CLG: MI6 source who claimed Saddam had 'spherical glass containers' full of chemical weapons was describing scenes from Hollywood film The Rock, What an official September 11 photographer filmed and why he says it cost him his freedom

News Updates from CLG
07 July 2016

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

 

Previous edition: Breaking: Gunmen Kill 4 Officers, Take Dozens Hostage in Bangladesh

 

CLG feature: Brexit, Trumpism, Sanders, and the Decrepit State of Capitalism: Against Political Determinism by Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D. | 05 July 2016 | There's a basic article of faith in leftist thought, held especially dearly by most among the U.S. left. It is so entrenched and so seldom challenged that it has attained the status of myth, an unquestioned origin story on par with the Book of Genesis, as the latter must have been regarded within Christendom during the Middle Ages...Political determinism is the belief that the economy is driven by politics and ideology, rather than the other way around. As long as political determinism prevails on the left, the left's vision will be myopic and its recommendations will be utterly flawed and useless.

 

MI6 source who claimed Saddam had 'spherical glass containers' full of chemical weapons was actually describing scenes from Hollywood blockbuster The Rock | 06 July 2016 | MI6 has been ridiculed for relying on a 'key' Iraqi source who described unrealistic scenes from Hollywood Blockbuster The Rock. The Chilcot inquiry highlighted the ludicrous episode as it slammed flawed intelligence assessments that repeatedly suggested Saddam Hussein had significant WMD capabilities - even though no weapons were found...A report in April 2003 included material from the source suggesting that they had seen spherical glass containers filled with chemical weapons agents. However, the report did not include the caveat from officials who pointed out that 'the source's description of the device and its spherical glass contents was "remarkably similar to the fictional chemical weapon portrayed in the film The Rock".'

 

'Blair is world's worst terrorist': families of Iraq war victims react to Chilcot report | 06 July 2016 | Tony Blair was described as "the worst terrorist in the world" by a woman whose brother was killed in the Iraq war, as the family members of British soldiers gave their response to the Chilcot report. [Well, Bush, too.] Sarah O'Connor broke down in tears as she addressed an emotional press conference shortly after the long-awaited report was published. "There is one terrorist in this world that the world needs to be aware of, and his name is Tony Blair, the world's worst terrorist," she said, to cheers from some of the other relatives.

 

Tony Blair unrepentant as Chilcot gives crushing Iraq war verdict | 06 July 2016 | A defiant Tony Blair defended his decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 following the publication of a devastating report by Sir John Chilcot, which mauled the ex-prime minister's reputation and said that at the time of the 2003 invasion Saddam Hussein "posed no imminent threat". Blair described his decision to join the US attack as "the hardest, most momentous, most agonising decision I took in 10 years as British prime minister"...But asked whether invading Iraq was a mistake Blair was strikingly unrepentant. "I believe we made the right decision and the world is better and safer," he declared.

 

Chilcot exposes how Blair kept ministers and generals in the dark | 6 July 2016 | Sir John Chilcot's report is more than just a carefully worded, clearly argued dissection of the decisions that led Britain to go to war in 2003, and the failures thereafter. It amounts to an uncompromising and deeply critical exposition of the way Tony Blair conducted himself in office during this period. In page after page, the report highlights how the former prime minister appeared to be privately saying one thing "sotto voce" to George W Bush, while keeping many of his own ministers – and military commanders – almost completely in the dark. It also underlines how huge decisions about the legality of the war and the execution of the military campaign were never properly discussed at cabinet meetings.

 

Russia: Chilcot report proves Iraq war was 'unjust and dangerous' --Russian embassy in London tweets graphic saying: 'Keep Calm but I Told You So', while Arab media remain largely silent | 06 July 2016 | Russia has claimed it warned Britain of the consequences of the "unjust and highly dangerous" Iraq war, as Sir John Chilcot published his report into the 2003 invasion after a seven-year delay. Soon after the inquiry's findings were released on Wednesday, the Russian embassy in London tweeted a graphic with the text "Keep Calm but I Told You So". It also wrote: "#Chilcot inquiry: No real WMD in Baghdad, unjust & highly dangerous war. The entire region on the receiving end." The message is consistent with Russian opposition to the 2003 invasion, the Nato intervention in Libya in 2011 and Moscow's continued backing for Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad.

 

Obama war crimes revealed during the Administration's Friday-night-entering-a-holiday-weekend news dump: U.S. says kills up to 116 civilians - vastly below private tallies - in strikes outside war zones | 01 July 2016 | The U.S. government accepted responsibility on Friday for inadvertently killing up to 116 civilians in strikes in countries where America is not at war, a major disclosure likely to inflame debate about targeted killings and use of drones. President Barack Obama's goal for the release of the numbers, which are higher than any previously officially acknowledged but vastly below private estimates, is to create greater transparency about what the U.S. military and CIA are doing to fight militants plotting against the United States. But the figures, which covered strikes from the day Obama took office in January 2009 through Dec. 31, 2015, were below even the most conservative estimates by non-governmental organizations that spent years tallying U.S. strikes in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

 

Former CIA officer could go to jail for a notorious 'rendition' case | 29 June 2016 | A retired CIA officer may become the first American to go to prison for her role in one of the most controversial counterterrorism practices of the post-Sept. 11 period. Sabrina De Sousa was one of 23 Americans convicted in absentia in an Italian court in 2009 for kidnapping a radical Muslim cleric in Milan, Italy, in 2003 and spiriting him to Egypt, where he later said he was tortured. De Sousa, now 60, has been fighting extradition to Italy since she was detained on a warrant last October at an airport in Portugal. She has lost her legal appeals and said in an interview that she expects to be sent to Italy, where she faces four years in prison.

 

Iraq PM Abadi orders police to stop using fake bomb detectors sold by British contractor | 03 July 2016 | Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security services on Sunday to stop using fake bomb detectors at checkpoints after a bombing killed at least 120 people in Baghdad in an attack claimed by Islamic State. Reacting after the deadliest attack so far this year, Abadi also ordered a new investigation at the interior ministry into "corrupt deals" to buy [British businessman James McCormick's] ADE 651 devices developed as lost golf balls finders and sold to Iraq and other nations as hand-held bomb detectors. A police officer earlier confirmed to Reuters that these devices, commonly known as the "magic wand", were still in use five years after the scandal about the sale to Iraq broke out.

 

Iraq sees worst bombing since US-led invasion with 250 deaths | 06 July 2016 | The death toll from Sunday's suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has risen to 250, the Iraqi government says, making it the deadliest such attack since the 2003 US-led invasion. A lorry packed with explosives was detonated in the Karrada district while families were shopping for the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it carried out the suicide attack. An earlier estimate for the attack had put the toll at 165.

 

Bombing Kills More Than 140 in Baghdad | 03 July 2016 | As Iraqis gathered late on Saturday night in central Baghdad to eat, shop and just be together to celebrate one of the last evenings of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a huge bomb exploded and killed at least 143 people, the third mass slaughter of civilians in three countries carried out by the Islamic State in recent days. The attack, which occurred shortly after midnight in the middle-class neighborhood of Karrada, a busy area of cafes, shops and hotels, was the deadliest single attack in Baghdad this year and was the first major assault in the capital since Iraqi forces retook Falluja from the Islamic State late last month. Falluja had been in the hands of the Islamic State for two-and-a-half years, longer than any other in Iraq or Syria, and many Iraqis had feared that after its liberation the Islamic State would strike back with more terror attacks in Baghdad.

 

Multiple bombings rock Saudi Arabia, including Medina | 04 July 2016 | A suicide bombing outside one of Islam's holiest sites killed four Saudi security forces on Monday, and similar attacks outside a Shiite mosque and a U.S. Consulate in two other Saudi cities raised fears of a coordinated assault aimed at destabilizing the Western-allied kingdom. The Interior Ministry said five others were wounded in the attack outside the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in Medina...The ministry said the attacker set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers raised suspicions about him.

 

Obama says 8,400 US troops will remain in Afghanistan at the end of 2016 | 06 July 2016 | President Barack Obama said Wednesday the U.S. will keep 8,400 troops in Afghanistan through the end of the year, more than originally planned. Originally, Obama was considering whether to move ahead with a scheduled reduction in the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from about 9,800 currently to 5,500 by the start of 2017. [Yup, gotta protect the CIA's poppy fields and opi-m routes.]

 

Canada to send 1,000 troops to E. Europe to boost NATO presence at Russia's doorstep | 01 July 2016 | Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has reportedly pledged to send 1,000 troops to Latvia to deter Russia shortly after the US President urged Canada to boost its involvement in NATO. The soldiers are to join NATO high-readiness brigade in Eastern Europe, according to Canadian media reports. Russia has been facing increasingly aggressive rhetoric from NATO, as the military alliance pursues military build-up in Eastern Europe.

 

What an official September 11 photographer filmed and why he says it cost him his freedom --"One thing I'm certain of is that agencies of intelligence of the United States of America knew what was going to happen and at least let it happen. Not only did they know it was going to happen, but they in fact collaborated." | 01 July 2016 | Hours after planes flew into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, Kurt Sonnenfeld was given unrestricted access to ground zero. Sonnenfeld was working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, an organisation tied to the US Department of Homeland Security and charged with co-ordinating first response to disasters. Armed with camera gear, the 39-year-old was asked to film everything he saw...Fifteen years later, Sonnenfeld is on the run in Argentina. He says they want to silence him over what he saw beneath World Trade Center 6, evidence he is convinced paints the Bush Administration as big players in the deadliest attack on American soil.

 

Chelsea Manning 'rushed to hospital after trying to take own life' | 06 July 2016 | Chelsea Manning, the military whistleblower serving a 35 year sentence, has been rushed to hospital after reportedly trying to take her own life. A US media report said that Manning, who us being held at in a cell at the US Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, was taken to hospital early on Tuesday morning. CNN said that it was believed that the 28-year-old had tried to kill herself.

 

Heads up! Sounds like the seeds for a big, fat nuclear terrorism false flag are being planted: FBI investigating unidentified drones over South Carolina nuclear site | 01 July 2016 | Federal law enforcement has begun a probe into reports of drones flying over the US Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Nuclear waste is treated at the site, and nuclear weapons materials are stored and processed there. Several sightings of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, over the Savannah River Site (SRS) have been reported by site security in the month of June, the US Department of Energy announced Thursday. Monte Volk, a spokesman for SRS, told The State it is yet unknown who is behind the flights or why they are occurring.

 

Arizona Terror Suspect Sought Guns, Bomb Instructions - Court Docs | 06 July 2016 | An Arizona man arrested last week on terrorism related charges allegedly sought guns and bomb-making instructions from a Pakistani terror group, and mentioned an Air Force recruitment center in Tucson, according to a court document. The probable cause statement unsealed Wednesday sheds new light into the arrest of Mahin Kahn, 18, of Tucson, Friday after an FBI joint terrorism task force investigation. In the heavily-redacted document, the FBI alleges that Kahn made contact with an unnamed person seeking two rifles and a handgun, and claimed to have been in contact with the group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, also called the Pakistani Taliban.

 

Arizona Man Accused of Planning Terrorism Targeting Government Buildings | 02 July 2016 | An FBI task force on Friday arrested a Tucson man on terrorism related offenses involving a conspiracy targeting government buildings in two cities in Arizona [Phoenix and Tucson], authorities said. Mahin Kahn, 18, was arrested following an investigation by the FBI's joint terrorism task force, a spokesperson for the FBI's Phoenix field office said. Khan faces two state counts of terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism, a spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General's Office said.

 

Bomb squad rush to New York's Central Park after man injured in explosion --Blast close to Sunday's funeral site for Nobel winner Elie Wiesel | 03 July 2016 | A man has been critically injured in an explosion in New York's Central Park today after he stepped on something that "exploded" during the busy holiday weekend. The victim was said to have been climbing on a rock structure when there was a detonation...The blast was close to [where] a funeral for Holocaust survivor and Nobel winner Elie Wiesel was taking place on Sunday morning local time.

 

Possible amputation after explosion in Central Park injures man | 03 July 2016 | New York City police said a 19-year-old man suffered a serious injury to his left foot in Central Park, and the man's friends say he stepped on something that exploded. CBS New York reports one victim suffered a severe injured leg and was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment by emergency responders.

 

'World's saddest polar bear' Arturo dies in Argentine zoo; over 500,000 people signed petition to free animal --Arturo was kept in a cramped, concrete enclosure at Argentina's Mendoza Zoo, where temperatures can climb to 104F (40C), with just a 20-inch-deep pool for him to keep cool. | 04 July 2016 | A polar bear dubbed "the saddest bear in the world" has died in his zoo in Argentina, after repeated attempts to move him to better conditions failed. Arturo, who was the last captive polar bear in the country, died of old age horrific conditions, in Mendoza on Sunday. He was 31. The bear, born in the US and moved to Argentina aged eight, earned the nickname after his mate died, leaving him alone. And he became a cause celebre for animal rights activists in 2014, when Greenpeace began a petition to have him moved to Canada. More than half a million people signed a petition demanding his move north [but the terrorists who own Mendoza Zoo would not let him go].

 

WikiLeaks Published Over 1,200 of Hillary Clinton's Iraq War Emails | 05 July 2016 | On Monday, whistleblowing website WikiLeaks tweeted a link to 1,258 emails that it claims were sent and received by the former Secretary of State pertaining to the war in Iraq. The emails were part of a trove of 30,322 emails made available by the U.S. State Department as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request,according to WikiLeaks. While the emails were available since February of this year, the tweet was timed to Wednesday's release of the so-called Chilcot report, which will outline the U.K.'s involvement in the Iraq war.

 

Justice Department closes Hillary Clinton email probe with no charges | 06 July 2016 | Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the Hillary Clinton email investigation is being closed without any criminal charges. Lynch announced the Justice Department decision Wednesday, one day after FBI Director James Comey recommended against any prosecution. The decision was largely a formality given Comey's public statement on the case.

 

FBI recommends no charges for Hillary Clinton after completing email probe | 05 July 2016 | The FBI is recommending that no charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state. FBI Director James Comey said on Tuesday that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case against Clinton over the emails, though she and her staff were "extremely careless" in handling the data. The findings now go to the U.S. Justice Department. "We are expressing our view to Justice that no charges are appropriate in this case," Comey said. His statement is here.

 

Clinton questioned by FBI as part of email probe | Updated 03 July 2016 | Hillary Clinton met with the FBI for three and a half hours Saturday as part of the investigation into her use of a private email server while leading the State Department, her campaign said...The meeting signals the investigation is coming to an end, and sources tell CNN the expectation is Clinton will not face charges. Still, the probe has cast a shadow over Clinton's campaign, and news of FBI agents interviewing the former secretary of state gave Republicans an opportunity to pounce after Clinton has spent weeks at the top of most polls.

 

Trump beats expectations, raises $51 million with GOP in June | 06 July 2016 | Donald Trump raised more than 26 million through online and mail solicitations in June and another 25 million at events with the Republican National Committee, his campaign announced Wednesday, a hefty haul that his allies hope will put to rest anxieties in the party about his fundraising prowess. The combined 51 million...was the biggest monthly take by far for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, who did not begin to hold fundraising events until late May. The Trump campaign announced Wednesday that more than 400,000 supporters made donations in June, with more than 3 million coming in just one day.

 

Prominent Democratic Consultants Sign Up to Defeat Single Payer in Colorado --The anti-single-payer effort is funded almost entirely by health care industry interests. | 03 May 2016 | Influential DemocRATic consultants, some of whom work for the Super PACs backing Hillary Clinton, have signed up to fight a bold initiative to create a state-based single-payer system in Colorado, according to a state filing posted Monday. Coloradans for Coloradans, an ad-hoc group opposing single payer in Colorado, revealed that it raised 1 million over the first five months of this year. The group was formed to defeat Amendment 69, the ballot measure before voters this year that would change the Colorado constitution and permit a system that would automatically cover every state resident's health care.

 

Justice Department to investigate police shooting of black man in Louisiana | 6 July 2016 | The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it will investigate the killing of a black man pinned to the ground and shot in the chest by white police officers outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Captured on a bystander's video, the graphic images of the shooting of Alton Sterling, 37, early Tuesday stirred a social media outcry over the latest case of alleged police brutality against African-Americans in cities from Ferguson, Missouri, to Baltimore and New York.

 

Legislators OK partial change to HB2 | 02 July 2016 | North Carolina legislators largely left House Bill 2 intact but changed workplace lawsuit provision. A release by Senate leader Phil Berger's office late Friday night said the Senate took action to address the request of Gov. Pat McCrory to restore and clarify the right to sue in state court for discrimination.

 

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CLG Editor-in-Chief: Lori Price. Copyright © 2016, Citizens for Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved.