As Brazil Burns, Northern Media Deploy a Strategy of Deflection view post on FAIR.org by Brian Mier NASA image of smoke from fires over the Brazilian state of Rondonia. I spent last week in the Brazilian Amazon in Porto Velho, Rondonia, on the edge of what is called the arco do incendios. The “arc of fires” is a region stretching along the yet-to-be-paved highways 319 and 230, between the towns of Humaitá and Apui in Southern Amazonas, a state that still had 98% of its virgin rainforest intact as of last year. It is a place where soy farmers and cattle ranchers connected to international corporate supply chains are ripping down and intentionally burning forest at record rates. Humaitá, where a group of ranchers and farmers in 2017 set fire to the headquarters of IBAMA, the environmental protection agency, has a new soy terminal in its river port. Soy production for foreign markets, coupled with far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro’s gutting of environmental protection agencies, are two drivers of the current, catastrophic increase in fires and deforestation. Minnesota-based Cargill corporation, which the environmental organization Mighty Earth recently called the Worst Company in the World, appears to be a main catalyst in this process. Former President Lula, who reduced deforestation by 70% during his tenure, was arrested and removed from last year’s presidential race as part of a US Department of Justice–backed investigation, with no material evidence,while he was leading the election polls with double the support of Bolsonaro. Shortly after his arrest, Cargill announced it was building a new soy terminal port in Porto Velho on the edge of highway 319 on the Madeira river, expanding its soy export capacity there from 3.5 million to 6 million tons per year. It appears that increased rainforest devastation is calculated into Cargill’s business plan. After helping develop cattle production in the Amazon during the 1970s and 1980s, US companies are no longer the major importers of Amazonian beef; that’s now China and the European Union. Amazon deforestation still generates billions of dollars a year for mining, energy and agribusiness corporations that spend a lot of advertising money, though, and there is constant pressure to beat back against the information provided by environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace, and to reframe it to make it appear less threatening. As the world’s attention focused on the fire crisis last week, media companies employed several strategies to deflect attention from its root causes. As coverage shifts to other events such as Hurricane Dorian, it is important to remember that there is no end to the fires in sight. Continued fighting is needed to stop an environmental catastrophe, and to do this, we need to focus on causes and how it can be stopped. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be happening. The following are a few examples of how media are working to please their advertisers by deflecting and confusing their information consumers. 1) Resuscitating the ‘Conservation vs. Development’ trope Bloomberg‘s Mac Margolis (8/24/19) blames rainforest fires on a strategy of “demonizing instead of assisting farmers and ranchers.” On August 26  I appeared on Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News to talk about the Amazon fires. I welcomed it as an opportunity to speak to a lot of people “outside the bubble,” and try to put some cracks into their narrative on the fires on live TV. I doubt they will invite me on again. After attempting to steer the conversation into Brazilians’ supposed apathy over the deforestation—something that recent polling data and a wave of protests prove is blatantly untrue—the newscaster asked me the following: President Bolsonaro is prioritizing economic opportunities for Brazilians over protecting the environment. And Brazil…has huge poverty. How much do people care more about the economy and their own livelihoods, because it’s simply a priority over the environment? This was a loaded question built on the false assumption that destroying the environment for short-term capitalist gain benefits society as a whole. Sky wasn’t the only company pushing this narrative. In Bloomberg (8/24/19), Mac Margolis raised a similar argument, disconnecting the ranchers and plantation owners setting the fires from the international supply chain, and suggesting that further ranching and monoculture production will lower poverty in the region. Brazil is a country with a 500-year history of monoculture and mining commodity boom-and-bust cycles, which has always produced high levels of income inequality and poverty. This pattern only began to be broken under Workers Party President Lula, through the implementation of redistributive socioeconomic polices, most importantly through massive minimum wage and pension payment increases, which lifted 29 million people above the poverty line. It is absurd to imagine that a monoculture production-based approach tied to the international supply chain, using low labor-intensity activities such as cattle ranching and soy farming on indigenous reservations, will make up for the setbacks caused by the post–2016 coup’s dismantlement of successful poverty-fighting policies and gutting of labor laws, which have plunged millions of people into extreme poverty. Furthermore, development vs. conservation is not an either/or issue. Rondonia’s neighboring state of Acre has generated billions of dollars through preserving its rainforest and focusing on renewable forest resources such as rubber, brazil nut and açai, becoming a world reference in sustainable development. Unfortunately, Acre’s governor recently declared a state of emergency, due to fires resulting from new incursions by international beef, mining and soy supply chain actors into the rainforest. 2) Focus on social media bickering between Bolsonaro and Macron The New York Times (8/26/19) covers the Amazon disaster as a presidential spat. The Rondonia state political apparatus is now ruled over by Bolsonaro’s PSL party and supported by the big ranchers and plantation owners. The state environmental protection/policing agency, IBAMA, has not had a superintendent since February and is completely paralyzed. Restoring functionality to IBAMA, which lost half its funding after the 2016 coup and has been further gutted by the Bolsonaro administration, should be a top priority now. All that Bolsonaro’s action of sending 400 air force personnel with picks and shovels to put out a few of the fires for the TV cameras will do is cause his support base to wait for a few days to start new fires—something that I witnessed beginning last week in Rondonia when, as the international journalists began to leave town, the city of Porto Velho found itself covered in smoke once again. Instead of focusing on this, as the fires raged on last week, Bolsonaro’s bickering with French President Emannuel Macron on Twitter over Brazil’s refusal to accept the EU’s laughably low offer of 20 million euros to “put out the fires” began to crowd out headline space from articles about the roots of the crisis. 3)  Socialism is destroying the rainforest The Independent (8/27/19) attempts to shift blame from Brazil to Bolivia. According to recent articles in the Guardian, Independent and New York Times, it is the brush fires underway in the semi-arid Chaco biome in lowland Bolivia, and not the destructive policies currently being pushed by the Bolsonaro government, that are the real cause of the destruction of the Amazon. “The World Believes the Amazon Is in Trouble Because of Bolsonaro. Instead, They Should Look to Bolivia,” declares a recent op-ed piece in the Independent (8/27/19). On September 2, the Guardian ran an article labeling Bolivian President Evo Morales as a “murderer of nature.” In the New York Times (8/30/19), Simon Romero—a key actor in the character assassination campaign against Dilma Rousseff during the lead-up to the 2016 coup—failed to give equal time to Morales while quoting US- and agribusiness-backed right-wing opposition candidate Carlos Mesa: “These fires were caused by Evo Morales and his policies.” Putting the situation in Bolivia on par with Brazil constitutes a false equivalency. First of all, the fires raging in Bolivia are not actually taking place in the Amazon jungle. Second, at a time when Bolivia, which has a GDP 50 times smaller than that of Brazil, has invested heavily in fighting the fires, and Morales has called for a UN Assembly to address the crisis and is using better equipment to fight it, Bolsonaro’s congressional allies pushed an amendment through the Congressional Justice Committee which will legalize destruction of 11.5% of the remaining Brazilian rainforest. The attempted deflection of the issue from Brazil to Bolivia  seems more tied to Northern geopolitical objectives in the region than addressing the crisis—coming as it does during a Bolivian election campaign in which the US government has been accused of funding the conservative opposition candidate, as part of its project to roll back the “pink tide” of left and center-left governments that came to power in Latin America during recent decades. Bolsonaro’s encouraging international supply-chain actors to rip down the rainforest is driving the crisis. There is no sign of any end to these fires in sight. Instead of handwringing about the tragedy while trying to shift the blame, or acting like these devastating fires will somehow fight poverty, journalists should work harder to explain the role Northern business groups have in the process, and encourage boycotts against companies like Cargill that have a financial stake in destroying the rainforest and the people who live there. The future of our children and grandchildren depends on it. Featured image: National Geographic depiction (8/23/19) of fires in Rondonia.

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The horrifying Environmental Catastrophe of FRACKING! Don't forget Kinder Morgan in Massachusetts!

Porter Ranch Methane Leak Spreads Across 

LA's San Fernando Valley

It now looks like the catastrophic Porter Ranch gas leak has spread 

across Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley. New analysis from 

Home Energy Efficiency Team

ECOWATCH.COM

The article at the bottom highlights the ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE caused by FRACKING!

Please don't forget that Kinder Morgan wants to build a PIPELINE across Massachusetts on the phony promise if JOBS [where have we heard that before?] and lowering prices [don't believe it!].

There are articles linked that define Kinder Morgan's shoddy performance elsewhere. 

The Kinder Morgan Pipeline SCAM! MASSterList: T has most breakdowns in nation | Let the snow hyperventilation begin | Texting-and-driving madness to be addressed

Several pipeline execs maxed out Charlie Baker donations

Gov.-elect Charlie Baker accepted Election Day donations from a number of high-ranking execs at Kinder Morgan — the Houston company pushing to build a natural gas pipeline across Massachusetts — even though he has publicly opposed its controversial proposal.

“They’re trying to sway the opinion of each of the six governors in New England,” pipeline opponent Cathy Kristofferson said of the company brass. “I’m sure they’re hoping to sway the Republican governor to be more amenable to their plan. (I’d tell) the new governor, just like the old governor, to stick to the commitments of the commonwealth in reducing emissions and continuing work around sustainable energy.”Five Kinder Morgan officials each gave the maximum $500 to Baker’s campaign Nov. 4, the same day he defeated Attorney General Martha Coakley. They included the company’s chairman and CEO, Richard Kinder; its chief financial officer, Kimberly Dang, and chief operating officer, Steven Kean; the president of its east region, Kimberly Watson; and J. Curtis Moffatt, an attorney for Kinder Morgan.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_politics/2014/11/several_pipeline_execs_maxed_out_charlie_baker_donations

Kinder Morgan: GET THE FACTS! Don't get snookered!

Kinder Morgan stands firm on proposed natural gas pipeline route THROUGH MASSACHUSETTS

Porter Ranch Methane Leak Spreads Across LA’s San Fernando Valley

Lorraine Chow | January 15, 2016

It now looks like the catastrophic Porter Ranch gas leak, which has spewed more than 83,000 metric tons of noxious methane for nearly three months, has spread across Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander called on the Southern California Gas Co. to extend residential relocation assistance to residents in Granada Hills, Chatsworth and Northridge who live near the Aliso Canyon gas leak above Porter Ranch. These residents reported symptoms related to the exposure of natural gas such as nausea, vomiting, headaches and respiratory problems.

The researchers have developed the Valley’s first comprehensive map of methane exposure. Photo credit: HEET

This latest development compounds with a new analysis from Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET). The Cambridge-based nonprofit sent Boston University Professor Nathan Phillips and Bob Ackley of Gas Safety to take methane measurements around the San Fernando Valley for several days and their findings were disturbing.

As the Los Angeles Daily News wrote, “the researchers recorded elevated levels of the main ingredient in natural gas—10 miles away from the nation’s largest gas leak.”

“It’s not just in Porter Ranch, it’s going all the way across the [San Fernando] Valley,” Ackley told Inside Climate News.

According to HEET, the researchers drove a high precision GIS-enabled natural gas analyzer down the roads around the gas leak to create a comprehensive map of the leak around San Fernando Valley. The red on the map indicates where they drove and the levels of methane they found is shown by the height of the peaks.

Their monitors showed methane levels at 3.4 parts per billion, about twice the level of natural clean air, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. Another measurement showed 127 ppm, or an astounding 67 times above normal.

“Whatever else may be in the gas—benzene, toluene, xylene—that is what people may be breathing,” Phillips told Inside Climate News. “Even though we’re not measuring things other than methane, there is a legitimate concern that there is that other nasty stuff in there.”

As Inside Climate News observed: “The findings challenge assurances from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the regional air pollution control agency, and the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment that the leak hasn’t increased residents’ exposure to toxic gases.”

Dozens of public health and environmental advocates and experts will rally at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, DC tomorrow to press for federal action on the Porter Ranch leak.

VIDEO ON LINK

Friday’s rally, organized by members from Food & Water Watch and other organizations, will ask the U.S. EPA to intercede and permanently shut down operations at a blown-out gas storage facility in California.

Southern Caliifornia Gas Co. has evacuated more than 2,000 residents living near the leak since October. Porter Ranch was officially declared a state of emergency by California Gov. Jerry Brown, however, advocates have criticized his slow response to the escalating public health crisis.

“For months, Governor Brown and California authorities sat on their hands as this gas blowout crisis deepened and scores got sick,” Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hautersaid. “Now it’s a matter of ‘too little, too late’ from the governor, and the people of Porter Ranch are desperate for federal intervention to end this catastrophe and ensure it never happens again.”

On Saturday, in Granada Hills, California, hundreds of residents of Porter Ranch will rally and testify at the second hearing on a stipulated Order for Abatement—which requires a company operating out of compliance to take specific actions or to shut down its operation to come into compliance—over the Porter Ranch Gas Leak.

Southern California Gas Co. said in a statement that methane leakage has been slowly falling. Estimates by the California Air Resources Board showed an estimated 60-percent reduction from peak levels in late November.

The gas company is currently drilling a relief well in an effort to plug the leak, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. The effort, however, could take months.

“We’ve drilled to a depth of approximately 7,000 feet (and) we have to drill to a depth of over 8,000 feet, and remain on schedule to complete this process between late February and late March,” company spokesman Raul Gordillo said.

For more background information and personal accounts from affected local residents, watch here:

http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/15/porter-ranch-methane-leak-spreads/

RSN: Pfizer Hikes US Prices for Over 100 Drugs on January 1, Defense Industry Revenue Forecast Gushes Over Global Turmoil, How the Huge Gas Leak Is Turning California's Porter Ranch Into a Ghost Town

It's Live on the HomePage Now: 
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Sean Penn | El Chapo Speaks 
 
Sean Penn, Rolling Stone 
Penn writes: "They call him El Chapo. Or 'Shorty.' Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera. The same El Chapo Guzman who only two months earlier had humiliated the Peña Nieto government and stunned the world with his extraordinary escape from Altiplano maximum-security prison through an impeccably engineered mile-long tunnel." 
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More "Militia Members" Flocking to Oregon Bundy Occupation, Tensions Rise 
Jonathan Allen, Reuters 
Allen writes: "Several members of self-described militia groups have joined armed protesters occupying the headquarters of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, threatening to raise tensions in the week-long siege over land rights." 
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Pfizer Hikes US Prices for Over 100 Drugs on January 1 
Deena Beasley, Reuters 
Beasley writes: "Pfizer Inc., which plans a $160-billion merger with Ireland-based Allergan Plc to slash its U.S. tax bill, on Jan. 1 raised U.S. prices for more than 100 of its drugs, some by as much as 20 percent, according to statistics compiled by global information services company Wolters Kluwer." 
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New York Police Sergeant Facing Internal Charges in Chokehold Death of Eric Garner 
Laila Kearney, Reuters 
Kearney writes: "A New York City police sergeant is facing internal disciplinary charges for her role in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man whose fatal police encounter in 2014 spurred nationwide protests." 
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Muslim Woman Gets Kicked Out of Donald Trump Rally for Being Muslim 
Judd Legum, ThinkProgress 
Legum writes: "A Muslim woman was kicked out of a Donald Trump rally on Friday night for no apparent reason. The woman, Rose Hamid, told CNN that she 'came to the rally to let Trump supporters see what a Muslim looks like.' She stood silently with a t-shirt that read 'I Come In Peace.'" 
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Defense Industry Revenue Forecast Gushes Over Global Turmoil 
Lee Fang, The Intercept 
Fang writes: "The global aerospace and defense industry is out of its doldrums. According to a new report by the accounting firm Deloitte, 'the resurgence of global security threats' promises a lucrative 'rebound' in defense spending." 
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A French Rafale fighter aircraft takes off with bombs from the French aircraft carrier 

Charles-de-Gaulle on Nov. 23, 2015, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, as part of 

Operation Chammal in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State. 

(photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images)

he global aerospace and defense industry is out of its doldrums. According to a new report by the accounting firm Deloitte, “the resurgence of global security threats” promises a lucrative “rebound” in defense spending.

The report alerts investors that “revenue growth” is “expected to take a positive turn” due to the terrorism and war in the Middle East and the tensions in Eastern Europe and the South China Sea.

Many analysts predicted declining revenue for the weapons industry as the U.S. scaled down military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. After all, as this chart from the Deloitte report shows, no other country even comes close to spending as much as the U.S. does.

But now governments around the world have moved swiftly to hike defense budgets to “combat terrorism and address sovereign security matters.”

The Deloitte report is almost giddy:

2015 was a pivotal year that saw heightened tensions between China, its neighbors and the US over “island building” in the South and East China Seas, and the related claims of sovereign ocean territory rights by China. In addition, Russia and the Ukraine are at odds related to Russia’s takeover of Crimea and their military actions in Eastern Ukraine. North Korea continues to threaten its neighbors with its nuclear ambitions and aggressive rocket launches. The Islamic State (ISIS) has become a key threat in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan and is involved in exporting terrorism to Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. The recent tragic bombings in Paris, Beirut, Mali, the Sinai Peninsula, and other places have emboldened nations to join in the fight against terrorism.

Several governments affected by these threats are increasing their defense budgets to combat terrorism and address sovereign security matters, including cyber-threats. For defense contractors, this represents an opportunity to sell more equipment and military weapons systems. Products, which are expected to experience renewed interest from buyers, include armored ground vehicles, ground attack munitions, light air support aircraft, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance electronic sensors, cyber protections, maritime patrol ships and aircraft, as well as provision for equipment maintenance and sustainment, as the military operations tempo is likely to increase and more missions are executed.

It is expected that a return to growth for defense subsector companies will likely occur, due to the increased interest by several involved nations as described above. In addition, many large, mainly US DoD defense programs representing billions of US dollars, are likely to start soon, enter the engineering manufacturing design phase, and reach low-rate or full-scale production over the next few years. These programs include Ohio Class Submarine replacement, F-35 fighter jet, KC-46A aerial refueling tanker, Long Range Strike Bomber, USAF T-X trainer, and Rafale fighter programs.

As for factors that might slow the global arms race, the report says little about diplomacy or peace movements. It does note that the fall in oil prices might eventually blunt the weapons-buying trend in the Persian Gulf, although not anytime soon.

In the U.S., as we’ve reported, defense contractors have bragged about pushing candidates toward adopting more militaristic policies. The libertarian trend in the Republican Party, for instance, has largely reversed itself and most candidates have adopted increasingly hawkish views.

How the Huge Gas Leak Is Turning California's Porter Ranch Into a Ghost Town 
Alexander Nazaryan, Grist 
Nazaryan writes: "As for the much-touted serenity of Porter Ranch, that's also gone. Methane is not a killer on the order of carbon monoxide, but medical research suggests it can cause a variety of chronic ailments, including bloody noses, headaches, vomiting, and rashes." 
READ MORE

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RSN: He Really Is Quite the Hack, This McGinty, New Documents Show Chicago Police and Mayor's Office Attempted to Cover Up Shooting of Laquan McDonald

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

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Charles Pierce | He Really Is Quite the Hack, This McGinty

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "I have to admit that it took a day before I could sit down and write about the thoroughgoing bag-job that was the official investigation into the summary execution-by-cop of Tamir Rice."
READ MORE

Ohio's law clearly does not apply to everyone.

 have to admit that it took a day before I could sit down and write about the thoroughgoing bag-job that was the official investigation into the summary execution-by-cop of Tamir Rice, a 12-year old who apparently had the misfortune of having a growth spurt in the fevered mind of one Officer Timothy Loehmann, who found it necessary to shoot Rice down before he could grow any bigger and more threatening. When will African American children learn not to grow so suddenly into monsters in the minds of our brave folks in blue? Personally, I blame the rap music.

"It is likely that Tamir, whose size made him look much older and who had been warned his pellet gun might get him into trouble that day, either intended to hand it over to the officers or show them it wasn't a real gun," McGinty said. "But there was no way for the officers to know that, because they saw the events rapidly unfolding in front of them from a very different perspective." It was "reasonable" to believe the officer who killed the boy believed Tamir was a threat, the prosecutor said, adding that the toy gun looked real.

He really is quite the hack, this McGinty. First, he pollutes the process by questioning the motives of Rice's grieving family. Then, by several accounts, he does his best imitation of Eddie Cicotte before the grand jury. Then, he comes out, his face as mournful as old purple and about as sincere as your average swampland entrepreneur, and talks about what a "perfect storm" of tragedy this whole case was. Like I said, he really is quite the hack, and I expect a run for Congress any day now.

And then there's Loehmann, the innocent victim of Tamir Rice's unexpected growth spurt. He lost his previous job as a cop in a tiny Cleveland suburb because he couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle on the firing range, and also because he was something of a basket case. Naturally, the Cleveland P.D. didn't bother to check Loehmann's service record before hiring him. Luckily, Rice, who was 5'7" and 175 pounds, managed to become 6'6", 250 right there before Loehmann's eyes. That made him easier to hit, I guess.

Is there any real point in being angry any more? Is there any real point even to be surprised? There certainly is no point in emphasizing the damn irony that Ohio is an "open carry" state so, even if the cops assumed Rice was 18, and they also assumed his gun was real, they had no cause even to stop him, let alone open fire. Listen to the spiel that Wayne LaPierre unspools every time he's in a room with more than four people listening: arm yourselves, because the world is a hellscape of violent Others who are coming for you and your children. At its heart, open carry is about open season on the people who scare you. It's certainly not about an absolute Second Amendment right that applies to black people as well as white. Open carry is about You and the Others, and so is the training of our modern, militarized police forces. If only Tamir Rice had not been born with that congenital ability to become huge and threatening the way he did in the mind of Timothy Loehmann. If only…

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/34371-he-really-is-quite-the-hack-this-mcginty

'Bank Robbers With Badges': How a Florida Police Department Made Millions Through a Drug Money Laundering Scheme

Michael Sallah and Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein, Miami Herald

Excerpt: "When Florida police created a task force to pose as money launderers for drug cartels, they generated millions in profits. Questions abound over where that money went."

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New Documents Show Chicago Police and Mayor's Office Attempted to Cover Up Shooting of Laquan McDonald
Dana Kozlov, John Dodge and Ed Marshall, CBS Chicago
Excerpt: "A letter alleges that police officers tried to get one witness - who was so appalled at the incident that she screamed at Van Dyke to 'stop shooting' - to change her account."
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Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel listens to remarks at a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, 

December 7, 2015. (photo: Jim Young/Reuters)

hirty days before Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced the biggest test of his political life, City Hall received a blockbuster letter from attorneys representing Laquan McDonald, accusing police of making a series of false statements and even intimidating at least one witness who saw the Chicago teenager fatally shot by Officer Jason Van Dyke.

That March 6, 2015 letter from attorney Jeffrey Neslund, quickly set in motion negotiations that led to an out-of-court legal settlement, reached just more than a month later — an astonishingly quick resolution for any legal matter.

After a bruising campaign, Emanuel won re-election on April 7, as those settlement talks quietly neared conclusion.

In the letter, which was part of about 1,400 emails released by the city on New Year’s Eve, Neslund informs Deputy Corporation Counsel Thomas Platt that police dash cam video “confirms that Mr. McDonald did not lunge toward police” which is “contrary to the false statements the city allowed the [police union] spokesman to spin to the media.”

Neslund then prophetically warned Platt that “the graphic dash cam video will have a powerful impact on any jury and the Chicago community as a whole. This case will undoubtedly bring a microscope of national attention to the shooting itself as well as the City’s pattern, practice and procedures of rubber-stamping fatal police shootings of African-Americans as ‘justified.’ ”

Indeed, the release of the video sparked national attention on Chicago police practices, led to the firing of Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, a series of policy changes–and even an apology–from Emanuel, and multiple protests through downtown Chicago.

The letter alleges that police officers tried to get one witness–who was so appalled at the incident that she screamed at Van Dyke to “stop shooting”–to change her account.

The witness, whose name was redacted in the documents, was transported to the police station “where she was held against her will and intensively questioned for over six hours.”

Neslund’s letter accuses detectives of repeatedly attempting to get the witness to change her statement because, they said, her story “did not match the video.”

She was finally released at 4 a.m. after demanding a lawyer.

McDonald, who was carrying a knife, was shot 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014 near 40th Street and Pulaski Road, as officers were responding a report of a person breaking into cars.

“There is no plausible justification for such an excessive use of deadly force. … Yet officer Van Dyke chose to empty his 9 mm pistol into the body of Laquan McDonald rather than allow other officers to employ non lethal force.”

Van Dyke has since been charged with first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.

The piles of documents also show city officials began corresponding among themselves about the shooting.

Emails show officials from the mayor’s office and that of the Independent Police Review Authority were in contact about the case. As CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov reports, that raises the question: Just how independent is the Independent Police Review Authority?

Mayoral spokesperson Adam Collins says inter-office communication is not unusual. He adds, “The documents show there was no attempt to cover anything up by this office.”

VIDEO ON LINK: 

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/34369-new-documents-show-chicago-police-and-mayors-office-attempted-to-cover-up-shooting-of-laquan-mcdonald

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Pentagon Plans Legal Change to Crack Down on Military Whistleblowers

Sputnik News

Excerpt: "After a year marked by repeated cyberattacks into US government databanks, the Department of Defense is tightening up its Uniform Code of Military Justice to prevent future breaches and leaks, legal and cyber analysts told Sputnik."

READ MORE 

Pentagon. (photo: AFP)

After a year marked by repeated cyberattacks into US government databanks, the Department of Defense is tightening up its Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to prevent future breaches and leaks, legal and cyber analysts told Sputnik.

ormer CIA counterterrorism officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou told Sputnik on Tuesday that the change in the Code seemed focused on bringing military legal procedures up to date to deal with the burgeoning field of cybercrime and cyberespionage.

"It may be that the law was outdated and didn't include ‘cybercrime," Kiriakou said.

The Defense Department has proposed a reform in the US Code of Military Justice to introduce punishment for specific computer offenses for the first time.

Retired US Army Major Todd Pierce, an author and expert on military law and civil liberties, told Sputnik the reform seemed to be focused on serving military personnel who became whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning, rather than on civilian contractors such as Edward Snowden.

"I think it is more related to Manning as Snowden wouldn’t have come under the UCMJ as a civilian," Pierce pointed out.

Chelsea Manning, originally Bradley Manning, was a US Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified or unclassified, but sensitive military and diplomatic documents.

In August 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, and will only be eligible for possible parole from August 2020.

Pierce said the proposed changes in the UCMJ would make it easier for the US military to prosecute and convict future whistleblowers like Manning, who felt compelled to leak classified or sensitive material for the public good.

"I presume the offenses and the elements which will need to be shown for conviction will be made easier to prove than relying on General Articles and the incorporation of federal statutes," Pierce stated.

Independent Institute Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty Ivan Eland agreed that the Defense Department was belatedly reacting to the embarrassments it suffered from the successful data leaks and exposures by Snowden and Manning.

"The [proposed] Code revisions seem to be a reaction to the Snowden leaks. However, Snowden was a civilian and they are likely plugging leaks in the Code to deal with similar actions by military personnel," Eland noted.

Edward Snowden is a former CIA employee and former contractor for the US government who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) for public disclosure.

The information revealed many global surveillance programs run by the NSA and by the "Five Eyes" alliance of US, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand electronic intelligence and surveillance agencies.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/34368-pentagon-plans-legal-change-to-crack-down-on-military-whistleblowers

Obama Set to Unveil Curbs on Gun Sellers
Sarah Wheaton and Edward-Isaac Dovere, Politico
Excerpt: "Executive actions expected next week will be part of the president's new year push to make progress on long-stalled problems before the 2016 presidential election heats up."
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What Really Happened to the US Train-and-Equip Program in Syria?
Roy Gutman, McClatchy DC
Gutman writes: "The train-and-equip program had been, until it was halted in October, the Obama administration's primary strategy to confront the Islamic State on the ground in Syria."
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California Gas Leak Called the Biggest Disaster Since BP
Katie Herzog, Grist
Herzog writes: "A methane leak in Southern California could be the worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill."
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