RSN: Veto Keystone XL, Senate's No. 3 Dem Urges Obama, Majority of Americans Say Afghan War Was Not Worth Fighting

The US abandoned Afghanistan after creating a terrorist shelter ripe for the Taliban Extremism.

Instead of focusing on re-building Afghanistan into a viable country, the NEO-CONS focused on Iraqi Oil predicated on lies, fabrications and fairy tales.

The US has created a Hot Bed of Failed Societies the breed terrorists.

FAILED US POLICY being created by the same people who created the FAILURES!

This is the Global Chaos US Foreign Policy has created and will continue to create that your grandchildren .... maybe even great-grandchildren will fight.

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Majority of Americans Say Afghan War Was Not Worth Fighting

Scott Clement, The Washington Post
Clement writes: "Overall, Americans remain downbeat over the war at the end of NATO’s 13-year combat mission. A 56 percent majority says it has not been worth fighting, continuing a negative streak that dates to 2010."
READ MORE

North Korea Calls New US Sanctions Hostile and Unilateral
David Kravets, Ars Technica
Kravets writes: "The US is lobbing fresh sanctions against North Korea as a response to the cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment even as President Barack Obama's administration refuses to provide evidence of Pyongyang's involvement."
READ MORE

Hundreds of Police Turn Backs on NYC Mayor at Slain Officer's Funeral
Sebastien Malo, Reuters
Malo writes: "New York City police turned out in their thousands on Sunday for the funeral of the second of two officers murdered last month, but in a sign of persistent tensions with Mayor Bill de Blasio, hundreds turned their backs when he delivered his eulogy."
READ MORE

Israel to Demand US Halt Aid to Palestinians Following ICC Application
Barak Ravid, Haaretz
Ravid writes: "After freezing the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, Israel is taking additional steps to punish the PA’s for its request to join the International Criminal Court at The Hague."
READ MORE

US Regulators Target Payday Loans for Unfair Practices
Alan Zibel, The Wall Street Journal
Zibel writes: "U.S. officials are taking their first crack at writing rules for payday loans, responding to concerns that the short-term, high-rate debt can trap consumers in a cycle of borrowing they can’t afford."
READ MORE

Veto Keystone XL, Senate's No. 3 Dem Urges Obama
Megan R. Wilson, The Hill
Wilson writes: "Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday said that even if Democrats are able to make amendments to legislation authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, he would still urge President Obama to veto it."
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

CLG: Cook Nuclear Plant reports 2-month oil leak into Lake Michigan, WPB Court Documents: Pro-Torture Lawyer Alan Dershowitz Shared Underage Sex Slave With Prince Andrew

News Updates from CLG
5 January 2015

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

Previous edition: Palestinian president signs up to join international criminal court

Obama's Lists: A Dubious History of Targeted Killings in Afghanistan 28 Dec 2014 ...The child and his father are two of the many victims of the dirty secret operations that NATO conducted for years in Afghanistan. Their fate is described in secret documents to which SPIEGEL was given access. Some of the documents concerning the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the NSA and GCHQ intelligence services are from the archive of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Included is the first known complete list of the Western alliance's "targeted killings" in Afghanistan. The documents show that the deadly missions were not just viewed as a last resort to prevent attacks, but were in fact part of everyday life in the guerilla war in Afghanistan. The list, which included up to 750 people at times, proves for the first time that NATO didn't just target the Taliban leadership, but also eliminated mid- and lower-level members of the group on a large scale.

Obama's Afghanistan Joint Prioritized Effects List aka Kill List Published by SPIEGEL 4 Jan 2015 The material SPIEGEL was able to review is from 2009 to 2011, and falls within the term of US President Barack Obama, who was inaugurated in January 2009. For Obama, Afghanistan was the "good" war and therefore legitimate -- in contrast to the Iraq war. The president wanted to end the engagement in Iraq as quickly as possible, but in Afghanistan his aim was to win. Key Documents Cited in Text:

US Document from 2009: Including the Drug Trade in the War Against the Taliban [Right, the CIA wants *all* the drugs--no sharing.]

Report about "Operation Doody": The Child of the Neighbor Shot By Accident

The JPEL List in Anonymized Form

Take-Down Operation; U.S. SIGINT Provides Key Support

Israel to ask US Congress to halt aid to Palestinian Authority --Move follows freeze on millions in tax revenues after ICC bid; Palestinians looking to resubmit statehood bid 5 Jan 2015 Israel was weighing its options Sunday for further punishing the Palestinians after freezing millions in tax revenues as a first response to their bid to join the International Criminal Court. A senior Israeli said Jerusalem would lobby pro-Israel members of the US Congress to enforce a law that would halt 400 million in annual American aid to the Palestinian Authority, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

Iraq death toll doubles to 15,538 in 2014, the worst in seven years, says government 2 Jan 2015 Violence in Iraq caused the deaths of more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014, government figures show, making it one of the deadliest years since the 2003 US-led invasion. Last year's toll of 15,538 was more than double the 6,522 people killed in 2013. It was the worst in seven years, the Iraqi government said, almost reaching the toll of 17,956 during the height of 'Sunni-Shiite' sectarian killings in 2007. The UN put the number of civilians killed in Iraq during 2014 at 12,282.

What happens when the Pentagon 'merges' the CIA with Fort Detrick? --ISIS fighters 'have contracted Ebola': World Health Organisation investigating reports militants showed up at Iraqi hospital with lethal disease --Militants allegedly attended hospital in Mosul showing signs of disease --Disease reportedly brought to Mosul by 'terrorists from several countries' 2 Jan 2015 The World Health Organisation is investigating reports that I-CIA-SIS militants have been showing up at an Iraqi hospital with Ebola. According to three media outlets an undisclosed number of militants displaying signs of the disease attended a hospital in the ISIS-held city of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad. According to a report in Iraq's pro-government newspaper, al Sabaah, the disease was brought to Mosul by 'terrorists' arriving 'from several countries' and Africa.

Al-Qaeda terrorist suspect dies days before his trial in New York 3 Jan 2015 A suspected al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] terrorist died Friday night, just days before he was slated to go on trial in federal court in New York on charges of helping to plan the 1998 bombings outside the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 people, his lawyer said. Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer after U.S. commandos and FBI agents captured him in 2013, outside of his home in a suburb of Tripoli, Libya. In a letter to the trial judge filed early Saturday, Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Ruqai, 50, "was taken from the Metropolitan Correctional Center to a New York hospital due to sudden complications arising out of his long-standing medical problems." Bharara said "his condition deteriorated rapidly."

Pakistan to alter constitution to form special terrorism courts 2 Jan 2015 Pakistan's leadership [sic] has decided to amend the constitution and the army act to form special [kangaroo] courts for the trial of alleged terrorists, a minister said Friday. Information minister Pervaiz Rasheed said that a marathon session headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and including the country's entire civilian political and military 'leadership,' produced a unanimous agreement to alter the constitution in order to form the alternative court system. The proposed special courts were the most controversial of the 25 anti-terrorism measures proposed by Sharif late last month. [Who is funding Pakistan's military dictatorship? See: US Congress to give $532 million to Pakistan to 'defend against' terrorism, grow other sectors 30 Dec 2014.]

Obama imposes new sanctions against North Korea in response to Sony hack [ing themselves] 2 Jan 2015 The US has [insanely and arbitrarily] imposed economic sanctions against several North Korean government agencies and senior officials in retaliation for the country's alleged role in hacking Sony Pictures' systems and threatening US moviegoers. Despite some continued claims from outside the US government that the hack may have been the work of disgruntled employees instead, the White House on Friday followed through on its threat to seek revenge, blaming the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for "provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies, particularly its destructive and coercive cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment". Following an executive order by Barack Obama, the US Treasury has designated three state-run organisations and ten North Korean government officials for specific actions, including the country's intelligence agency, an arms exporter and a defence procurement agency.

CIA has to approve every script for spy drama 'The Americans' 2 Jan 2015 The Cold War TV spy drama The Americans is a fictional account of two Soviet spies living in the United States. It may be fiction, but that doesn't stop American intelligence agencies from being concerned about the show's content. In fact, the CIA has to approve every script before it's even shot. The Americans was created by Joe Weisberg, a former CIA agent. And since he knows all kinds of stuff that the CIA would like to keep secret, they've reserved the right to censor anything they don't like on the show. This isn't really that unusual for many TV and movie scripts. In fact, the FBI has an entire unit devoted to making sure it's viewed in the best possible light.

CIA should pledge to a ban on recruiting journalists [LOL! What would CNN, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post do, without a staff?!] 4 Jan 2015 Does the CIA recruit journalists? ...The practice of recruiting journalists, and of placing intelligence agents under cover as reporters, was apparently banned in 1977. But appearances can be deceptive. Two decades later, in 1996, President Clinton’s CIA director, John Deutch, revealed that the CIA had retained the right to use journalists as spies and to have spies pose as journalists. Since then, the issue has not gone away, in part because the CIA refuses to fully swear off these practices.

AirAsia flight QZ8501: airline was not allowed to fly route, says Indonesia --It was unclear how the airliner had been able to fly without the necessary authorisation. 2 Jan 2015 The AirAsia plane [Flight 8501] that crashed off Indonesia was flying on an unauthorised schedule, the country's transport ministry said on Saturday, adding it had now frozen the airline's permission to fly the route. As two large parts of the plane were found on the sea bed late on Friday by the international search team, director general of air transport Djoko Murjatmodjo said the doomed airliner's flight time had not been cleared by officials. "It violated the route permit given, the schedule given, that's the problem," he told AFP.

Cook Nuclear Plant reports 2-month oil leak into Lake Michigan --2,000 gallons of oil leaked into lake 3 Jan 2015 An oil cooling system on the turbine of a southwest Michigan nuclear power plant leaked oil into Lake Michigan for about two months, according to plant officials. Officials with the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant near Bridgman reported the leak to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as state and local authorities, on Dec. 20, according to an event notification posted on the NRC's website. Plant officials believe 2,000 gallons of oil leaked into the lake, and a retroactive examination of system oil levels leads plant personnel to believe the leak may have been ongoing since about Oct. 25, said Bill Schalk, communications manager for the Cook Nuclear Plant.

Married couple's private phone calls are evidence in S. Florida terrorism case 2 Jan 2015 When two South Florida brothers go to trial this year on terrorism charges, federal prosecutors plan to use secretly recorded phone conversations between one of the men and his wife to help prove their case. The defense is trying to prevent the recordings from being used on the grounds that -- with some important exceptions -- husband and wife can't be forced to testify against each other, and their private conversations can't be used against them. Raees Qazi, 22, and his brother, Sheheryar Qazi, 32, of Oakland Park, were arrested in November 2012 on charges they provided material support to terrorists and conspired to use a weapon of mass destruction by planning to set off a bomb at a New York City tourist attraction.

York City School District will be run by businessman, judge decides --The plan is opposed by York City parents, educators, school board members, local leaders and Gov.-elect Tom Wolf, a Democrat from York County. 26 Dec 2014 (PA) A York County judge has sided with a state petition to put the York City School District in the hands of a local businessman. President Judge Stephen Linebaugh issued his ruling on Friday - a decision that could lead to the public district's full conversion to charter schools...Receivership gives David Meckley unilateral authority to enact that plan, overhauling destroying the public school system and sending the district's 7,500 students to be educated [sic] by Charter Schools USA, a for-profit operator. The full conversion to charter schools is a plan that's never been installed at any other school district in the country. [Stop this insanity: Sign Citizens Against Privatizing Public Schools.]

Dothan, AL Police Shoot and Kill Man for Refusing to Show ID When Bringing Stray Dog to Animal Shelter --Suspect in Police-Involved Shooting at Dothan Animal Shelter Passes Away 31 Dec 2014 At the request of the Dothan Police Department, the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) is investigating the officer involved shooting that occurred at the Dothan City Animal Shelter on Tuesday, Dec. 30. Robert Earl Lawrence, 30, was transported to the Southeast Alabama Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 9:50 p.m. last night... 'At approximately 12:30 pm [30 Dec], officers made contact with Robert Lawrence at the Dothan City Animal Shelter after he attempted to turn a stray animal over to an employee. Lawrence, a sovereign citizen [?], became disorderly after being told he could not leave the animal without producing identification. After repeatedly being told to calm down, Lawrence was advised he was being placed under arrest. A physical altercation ensued, to which Lawrence was shot in the abdomen.'

WPB Court Documents: Pro-Torture Lawyer Alan Dershowitz Shared Underage Sex Slave With Prince Andrew 2 Jan 2015 A new motion in the case of millionaire Palm Beach Jeffrey Epstein filed in federal court in West Palm Beach names British royal family's Prince Andrew and famed lawyer [sociopath] Alan Dershowitz as two of the men who shared one of Epstein's under-ge s-x slaves, a Royal Palm Beach area girl who was then 15 years old. The motion filed Tuesday is to allow two unidentified women to join a federal lawsuit originally filed by two other local women who claim the federal government violated their rights when it allowed Epstein to obtain an unusual no-prosecution agreement. The agreement has been kept secret from the public, and it made the politically-connected Epstein immune to federal prosecution.

*****

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RSN: 4 Times as Many Rhinos Killed for Their Horns in 2014 Than in 2010, What Would Happen if the Int'l Criminal Court Indicted Israel's Netanyahu?,

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
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Dennis J. Kucinich | New Year's Resolution for America

Dennis Kucinich, Reader Supported News
Kucinich writes: "When anyone of us resolves toward self-improvement, it can impact the lives of those we love."
READ MORE

Juan Cole | What Would Happen if the Int'l Criminal Court Indicted Israel's Netanyahu?
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "If the International Criminal Court takes up Israeli government actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, it could well find specific officials guilty of breaches of the Rome Statute of 2002."
READ MORE

Senator Ron Wyden | Stop FBI Backdoors for Tech Products
Ron Wyden, Los Angeles Times
Wyden writes: "Most prominently, James Comey, the FBI director, is lobbying Congress to require that electronics manufacturers create intentional security holes - so-called back doors - that would enable the government to access data on every American's cellphone and computer, even if it is protected by encryption."
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New Senate GOP Chairmen Aim to Undo Obama's Policies
Stephen Ohlemacher and Donna Cassata, Associated Press
Excerpt: "Republican senators poised to lead major committees when the GOP takes charge are intent on pushing back many of President Barack Obama's policies, setting up potential showdowns over environmental rules, financial regulations and national security."
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Despite Experts' Doubts, Obama Sanctions North Korea Over Sony Hack
Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy
Hall writes: "The Obama administration imposed sanctions Friday on three entities and 10 individuals tied to the North Korean government in what it called the first step in a proportional response to the devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment."
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Israel Threatens to Prosecute Palestinian Leaders if They Join International Criminal Court
Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Haaretz
Fisher-Ilan writes: "An Israeli official says Palestinian leaders 'ought to fear legal steps' in the U.S. and elsewhere in the wake of their bid to join the ICC."
READ MORE

4 Times as Many Rhinos Killed for Their Horns in 2014 Than in 2010
Reuters
Excerpt: "South Africa lost a record number of rhinos in 2014 as big animals across Africa were relentlessly poached to meet rising demand for horn and ivory in newly affluent Asian countries or to provide meat to fighters in the bush."
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

RSN: The Interview Is Propaganda Masquerading as Comedy

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FOCUS: Ken Klippenstein and Paul Gottinger | The Interview Is Propaganda Masquerading as Comedy

Ken Klippenstein and Paul Gottinger, Reader Supported News
Excerpt: "It's pretty tasteless for the United States - a country complicit in so many assassinations of foreign leaders - to make a comedy movie about assassinating a foreign leader."
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RSN: North Korea/Sony Story Shows How Eagerly US Media Still Regurgitate Government Claims

Has anyone considered the rhetoric emanating from the US War Mongers?
Is anyone WAGING PEACE?

The CIA/FBI/NSA is hacking, arming, stirring chaos, unrest and animosity around the Globe.

And Corporate Media is tripping over itself to stoke the flames, justify the Military Industrial Complex ..... haven't we had enough? [Below is a graph of military spending by nation - the latest found 2010 - do you see a problem?]

We sacrificed FREEDOM OF THE PRESS when we allowed media consolidation.

PLEASE subscribe to and support INDEPENDENT MEDIA!
It may be the last TRUTH YOU READ.


A posted comment:

Touche!
And where did I hear it suggested that the whole thing could have been a publicity stunt by Sony to revive a piece of crap movie that was d.o a.?


Who would have gone to see a movie with such a dumb plot?

Glenn Greenwald testifies before a Brazilian Congressional committee on the NSA's surveillance programs in Brasilia. (photo: Reuters)

North Korea/Sony Story Shows How Eagerly US Media Still Regurgitate Government Claims

By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept

01 January 15

he identity of the Sony hackers is still unknown. President Obama, in a December 19 press conference, announced: “We can confirm that North Korea engaged in this attack.” He then vowed: “We will respond. . . . We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States.”

The U.S. Government’s campaign to blame North Korea actually began two days earlier, when The New York Times – as usual – corruptly granted anonymity to “senior administration officials” to disseminate their inflammatory claims with no accountability. These hidden “American officials” used the Paper of Record to announce that they “have concluded that North Korea was ‘centrally involved’ in the hacking of Sony Pictures computers.” With virtually no skepticism about the official accusation, reporters David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth deemed the incident a “cyberterrorism attack” and devoted the bulk of the article to examining the retaliatory actions the government could take against the North Koreans.

The same day, The Washington Post granted anonymity to officials in order to print this:

Other than noting in passing, deep down in the story, that North Korea denied responsibility, not a shred of skepticism was included by Post reporters Drew Harwell and Ellen Nakashima. Like the NYT, the Post devoted most of its discussion to the “retaliation” available to the U.S.

 

The NYT and Post engaged in this stenography in the face of numerous security experts loudly noting how sparse and unconvincing was the available evidence against North Korea. Kim Zetter in Wired - literally moments before the NYT laundered the accusation via anonymous officials - proclaimed the evidence of North Korea’s involvement “flimsy.” About the U.S. government’s accusation in the NYT, she wisely wrote: “they have provided no evidence to support this and without knowing even what agency the officials belong to, it’s difficult to know what to make of the claim. And we should point out that intelligence agencies and government officials have jumped to hasty conclusions or misled the public in the past because it was politically expedient.”

 

Numerous cyber experts subsequently echoed the same sentiments. Bruce Schneier wrote: “I am deeply skeptical of the FBI’s announcement on Friday that North Korea was behind last month’s Sony hack. The agency’s evidence is tenuous, and I have a hard time believing it.” The day before Obama’s press conference, long-time expert Marc Rogers detailed his reasons for viewing the North Korea theory as “unlikely”; after Obama’s definitive accusation, he comprehensively reviewed the disclosed evidence and was even more assertive: “there is NOTHING here that directly implicates the North Koreans” (emphasis in original) and “the evidence is flimsy and speculative at best.”

 

Yet none of this expert skepticism made its way into countless media accounts of the Sony hack.

 

Time and again, many journalists mindlessly regurgitated the U.S. Government’s accusation against North Korea without a shred of doubt, blindly assuming it to be true, and then discussing, often demanding, strong retaliation. Coverage of the episode was largely driven by the long-standing, central tenet of the establishment U.S. media: government assertions are to be treated as Truth.

 

The day after Obama’s press conference, CNN’s Fredricka Whitfeld discussed Sony’s decision not to show The Interview and wondered: “how does this empower or further embolden North Korea that, OK, this hacking thing works. Maybe there’s something else up the sleeves of the North Korean government.” In response, her “expert” guest, the genuinely crazed and discredited Gordon Chang, demanded: “President Obama wisely talks about proportional response, but what we need is an effective response, because what North Korea did in this particular case really goes to the core of American democracy.”

 

Even worse was an indescribably slavish report on the day of Obama’s press conference from CNN’s Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto. One has to watch the segment to appreciate the full scope of its mindlessness. He not only assumed the accusations true but purported to detail – complete with technical-looking maps and other graphics – how “the rogue nation” sent “investigators on a worldwide chase,” but “still, the NSA and FBI were able to track the attack back to North Korea and its government.” He explained: “Now that the country behind those damaging keystrokes has been identified, the administration is looking at how to respond.”

MSNBC announced North Korea’s culpability on Al Sharpton’s program, where the host breathlessly touted NBC‘s “breaking news” that the hackers were “acting on orders from North Koreans.”

 

Sharpton convened a panel that included the cable host Touré, who lamented that “that Kim Jong-un suddenly has veto power over what goes into American theaters.” He explained that he finds this really bad: “I don’t like that. I don’t like negotiating with terrorists. I don’t like giving into terrorists.”

Bloomberg TV called upon former Obama Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, who said without any challenge that “this is not the first time that North Korea has threatened Americans.”

 

 

Blair demanded that “the type of response we should make I think should be able to deny the North Koreans the ability to use the Western financial system, telecommunications and system to basically steal money, threaten our systems.” The network’s on-air host, Matt Miller, strongly insinuated – based on absolutely nothing – that China was an accomplice: “I simply can’t imagine how the North Koreans pull off something like this by themselves. . . . I feel like maybe some larger, huge neighbor of North Korean may give them help in this kind of thing.”

 

Unsurprisingly, the most egregious (and darkly amusing) “report” came from Vox‘s supremely error-plagued and government-loyal national security reporter Max Fisher. Writing on the day of Obama’s press conference, he not only announced that “evidence that North Korea was responsible for the massive Sony hack is mounting,” but also smugly lectured everyone that “North Korea’s decision to hack Sony is being widely misconstrued as an expression of either the country’s insanity or of its outrage over The Interview.” The article was accompanied by a typically patronizing video, narrated by Fisher and set to scary music and photos, and the text of the article purported to “explain” to everyone the real reason North Korea did this. As Deadspin‘s Kevin Draper put it yesterday (emphasis in original):

Here is Vox’s foreign policy guy laying out an article titled, “Here’s the real reason North Korea hacked Sony. It has nothing to do with The Interview.” Never mind the tone (and headline) of utter certainty in the face of numerous computer security experts extremely skeptical of the government’s story that North Korea hacked Sony. . . . Vox’s foreign policy guy thinks he can explain the reason the notoriously opaque North Korean regime conducted a hack they may well not have actually conducted!

This government-subservient reporting was not universal; there were some noble exceptions. On the day of Obama’s press conference, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hosted Xeni Jardin in a segment which repeatedly questioned the evidence of North Korea’s involvement. The network’s Chris Hayes early on did the same. The Guardian published a video interview with a cyber expert casting doubt on the government’s case. The Daily Beast published an article by Rogers expressly arguing that “all the evidence leads me to believe that the great Sony Pictures hack of 2014 is far more likely to be the work of one disgruntled employee facing a pink slip.” He concluded: “I am no fan of the North Korean regime. However I believe that calling out a foreign nation over a cybercrime of this magnitude should never have been undertaken on such weak evidence.”

 

Earlier this week, the NYT‘s Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, chided the paper’s original article on the Sony hack, noting – with understatement – that “there’s little skepticism in this article.” Sullivan added that the paper’s granting of anonymity to administration officials to make the accusation yet again violated the paper’s own supposed policy on anonymity, a policy touted by the paper as a redress for the debacle over its laundering of false claims about Iraqi WMDs from anonymous officials.

 

But - especially after that first NYT article, and even more so after Obama’s press conference - the overwhelming narrative disseminated by the U.S. media was clear: North Korea was responsible for the hack, because the government said it was.

 

That kind of reflexive embrace of government claims is journalistically inexcusable in all cases, for reasons that should be self-evident. But in this case, it’s truly dangerous.

 

It was predictable in the extreme that – even beyond the familiar neocon war-lovers – the accusation against North Korea would be exploited to justify yet more acts of U.S. aggression. In one typical example, the Boston Globe quoted George Mason University School of Law assistant dean Richard Kelsey calling the cyber-attack an “act of war,” one “requiring an aggressive response from the United States.” He added: “This is a new battlefield, and the North Koreans have just fired the first flare.” The paper’s own writer, Hiawatha Bray, explained that “hackers allegedly backed by the impoverished, backward nation of North Korea have terrorized one of the world’s richest corporation” and approvingly cited Newt Gingrich as saying: “With the Sony collapse America has lost its first cyberwar.”

 

Days after President Obama vowed to retaliate, North Korea’s internet service was repeatedly disrupted. While there is no conclusive evidence of responsibility, North Korea blamed the U.S., while State Department spokesperson Marie Harf smirked as she responded to a question about U.S. responsibility: “We aren’t going to discuss publicly the operational details of possible response options, or comment in any way – except to say that as we implement our responses, some will be seen, some may not be seen.”

 

North Korean involvement in the Sony hack is possible, but very, very far from established. But most U.S. media discussions treated the accusation as fact, predictably resulting in this polling data from CNN last week (emphasis added):

The U.S. public does think that the incidents which led to that decision were acts of terrorism on the part of North Korea and nearly three-quarters of all Americans say that North Korea is a serious threat to the U.S. That puts North Korea at the very top of the public’s threat list — only Iran comes close. . . . Three-quarters of the public call for increased economic sanctions against North Korea. Roughly as many say that country is a very serious or moderately serious threat to the U.S.

It’s tempting to say that the U.S. media should have learned by now not to uncritically disseminate government claims, particularly when those claims can serve as a pretext for U.S. aggression. But to say that, at this point, almost gives them too little credit. It assumes that they want to improve, but just haven’t yet come to understand what they’re doing wrong.

 

But that’s deeply implausible. At this point - eleven years after the run-up to the Iraq War and 50 years after the Gulf of Tonkin fraud - any minimally sentient American knows full well that their government lies frequently. Any journalist understands full well that assuming government claims to be true, with no evidence, is the primary means by which U.S. media outlets become tools of government propaganda.

 

U.S. journalists don’t engage in this behavior because they haven’t yet realized this. To the contrary, they engage in this behavior precisely because they do realize this: because that is what they aspire to be. If you know how journalistically corrupt it is for large media outlets to uncritically disseminate evidence-free official claims, they know it, too. Calling on them to stop doing that wrongly assumes that they seek to comport with their ostensible mission of serving as watchdogs over power. That’s their brand, not their aspiration or function.

 

Many of them benefit in all sorts of ways by dutifully performing this role. Others are True Believers: hard-core nationalists and tribalists who see their “journalism” as a means of nobly advancing the interests of the state and corporate officials whom they admire and serve. At this point, journalists who mindlessly repeat government claims like this are guilty of many things; ignorance of what they are doing is definitely not one of them.

 

 

 

 

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/27813-focus-north-koreasony-story-shows-how-eagerly-us-media-still-regurgitate-government-claims

 

 

RSN: The Interview: Seth Rogen's Assassination Fantasy Is Sick

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FOCUS: Bill Simpich | The Interview: Seth Rogen's Assassination Fantasy Is Sick

Bill Simpich, Reader Supported News
Simpich writes: "Can you imagine a foreign movie dedicated to assassinating Barack Obama? Not just that, but proceeding to display it in loving detail - along with the president defecating in his pants minutes before the final attack?"
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

RSN: New Snowden Documents Reveal the NSA's War on Internet Security

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New Snowden Documents Reveal the NSA's War on Internet Security

Der Spiegel
Excerpt: "US and British intelligence agencies undertake every effort imaginable to crack all types of encrypted Internet communication."
READ MORE

Syria 'Ready' for Peace Talks With Opposition
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Syria is ready to meet the country's opposition in Moscow in an effort to find a way out of the nearly four-year civil war, a government official has said."
READ MORE

Gazans Take to Street Demanding End of Blockade
Mohammed Omer, Middle East Eye
Omer writes: "Massive public demonstrations were held on Sunday across the Gaza Strip demanding an immediate end to the blockade and an acceleration of reconstruction of the costal enclave following Israel's onslaught over the summer."
READ MORE

NATO Holds Ceremony Ending Afghanistan Mission in Secret Due to Threat of Taliban
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "NATO has held a ceremony in Kabul formally ending its war in Afghanistan, officials said, after 13 years of conflict and gradual troop withdrawals that have left the country in the grip of worsening conflicts with armed groups."
READ MORE

Cyberwar on North Korea Could Be Illegal
Shane Harris, The Daily Beast
Harris writes: "Any retaliation by the U.S. government for the Sony hack would be significantly constrained by some very tricky and nuanced aspects of international law, according to former officials at the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command."
READ MORE

Protests in Bahrain After Arrest of Opposition Leader
Agence France-Presse
Excerpt: "After Sheikh Ali Salman's party announced his arrest, clashes broke out between security forces and hundreds of Al-Wefaq supporters gathered at his house in the Shiite village of Bilad al-Qadim near Manama, witnesses said."
READ MORE

Jailed Al Jazeera Journalists Held for one Year in Egypt on Spurious Charges
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "It has been one year since three Al Jazeera journalists were arrested in Egypt in a case that sparked international outrage. Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste were arrested in Cairo on December 29, 2013 under false charges of aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false news."
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RSN: GOP Figures Used Racist Ape Imagery for Obama Before North Korea Did

The GOP has employed code words and hidden meaning to RACE BAIT.

Have we had enough of the GOP Divisive Tactics that diverts attention from their FAILED ECONOMIC POLICIES?

Glenn Beck. (photo: file)

GOP Figures Used Racist Ape Imagery for Obama Before North Korea Did

By Juan Cole, Informed Comment

28 December 14

orth Korea lashed out at President Barack Obama on Saturday, blaming him for the Sony film, “The Interview,” and for the North Korean internet outage, adding “Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest..” Given the long history of racist associations of African-Americans with animal primates, it seems indisputable that this metaphor was meant as a racist slur.

North Korea, however, was simply treading a path that was already well worn by some prominent American GOP voices.

 

Former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld said just last spring that “a trained ape” could do Obama’s job better than he does.

 

Glenn Beck said in 2010,

” “Special interest! What planet have I landed on? Did I slip through a wormhole in the middle of the night and this looks like America? It’s like the damn ‘Planet of the Apes.’ Nothing makes sense! The guy who’s helped destroy all these pensions, Andy Stern, is now on the financial oversight committee. Is this who we want to take advice from?
“The unions who have collapsed all of the businesses, who have collapsed all of their pensions, they are bankrupting everything they touch, and we go to them and we say, yes, tell me, what should we do? It’s like any marital tips from Tiger Woods.”

There isn’t very much doubt, especially given the further reference to Tiger Woods as a philanderer (with white women) that the Planet of the Apes crack was a piece of race-baiting.

 

In spring of 2011 a senior GOP official from Orange County, Ca., sent around by email with a picture attached of Obama as monkey.

 

In 2012 a GOP official sat silently as the radio host interviewing him called president Obama a monkey. The Republican politician called support for Obama “a national sickness.”

 

Depicting African-Americans as apes or monkeys has a long history in the USA. It leads to discrimination.

 

So the path for the paranoid and oppressive North Korea regime to demean the head of state of the USA was paved by some prominent Republicans.

 

 

 

RSN: Drought, Heat and Ice: 2015 Could Be a Tipping Point on Climate, Former Aide to Colin Powell: Bush and Cheney Should Be Charged With War Crimes

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Jimmy Carter | Cuba, North Korea and Getting Sanctions Right

Jimmy Carter, The Washington Post
Carter writes: "As we contemplate how to strike back at North Korea because it is believed to be behind the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer network, the foremost proposal is tightening sanctions. In my visits to targeted countries, I have seen how this strategy can be cruel to innocent people who know nothing about international disputes and are already suffering under dictatorial leaders."
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Former Aide to Colin Powell: Bush and Cheney Should Be Charged With War Crimes
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Calls are increasing for the prosecution of George W. Bush administration officials tied to the CIA torture program."
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Female Veterans Battling PTSD From Sexual Trauma Fight for Redress
Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, The Washington Post
Wax-Thibodeaux writes: "Thousands of female veterans are struggling to get health-care treatment and compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs on the grounds that they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual trauma in the military. The veterans and their advocates call it 'the second battle' - with a bureaucracy they say is stuck in the past."
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DC Plans to Give a Private Business $100 Million to Build a Stadium
Travis Waldron, ThinkProgress
Waldron writes: "The most fundamental question, one that went unasked throughout the process, is why D.C. taxpayers were footing the bill at all."
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How Laws Restricting Tech Actually Exposes Us to Greater Harm
Cory Doctorow, Wired
Doctorow writes: "Because those restrictions would change the fundamental nature of computers. Speaking in my capacity as a dystopian science fiction writer: This scares the hell out of me."
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With Each New Upheaval in Iraq, More Minorities Flee
Deborah Amos, National Public Radio
Amos writes: "ISIS militants have ruthlessly targeted Iraq's religious minorities. But the historic exodus stems from more than that."
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Drought, Heat and Ice: 2015 Could Be a Tipping Point on Climate
Miguel Llanos, NBC News
Llanos writes: "With 2014 looking like it will go down as the warmest year globally on record, climate scientists now wonder whether 2015 will be the year nations finally take significant steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
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CLG: North Korea was NOT behind the Sony hack according to multiple security experts who discredit FBI findings and reveal that the attack was an inside job, Up to a dozen U.S. scientists exposed to misplaced Ebola sample at CDC lab in Atlanta

News Updates from CLG
27 December 2014

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

Previous edition: Six tons of radioactive water leak at Fukushima No. 1

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North Korea was NOT behind the Sony hack according to multiple security experts who discredit FBI findings and reveal that the attack was an inside job --Almost every expert stated that they believe the hack had to have been an inside job --Findings of the FBI are being called into question by many of the cybersecurity industry's leading experts 25 Dec 2014 It seems that Kim Jong-un may be right, at least according to numerous cybersecurity experts and hackers who have come forward to not only point out the flaws in the FBI's investigation, but also possibly reveal the identity of the culprit. Kurt Stammberger, a senior vice president with cybersecurity firm Norse...said that given the severity of the hack it had to have been an inside job. Stammberger, whose company decided to carry out their own independent investigation, told CBS News; 'We are very confident that this was not an attack master-minded by North Korea and that insiders were key to the implementation of one of the most devastating attacks in history.' That's not all either, as he says their research seems to be pointing them towards a woman named Lena who even claims be a member of Guardians of Peace.

North Korea blames the US for Internet outages 27 Dec 2014 North Korea accused the United States on Saturday of being responsible for Internet outages it experienced in recent days amid a confrontation between them over the hacking of the film studio Sony Pictures. North Korea's main internet sites experienced intermittent disruptions early in the week for reasons that U.S. tech companies said could range from technological glitches to a hacking attack. "The United States, with its large physical size and oblivious to the shame of playing hide and seek as children with runny noses would, has begun disrupting the Internet operations of the main media outlets of our republic," the North's National Defence Commission said in a statement. "It is truly laughable," a spokesman for the commission said in comments carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

CIA in CLG Website Logs, Reading About Their Torture Queen By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org 23 Dec 2014 Once again, CLG has noticed that the Central Intelligence Agency has been enjoying CLG's news items. On Sunday, the C.I.A. accessed CLG Exclusive: CIA Torture Queen Bought $825K House While Torturing Her Way to the Top. Below are some of the log entries.

relay201.net.cia.gov 3 37 521.76 KB 21 Dec 2014 - 11:54

198.81.129.193 - - [21/Dec/2014:11:53:02 -0500] "GET /CLG-Exclusive-CIA-Torture-Queen-Bought-825K-House-While-Torturing-Her-Way-Top HTTP/1.1" 200 8665 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/24.0"...

Secret report cited in NSA surveillance lawsuit, govt silent on its existence 23 Dec 2014 Civil rights and federal attorneys sparred at a hearing over a case involving domestic dragnet surveillance by the federal government. The plaintiffs argued the searches are illegal, while the government said opponents don't have enough evidence to know. The hearing, requested by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for a partial summary judgment, concerns the class action lawsuit, Jewel v. NSA, which was filed six years ago. It claims the National Security Agency (NSA) acquired AT&T customers' email and other data using surveillance devices attached to the company's network.

U.S. State Department's Guantanamo envoy resigns 23 Dec 2014 The State Department envoy responsible for negotiating prisoner transfers from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is resigning, officials said on Monday, even as President Barack Obama is promising a stepped-up push to close the facility. The surprise announcement of Clifford Sloan's departure followed a flurry of detainee repatriations and resettlements...Sloan assumed the post in July 2013 and the State Department said he was stepping down and returning to his Washington law practice after finishing an 18-month commitment.

Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses (The New York Times) 21 Dec 2014 Since the day President Obama took office, he has failed to bring to justice anyone responsible for the torture of terrorism suspects -- an official government program conceived and carried out in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001...These are, simply, crimes...No amount of legal pretzel logic can justify the behavior detailed in the report. Indeed, it is impossible to read it and conclude that no one can be held accountable. At the very least, Mr. Obama needs to authorize a full and independent criminal investigation.

US-backed dictatorship turns to military tribunals for terror suspects, as does the US: Pakistan to establish terror-related military courts: PM 25 Dec 2014 Pakistan says the country will establish military courts to prosecute terrorism-related cases following a recent bloody attack on an army-run school in the country's northwest. Speaking in a nationally televised speech early Thursday after a meeting with political and military leaders, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the courts would function for the next two years to speed up the trial of terrorists. The Pakistani premier gave few details about the [kangaroo] courts but said the country's constitution is in need of certain changes to facilitate the establishment of such courts.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott issues holiday terror high alert after ASIO and AFP briefing 24 Dec 2014 Intelligence agencies are fearful of a Christmas holiday terror attack after intercepting increased "chatter" among a group of Sydney-based IS ­extremists who had been the subject of unprecedented counter-terrorism raids across Sydney in September. At the time of the Sydney raids it was believed members of the network had been planning to abduct a member of the public and behead them. Federal Cabinet's National Security Committee was briefed by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police late yesterday in a meeting that was described as "concerning".

Another Abbott false flag may be on the way: Tony Abbott warns terrorism chatter has increased and attack remains 'likely' 23 Dec 2014 There has been an increased level of "terrorist chatter" in the wake of last week's Sydney cafe siege and a terrorist attack remains likely, Tony Abbott says. "The terror threat remains high," Abbott told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. People "with evil intentions" were willing and able to "do us harm", he said. A high alert level means an attack is considered "likely".

Australia Charges 2 in Counterterrorism Operation 24 Dec 2014 Australian authorities have arrested and charged two men as part of a wider counter-terrorism investigation, a day after Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned of increased "terrorist chatter." Twenty-year-old Sulayman Khalid was charged Wednesday with "possession of documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack." A 21-year-old man, whose name was not given, was charged with disobeying a police control order. [!?] The arrests were related to a series of police raids in Sydney and Brisbane in September. A total of 11 people arrested in those raids have now been charged with terrorism-related offenses.

Prosecutors won't indict former Tepco executives over Fukushima disaster: media 25 Dec 2014 Japanese prosecutors will likely decide again not to indict three former Tokyo Electric Power Co executives over their handling of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, media reported on Friday, but a rarely used citizen's panel could still force an indictment. The Tokyo District Prosecutors Office has been reinvestigating the case after a citizens' panel ruled in July that three former Tepco executives, including then-chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, should be indicted over their handling of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Up to a dozen U.S. scientists exposed to misplaced Ebola sample at CDC lab in Atlanta 25 Dec 2014 Up to a dozen workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Atlanta campus may have been exposed to a misplaced sample of the Ebola virus. CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said on Wednesday that a technician working in the secure laboratory may have come into contact with a small amount of a live virus that was part of an Ebola experiment. Reynolds says the potential exposure is under internal investigation and has been reported to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell.

CDC worker monitored for possible Ebola exposure in lab error --Error follows two high-profile cases of mishandled samples of anthrax and avian influenza 25 Dec 2014 A laboratory technician for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been placed under observation for possible exposure to the deadly Ebola virus due to an apparent mix-up in lab specimens, the Atlanta-based agency said on Wednesday. The technician, who was working on Monday with Ebola specimens that were supposed to have been inactivated but which may instead have contained live virus, will be monitored for signs of infection for 21 days, the disease's incubation period, CDC officials said.

More Arrests in Threats to New York City Police Officers 25 Dec 2014 Two more people have been charged with threatening NYPD officers, including one who allegedly called a threat into the grieving police precinct of two officers who were slain last weekend. The NYPD said 41-year-old Tyrone Melville allegedly called the 84th precinct switchboard, where the slain officers were based, at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday and said he wanted to kill more police. When Melville allegedly called the precinct, he identified himself as the dead suspect, Ismaayil Brinsley, and asked for Officer Ramos.

US police shoot dead black teenager near Ferguson 24 Dec 2014 (MO) An 18-year-old black man was shot and killed by police at a petrol station late on Tuesday in a St Louis suburb near where unarmed teen Michael Brown was killed by a white officer in August, police and local media said. A live video feed showed the petrol station cordoned off by yellow tape and lined by police officers, with bystanders shouting at them in a tense standoff. The St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper reported that some 60 people had gathered at the scene and that at least three people were arrested.

NYC Mayor de Blasio Calls for Suspension of Protests 22 Dec 23014 Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday called for protesters to suspend demonstrations in the aftermath of the killing of two New York police officers, who were gunned down in Brooklyn as they sat in their patrol car. "It's time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in due time," Mr. de Blasio said in a speech...The mayor's call came a few hours after the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said that the killing of the officers on Saturday was a "direct spinoff of this issue" of the protests that have roiled the nation in recent weeks. [See: 2 NYPD officers were working during an anti-terrorism drill when they were shot.]

Dow industrials top 18,000 for first time; S&P 500 at record 23 Dec 2014 U.S. stocks continued their record run on Tuesday, as the Dow industrials shot past the 18,000 level for the first time while the S&P 500 hit an intraday record. The stock market's performance over the past four-plus trading sessions has so far looked like a classic Santa rally -- up more than 5% since last Tuesday's close. And with less than six trading sessions left in 2014, the S&P 500 is on track to finish the year with a double-digit gain.

Polar bear siblings are just like any others! Five year old brother and sister take a playful tumble in the snow before sharing a friendly hug --The stunning shots show the bears playing together in the snow before deciding to take a rest and cuddle together 25 Dec 2014 Lying back in the snow, these two polar bears share a cuddle as they catch their breath after playtime. These stunning photographs of the brother and sister reveal a softer side to the famously ferocious polar bear. They were captured by Russian photographer Alexey Tishenko, 43, who braved temperatures of -18 to capture the intimate pictures in Churchill, Canada.

Hawaii Gets a White Christmas Following Blizzard Warning 25 Dec 2014 Parts of the Big Island of Hawaii were dusted with Christmas snow following a blizzard warning on Christmas Eve. The two highest mountain peaks on the Big Island, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, got a White Christmas, webcams revealed this morning. Mauna Kea stands at 13,796 feet above sea level, and Mauna Loa at 13,678 feet.

George HW Bush Remains Hospitalized for Fourth Straight Day 26 Dec 2014 Former President George H.W. Bush remained at a Houston hospital for a fourth day in a row after experiencing shortness of breath earlier this week. The former president, age 90, "remains in high spirits and continues to make progress, but he will remain at the Houston Methodist Hospital this evening," said his spokesman, Jim McGrath. Bush was admitted Tuesday as a precaution.

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