News Updates from CLG
25 March 2015
25 March 2015
http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news
Previous edition: Islamic State calls on backers to kill 100 U.S. military
personnel
Israel Spied on Iran Nuclear Talks With U.S. --Israel's snooping upset White House because information
was used to lobby GOP-controlled Congress to try to sink a deal | 23
March 2015 | Soon after the U.S. and other major powers entered negotiations
last year to curtail Iran's nuclear program, senior White House officials
learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks. The spying operation was
part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against sabotage the
emerging terms of the deal, current and former U.S. officials said. In addition
to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential U.S. briefings,
informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials said.
White House insists Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
must end | 23 March 2015 | The White House
issued a passionate call for eventual Palestinian statehood on Monday as it
stepped up criticism of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, for
appearing to question a two-state solution to Middle East peace. "An occupation
that has lasted for almost 50 years must end," Barack Obama's chief of staff,
Denis McDonough, told a conference of liberal activists in Washington. "Israel
cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely," he added.
Despite Netanyahu's efforts to distance himself from pre-election comments that appeared to rule out a Palestinian
state, the US administration remains sceptical about his commitment to
peace.
9,800 troops to remain in Afghanistan through end of 2015 - White
House | 24 March 2015 | The White House
said Tuesday the U.S. will keep its current complement of 9,800 troops in
Afghanistan through the end of 2015, instead of cutting the number by about half
as originally planned. In a joint statement with Afghanistan issued during a day
of meetings with [US-installed] Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the White House
said the size of the U.S. troop presence for 2016 will be decided later this
year.
Insane in the membrane:
US promises billions to fund Afghan military through
2017 | 23 March 2015 | Officials have
confirmed the US will continue to spend about 4 billion a year
to fund Afghanistan's military for the next two fiscal years. It is a sign of
support for the government in Kabul, which Washington views as more cooperative
than in the past. The pledge means continued US funding for Afghan security
forces at the peak level of 352,000 troops through the end of fiscal year 2017,
a financial commitment costing about 4 billion a year, news agencies quoted US
officials following the day of talks with Afghan leadership at Camp
David.
US House urges Obama to send arms to Ukraine | 24 March 2015 | The US House [of sociopaths] has
passed a resolution calling on President Barack Obama to send lethal weapons to
Ukraine, despite the fragile truce in the eastern part of the country. The
non-binding resolution was approved by an overwhelming majority of 348-48...Last
week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Germany and France to
take action against Kiev's non-compliance with the Minsk peace
agreement.
US must release photos of Abu Ghraib prisoners, federal judge
rules | 21 March 2015 | The US must release
photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge
has ruled in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially
disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners. US district judge Alvin
Hellerstein's ruling Friday gives the government, which has fought the case for
over a decade, two months to decide whether to appeal before the photos could be
released...It's unclear how many more photographs may exist. The government has
said it has 29 relevant pictures from at least seven different sites in
Afghanistan and Iraq, and it's believed to have perhaps hundreds or thousands
more, Hellerstein said in a ruling in August.
'Tanks? No thanks!': Czechs unhappy about US military convoy crossing
country | 22 March 2015 | Czech anti-war
activists have launched the 'Tanks? No thanks!' campaign to protest the
procession of US Army hardware through the Eastern European country. They say it
has been turned into a "provocative victory parade" near the Russian border. The
American military vehicles, which took part in NATO drills in Poland, Lithuania
and Estonia, plan to cross the territory of the Czech Republic between March 29
and April 1 on their way to a base in the German city of Vilseck.
House effort would completely dismantle Patriot
Act | 24 March 2015 | A pair of House
lawmakers wants to completely repeal the Patriot Act and other legal provisions
to dramatically rein in American spying. Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Thomas
Massie (R-Ky.) on Tuesday unveiled their Surveillance State Repeal
Act, which would overhaul American spying powers
unlike any other effort to reform the National Security Agency. The bill would
completely repeal the Patriot Act, the sweeping national security law passed in
the days after Sept. 11, 2001, as well as the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, another
spying law that the NSA has used to justify collecting vast swaths of people's
communications through the Internet.
Chicago Police fighting to keep cellphone trackers
secret | 22 March 2015 | The Chicago Police
Department is fighting to keep a lid on how, when and where officers have used
covert cellphone tracking systems -- with an outside law firm billing the city
more than 120,000 to battle a lawsuit that seeks those secret details. Since
2005, the department has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on cell-site
simulators manufactured by the Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Florida, records show.
The devices capture cellphone signals; cops can use the technology, originally
developed for the military, to locate cellphones.
Muon scans confirm complete reactor meltdown at Fukushima No.
1 | 20 March 2015 | The Tokyo Electric
Power Company (TEPCO) has announced that its muon tomography scanning efforts at
Fukushima have borne fruit, and confirmed that nuclear plant's Reactor #1
suffered a complete meltdown following the earthquake and tsunami that struck
Japan on March 11, 2011. What today's findings confirm is that nuclear fuel rods
inside the reactor underwent complete meltdown. After first denying that a
melt-through had occurred, TEPCO later changed its tune and said that it most
likely had, at least at Reactor #1.
'Smart meters' called a major threat to health, national
security | 12 March 2015 | Utilities around
the country are installing millions of "smart meters," devices which use
wireless technology to send information back to the companies about power usage
by their customers. But there's a growing body of scientists deeply concerned
about bathing the public in low-level, non-thermal radiation, and they say the
smart meters pose the greatest danger of all...Jerry Flynn retired from the
Canadian Armed Forces after a 26-year career, much of which was spent as a
specialist in electronic warfare. "There's nothing more dangerous than a
smart meter on your house," he told KRMG, and he's not the only one who
thinks so.
Boston
Show Trial: The Opinion of an Attorney at Law --A former law professor explains
the backpacks of the accused were the wrong ones | 24 March 2015 | The Boston bombing has to be the most
blatant hoax in recent American history, dwarfing 9/11, Wellstone and Sandy Hook
by several orders of magnitude. How much more obvious could it be when we have
video with police on bullhorns announcing, "This is a drill! This is a drill!"
and The Boston Globe tweeting that a controlled demolition will be set off
during the marathon "as part of bomb squad activities" and that it will be set
off "in one minute in front of the library", which then proceeds to
happen.
France plane crash: Black box found, no indication of
terrorism | 24 March 2015 | A Germanwings
passenger jet carrying 150 people crashed Tuesday in a snowy, remote section of the French Alps, sounding like an
avalanche as it scattered pulverized debris across the mountain. All aboard were
feared dead, French officials said. The pilots sent out no distress call and had
lost radio contact with its control center, France's aviation authority said,
deepening the mystery over the A320's mid-flight crash after an 8-minute
surprise steep descent as it flew from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
Attendance at Ted Cruz's 2016 announcement was mandatory for Liberty
University students [OMG. Can you *imagine* the Washington media
repercussions if a university forced students to listen to President Obama? Fox
News [sic] -- and all the Operation Mockingbird nutjobs' heads would
explode!] | 23 March 2015 | To casual viewers of Ted Cruz's 2016
campaign announcement, the youthful faces suggested the senator had tapped into
a broad base of support amongst the newest generation of conservatives. The
speech, which Cruz delivered to thousands of students at Liberty University, was
broadcast live by at least two networks and streamed in real time on the web,
marking the Republican's first official foray into the 2016 presidential
campaign. The event, however, was no typical political rally, at which the most
fervent supporters of the candidate are usually in attendance. The students,
some of whom wore Rand Paul T-shirts, were required to be there,
giving Cruz the appearance of a packed house for the first nationally broadcast
campaign event of the 2016 presidential election.
Ted Cruz Becomes First Major Candidate to Announce Presidential Bid
for 2016 | 23 March 2015 | Senator Ted Cruz
of Texas announced on Monday morning that he would run for president in 2016,
becoming the first Republican candidate to declare himself officially in the
race. Linking the determination of his immigrant father with the resolve of the
founding fathers and his own faith in "the promise of America," Mr. Cruz spoke
at length about his family and his faith as he laid out a case for his
candidacy. Mr. Cruz, a first-term senator, is seen by Republicans and Democrats
as a divisive figure in Washington, but as a truth-telling hero to many
conservatives and evangelical Americans.
Mystery around Jeb Bush's 'unknown' private email
account | 24 March 2015 | Jeb Bush used
another, previously unreported email address [jeb at gencom.net] when he was
governor of Florida, records show -- the newest wrinkle in an evolving debate
over public officials' use of private email accounts. The disclosure follows
revelations that Hillary Rodham Clinton used a private email address to conduct
State Department business when she was secretary of state. Republican Bush and
Democrat Clinton are two likely contenders in the 2016 race for the White House.
Bush said through a spokeswoman that he was unaware of the account
[LOL!], although records showed that people wrote to him there
more than 400 times between 1999 and 2004.
Global warming-sceptic US senator given funds by BP political action
committee | 22 March 2015 |One of America's
most powerful and outspoken opponents of climate change global warming
regulation received election campaign contributions that can be traced back to
senior BP staff, including chief executive Bob Dudley. Jim Inhofe, a Republican
senator from Oklahoma who has tirelessly campaigned against calls for a carbon
tax and challenges the overwhelming consensus on climate change global warming,
received 10,000 (6,700 pounds) from BP's Political Action Committee (PAC). The
BP PAC is funded by contributions from senior US executives and company staffers
who sent in contributions to the PAC totalling more than 1m between 2010 and
2014.
U.S. top court rejects challenge to Wisconsin voter ID
law | 23 March 2015 | The U.S. Supreme
Court on Monday rejected a challenge to Wisconsin's Republican-backed law
requiring voters to present photo identification to cast a ballot, a measure
Democrats contend is aimed at keeping their supporters from voting. The justices
declined to hear an appeal filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which
challenged the law. The ACLU said it then filed an emergency motion with a
federal appeals court to try to keep the law from taking effect immediately.
Voter identification
suppression laws have been passed in a number of Republican-governed states over
Democratic objections.
Court to hear appeal on
Obama's immigration actions | 24 March 2015
| A federal appeals court said Tuesday it will hear an expedited appeal of an
earlier ruling against President Obama's executive actions on immigration. The
Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will listen to oral argument April 17 in the
administration's attempt to overturn a ruling last month by U.S. District Judge
Andrew Hanen.
Oklahoma Senate panel approves nitrogen gas
executions | 24 March 2015 | Legislation
that authorizes the use of nitrogen gas to execute Oklahoma death row inmates
has been approved by a state Senate committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee
voted 8-0 Tuesday for the House-passed measure and sent it to the full Senate
for a vote. Under the bill, lethal injection would remain the primary method of
execution, but nitrogen gas would be an alternative if lethal injection is
declared unconstitutional or if the drugs are unavailable.
Utah governor signs bill making firing squads the state's backup
execution option | 23 March 2015 | More
than a decade after Utah largely moved away from firing squads for executions,
the state on Monday officially reversed course and made that the backup method
of execution. Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R) signed a bill making firing
squads the option if the state is unable to obtain the drugs needed for a lethal
injection...Firing squads were never formally
banned in Utah.
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