications of a possible eruption under the country's biggest glacier, the Vattnajokull. The Icelandic Met Office warned that a small eruption had taken place under the Dyngjujokull ice cap. Seismic activity is continuing at the Bardarbunga volcano, about 30km away.

Cornel West: 'He posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency.' --Cornel West talks to Salon...and unloads on the failed promise of Barack Obama 24 Aug 2014 CW: "No, the thing is he posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go free. The war crimes in the Middle East, especially now in Gaza, the war criminals go free. And yet, you know, he acted as if he was both a progressive and as if he was concerned about the issues of serious injustice and inequality and it turned out that he's just another neoliberal centrist with a smile and with a nice rhetorical flair...I think Obama, his modus operandi going all the way back to when he was head of the [Harvard] Law Review, first editor of the Law Review and didn't have a piece in the Law Review. He was chosen because he always occupied the middle ground. He doesn't realize that a great leader, a statesperson, doesn't just occupy middle ground. They occupy higher ground or the moral ground or even sometimes the holy ground. But the middle ground is not the place to go if you're going to show courage and vision. And I think that’s his modus operandi. He always moves to the middle ground."

Scott Walker, J.B. Van Hollen again ask court to reinstate voter ID 24 Aug 2014 Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen are asking a federal court to reinstate Wisconsin's voter ID [suppression] law, but they have not finalized a plan to comply with a different court's decision requiring the state to provide IDs to people who don't have birth certificates. The state Supreme Court last month upheld the voter ID law, but the requirement to show photo ID at the polls remains blocked because a federal judge has found it violates the Voting Rights Act and U.S. Constitution. A new court filing suggests the voter ID law is unlikely to be put in place for the Nov. 4 election, when the GOP governor faces Democrat Mary Burke. She opposes the voter ID law.

Handcuffed Black Youth Killed Himself in Police Cruiser, Says Coroner 25 Aug 2014 A coroner's report obtained exclusively by NBC News directly contradicts the police version of how a 22-year-old black man died in the back seat of a Louisiana police cruiser earlier this year -- but still says the man, whose hands were cuffed behind his back, shot himself. In a press release issued March 3, the day he died, the Louisiana State Police said Victor White III apparently shot himself in an Iberia Parish police car. According to the police statement, White had his hands cuffed behind his back when he shot himself in the back.

Thousands attend funeral for slain teenager Michael Brown 25 Aug 2014 Family and supporters on Monday celebrated the life of Michael Brown, a black teenager slain by police in Ferguson, Missouri, with a music-filled, foot-stomping funeral service and messages to remember him not with violence but with peace. [Yes, because people are brainwashed to believe that only the State is allowed to be violent] Brown's body lay at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in a black and gold casket, topped with the St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap he was wearing when he was killed on Aug. 9 in Ferguson. Around the church on Monday, the police presence was heavy but relaxed.

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