CLG: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says, World's fastest jet MiG-31 intercepts US spy plane near Russia's Far East, Turkey explosion: Gaziantep police station hit by blast

 News Updates from CLG
03 May 2016 - Part 1

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

 

Previous edition: Resend: Trump: 'I consider myself the presumptive nominee, absolutely' - Clinton wins 4 states

 

German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says | 27 April 2016 | A nuclear power plant in Germany has been found to be infected with computer viruses, but they appear not to have posed a threat to the facility's operations [?!?] because it is isolated from the Internet, the station's operator said on Tuesday. The Gundremmingen plant, located about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Munich, is run by the German utility RWE. The viruses, which include "W32.Ramnit" and "Conficker", were discovered at Gundremmingen's B unit in a computer system retrofitted in 2008 with data visualization software associated with equipment for moving nuclear fuel rods, RWE said. Malware was also found on 18 removable data drives, mainly USB sticks, in office computers maintained separately from the plant's operating systems.

 

Officials for Hanford Nuclear Reservation trying to determine if second giant tank containing radioactive waste from production of plutonium for nuclear weapons is leaking | 26 April 2016 | (WA) Officials for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation are trying to determine if a second giant underground tank containing radioactive waste from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons is leaking, the U.S. Department of Energy revealed on Tuesday. Air monitors attached to an aging tank known as AY-101 recently found radiation at higher than normal background levels, the agency said. A video inspection of the underground tank found no evidence that radioactive waste had leaked from the primary tank into the space between the two walls, Hanford officials said. A Hanford watchdog group on Tuesday contended the higher radiation found by the air monitors was evidence of a leak in a second tank.

 

Baghdad state of emergency as protesters storm parliament | 01 May 20916 | Protesters have stormed Iraq's parliament in a dramatic culmination of months of demonstrations, casting uncertainty over the tenure of the country's prime minister and the foundations of the political system laid in place after the 2003 US-led invasion. Security forces declared a state of emergency in the Iraqi capital after demonstrators climbed over blast walls and broke through cordons to enter Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, also home to ministries and embassies. MPs fled the building in panic, with some berated and hit as they left.

 

World's fastest jet MiG-31 intercepts US spy plane near Russia's Far East | 28 April 2016 | A Russian Air Force MiG-31 jet intercepted a US spy plane near Kamchatka in Russia's Far East last week, flying within 15 meters of the aircraft. Washington downplayed the incident, saying it was carried out in a "safe and professional" manner. The MiG-31 (NATO code name Foxhound) is a Soviet-design supersonic interceptor, the world's fastest aircraft in service today. It got to within 15 meters of a US surveillance plane, which was flying in international airspace near the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

 

French Assembly adopts resolution calling to end anti-Russian sanctions imposed by EU | 28 April 2016 | French MPs have voted in favor of a resolution to lift the EU-imposed sanctions initially slapped on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine and the reunification with Crimea. The document is non-binding. Fifty-five members of the French National Assembly have supported the resolution calling on the government not to extend the sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU. Forty-four voted against and two abstained.

 

Turkey explosion: Gaziantep police station hit by blast | 01 May 2016 | At least one person has died and 14 were injured by an explosion near the main police station in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, officials say. The blast hit the southern city, 10km (six miles) from the Syrian border, at about 09:30 local time (06:30 GMT). CNN Turk reported that the blast was heard several kilometres away.

 

Suspect in Paris attacks extradited to France from Belgium | 27 April 2016 | Salah Abdeslam, suspected of playing a major part in November's attacks in Paris by Islamist militants in which 130 people were killed, has been extradited to France from Belgium, prosecutors in both countries said on Wednesday. Abdeslam, 26, was Europe's most wanted fugitive until his capture in Brussels on March 18 after a four-month manhunt. He was due to appear before French judges later on Wednesday.

 

Brother of San Bernardino shooter arrested with two others | 29 April 2016 | Three people linked to the couple [allegedly] responsible for December's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, were arrested on Thursday on conspiracy, marriage fraud and other charges unrelated to the massacre, U.S. prosecutors said. The trio included Syed Raheel Farook, whose brother Syed Rizwan Farook and sister-in-law, Pakistan-born Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a rampage authorities have said was inspired by Islamist militants. All three pleaded not guilty and will be released on bond, Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said.

 

Michigan official suggested rigging water tests to 'bump out' lead results | 27 April 2016 | A Michigan environmental official suggested a technician collecting samples for a suburban Detroit private water system "bump...out" a test result that found very high levels of lead by testing more homes, according to a 2008 email reviewed by the Guardian. Doing so could avert a "lead public notice", the email reasoned, which would alert residents of dangerously high levels in their water.

 

Obama torches Trump at his final Washington correspondents' dinner | 01 May 2016 | U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday took aim at Democrats and Republicans alike in his final appearance headlining the star-studded White House correspondents' dinner, but saved his sharpest barbs for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump...In his remarks, Obama looked back on his presidency and jokingly predicted the country may be nearing its doom. "The end of the republic has never looked better," the tuxedo-clad president said looking out at the well-groomed crowd as he blasted Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus.

 

Trump white powder scare: Envelope filled with mystery substance is mailed to Trump's campaign office forcing six people into isolation --Five Trump staffers and a police officer are being evaluated after an envelope of suspicious white powder was mailed to Trump Tower | 28 April 2016 | Hazmat teams and emergency crews surrounded Trump Tower this evening after an envelope of suspicious white powder was mailed to Donald Trump. Six people, including a police officer, were isolated after an intern at the Tower in New York opened the envelope at just after 8pm on Thursday. They alerted security after they discovered a mysterious white powder inside. The letter had been addressed to Donald Trump at Trump Tower, officials say.

Media conflates rigged computer programming and stolen 'elections' with 'good ground g-me:' Cruz Poaches Nearly All AZ Delegates; Former Gov. Brewer Screams 'I Got CheaTED!' | 01 May 2016 | Donald Trump won the Arizona Republican primary with 47% of the vote to second- place Ted Cruz with 25%. Trump won all 58 delegates in Arizona. But that didn't stop the Cruz campaign and GOP elites from coming in and poaching all of the delegates at today’s state convention...Even former Governor Jan Brewer, an outspoken Trump supporter, had her name removed from the online ballot and did not make the cut. Brewer took to Twitter, and exclaimed:"I've been elected to 5 straight National Conventions. Today, I got cheated. @realDonaldTrump got cheated at AZ Convention. Shameful!!!" "My name was 'mysteriously' removed off @realDonaldTrump online ballot.Today's electronic vote full of glitches and errors. Cheated today!"

5 arrested, 1 injured in chaotic protest outside Burlingame Republican Convention | 30 April 2016 | Protesters against Republican frontrunner clashed with his supporters outside the state Republican convention in Burlingame. The Republican frontrunner Donald Trump was forced to leave his motorcade to cut through a fence into a back entrance. "It felt like I was crossing the border," Trump said. The chaos lead police in riot gear to make arrests. In all, police made five arrests Friday.

 

John Boehner: Ted Cruz is 'Lucifer in the flesh' | 28 April 2016 | John Boehner excoriated his former Capitol Hill colleague and GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz during a talk at Stanford University, labeling Cruz as "Lucifer in the flesh" Boehner, who retired as speaker of the House last fall, laid out his opinion on thepresidential race in a talk at the university. Cruz did not fare well. "I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life," Boehner said, according to the Stanford Daily...If Trump is the Republican nominee, Boehner said, he would vote for him. However, if Cruz won the nod, he would not support him, Boehner said.

 

Cruz defends Fiorina's business record amid Carrier controversy | 01 May 2016 | On "Fox News Sunday," Texas Senator Ted Cruz defended Carly Fiorina's business record amid ongoing controversy about outsourced jobs in Indiana. Cruz discussed his intent to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States and touted his choice of the former Hewlett-Packard CEO as his running mate. Upon the mention of Fiorina, host Chris Wallace pressed Cruz about her record on outsourcing.

 

Ted Cruz to Name Carly Fiorina as His Running Mate | 27 April 2016 | Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, desperate to alter the course of a presidential primary fight in which Donald J. Trump is closing in on victory, will announce Wednesday afternoon that Carly Fiorina will be his running mate if he wins the Republican nomination, two campaign advisers confirmed. The move, a day after Mr. Trump scored unexpectedly wide victory margins in sweeping five East Coast states, amounts to the grandest diversionary ploy a presidential candidate can stage-- or at least the grandest one available to a candidate trailing by more than 400 delegates who failed to win more than 25 percent of the vote in any state on Tuesday.

 

High-Ranking LA County Sheriff's Official Resigns Over 'Inappropriate and Unprofessional Emails,' Department Says | 01 May 2016 | A top LA County Sheriff's Department official resigned Sunday in the wake of a controversy over emails he forwarded to people from his work computer. Tom Angel, who until Sunday was chief of staff for Sheriff Jim McDonnell, forwarded the emails three to four years ago while he was working as second-in-command at the Burbank Police Department. The emails were recently uncovered in an LA Times report and Angel faced public backlash over their offensive takes on minorities.

 

Supreme Court: Texas voter ID law to remain | 29 April 2016 | The Supreme Court on Friday allowed a controversial Texas voter ID law to remain in effect for now, turning away an emergency motion from opponents of the law who say it is one of the most strict in the country. A federal appeals court is set to hear a challenge to the law at the end of May. In their one-page order, the justices made clear they recognize the "time constraints" that exist because of the upcoming election and advised the parties that if the appeals court has not ruled by the end of July, the civil rights groups who brought the challenge could return to the Supreme Court to seek relief. 

 

Six killed in Texas floods as severe weather lashes central U.S. | 30 April 2016 | A grandmother and four of her grandchildren were killed and another person also died in floods in Texas caused by storms that unleashed tornadoes, damaging hail and torrential rains on several central U.S. states, officials said on Saturday. The woman and her grandchildren died in Palestine, Texas, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Dallas, after escaping a house where flood waters had reached the roof line. They were then swept away, Palestine police Captain James Muniz said.

 

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RSN: 2015 in Pollution: A Toxic Roundup, Slouching Toward Global Disaster, Privilege, Pathology and Power, Former ISIS Hostage: Welcoming Refugees Is the Best Strategy Against ISIS

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

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Paul Krugman | Privilege, Pathology and Power

Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "Wealth can be bad for your soul. That's not just a hoary piece of folk wisdom; it's a conclusion from serious social science, confirmed by statistical analysis and experiment."
READ MORE

Prior to San Bernardino Attack, Many Were Trained to Spot Terrorists; None Did
Jana Winter, The Intercept
Winter writes: "Part of California's Inland Empire has become home to a cottage industry of counterterrorism training in recent years aimed at teaching people how to spot would-be terrorists before they attack. By all accounts, those trainings failed to help anyone spot the married couple who shot and killed 14 people and injured 22 others in San Bernardino on December 2."
READ MORE

Bernie Sanders Seeks to Boost Standing Among Voters in His Own Age Bracket
John Wagner, The Washington Post
Wagner writes: "Sanders, 74, said in an interview Thursday that he plans to step up outreach to senior citizens in the month remaining before the Iowa caucuses, acknowledging that he is doing 'poorly' against Hillary Clinton among older voters."
READ MORE

Richard Falk | Slouching Toward Global Disaster
Richard Falk, CounterPunch
Falk writes: "There are many disturbing signs that the West is creating conditions in the Middle East and Asia that could produce a wider war, most likely a new Cold War, containing, as well, menacing risks of World War III."
READ MORE 


Former UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk. (photo: EPA)

here are many disturbing signs that the West is creating conditions in the Middle East and Asia that could produce a wider war, most likely a new Cold War, containing, as well, menacing risks of World War III. The reckless confrontation with Russia along its borders, reinforced by provocative weapons deployments in several NATO countries and the promotion of governing regimes hostile to Russia in such countries as Ukraine and Georgia seems to exhibit Cold War nostalgia, and is certainly not the way to preserve peace.

Add to this the increasingly belligerent approach recently taken by the United States naval officers and defense officials to China with respect to island disputes and navigational rights in the South China Seas. Such posturing has all the ingredients needed for intensifying international conflict, giving a militarist signature to Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia.’

These developments are happening during the supposedly conflict averse Obama presidency. Looking ahead to new leadership, even the most optimistic scenario that brings Hillary Clinton to the White House is sure to make these pre-war drum beats even louder.

From a more detached perspective it is fair to observe that Obama seems rather peace-oriented only because American political leaders and the Beltway/media mainstream have become so accustomed to relying on military solutions whether successful or not, whether dangerous and wasteful or not, that is, only by comparison with more hawkish alternatives.

The current paranoid political atmosphere in the United States is a further relevant concern, calling for police state governmental authority at home, increased weapons budgets, and the continuing militarization of policing and law enforcement.

Such moves encourage an even more militaristic approach to foreign challenges that seem aimed at American and Israeli interests by ISIS, Iran, and China. Where this kind of war-mongering will lead is unknowable, but what is frighteningly clear is that this dangerous geopolitical bravado is likely to become even more strident as the 2016 campaign unfolds to choose the next American president.

Already Donald Trump, the clear Republican frontrunner, has seemed to commit the United States to a struggle against all of Islam by his foolish effort to insist that every Muslim is a terrorist suspect Islam as a potential terrorist who should be so treated. Even Samuel Huntington were he still alive might not welcome such an advocate of ‘the clash of civilizations’!

Historical Deep Roots

It has taken almost a century for the breakup of the Ottoman Empire to reap the colonialist harvest that was sown in the peace diplomacy that followed World War I. In the notorious Sykes-Picot Agreement diplomats of England and France in 1916 secretly negotiated arrangements that would divide up the Middle East into a series of artificially delimited territorial states to be administered as colonies by the respective European governments.

Among other wrongs, this devious undertaking representing a betrayal of promises made to Arab leaders that Britain, in particular, would support true independence in exchange for joining the anti-Ottoman and anti-German alliance formed to fight World War I. Such a division of the Ottoman spoils not only betrayed wartime promises of political independence to Arab leaders, but also undermined the efforts of Woodrow Wilson to apply the principle of ethnic self-determination to the Ottoman aftermath.

As a result of diplomatic maneuvers the compromise reached at Versailles in 1919 was to accept the Sykes-Picot borders that were drawn to satisfy colonial ambitions for trade routes and spheres of influence, but to disguise slightly its colonialist character, by creating an international system of mandates for the Middle East in which London and Paris would administer the territories, accepting a vague commitment to lead the various societies to eventual political independence at some unspecified future time. These Sykes-Picot ‘states’ were artificial political communities that never overcame the indigenous primacy of ethnic, tribal, and religious affinities, and could be maintained as coherent political realities only by creating oppressive state structures. If World War II had not sapped European colonial will and capabilities, it is easy to imagine that the societies of the Middle East would remain subjugated under mandate banners.

After World War II

Is it any wonder, then, that the region has been extremely beset by various forms of authoritarian rule ever since the countries of the Middle East gained their independence after the end of the Second World War?

Whether in the form of dynastic monarchies or secular governments, the stability that was achieved in the region depended on the denial of human rights, including rights of democratic participation, as well as the buildup of small privileged and exploitative elites that linked national markets and resources to the global economic order. And as oil became the prime strategic resource, the dominance of the region became for the West led by the United States as absolutely vital.

From these perspectives the stable authoritarianism of the region was quite congenial with the Cold War standoff between the United States and Soviet Union that was interested in securing strategic and economic partnerships reflecting the ideological rivalries, while being indifferent to whether or not the people were being victimized by abusive and brutal governments.

The American commitment to this status quo in the Middle East was most vividly expressed in 1980 after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the Iranian Revolution of the prior year by the enunciation of the Carter Doctrine.

President Carter in his State of the Union Address was warning the Soviet Union by a strong diplomatic signal that the United States was ready to defend its interests in the Persian Gulf by force, which because of supposed Soviet superiority in ground warfare was understood at the time as making an implied threat to use nuclear weapons if necessary.

After the Cold War

When the Cold War ended, the United States unthinkingly promoted the spread of capitalist style constitutional democracy wherever it could, including the Middle East. The Clinton presidency (1992-2000) talked about the ‘enlargement’ of the community of democratic states, implying that any other political option lacked legitimacy (unless of course it was a friendly oil producer or strategic ally).

The neocon presidency of George W. Bush (2000-2008) with its interventionist bent invoked ‘democracy promotion’ as its goal, and became clear in its official formulation of security doctrine in 2002 that only capitalist democracies were legitimate Westphalian states whose sovereign rights were entitled to respect.

This kind of strident militarism reached a new climax after 9/11.

The White House apparently hoped to embark on a series regime-changing interventions in the Middle East and Asia with the expectation of producing at minimal cost shining examples of liberation and democratization, as well as secure the Gulf oil reserves and establish military bases to undergird its regional ambitions.

The attacks on Afghanistan, and especially Iraq, were the most notorious applications of this misguided approach. Instead of ‘democracy’ (Washington’s code word for integration into its version of neoliberal globalization), what emerged was strife and chaos, and the collapse of stable internal governance. The strong state that preceded the intervention gave way to localized militias and resurgent tribal, clan, and religious rivalries leading domestic populations to wish for a return to the relative stability of the preceding authoritarian arrangements, despite their brutality and corruption.

And even in Washington one encounters whispered admissions that Iraq was better off, after all, under Saddam Hussein than under the kind of sectarian and divisive leaders that governed the country since the American occupation began in 2003, and now threaten Iraq with an implosion that will produce at least two states replacing the shattered one.

The Arab Spring

Then came the Arab Spring in 2011 creating an awkward tension between the professed wish in Washington for democracy in the Arab world and the overriding commitment to upholding strategic interests throughout the Middle East. At first, the West reacted ambivalently to the Arab uprisings, not knowing whether to welcome, and then try to tame, these anti-authoritarian movements of the Arab masses or to lament the risks of new elites that were likely to turn away from neoliberal capitalism and strategic partnerships, and worst of all, might be more inclined to challenge Israel.

What happened in the years that followed removed the ambiguity, confirming that material and ideological interests took precedence over visionary endorsements of Arab democracy.

The reality that emerged indicated that neither the domestic setting nor the international context was compatible with the existence of democratic forms of governance. What unsurprisingly followed was a series of further military interventions and strategic confrontations either via NATO as in Libya or by way of its regional partners, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates as in Iran, Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen.

With few tears shed in Washington, the authentic and promising democratic beginnings in Egypt that excited the world in the aftermath of the 2011 Tahrir Square were crushed two years later by a populist military coup that restored Mubarak Era authoritarianism, accentuating its worst features.

What amounted to the revenge of the urban secular elites in Cairo included a genuine bonding between a new majority of the Egyptian people and its armed forces in a bloody struggle to challenge and destroy the Muslim Brotherhood that had taken control of the government by winning a series of elections.

Despite its supposed liberalism the Obama leadership played along with these developments. It obliged the new Sisi-led leadership by avoiding the term ‘coup’ although the military takeover was followed by a bloody crackdown on the elected leadership and civil society leadership.

This Orwellian trope of refusing to call a coup by its real name enabled the United States to continue military assistance to Egypt without requiring a new Congressional authorization.

The folk wisdom of the Arab world gives insight into the counterrevolutionary backlash that has crushed the populist hopes of 2011: “People prefer 100 years of tyranny to a single year of chaos.”

And this kind of priority is shared by most of those who make and manage American foreign policy. Just as clearly as the Arab masses, the Pentagon planners prefer the stability of authoritarianism to the anarchistic uncertainties of ethnic and tribal strife, militia forms of governance that so often come in the wake of the collapse of both dictatorial rule and democratic governance.

And the masters of business and finance, aside from the lure of post-conflict markets for the reconstruction of what has been destroyed militarily, prefer to work with dependable and familiar national elites that welcome foreign capital on lucrative terms that benefit insiders and outsiders alike, while keeping the masses in conditions of impoverished thralldom.

In many respects, Syria and Iraq illustrate the terrible human tragedies that have been visited on the peoples of these two countries. In Syria a popular uprising in 2011 was unforgivably crushed by the Basher el-Assad regime in Damascus, leading to a series of disastrous interventions on both sides of the internal war that erupted, with Saudi Arabia and Iran engaged in a proxy war on Syrian soil while Israel uses its diplomatic leverage to ensure that the unresolved war would last as long as possible as Tel Aviv wanted neither the regime nor its opponents to win a clear victory.

During this strife, Russia, Turkey, and the United States were intervening with a bewildering blend of common and contradictory goals ranging from pro-government stabilization to a variety of regime changing scenarios. These external actors held conflicting views of the Kurdish fighters as either coveted allies or dangerous adversaries.

In the process several hundred thousand Syrians have lost their lives, almost half the population have become refugees and internally displaced persons, much of the country and its ancient heritage sites devastated, and no real end of the violence and devastation is in sight.

The Iraq experience is only marginally better.

After a dozen years of punitive sanctions following the 1991 ceasefire that exacted a heavy toll on the civilian population, the ‘shock and awe’ of US/UK attacks of 2003, an occupation began that rid the country of its cruel and oppressive leader, Saddam Hussein, and his entourage.

What followed politically became over time deeply disillusioning, and actually worse than the overthrown regime, which had been hardly imaginable when the American-led occupation began. The Iraqi state was being reconstructed along sectarian lines, purging the Sunni minority elites from the Baghdad bureaucracy and armed forces, thereby generating a widespread internal violent opposition against foreign occupation and a resistance movement against the Iraqi leadership that had gained power with the help of the American presence.

This combination of insurgency and resistance also gave rise to widespread feelings of humiliation and alienation, which proved to be conducive to the rise of jihadi extremism, first in the form of al-Qaeda in Iraq and later as ISIS.

Toxic Geopolitics

It is impossible to understand and explain such a disastrous failure of military interventionism without considering the effects of two toxic ‘special relationships’ formed by the United States, with Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The basic feature of such special relationships is an unconditional partnership in which the Israelis and Saudis can do whatever they wish, including pursuing policies antagonistic to U.S. interests without encountering any meaningful opposition from either Washington or Europe.

This zone of discretion has allowed Israel to keep Palestinians from achieving self-determination while pursuing its own territorial ambitions via constantly expanding settlements on occupied Palestinian territory, fueling grassroots anti-Western sentiment throughout the Arab world because of this persisting reliance on a cruel settler colonialist approach to block for seven decades the Palestinian struggle for fundamental and minimal national rights.

The special relationship with Saudi Arabia is even more astonishing until one considers the primacy of economic strategic priorities, especially the importance of oil supplied at affordable prices. Having by far the worst human rights record in the region, replete with judicially decreed beheadings and executions by stoning, the Riyadh leadership continues to be warmly courted in Western capitals as allies and friends. At the same time, equally theocratic Iran is hypocritically bashed and internationally punished in retaliation for its far less oppressive governing abuses.

Of course, looking the other way, is what is to be expected in the cynical conduct of opportunistic geopolitics, but to indulge the Saudi role in the worldwide promotion of jihadism while spending trillion on counter-terrorism is much more difficult to fathom until one shifts attention from the cover story of counter-terrorism to the more illuminating narrative of petropolitics. Despite fracking and natural gas discoveries lessening Western dependence on Middle Eastern oil, old capitalist habits persist long after their economic justifications have lapsed and this seems true even when such policies have become damaging in lives and financial burdens.

Finding Hope is Difficult

In such circumstances, it is difficult to find much hope in the current cosmodrama of world politics.

It is possible, although unlikely, that geopolitical sanity will prevail to the extent of finding a diplomatic formula to end the violence in Syria and Yemen, as well as to normalize relations with Iran, restore order in Iraq and Libya, although such sensible outcomes face many obstacles, and may be years away.

The alternatives for the Middle East in the near future, barring the political miracle of a much more revolutionary and emancipatory second Arab Spring, seems to be authoritarian stability or anarchic strife and chaos, which seems far preferable if the alternative is the deep trauma associated with enduring further American military interventions.

If you happen to hear the Republican candidates give their prescriptions for fixing the Middle East it comes down to ‘toughness,’ including the scary recommendations of ‘carpet bombing’ and a greatly heightened American military presence.

Even the more thoughtful Democrats limit their proposals to enhanced militarism, hoping to induce the Arab countries to put ‘the boots on the ground’ with nary a worry about either igniting a regional war or the imaginative collapse that can only contemplate war as the recipe for peace, again recalling the degree to which Orwellian satiric irony is relied upon to shape foreign policy prescriptions by ambitious politicians.

Imaginative diplomacy, talking and listening to the enemy, and engaging in self-scrutiny remains outside the cast iron cage of the military mentality that has long dominated most of the political space in American foreign policy debates with the conspicuous help of the passive aggressive mainstream media.

In this respect, American democracy is a broken reality, and conscientious citizens must look elsewhere as a prison break of the political imagination is long overdue.

 http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/34377-slouching-toward-global-disaster

Former ISIS Hostage: Welcoming Refugees Is the Best Strategy Against ISIS
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Goodman writes: "French journalist and author Nicolas Henin spent 10 months as an ISIS hostage in Syria, where he was held by Mohammed Emwazi. We spoke with him about the growing move among Western countries to close their doors to refugees."
READ MORE

22 Years Ago Today, an Uprising Occurred That Changed the World
Hilary Klein, teleSUR
Klein writes: "On January 1, 1994, the EZLN captured the world's imagination when it rose up to demand justice and democracy for the indigenous peasants of southern Mexico. Since then, the Zapatista movement has won significant changes in its own territory and has inspired other social movements in Mexico and around the world, offering a number of key lessons that are still relevant today."
READ MORE

2015 in Pollution: A Toxic Roundup
Zoe Schlanger, Newsweek
Schlanger writes: "There's no subtle way to say this: 2015 was a garbage year for our air and water."
READ MORE 

A woman at Tiananmen Square wears a protective mask amid heavy smog after the city
issued its first ever 'red alert' for air pollution, in Beijing, December 9. 
(photo: Damir Sagolj/Reuters)


here’s no subtle way to say this: 2015 was a garbage year for our air and water. A river in Colorado turned a bright mac-and-cheese orange with mining waste. Photos of the streets of Beijing, thick with air pollution, looked downright apocalyptic. Parents in Flint, Michigan can look forward to a 2016 living in fear for their children’s brain development after learning their water is full of too much lead. One of the biggest automakers in the world admitted to rigging its vehicles to pass emissions tests, even when they were spewing out as much as 40 times the legal limit of the harmful pollutant NOx. It’s a mess out there, fam.

But amid the muck was a few bright spots: Obama’s Clean Power Plan made it through several Republican challenges mostly unscathed , and the federal government rolled out its first-ever rule limiting ozone emissions this year, putting a cap on the amount of the harmful pollutant (which is linked to asthma, heart disease, premature death, and an array of pregnancy complications) that states are allowed to emit. But—sorry, there’s a “but”—the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set the cap at the upper limit of what experts recommended , which many health advocates say amounts to a weak rule that still leaves plenty of room for ozone to damage human health. According to The New York Times , the EPA had sought public comment on a more restrictive cap, but industry lobbyists then “waged an all-fronts campaign” to urge the agency to publish as weak a standard as possible.

Meanwhile, a report found that the U.S.’s regulations on fine particulate matter (linked to asthma risk and a range of other health problems) isn’t nearly adequate, and still leaves Americans at risk for early death. So even if you live in a place that complies with the EPA’s fine particulate matter rules (many places—where about 44 percent of Americans live—do not) the air you breathe could still lead you to die sooner than you should.

Also, sadly, this article is not going to get any cheerier.

And now! Here’s a roundup of the most spectacularly awful pollution stories from 2015. This list is by no means exhaustive. It could go on forever. Sorry! But it’s true. Happy New Year.

Children of Flint, Michigan Might Be Permanently Damaged by Lead in the Water

The lead-tainted water supply in Flint, Michigan has spiked the levels of lead in children’s blood at such a scale that Mayor Karen Weaver announced she was preparing the city to need more special education programs in the near future to deal with the “irreversible” effects on children’s brain development. Weaver declared a state of emergency, the head of Michigan’s environmental regulation agency resigned, and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder apologized for the disaster this week.

Lead exposure “affects children’s brain development resulting in reduced intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioral changes such as shortening of attention span and increased antisocial behavior, and reduced educational attainment. Lead exposure also causes anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, immunotoxicity and toxicity to the reproductive organs,” according to the World Health Organization. “The neurological and behavioral effects of lead are believed to be irreversible.”

Volkswagen Emissions Cheating Scandal May Have an Actual Death Toll

This year, we learned that automaker Volkswagen cheated on emissions tests on a massive scale, rigging 11 million of its cars worldwide with “defeat devices” to pass emissions tests, while in reality they were pumping far more toxic pollution than was legal. Scientists have established that, statistically, exposure to air pollution correlates with earlier-than-normal death. MIT and Harvard researchers applied those statistical models to the Volkswagen scandal, and concluded in a recent study that the roughly 500,000 rigged cars sold in the U.S. alone would emit enough excess NOx by the end of 2016 to cause roughly 60 people to die 10 to 20 years prematurely .

All that excess pollution will also “contribute directly” to 31 cases of chronic bronchitis, 34 hospital admissions for heart and respiratory conditions, 120,000 “minor restricted activity days” (like missing work or school) and roughly 210,000 days of lower-respiratory symptoms, such as coughing. They calculated that all those sick people, from 2008 through the end of 2015, will cost the country $450 million. That’s in the United States alone—another 10.5 million rigged cars, or more than 20 times the amount sold in the US, were sold abroad.

Beijing’s Air Pollution Problem Turned the City Post-Apocalyptic

In December, Beijing twice issued an air pollution “red alert,” the highest level warning, which triggers the shutdown of schools and factories, and restricts traffic. The smog was expected to rise above 500 micrograms per cubic meter. For perspective, levels above 25 are considered unsafe by the World Health Organization.

One resident described the pollution during that time as so thick she could “taste the bad air” through her facemask.

Beijing’s dire problem, linked to China’s dependence on burning coal, has produced headlines that read like post-apocalyptic speculative fiction. People in Beijing are rapidly buying up cans of clean air from Canadafor $14 a pop, before shipping. A Beijing restaurant started charging extra for clean air .

LA’s Methane Leak May be the Biggest Environmental Disaster Since the BP Spill

For about two months straight, a vast amount of methane gas has been spewing out of a natural gas facility 25 miles north of Los Angeles, and no end is in sight. The company responsible, Southern California Gas Co., has said that it might take several months to plug the leak.

The latest estimates, from the Environmental Defense Fund, show that 74,500 metric tons of methane gas have been released so far. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas: It absorbs heat so effectively that it can be as much as 80 times more potent in terms of global warming than carbon dioxide is in its first two decades in the atmosphere. Gizmodo reports that, in terms of overall emissions, that’s the equivalent of putting seven million more cars on the road.

EPA Turned a River Bright Orange. Oops

Earlier this year, the EPA managed to cause an environmental disaster. The agency says it was using heavy machinery to investigate pollutants at an abandoned gold mine in Colorado when it accidentally released an estimated 1 million gallons of built-up mining waste into the nearby Animas River—turning it a spectacularly unnatural orange hue. In short, the agency poked a hole in the wrong place.

The waste contained lead, arsenic, cadmium and aluminum. To be fair, the mine, like many mines left abandoned and unremediated by companies across the West, had been slowly releasing such contaminants for years—the EPA was there to try to stop the leak.

“This is a huge tragedy. It’s hard being on the other side of this. We typically respond to emergencies, we don’t cause them,” David Ostrander, EPA’s director of emergency preparedness for the region, said at the time. “But this is just an unanticipated situation that didn’t quite come out as planned.”

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/34374-2015-in-pollution-a-toxic-roundup

CLG: Officials: Justice Department to investigate Chicago Police Department, Israel fumes after Swedish FM slams 'extrajudicial executions' of Palestinians in ongoing violence, Farook Family Lawyer Suggests San Bernardino Attack Was Faked, Along With Sandy Hook

News Updates from CLG
06 December 2015

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

 

Previous edition: FBI investigating California massacre as 'act of terrorism'

 

Breaking: Obama: 'This was an act of terrorism' | 06 Dec 2015 | (CNN) 8:04 p.m. ET update: President Obama says "this was an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people." 8:07 p.m. ET update: Obama says the "threat from terror is real but we will overcome it." He pledges to "destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us." 8:08 p.m. ET update: Obama pledges to review visa waiver program. He urges Congress to reassess gun laws, saying people on the no-fly list shouldn't be able to obtain a gun. 8:10 p.m. ET update: Obama says U.S. should not engage in a "long and costly ground war." He argues that ISIL "does not speak for Islam." Original story: President Barack Obama is poised to deliver a rare prime-time address from the Oval Office on Sunday to reassure anxious Americans that his administration will protect them from the threat posed by ISIS [I-CIA-SIS].

 

Farook Family Lawyer Suggests San Bernardino Attack Was Faked, Along With Sandy Hook --'It doesn't seem plausible to us': Family of US Muslim who killed 14 says they don't believe official account of the massacre and even suggest the Sandy Hook slaying didn't take place | 04 Dec 2015 | A lawyer representing the family of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook has questioned accounts of the massacre which saw Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik kill 14 at a holiday party on Wednesday morning. Attorney David Chesley said they doubted the accuracy of information released by the police and FBI. Farook, 28, and his Pakistan-born wife Malik, 27, died in a gun battle with police after the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center. To illustrate his point, Chesley made a bizarre reference to the Sandy Hook massacre, suggesting it didn't take place as described in the official narrative. 'There were a lot of questions drawn with Sandy Hook and whether or not that was a real incident or not.' When Chesley was asked if he doubted the events of Sandy Hook, he said: 'There has been a lot speculation about it is all I would say.'

 

Neighbor Purportedly Bought 'Assault-Style' Weapons Used in San Bernardino Rampage - Official | 05 Dec 2015 | An old neighbor of one of the San Bernardino shooters is believed to have purchased the "assault-style" rifles used in Wednesday's massacre, a law enforcement official told ABC News today. Overnight authorities raided the Riverside, California, home of Enrique Marquez, who public records show lived next door to an old address of Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the [alleged] San Bernardino killers, the official said. Police previously said that two handguns used in the attack were purchased by Farook and his wife-turned-accomplice Tashfeen Malik, but the other two guns – highly modified "assault-style" weapons -- had been purchased by an unidentified third party. The official told ABC News today the third party is suspected to be Marquez.

 

Imam: Texts With [Alleged] San Bernardino Shooter Eyed by FBI Were About Food | 05 Dec 2015 | A leader of a San Bernardino mosque said investigators questioned him about a series of text messages he sent [alleged] massacre gunman Syed Farook, but they were only about food donations for Islamic holy days. Roshan Abbassi, assistant imam at Dar-Al-Uloom Al-Islamia, told NBC News that Farook had volunteered to bring chicken biryani to the masjid for the evening meal that marks the breaking of the daily fast during Ramadan. Between June 12 and June 28, he and Farook exchanged 38 messages, he said, according to his phone records.

 

San Bernardino Suspects: 'Three White Males, Dressed in Military Gear' (Craft International, again?) | 06 Dec 2015  [Click here for image.]

 

Obama to address terrorist threat in Oval Office address Sunday night | 05 Dec 2015 | President Obama will deliver an Oval Office address Sunday at 8 p.m., the White House announced Saturday, as criticism of his terrorism strategy is mounting in the wake of attacks in California and overseas. The president's decision to speak directly to Americans comes as his administration has come under fire for failing to curb the threat posed by the Islamic State, which carried out last month's series of strikes in Paris that killed 130 people and is now connected to last week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. While the group, also known as ISIL or ISIS [but actually I-CIA-SIS], has not claimed direct responsibility for the attack that killed 14 Americans and wounded even more, one of the two perpetrators had declared her allegiance to the Islamic State before [allegedly] carrying it out.

 

Leytonstone Tube stabbing a 'terrorist incident' --Met said suspect was reportedly threatening other people with knife | 05 Dec 2015 | A stabbing at a Tube station in east London is being treated as a "terrorist incident", the Met Police has said. Police were called to reports of people being attacked at Leytonstone station just after 19:00 GMT. A man was arrested after being Tasered by police. One man suffered serious knife injuries while two others received minor injuries. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police's Counter-Terrorism Command are now investigating the incident.

 

Knifeman screams 'this is for Syria' in Leytonstone tube machete attack | 05 Dec 2015 | A man reportedly screamed 'this is for Syria' before allegedly slashing a person's throat and attacking up to three people. Police were called to Leytonstone station after reports of a stabbing in the ticket hall on Saturday at around 7pm. Sources told the Telegraph one person has been seriously injured and a second was also hurt. Officers tasered a man at the scene. [In the US, police officers would have opened fire.]

 

Poland considering asking for access to nuclear weapons under Nato program | 06 Dec 2015 | Poland's deputy defence minister has said the ministry is considering asking for access to nuclear weapons through a Nato program in which non-nuclear states borrow the arms from the US. Tomasz Szatkowski said the ministry was discussing whether to ask for access to Nato's [insane] "nuclear sharing" program to strengthen the country's ability to defend itself. Among Nato's 28 members there are three nuclear powers -- the US, France and Britain -- but only the US has provided weapons to allies for nuclear sharing.

 

Turkey to stop sending soldiers to Iraq after Baghdad protests | 06 Dec 2015 | Turkey said on Sunday it would halt further transfers of troops to an area near the Islamic State-controlled Iraqi city of Mosul after Baghdad threatened to appeal to the United Nations to force Turkey to withdraw its soldiers. Turkey deployed hundreds of forces to a camp in the Bashiqa region of northern Iraq on Thursday, calling it a routine rotation to train Iraqis to retake Mosul from Islamic State [Yeah, right!], which captured Iraq's second-largest city in 2014. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said his country might turn to the U.N. security council if Turkish troops sent to northern Iraq were not withdrawn within 48 hours.

 

'Incursion': Baghdad demands Turkey withdraw 'training' troops from northern Iraq | 05 Dec 2015 | The Iraqi government has demanded that Ankara withdraw the more than 100 Turkish forces that entered Iraq with tanks and artillery for alleged "training" of troops near Islamic State-occupied Mosul. Baghdad stressed the unsanctioned move was a breach of its sovereignty. The Iraqi foreign ministry said in a statement early on Saturday that the Turkish troops were acting in violation of the country's sovereignty and demanded the forces withdraw immediately. "Around one regiment armoured with tanks and artillery" has entered the northern Nineveh area, according to the statement from the Iraqi Prime Minister's media office.

 

Turkish troops on 'training mission' moved near Mosul, despite condemnation by Iraqi PM | 04 Dec 2015 | A Turkish official says a military battalion has been deployed to a position close to the Islamic State-held city of Mosul as part of a 'training mission.' The official said the training battalion equipped with armored vehicles is in the Bashiqa region close to Mosul. In a statement, the Iraqi prime minister's office condemned the Turkish move and called on Ankara to withdraw the troops from Iraqi territory.

 

Israel fumes after Swedish FM slams 'extrajudicial executions' of Palestinians in ongoing violence | 06 Dec 2015 | PM Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the statement of Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom who had earlier claimed that Israel resorted to unlawful killings of Palestinians [allegedly] involved in the ongoing wave of violence. This statement of the Swedish official caused a highly negative reaction in Israel...The current wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinian erupted at the beginning of October when Israel tried to restrict access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.

 

Far-Right Front National on course to make history in French regional elections | 06 Dec 2015 | The far-Right Front National (FN) was on Sunday night on course to make historic gains in regional elections in France, held in a state of emergency just three weeks after terror attacks that killed 130. After a campaign overshadowed by the refugee crisis and security fears in the wake of the Isil attacks in Paris, early estimates suggested the FN had fared even better than expected by coming first in six out of 13 "super-regions" in round one with the run-off next Sunday. It won the largest slice of the national vote -- on around 30 per cent compared to around 27 per cent for the Right and its allies and around 23 per cent for the ruling Socialists leading Marine Le Pen, its leader to declare the FN "without contest the first party of France".

 

UPS building in San Bernardino deemed safe after suspicious package is checked | 04 Dec 2015 | A suspicious package that forced the evacuation of a UPS facility in San Bernardino on Friday evening was examined by bomb experts and deemed safe, police said. A UPS driver returned the 3-pound package to the facility on Victoria Avenue after noticing that it was addressed to the Redlands home of the [alleged] shooters who killed 14 people at a social services agency this week. The facility was evacuated about 7:30 p.m. and the surrounding streets blocked off. "Item was safe, posed no threat," San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said on Twitter about 10:40 p.m.

 

Police Evacuate UPS Facility in San Bernardino After Driver Discovers Package Addressed to 'Suspect' Residence | 04 Dec 2015 | A UPS facility in San Bernardino was evacuated Friday evening after a delivery driver discovered a package addressed to a "suspect" home in Redlands, authorities said. Multiple police vehicles were seen shortly after 8:30 p.m. outside the UPS customer center in the 1400 block of East Victoria Avenue. The evacuation was ordered out of an abundance of caution, according to San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan.

 

New York Times Runs Editorial on Page One - First Time Since 1920 | 04 Dec 2015 | The New York Times is running an editorial on its front page on Saturday, the first time the paper has done so since 1920, calling for greater regulation on guns in the aftermath of a spate of mass shootings. The editorial, headlined "The Gun Epidemic," describes it as "a moral outrage and a national disgrace that people can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill with brutal speed and efficiency." It suggests drastically reducing the number of firearms, and "eliminating some large categories of weapons and ammunition."

 

End the Gun Epidemic in America (The New York Times) | 04 Dec 2015 | It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection...It is not necessary to debate the peculiar wording of the Second Amendment. No right is unlimited and immune from reasonable regulation. Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership.

 

Former President Jimmy Carter announces he's cancer-free | 06 Dec 2015 | Jimmy Carter's grandson says no cancer was detected the last time the former president underwent a scan. Jason Carter told The Associated Press in a text message that his grandfather "told me that the doctors couldn't find any cancer in his most recent scan." It was not immediately known when the scan took place, or when Carter received the news from his grandfather.

 

Officials: Justice Department to investigate Chicago Police Department | 06 Dec 2015 | the U.S. Justice Department will open a civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department in the wake of the release of video showing the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the coming investigation. A law enforcement official said the investigation will likely be announced "in the next week." The investigation into the department's policies and practices will likely focus on the use of deadly force by Chicago officers as well as training and community engagement.

 

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