Intrepid Report: Week of April 11, 2016: FOIA documents reveal Gitmo in Chicago torture and abuse, Washington continues to destroy Latin American reformers, President Killary Would the world survive President Hillary?

Intrepid Report Newsletter
We cannot keep publishing without your help. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate Monday Overturning inverted totalitarianism By Michael Hasty Perhaps the most important result so far of the Bernie Sanders insurgency is how starkly it has exposed the truly totalitarian nature of the 21st century American state. ‘Cherry picking’ leaked documents: a CIA art form By Wayne Madsen The US Central Intelligence Agency, rather than attempt to deter massive leaks of sensitive documents, including classified US government materials, has figured out it is much more advantageous to “cherry pick” certain information and then release it as “major news” to a corporate media eager and willing to run with what they are handed. Such has been the case with the so-called “Panama Papers.“ Neither America nor the world deserve Hillary Clinton’s inevitability By Ben Tanosborn Who, one might ask, better to understand, advocate, and take action on US interests around the world than the former secretary of state? Doesn’t Ms. Clinton’s background as past head of the State Department for Barack Obama round out her other training in domestic affairs as the perfect US Head of State, better described in our hawkish-lexicon as commander-in-chief? Isn’t that the way our forefathers did see the proper, and noble, political training demanded from anyone who aspires to become president of this nation, the United States of America? The shame of our country By Ed Dunphy Recently, I viewed a special on PBS which featured an old acquaintance. I feel more like a friend since he was such an influence during the sixties. However, I was more in tune with him then he was with me. In actuality it was honestly a very casual acquaintance. I guess in my mind it was more, since it was such brush with greatness. Here, there, everywhere, nowhere By Missy Comley Beattie Maybe it wasn’t the lure of adventure motivating my decision to sell the condo. Remember my telling you that when someone asks where I want to live, I say, “Nowhere.” I’ve been examining the simplicity (or complexity) of that response. Tuesday Trans-Atlantic & Trans-Pacific ‘Partnerships’ complete corporate world takeover’ By Paul Craig Roberts As I have emphasized since these “partnerships” were first announced, their purpose is to give corporations immunity from the laws in the countries in which they do business. The principle mechanism of this immunity is the granting of the right to corporations to sue governments and agencies of governments that have laws or regulations that impinge on corporate profits. For example, France’s prohibitions of GMO foods are, under the “partnerships,” restraints on trade that impinge on corporate profits. Should Hillary have the leading role? By Richard John Stapleton Hillary Clinton is a wonderful leader, so some memes tell us on Facebook and some pundits tell us in mainstream media. Anti-labor law protests in France By Stephen Lendman Small-scale protests last month grew to much larger ones—in Paris and numerous other French cities. ‘The most successful president in U.S. history’ By Dave Alpert The past couple of days, I’ve noticed postings on Facebook calling President Obama “the most successful president in U.S. history.” TSA mocks blind man By Lisa Simeone No matter how often we hear these stories, one after another after another after another, for years now, each new outrage is still infuriating. No matter how low you think the TSA can go, it always goes lower. Wednesday The war on savings: The Panama Papers, bail-ins, and the push to go cashless By Ellen Brown The bombshell publication of the “Panama Papers,” leaked from a Panama law firm specializing in shell companies, has triggered both outrage and skepticism. In an April 3 article, titled “Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% From Panama Leak,” UK blogger Craig Murray writes that the whistleblower no doubt had good intentions; but he made the mistake of leaking his 11.5 million documents to the corporate-controlled Western media, which released only those few documents incriminating opponents of Western financial interests. Washington continues to destroy Latin American reformers By Paul Craig Roberts Currently, Washington is conducting operations against Latin American presidents who tried to represent their own peoples instead of American business interests and Washington’s foreign policy. Washington is trying to unseat and indict President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, President Evo Morales in Bolivia, President Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. Washington has succeeded in getting the president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, out of office, and is now seeking to have her indicted. To round off its attack on Brazil’s reformist political party, Washington is orchestrating crimes with which to tar and indict Rousseff’s predecessor, Lula da Silva. America’s money controlled political process By Stephen Lendman From inception, America was never beautiful or democratic. Rich and powerful interests run things exclusively for their own benefit, ordinary people entirely shut out. Are you ready for President Paul Ryan? Why we desperately need a Plan C By Harvey Wasserman The Democratic party is teetering on the brink. The green/peace/social justice community needs a Plan C. The Republicans have one. The Democrats don’t. The impacts could be catastrophic. It’s not £30,000 in Cameron’s offshore account, it’s at least £2 million By Wayne Madsen British Prime Minister David Cameron tried to fend off criticism of an offshore trust maintained in the Bahamas by his father Ian Cameron and which he inherited upon his father’s death in 2010. The details of the trust were contained in the massive tranche of documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which were leaked to the media by the dubious International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an operation funded by George Soros, the CIA-connected U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Ford Foundation. Thursday President Killary Would the world survive President Hillary? By Paul Craig Roberts Hillary Clinton is proving to be the “Teflon candidate.” In her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, she has escaped damage from major scandals, any one of which would destroy a politician. Hillary has accepted massive bribes in the form of speaking fees from financial organizations and corporations. She is under investigation for misuse of classified data, an offense for which a number of whistleblowers are in prison. Hillary has survived the bombing of Libya, her creation of a failed Libyan state that is today a major source of terrorist jihadists, and the Benghazi controversy. She has survived charges that as secretary of state she arranged favors for foreign interests in exchange for donations to the Clintons’ foundation. And, of course, there is a long list of previous scandals: Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate. Diana Johnstone’s book, Queen of Chaos, describes Hillary Clinton as “the top salesperson for the ruling oligarchy.” Freedom Rider: Barack, Hillary and the Libya crime By Margaret Kimberley Barack Obama’s last nine months in office will provide plenty of opportunity for him to spoon feed his scribes in the corporate media. Under the pretense of writing history, they will serve as one collective pro-Obama mouthpiece between now and January 20, 2017. The process is a delicate one however. The president will also have to explain those policies that did not produce the outcomes he wanted. Such is the case with any discussion of his role in destroying Libya. Rove backing Cruz and Hillary at same time By Wayne Madsen According to longtime Republican Party insiders, chief GOP strategist Karl Rove, dubbed “Bush’s brain” during his long service for George W. Bush, is providing campaign advice for both GOP candidate Ted Cruz and leading Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Rove, who backed the aborted campaign of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, is doing everything necessary to deny the GOP nomination to Donald Trump. FOIA documents reveal Gitmo in Chicago torture and abuse By Stephen Lendman London’s Guardian published information gotten from its FOIA lawsuit, documented evidence of “how Chicago police used punches, baton blows and Tasers at [its] off-the-books (Homan Square) interrogation site”—largely terrorizing Blacks. Pharma giant Pfizer blocked from tax evasion New Treasury Department rules helped scrap the alleged tax-dodging giant's attempt to merge with overseas firm. By Martha Rosenberg Big Pharma received $127 billion of our tax dollars in 2014 through the federal programs Medicare, Medicaid, VA, and TRICARE. But just because they live on our tax dollars, doesn’t mean Pharma companies want to pay taxes. Increasingly, they seek tax inversions, reincorporating in countries like Britain, Ireland or the Netherlands, often merging with a European entity to duck U.S. taxes. Friday Is our citizens learning? By Bev Conover Okay, I paraphrased George W. Bush’s awful grammar in this surrealistic electoral season of the Republican clown car and the Hillary & Bernie fracas. Is reform enough or do we need a revolution? By Dave Alpert Bernie Sanders calls his candidacy a “political revolution;” hundreds of people get arrested while demonstrating in Washington, DC, to get the money out of the electoral system and to make the election process more democratic. Canadian politicians controlled by the transnational oligarchy? By Mark Taliano Canada is being colonized by a Washington-led, transnational oligarchy. As with any colony, we are losing our political and economic self-determination and sovereignty. If Americans elect Hillary president, the One Percent’s control will be complete By Paul Craig Roberts Richard C. Cook thinks that Bernie Sanders could become the next president. Fleecing the American taxpayer: The profit incentives driving the police state By John W. Whitehead If there is an absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off.

RSN: SeaWorld Sees Profits Plunge 84% as Customers Desert Controversial Park, Studies Show Immigrants Make Cities Safer

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Robert Parry | Obama's Pragmatic Appeal for Iran Peace 
 
Robert Parry, Consortium News 
Parry writes: "President Obama defended the Iran nuclear deal and urged Americans to support this initiative for peace, but his choice of American University for the speech invited comparisons with JFK's famous words that 'we all inhabit this small planet' and Obama fell far short of that standard." 
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Trump Clashes With Rivals, Fox Moderators in First GOP Debate 
Jessica Taylor, NPR 
Taylor writes: "On the very first question, Trump refused to promise to back the eventual GOP nominee - unless it's him - and won't rule out launching a third-party bid." 
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Jon Stewart Says Farewell to The Daily Show 
Raya Jalabi, Guardian UK 
Jalabi writes: "Fittingly, the first debate of leading Republican presidential hopefuls ended just moments before Stewart's show aired on Comedy Central, typical fodder for Stewart's acerbic cannon." 
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Bernie Sanders Criticizes Uber for Lack of Regulation 
David McCabe, The Hill 
McCabe writes: "Speaking with Bloomberg, the Democratic presidential contender called the service 'unregulated,' wading into one of the most closely watched economic debates in the nascent 2016 race." 
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US Congressman Calls for Inquiry Into 'Shocking' Detentions at Chicago Police's Homan Square Facility 
Spencer Ackerman and Zach Stafford, Guardian UK 
Excerpt: "The frustrated politicians who called for a federal investigation into Chicago's off-the-books police warehouse have renewed calls for the first official inquiry into the facility, as a direct response to what one of them called a 'shocking' new expose of wholesale detentions." 
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Studies Show Immigrants Make Cities Safer 
Christopher Dickey, The Daily Beast 
Dickey writes: "Politicians would rather talk about horrifying anecdotes and conventional wisdom than look at the facts: Big cities with big immigrant populations are safer cities." 
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SeaWorld Sees Profits Plunge 84% as Customers Desert Controversial Park 
Rupert Neate, Guardian UK 
Neate writes: "SeaWorld has been in the headlines since the 2013 documentary Blackfish detailed claims that its treatment of orca whales provoked violent behaviour contributing to the deaths of three people." 
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RSN: Planned Pipeline Through a National Forest Stirs Fears, Appellate Panel Says Texas ID Law Broke US Voting Rights Act, Chicago Police Detained Thousands of Black Americans at Homan Square Interrogation Facility

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Bernie Sanders | The Fight for Voting Rights Is Our Fight Today 
 
Bernie Sanders, Reader Supported News 
Sanders writes: "Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act's 'pre-clearance' provision, which extended protections to minority voters in states where they were clearly needed. Then we must expand the Act's scope so that every American, regardless of skin color or national origin, is able to vote freely." 
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Appellate Panel Says Texas ID Law Broke US Voting Rights Act 
Erik Eckholm, The New York Times 
Eckholm writes: "A federal appeals panel ruled Wednesday that a strict voter identification law in Texas discriminated against blacks and Hispanics and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965." 
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Chicago Police Detained Thousands of Black Americans at Homan Square Interrogation Facility 
Spencer Ackerman and Zach Stafford, Guardian UK 
Excerpt: "At least 3,500 Americans have been detained inside a Chicago police warehouse described by some of its arrestees as a secretive interrogation facility, newly uncovered records reveal." 
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Americans Say Racism Is a Bigger Problem Today Than at Any Point in the Past 20 Years 
Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post 
Ingraham writes: "Half of Americans - exactly 50 percent - say racism is a 'big problem' in this country, according to a fascinating new Pew poll released today. That's up an astonishing 17 points since the last time pollsters asked this question in 2010." 
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Report: US Jails Face Suicide Epidemic 
Jenifer Fenton, Al Jazeera America 
Fenton writes: "Suicides in local jails are the leading cause of death for U.S. inmates, according to a recent report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)." 
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Will the US Begin to Investigate Civilian Casualties in Its Air Strikes on ISIS? 
Chris Woods, The Independent 
Woods writes: "The first year of the international Coalition's air war against Isis has already seen more than 17,000 bombs and missiles dropped on Iraq and Syria, as part of 5,700 air strikes." 
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Planned Pipeline Through a National Forest Stirs Fears 
Steve Szkotak, Associated Press 
Szkotak writes: "The U.S. Forest Service has raised hundreds of concerns about a proposed natural gas pipeline that would carve a 30-mile swath through national forests in Virginia and West Virginia." 
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RSN: 6 Ways to Celebrate Endangered Species Day, As Police Torture Victims Win $5.5M in Reparations, Could Chicago Be a Model for Police Abuses Nationwide?, Ukraine Appoints US Senator McCain Presidential Aide

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Andy Borowitz | Bush Says Iraq Question Unimportant Since He Clearly Will Never Be President

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "After several days of controversy over whether he would have authorized an invasion of Iraq, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said on Thursday that the question was unimportant since it is now painfully clear that he will never be President."
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As Police Torture Victims Win $5.5M in Reparations, Could Chicago Be a Model for Police Abuses Nationwide?
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Earlier this month, the Chicago City Council approved a $5.5 million reparations fund for victims of police torture. More than 200 people, most of them African-American, were tortured under the reign of Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge from 1972 to 1991."
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18 Senators Call on Obama to Raise Minimum Wage to $15
18 US Senators
Excerpt: "My President, the stroke of your pen can have a transformative impact for millions of workers. As low-wage fast food, retail and federal contract workers continue to strike in growing numbers to 'fight for $15 and a Union,' we urge you to harness the power of the Presidency to help these workers achieve the American Dream."
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Ukraine Appoints US Senator McCain Presidential Aide
Agence France-Presse
Excerpt: "Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has appointed John McCain, a hawkish US senator who has pressed Washington to send lethal weapons to war-torn Ukraine, as his advisor, his administration said."
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NSA Reform Bill Doesn't Actually Suspend Phone Spying Program
Shane Harris, The Daily Beast
Harris writes: "It was supposed to be the declawing of America's biggest spy service. But 'what no one wants to say out loud is that this is a big win for the NSA,' one former top spook says."
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Unexploded Bomb From Israel's Attack on Gaza Explodes, Injuring 50
TeleSUR
Excerpt: "Last year's 50-day attack on the Gaza strip left more than 2,100 people dead, most of whom were civilians."
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6 Ways to Celebrate Endangered Species Day
Callie Spaide, TakePart
Excerpt: "While not as well known as Thanksgiving or Christmas (or even Flag Day), Endangered Species Day has a special place for all of us."
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