EN-AG – Apokalyps Nu!

Risks to Health and Well-Being from Radio-Frequency Radiation (RFR) Emitted by Cell Phones and Other Wireless Devices – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Health, Risks

23-08-19 05:15:00,

We bring to the attention of our readers this important scientific report on the health impacts of cellphone radio frequency radiation.

Below are relevant excerpts. To access the full report click here.

emphasis added

***

Radiation exposure has long been a concern for the public, policy makers, and health researchers. Beginning with radar during World War II, human exposure to radio-frequency radiation (RFR) technologies has grown substantially over time. In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed the published literature and categorized RFR as a “possible” (Group 2B) human carcinogen. A broad range of adverse human health effects associated with RFR have been reported since the IARC review.

In addition, three large-scale carcinogenicity studies in rodents exposed to levels of RFR that mimic lifetime human exposures have shown significantly increased rates of Schwannomas and malignant gliomas, as well as chromosomal DNA damage.

Of particular concern are the effects of RFR exposure on the developing brain in children.

Compared with an adult male, a cell phone held against the head of a child exposes deeper brain structures to greater radiation doses per unit volume, and the young, thin skull’s bone marrow absorbs a roughly 10-fold higher local dose. Experimental and observational studies also suggest that men who keep cell phones in their trouser pockets have significantly lower sperm counts and significantly impaired sperm motility and morphology, including mitochondrial DNA damage. Based on the accumulated evidence, we recommend that IARC re-evaluate its 2011 classification of the human carcinogenicity of RFR, and that WHO complete a systematic review of multiple other health effects such as sperm damage. In the interim, current knowledge provides justification for governments, public health authorities, and physicians/allied health professionals to warn the population that having a cell phone next to the body is harmful, and to support measures to reduce all exposures to RFR.

Introduction

We live in a generation that relies heavily on technology. Whether for personal use or work, wireless devices, such as cell phones, are commonly used around the world, and exposure to radio-frequency radiation (RFR) is widespread, including in public spaces (1, 2).

In this review, we address the current scientific evidence on health risks from exposure to RFR,

USS Liberty Veterans banned forever from Am Legion Nat’l Convention

Posted by EN-AG in Liberty, Veterans

23-08-19 05:13:00,

On June 8, 1967, 34 American servicemen were killed and 174 were wounded during an Israeli attack on the USS Liberty. According to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer, “Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government.” The survivors are still awaiting justice.

Survivors of the lethal 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty have been attacked, threatened, and bullied. Yet, they continue to speak out, and their fellow American veterans support the them, one of the most decorated crews in US Naval history.
In 2017 the members of the American Legion passed a resolution calling for a full investigation of the Israeli attack.
Despite this resolution, American Legion leaders continue to censor the Liberty, prohibiting them from having a booth at the national convention.
(If you feel this is wrong and wish to support these American veterans, PLEASE TAKE THE ACTION DESCRIBED BELOW)

[Note: The Liberty was a Navy electronics surveillance ship operating in international waters during the Six-Day War. Israeli forces perpetrated an extended air and sea assault on the ship that killed 34 Americans, injured 175, and damaged the ship beyond repair. Afterward, Israel claimed the assault was an accident and provided $6 million in compensation for the loss of the $40 million ship. More information here.]

by Joe Meadors, reposted from the USS Liberty Veterans’ Association Blog

“You will not discuss the attack with anyone. Once the Court of Inquiry findings are released you will not contradict them. This order will remain in effect after you are discharged from the Navy. If you violate this order you will be prosecuted and will spend a considerable amount of time in a Federal Prison.”

This order was repeated every day at quarters while we were in drydock in Malta.

If anyone tells of witnessing the deliberate machine gunning of our life rafts in the water, he runs the risk of doing time in a Federal prison.

If anyone tells of witnessing the use of unmarked aircraft or of the jamming of our radios on both US Navy tactical and international maritime distress frequencies,

Is Amazon Surveillance Secretly Infiltrating Police Departments?

Posted by EN-AG in Amazon, Surveillance

23-08-19 09:01:00,

By Eta Onrish

Big Tech has come under fire quite consistently for privacy concerns and has even faced big fines for violations (which they can afford). It seems that public attention on this matter has forced them to start going underground, with secret back-end deals with the government at local levels to expand their surveillance capabilities.

If you haven’t heard, there is a very useful doorbell camera called Ring. Ring started out as a product called, Doorbot, on the Shark Tank TV show but was rejected. The owners got immediate exposure and millions of dollars from investors after the show, changing the name from Doorbot to Ring. Fast forward five years, and Amazon decides to compete with Google’s friendly surveillance system called Nest, and buys Ring for A Billion Freaking Dollars.

Using Ring to expand a surveillance network

Ok, so what? It’s a very useful thing to be able to see who’s at the door and have a record of someone breaking into your home. The systems, in themselves, aren’t an issue. It’s when governments start to get involved and big money starts being made that conflicts of interest can lead to misuse and violations of privacy.

It’s these very expansions outside of the homeowner’s benefit that need scrutiny.

In addition to the actual doorbell surveillance camera itself, Ring/Amazon added a handy online app called, Neighbors, to use these systems to help reduce crime. According to Jamie Siminoff, Chief Inventor and Founder of Ring,

“At Ring, we come to work every day with the mission of reducing crime in neighborhoods. Over the past few years we have learned that, when neighbors, the Ring team and law enforcement all work together, we can create safer communities. Neighbors is meant to facilitate real-time communication between these groups, while maintaining neighbor privacy first and foremost. By bringing security to every neighbor with the free Neighbors app, communities can stay on top of crime and safety alerts as they happen.”

That sounds very good, doesn’t it? This may not seem all that much of an issue on the surface (if we ignore the obvious conflict of interest), but let’s dig deeper…

In addition to a system that allows people to monitor their homes,

Lindsey Graham’s Blank Check. Why a Defense Agreement With Israel Would Be a Disaster for Americans

Posted by EN-AG in Graham, Lindsey

22-08-19 05:18:00,

Two world wars began because of unconditional pledges made by one country to come to assistance of another. On July 5, 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany pledged his country’s complete support for whatever response Austria-Hungary would choose to make against Serbia after the June 28th assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian nationalist during an official visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia. This fatal error went down in history as Germany’s carte blanche or “blank check,” assurance to Austria that led directly to WW I.

In September 1939, World War II began when Great Britain and France came to the assistance of Poland after the German Army invaded, fulfilling a “guarantee” made in March of that year. What was a regional war, and one that might have been resolved through diplomacy, became global.

One would think that after such commitments were assessed by historians as the immediate causes of two world wars, no one would ever consider going down that road again. But that would be reckoning without Republican Senator Lindsey Graham who has been calling for a “defense treaty” with Israel since last April. In his most recent foray, Graham announced late in July that he is seeking bipartisan support for providing “blank check” assurances to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is hoping to be able to push a complete defense treaty through the Senate by next year.

In making his several announcements on the subject, Graham has been acting as a front man for both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also for The Jewish Institute for the National Security of America (JINSA), which wrote the basic document that is being used to promote the treaty and then enlisted Graham to obtain congressional support.

Speaking to the press on a JINSA conference call, Graham said the proposed agreement would be a treaty that would protect Israel in case of an attack that constituted an “existential threat”. Citing Iran as an example, Graham said the pact would be an attempt to deter hostile neighbors like the Iranians who might use weapons of mass destruction against Israel. JINSA President Michael Makovsky elaborated on this, saying, “A mutual defense pact has a value in not only deterring but might also mitigate a retaliatory strike by an adversary of Israel,

Kashmir in Crisis with Mohamad Junaid

Posted by EN-AG in Crisis, Kashmir

22-08-19 12:58:00,

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=32524

The Indian government has created a crisis by stripping the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its former semi-autonomy and splitting it into two territories. What are the roots of this crisis and what can we expect to develop in this volatile region? Joining us to dissect the past, present and future of Kashmir is Kashmiri scholar Mohamad Junaid of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

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Suddenly West is Failing to Overthrow “Regimes” | New Eastern Outlook

Posted by EN-AG in Failing, Suddenly

22-08-19 12:49:00,

It used to be done regularly and it worked: The West identified a country as its enemy, unleashed its professional propaganda against it, then administered a series of sanctions, starving and murdering children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups. If the country did not collapse within months or just couple of years, the bombing would begin. And the nation, totally shaken, in pain, and in disarray, would collapse like a house of cards, once the first NATO boots hit its ground.

Such scenarios were re-enacted, again and again, from Yugoslavia to Iraq.

But suddenly, something significant has happened. This horrific lawlessness, this chaos stopped; was deterred.

The West keeps using the same tactics, it tries to terrorize independent-minded countries, to frighten people into submission, to overthrow what it defines as ‘regimes’, but its power, its monstrously destructive power has all of a sudden become ineffective.

It hits, and the attacked nation shakes, screams, sheds blood, but keeps standing, keeps proudly erect.

*

What we are experiencing is a great moment in human history. Imperialism has not yet been defeated, but it is losing its global grip on power.

Now we have to clearly understand ‘Why?’, so we can continue our struggle, with even greater determination, with even greater effectiveness.

First of all, by now we know that the West cannot fight. It can spend trillions on ‘defense’, it can build nuclear bombs, ‘smart missiles’ and strategic warplanes. But it is too cowardly, too spoiled to risk the lives of its soldiers. It either kills remotely, or by using regional mercenaries. Whenever it becomes clear that the presence of its troops would be required, it backs up.

Secondly, it, the West, is totally horrified of the fact that there are now two super-powerful countries – China and Russia – which are unwilling to abandon their allies. Washington and London do all they can to smear Russia and to intimidate China. Russia is being provoked continuously: by propaganda, by military bases, sanctions and by new and newer bizarre mass media inventions that depict it as the villain in all imaginable circumstances. China has been provoked practically and insanely, ‘on all fronts’ – from Taiwan, Hong Kong,

How a Group of Pro-Israel Activists Blacklisted MintPress on Wikipedia

Posted by EN-AG in group, Pro-Israel

22-08-19 09:33:00,

For over a decade, pro-Israel and ultra-nationalist Israeli settler groups have sought to weaponize the popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, through concerted covert editing campaigns, offering Wikipedia editing courses to West Bank settlers and even formal alliances between Israel and Wikipedia to allow Israelis to create and edit content in a variety of languages.

In recent years, this alliance between pro-Israel partisans and Wikipedia has stepped up, largely in response to the growth of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to pressure Israel to comply with international law with respect to occupied Palestine and the blockaded Gaza Strip. As a consequence, news outlets that consistently report on the success of BDS, such as MintPress News, have been targeted on Wikipedia by such partisans, who recently succeeded in blacklisting MintPress as a “reliable source” on the online encyclopedia.

In early June, a small number of partisan Wikipedia editors privately voted to blacklist MintPress News from use as a source on the online encyclopedia website at the behest of a Wikipedia editor who took issue with MintPress’ coverage of current events in Venezuela and Syria. At no point was MintPress ever asked to comment or allowed to respond to any of the allegations made and MintPress is unable to appeal the decision.

Of the Wikipedia editors who voted to discredit MintPress, several were self-listed as experts in video games, computer science and anime, not geopolitical events, while others had previously gained notoriety for partisan promotion of pro-Israel perspectives and/or the U.S.-funded Venezuelan Popular Will political party, of which the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó is a member.

Italy And Salvini Face Real Crisis Now

Posted by EN-AG in Italy, Salvini

22-08-19 09:16:00,

Authored by Tom Luongo,

With the resignation of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte the future of Italy is now up in the air. There are many things that come into play with Conte resigning before the No-Confidence vote tabled by Lega Leader Matteo Salvini could take place.

The euro popped 40 pips, back above support at $1.11 on the news. The forex markets realize this was a Brussels-friendly move.

Conte didn’t want to chance getting voted out of office. That makes it difficult for President Sergei Mattarella to call for a new government without snap elections. The Italian Senate would have formally rebuked Mattarella’s compromise pick for Prime Minister, Conte.

Conte was there to effectively keep the children in line – Euroskeptics Lega and Five Star Movement (M5S). So, Conte used his time to take the bully pulpit and excoriate Salvini for twenty minutes. This gives the U.S. and European media plenty of chum to make their case against Salvini.

You will hear a lot about how non-partisan Conte did this for the sake of Italy to stop the mad, selfish and unprofessional Salvini from taking power.

It’s good political theater but it’s as disingenuous as the day is long and very much the truth. No one in power in Brussels wants what Salvini is selling. Not many in Rome do either.

Because had he not resigned Mattarella could have faced impeachment for not going to elections. He only relented to let M5S and Lega take power under that threat last year.

So Conte has set the stage for Mattarella to take charge again. They will put the veneer of legitimacy on this process to protect Italy from Salvini. In reality, the only people they are protecting are in Brussels.

Remember, Salvini wants to circumvent EU budget controls through issuing the mini-BOT parallel currency. And current polling puts him at just below the threshold to take power outright.

The downstream effects of this are myriad but there is one big fulcrum on which this hinges.

M5S Leader Luigi Di Maio is now placed to play kingmaker. He can either do a deal with Matteo Renzi and the Democrats (PD),

Hackers Could Steal Personal Info By “Listening” To Your Keyboard, Alarming Study Finds

Posted by EN-AG in Could, Hackers

22-08-19 08:10:00,

By John Anderer

As if you needed another cybersecurity issue to worry about, a team of researchers at Southern Methodist University have discovered that it is quite possible for hackers to use your smartphone’s sensor to intercept the sound of your keyboard typing. After picking up these sound waves, a skilled hacker could potentially analyze and decipher which keys were struck and piece together the words being typed.

Even in a loud and crowded room filled with people talking amongst each other and typing, researchers say they were able to capture and decode the majority of what was being typed.

“We were able to pick up what people are typing at a 41 percent word accuracy rate. And we can extend that out – above 41 percent – if we look at, say, the top 10 words of what we think it might be,” explains lead author Eric. C. Larson in a release.

All in all, hackers would only have to gain access to a smartphone’s sensor for mere seconds in order to possibly steal valuable information, according to researchers.

“Based on what we found, I think smartphone makers are going to have to go back to the drawing board and make sure they are enhancing the privacy with which people have access to these sensors in a smartphone,” Larson comments.

For the study, the authors wanted to recreate a real-world office scenario as best they could. In order to accomplish this, they placed numerous people inside a conference room, and asked them to begin collaborating and taking notes on their laptops about a fictional upcoming project. Meanwhile, there were eight smartphones placed on the conference room table, all of which were anywhere from three inches to several feet away from the nearest keyboard.

Participants weren’t given any specific instructions or a script on how to interact with each other. Additionally, they were free to type down notes in whichever way they saw fit.

Researchers say one of the main factors that motivated them to perform this study is the fact that smartphones are pretty much always “on” all day and night. In this sense,

American Apocalypse: The Government’s Plot to Destabilize the Nation Is Working – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in American, Apocalypse

22-08-19 08:00:00,

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out … without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” — H. L. Mencken

The U.S. government is working hard to destabilize the nation.

No, this is not another conspiracy theory.

Although it is certainly not far-fetched to suggest that the government might be engaged in nefarious activities that run counter to the best interests of the American people, doing so will likely brand me a domestic terrorist under the FBI’s new classification system.

Observe for yourself what is happening right before our eyes.

Domestic terrorism fueled by government entrapment schemes. Civil unrest stoked to dangerous levels by polarizing political rhetoric. A growing intolerance for dissent that challenges the government’s power grabs. Police brutality tacitly encouraged by the executive branch, conveniently overlooked by the legislatures, and granted qualified immunity by the courts. A weakening economy exacerbated by government schemes that favor none but a select few. An overt embrace of domestic surveillance tactics if Congress goes along with the Trump Administration’s request to permanently re-authorize the NSA’s de-activated call records program. Heightened foreign tensions and blowback due to the military industrial complex’s profit-driven quest to police and occupy the globe.

The seeds of chaos are being sown, and it’s the U.S. government that will reap the harvest.

Mark my words, there’s trouble brewing.

Better yet, take a look at “Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” a Pentagon training video created by the Army for U.S. Special Operations Command.

The training video is only five minutes long, but it says a lot about the government’s mindset, the way its views the citizenry, and the so-called “problems” that the government must be prepared to address in the near future through the use of martial law.

Even more troubling, however, is what this military video doesn’t say about the Constitution, about the rights of the citizenry, and about the dangers of locking down the nation and using the military to address political and social problems.

The Beidaihe Political Summit: Is the “Chinese Dream” Still Viable? China’s Debt Crisis – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Beidaihe, Political

22-08-19 07:55:00,

The resort town of Beidaihe has just held one of the world’s most important, and secretive, political gatherings. Members of the public flock there in the summer months to relax on the beach gently lapped by the shallow waters of the Yellow Sea. But far from the madding crowd, the resort, 200 km north of Beijing, hosts an annual sealed-off conclave of Communist party luminaries, including President Xi Jinping, for a month from mid-July. The leaders set out the agenda for the year and prioritize the issues facing them. They were not short of topics for discussion. Though the annual event is held in the utmost secrecy, it is a racing certainty that US arms sales to Taiwan, a trade war, a stuttering economy, Beijing’s treatment of the Muslim Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang and mass protests in Hong Kong as well as growing debt will have featured. So too would have planned celebrations marking the party’s 70 years in power on October 1. Only one of these issues is considered a clear and present danger to those who gathered in the resort.

The mass detention of members of the Uighur community in Xinjiang, designated an autonomous region, in China’s west, has not met with loud international criticism, even among Muslim countries. Consequently, Beijing feels it has a free hand and will not face any real repercussions. Providing Beijing can keep the army out of Hong Kong, it, too, should be manageable. Certainly Washington will not make waves. In Trump’s White House, Greenland is held in higher esteem. Brexit-preoccupied London can’t and won’t get involved.

There is no indication that the Hong Kong government wants troops to be sent in from across the border in Shenzhen.

Legally, the army stepping in must be initiated by the Hong Kong government, though the standing committee of the National People’s Congress in Beijing can declare a state of emergency in Hong Kong if turmoil “endangers national unity or security.”

In practice, any decision would be made by China’s leader, Xi, with the endorsement of the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the highest level of political power in China.

Both geographically and politically, Xinjiang and Hong Kong are on the periphery. All bets are off should the Hong Kong protests seep across the border to Shenzhen,

Hundreds of Cancer-Causing Chemicals Pollute Americans’ Bodies – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Cancer-Causing, Hundreds

22-08-19 07:54:00,

Hundreds of cancer-causing chemicals are building up in the bodies of Americans, according to the first comprehensive inventory of the carcinogens that have been measured in people. EWG released the inventory today.

EWG spent almost a year reviewing more than 1,000 biomonitoring studies and other research by leading government agencies and independent scientists in the U.S. and around the world. The nonprofit research group found that up to 420 chemicals known or likely to cause cancer have been detected in blood, urine, hair and other human samples.

Studies of the causes of cancer often focus on tobacco, alcohol and over-exposure to the sun. But the World Health Organization and many other scientists believe nearly 1 in 5 cancers are caused by chemicals and other environmental exposures––not only in the workplaces, but in consumer products, food, water and air.

EWG’s review bolsters the findings and ongoing research of the Halifax Project, a collaboration of more than 300 scientists from around the world who are investigating new ways in which combinations of toxic chemicals in our environment may cause cancer. While most cancer research focuses on treatment, the Halifax Project and EWG’s Rethinking Cancer initiative are looking at prevention by reducing people’s contact with cancer-causing chemicals.

“The presence of a toxic chemical in our bodies does not necessarily mean it will cause harm, but this report details the astounding number of carcinogens we are exposed to in almost every part of life that are building up in our systems,” said Curt DellaValle, author of the report and a senior scientist at EWG. “At any given time some people may harbor dozens or hundreds of cancer-causing chemicals. This troubling truth underscores the need for greater awareness of our everyday exposure to chemicals and how to avoid them.”

EWG estimated that a small subset of the chemicals inventoried in the report were measured at levels high enough to pose significant cancer risks in most Americans ––risks that generally exceed Environmental Protection Agency safety standards. But those estimates are only for individual chemicals and do not account for a question scientists and doctors are increasingly concerned about––how combined exposures to multiple chemicals may increase risk?

EWG’s inventory comes at an auspicious moment for the issue of cancer and chemicals.

Denmark: How To Deal With Integration?

Posted by EN-AG in Denmark, Integration

22-08-19 07:51:00,

Authored by Judith Bergman via The Gatestone Institute,

How does a society deal with religious institutions that profess values which are the very opposite of the value system of the Western society in which they live?
“When I was in high school, there were around 50,000 people with a non-Western background in Denmark. Today, there are almost half a million. In one generation, our country has changed”. — Lars Løkke Rasmussen, then prime minister of Denmark, January 1, 2019.
The Integration Barometer — which measures the degree of assimilation in the municipality among young people with a non-Western background — showed that almost one third of 18-29 year-olds (31%) believe that “religious and cultural laws must be adhered to, even though they may be contrary to [Danish] law”. The issue, then, is whether these young people believe that Islamic sharia law should take precedence over Danish law…. In addition, the number of youths who view democracy in a positive light has fallen from 86% in 2016 to 79% in 2018.
It recently came to light… that a committee under the government’s Ministry of Church Affairs, which is responsible for formally approving mosques in Denmark, has been handing out approvals for them without knowing “whether they [the mosques] were ruled from abroad, whether women’s rights were suppressed, or there were other problematic conditions”. Formal approval of a mosque means that the mosque becomes eligible for tax benefits and is permitted to bring foreign preachers to Denmark on a special visa.
When the association behind the mosque [asked]… to be approved as a religious community, it had in its statutes a provision saying it operated under the supervision of Iran’s ‘Supreme Leader’, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. At first, this news was a matter of concern for the Ministry of Church Affairs, but then Ahlul Bait simply rewrote its statutes and the ministry gave its approval.

Earlier this year, in his New Year’s speech, Denmark’s (then) prime minister at the time, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, mentioned that religious parallel societies constitute a problem and that immigrants need to learn to “put secular laws over religious ones”.

What,

Jennifer Robinson, a leading member of Assange’s legal team, speaks with the WSWS

Posted by EN-AG in Jennifer, Robinson

21-08-19 08:13:00,

By
our reporters

9 August 2019

Barrister Jennifer Robinson, a longtime member of Julian Assange’s legal team, is currently visiting Australia and spoke this week with World Socialist Web Site reporters in Melbourne. The interview followed her legal briefing to a meeting organised by Melbourne WikiLeaks supporters at the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance office.

In late July, Robinson gave a lecture on human rights law at the University of Sydney’s law school, where she is an adjunct professor. The following week, she held a briefing with about 30 MPs and their staff at the federal parliament.

World Socialist Web Site: Could you comment on the recent US court ruling dismissing the Democratic National Committee [DNC] allegations that WikiLeaks conspired with the Russian government to steal DNC emails and leak them to public?

Jennifer Robinson

Jennifer Robinson: The decision in the DNC suit on our “motion to dismiss,” which was successful, is incredibly important as a principled free speech position but also for WikiLeaks.

It confirmed longstanding principles that journalists can receive information that has been released in breach of the media law, or has been stolen, and publish that information. This principle is protected under the [US Constitution’s] First Amendment for all journalists and for all media organisations.

It is also incredibly important that the judge found that WikiLeaks benefits from the First Amendment equally, just like any other media organisation. He also raised concern that if the DNC’s suit were successful against WikiLeaks, it could be used against all other media organisations and journalists.

The recognition that we can be protected by the First Amendment is critical, particularly in the context of the statement made by Mike Pompeo—now US secretary of state—when he was CIA director, that WikiLeaks is a “hostile non-state intelligence agency” and Julian Assange does not benefit from the First Amendment.

Is Europe coming around to Putin’s Munich warning, or is this yet another false dawn?

Posted by EN-AG in Coming, Europe

21-08-19 08:06:00,

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to France is being hailed as a revolutionary turn in the European Union’s policy toward Moscow. While that would be a step in the right direction, rumors of it might be greatly exaggerated.

Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron certainly seemed all smiles at their meeting in Bregancon on Monday, leading respected international commentator John Laughland to declare that “On every level, the West has now abandoned its earlier hostility to Putin and Russia.”

Also on rt.com
Putin-Macron meeting heralds glorious summer after long winter of discontent

The meeting took place just a few days ahead of the G7 summit in France, to which Putin was not invited; Russia has been suspended from the group of industrialized nations since 2014, after the US and UK blamed it for the crisis in Ukraine.

None other than US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that it would be “much more appropriate to have Russia” back in the G8 again, no doubt triggering every Russia “expert” on three continents.

It is certainly tempting to believe that Macron and Trump have somehow come to realize the wisdom of Putin’s speech at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, in which he warned about the perils of unipolarity, disdain for international law, and US attempts to impose its will on the rest of the world. After all, Trump himself has mused about better relations with Russia and advocated sovereignty over imperialism in his UN speeches.

Yet as the Russian leadership is keenly aware, Western politicians’ words are one thing, and deeds quite another. Even as he talked sovereignty, Trump has doubled down on trying to force Iran, North Korea and Venezuela into submission to US dictates, and his State Department continues to support “moderate rebels” (aka Al-Qaeda terrorists) in Syria. He has also ratcheted up sanctions against Russia started by his predecessor, perhaps pressured by his critics harping on the ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy for years.

Also on rt.com
Trump says he could support Russia’s return to G8

Meanwhile, Macron just could not help himself,

Lawsuit Challenges Trump EPA’s 200 Million-acre Expansion of Bee-killing Pesticide – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Challenges, lawsuit

21-08-19 02:23:00,

The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety sued the Trump administration today over its July decision to approve use of the bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor across more than 200 million acres of crops.

The approval was granted despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency’s own scientists concluded that sulfoxaflor is “very highly toxic” to bees. The decision expands the pesticide’s use to a wide range of crops that attract bees, including soybeans, cotton, strawberries, squash and citrus.

“Even for Trump’s EPA, which seems to measure success by pesticide-company profits, it’s stupefying to OK spraying a bee-killing poison across millions of acres of crops frequented by bees,” said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health program. “While leading scientists and countries across the globe are calling for eliminating harmful bee-killing pesticides like sulfoxaflor, Team Trump is cheerfully promoting its use like a corporate PR firm. It’s nauseating.”

Today’s lawsuit, filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, contends that before approving the sweeping new uses of sulfoxaflor, the EPA failed in its legal duty to compile “substantial evidence” required under theFederal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. FIFRA, as it’s known, is the federal law underpinning the U.S. system of pesticide regulation, designed to protect applicators, consumers and the environment.

The EPA also violated its duty to ensure that its approval of sulfoxaflor doesn’t jeopardize the continued existence of endangered species by consulting on the effects of its actions with wildlife experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service.

In addition to imperiling bees and butterflies, the EPA’s broad approval for sulfoxaflor also likely threatens endangered plants that rely on insect pollination.

Under the new approval, sulfoxaflor can be used on alfalfa, cacao, corn, cotton, grains, pineapple, sorghum, soybeans and strawberries as well as on tree plantations, ornamental crops and citrus orchards.

“This decision was pure pro-pesticide politics,” said George Kimbrell, legal director of the Center for Food Safety. “Trump’s EPA can’t justify throwing our already imperiled pollinators under the bus. That’s why the agency offered no chance for the public to comment. And that’s why we’re suing them.”

To achieve its goal of approving sulfoxaflor,

Facial Recognition: 10 Reasons You Should Be Worried About The Technology

Posted by EN-AG in Facial, Recognition

21-08-19 02:20:00,

By Birgit Schippers, Queen’s University Belfast

Facial recognition technology is spreading fast. Already widespread in China, software that identifies people by comparing images of their faces against a database of records is now being adopted across much of the rest of the world. It’s common among police forces but has also been used at airports, railway stations and shopping centres.

The rapid growth of this technology has triggered a much-needed debate. Activists, politicians, academics and even police forces are expressing serious concerns over the impact facial recognition could have on a political culture based on rights and democracy.

Human rights concerns

As someone who researches the future of human rights, I share these concerns. Here are ten reasons why we should worry about the use of facial recognition technology in public spaces.

1) It puts us on a path towards automated blanket surveillance

CCTV is already widespread around the world, but for governments to use footage against you they have to find specific clips of you doing something they can claim as evidence. Facial recognition technology brings monitoring to new levels. It enables the automated and indiscriminate live surveillance of people as they go about their daily business, giving authorities the chance to track your every move.

2) It operates without a clear legal or regulatory framework

Most countries have no specific legislation that regulates the use of facial recognition technology, although some lawmakers are trying to change this. This legal limbo opens the door to abuse, such as obtaining our images without our knowledge or consent and using them in ways we would not approve of.

3) It violates the principles of necessity and proportionality

A commonly stated human rights principle, recognised by organisations from the UN to the London Policing Ethics Panel, is that surveillance should be necessary and proportionate. This means surveillance should be restricted to the pursuit of serious crime instead of enabling the unjustified interference into our liberty and fundamental rights.

The MH17 Malaysian Airlines Tragedy, Blamed on Russia. NGOs Say The Will Seek PM Mahathir Support to Prevent the MH17 Trial of Four Men – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Airlines, Malaysian

21-08-19 09:55:00,

Several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) today said they will soon ask for Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s help to prevent the trial of four individuals over the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from starting.

Chandra Muzaffar, president of NGO International Movement for a Just World (JUST), said the trial must not go on as the prior investigations were allegedly “flawed”.

“First and most urgent task emanating from this conference, we should do what we can to put a stop to the judicial process initiated by the Joint Investigation Team, the Dutch-led process that would in March 2020 see perhaps the beginning of the trial,” he said at the end of a full-day conference here on MH17.

“We have to try to stop this from happening, this is where what we have discussed and what we feel about this should be convened to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad so he can take it up with the Dutch government, it has to be bilateral level perhaps prime to prime minister,” he added.

Chandra said Malaysia could also seek to inform other JIT members that it thinks the trial should not proceed, arguing that the JIT decides based on consensus.

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) members are the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine.

The JIT had previously concluded that MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014 by an anti-aircraft BUK missile originating from a Russian military brigade.

The JIT had on July 19 charged three Russians and one Ukrainian over the downing of MH17 where all 298 onboard were killed, and had said trial would start in March 2020.

Chandra was speaking at the “MH17: The Quest for Justice” conference, which was jointly-organised by JUST, the Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), and the Canada-based Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG) with the collaboration of the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

Chandra also outlined a few other proposals as part of the NGOs’ action plan, including setting up a committee with lawyers to examine legal alternatives to the MH17 trial such as filing civil lawsuits or setting up commissions of inquiry.

Chandra also proposed the creation of a citizens’ movement backing alternative views on the MH17 incident,

Hong Kong in Crosshairs of Global Power Struggle

Posted by EN-AG in Crosshairs, Global

21-08-19 09:06:00,

The U.S. and other Western powers are working to preserve a capitalist dystopia and manufacture consensus for long-term conflict with China, write Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers.

Hong Kong protesters waving U.S. flags last week. (YouTube)

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
PopularResistance.org

Hong Kong is one of the most extreme examples of big finance, neoliberal capitalism in the world. As a result, many people in Hong Kong are suffering from great economic insecurity in a city with 93 billionaires, second-most of any city.

Hong Kong is suffering the effects of being colonized by Britain for more than 150 years following the Opium Wars. The British put in place a capitalist economic system and Hong Kong has had no history of self-rule. When Britain left, it negotiated an agreement that prevents China from changing Hong Kong’s political and economic systems for 50 years by making Hong Kong a Special Administrative Region (SAR).

China cannot solve the suffering of the people of Hong Kong. This “One Country, Two Systems” approach means the extreme capitalism of Hong Kong exists alongside, but separate from, China’s socialized system. Hong Kong has an unusual political system. For example, half the seats in the legislature are required to represent business interests meaning corporate interests vote on legislation.

Hong Kong is a center for big finance and also a center of financial crimes. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of suspicious transactions reported to law enforcement agencies rocketed from 32,907 to 92,115. There has been a small number of prosecutions, which dropped from a high of 167 in 2014 to 103 in 2017. Convictions dropped to only one person sentenced to more than six years behind bars in 2017.

The problem is neither the extradition bill that was used to ignite protests nor China, the problems are Hong Kong’s economy and governance.

The Extradition Bill

The stated cause of the recent protests is an extradition bill proposed because there is no legal way to prevent criminals from escaping charges when they flee to Hong Kong.

Is White Genocide Possible?

Posted by EN-AG in Genocide, White

20-08-19 07:58:00,

Readers agree that the demonization of white people is unfair and divisive. Many report that they have experienced reverse discrimination, and they expect discrimination against whites, such as the announced anti-white policy of the New York public school system, to worsen as the media’s demonization of white people escalates. A few readers noted that both the Jewish and Armenian genocides are disputed. They asked if there are any historical episodes of genocides. A few others noted that even when white Americans become a minority, it will be a large and numerous minority and, thus, too numerous for a genocide.

I will address these issues after I walk readers, who never got past my rhetorical title, “Is White Genocide In Our Future,” through my column that provoked their questions. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/16/is-white-genocide-in-our-future/

The liberal/progressive/left, media, and Democratic Party have used the El Paso shootings of Hispanic immigrants to brand President Trump and all who voted for him “racist white supremacists.” In other words one instance has been used to write off half of the white American population. My point is that an enormous edifice of hatred has been built on one instance. Suddenly, all mass shooters are racist white supremacists inspired by President Trump despite the Mass Shooting Tracker that shows that mass shooters in 2019 are 51% black, 29% white, and 11% Latino and that few identify as supremacists of any hue. Hah, you say, you haven’t heard about black and Latino mass shooters, only white ones.

If white people are actually supreme and think of themselves in this way, how can university professors call for the eradication of white people and not be denounced for advocating genocide? What do you think would happen to a professor who called for the eradication of blacks, Jews, Hispanics, or homosexuals? It would be hate speech, a hate crime. But calls for eradication of white people are not regarded as extreme. Such calls are not denounced as hate speech and a hate crime. So who is supreme?

Try to imagine the consequences for NBC Universal if its movie, “The Hunt,” about white Trump supporters being hunted and killed for sport was about hunting blacks or Jews, or immigrants, or transgendered for sport. It would be the end of NBC Universal and the producer of the movie.

The successes of Russian diplomacy in the Middle East, by Thierry Meyssan

Posted by EN-AG in Russian, successes

20-08-19 05:19:00,

The political changes which have been transforming the Middle East for the last two months are not the result of the destruction of any of the protagonists, but the evolution of the Iranian, Turkish and Emirati points of view. Where the military might of the United States has failed, the subtlety of Russian diplomacy has succeeded. Refusing to comment on the crimes of one party or the other, Moscow is slowly managing pacify the region.

For five years, Russia has been multiplying its approaches in order to re-establish international Law in the Middle East. It has relied in particular on Iran and Turkey, whose manner of thinking it does not really share. The first results of this patient diplomatic exercise are redefining the lines of division existing at the heart of several conflicts.

New balances of power and a new equilibrium are being set up discreetly in the Nile valley, in the Levant and the Arab peninsula. On the contrary, however, the situation is blocked in the Persian Gulf. This considerable and coordinated change is affecting different conflicts which in appearance have no connection with one another. It is the fruit of patient and discreet Russian diplomacy [1] and, in some cases, the relative good will of the USA.

Unlike the United States, Russia is not seeking to impose its own vision on the world. It begins on the contrary with the culture of its interlocutors, which it modifies by small touches at its contact.

The withdrawal of the jihadists and Kurdish mercenaries in Syria

Everything began on 3 July – one of the five founders of the PKK, Cemil Bayik, published an op ed in the Washington Post calling for Turkey to open negotiations by lifting the solitary confinement of their most famous prisoner – Abdullah Öcalan [2]. Suddenly, prison visits for the leader of the Kurdish autonomists in Turkey, forbidden for four years, were once again authorised. This opening was immediately seen as treason by the Peoples’ Republican party, which failed to turn out on 23 June in Istanbul, inflicting a severe electoral defeat for President Erdoğan’s candidate.

Simultaneously, combats flared again in the zone occupied by Al-Qaïda in the North of Syria, the governorate of Idlib.

Leaked Audio Exposes Oil Lobbyist Bragging About Success in Criminalizing Pipeline Protests

Posted by EN-AG in Audio, Leaked

20-08-19 05:07:00,

By Jake Johnson

As a growing number of states move to pass laws that would criminalize pipeline protests and hit demonstrators with years in prison, an audio recording obtained by The Intercept showed a representative of a powerful oil and gas lobbying group bragging about the industry’s success in crafting anti-protest legislation behind closed doors.

Speaking during a conference in Washington, D.C. in June, Derrick Morgan, senior vice president for federal and regulatory affairs at the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), touted “model legislation” that states across the nation have passed in recent months.

AFPM represents a number of major fossil fuel giants, including Chevron, Koch Industries, and ExxonMobil.

“We’ve seen a lot of success at the state level, particularly starting with Oklahoma in 2017,” said Morgan, citing Dakota Access Pipeline protests as the motivation behind the aggressive lobbying effort. “We’re up to nine states that have passed laws that are substantially close to the model policy that you have in your packet.”

Big Oil is now using its political power to try and criminalize protests of oil & gas infrastructure.

“This legislation has potential to punish public participation and mischaracterize advocacy protected by the First Amendment.”https://t.co/bmiHjONEhy

— Friends of the Earth (@foe_us) August 19, 2019

The audio recording comes just months after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law legislation that would punish anti-pipeline demonstrators with up to 10 years in prison, a move environmentalists condemned as a flagrant attack on free expression.

“Big Oil is hijacking our legislative system,” Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said after the Texas Senate passed the bill in May.

As The Intercept‘s Lee Fang reported Monday, the model legislation Morgan cited in his remarks “has been introduced in various forms in 22 states and passed in… Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota.”

“The AFPM lobbyist also boasted that the template legislation has enjoyed bipartisan support,” according to Fang. “In Louisiana, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the version of the bill there,

Is There a Link Between Vaccines & the Rise of Childhood Cancers? – Vaxxter

Posted by EN-AG in Between, There

20-08-19 09:16:00,

Written by Paul Louis

Have you seen the St. Jude Children’s Hospital fundraising commercials on TV? This hospital specializes in pediatric cancer. You may be wondering why so many young children are being diagnosed with cancer. This wasn’t happening a few decades ago.

According to a 2016 UK Telegraph science editorial, childhood cancers have increased 40 percent over the past 16 years, especially among teenagers. Since that report, cancer cases among infants and toddlers have continued to climb.

The following is quoted from Children’s Health Defense, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s site:

“For American children ages one through 14, cancer is the top disease-related cause of death, second only to accidents among all causes of childhood mortality. Leukemia and malignancies of the central nervous system are the most common types of childhood cancers. (Source)

This article will discuss findings that link childhood vaccines to the increased cancer rates among the very young. The explosion of childhood cancers correlates with the increase in vaccination schedules for children during the 1990s up to today.

In October 2016, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny was one of several health expert presenters in a live- on-line Truth About Cancer symposium. She did a 50-minute segment on the relationship of vaccines to cancer. The current Truth About Cancer symposium in Asia.

How Cancer is Created When Normal Cellular Metabolism Fails

Shortly before 1930, Nobel Prize-winning German biochemist, Otto Warburg, discovered that cellular oxygen insufficiency results in a metabolic shift, where cells resort to fermenting glucose for energy instead of using oxygen to metabolize glucose and other nutrients.

This conversion from cellular respiration to glucose fermentation is a cell’s survival mechanism. Unfortunately, the cells survive as cancer.

Based on his research, Warburg postulated that cancer is a metabolic disease. His findings confronted the unproven theory of mainstream oncology, which claims cancer is the result of genetic mutations.

“Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. Summarized in a few words, the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by fermentation of sugar.” – Dr.

UPS Quietly Using Self-Driving Trucks For Months

Posted by EN-AG in Quietly, Using

19-08-19 06:45:00,

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

UPS teamed up with TuSimple in May for autonomous delivery of cargo.

Gizmodo reports UPS Has Been Delivering Cargo in Self-Driving Trucks for Months And No One Knew.

UPS announced on Thursday that its venture capital arm has made a minority investment in TuSimple. The announcement also revealed that since May TuSimple autonomous trucks have been hauling UPS loads on a 115-mile route between Phoenix and Tucson.

UPS confirmed to Gizmodo this is the first time UPS has announced it has been using TuSimple autonomous trucks to deliver packages in the state.

Around the same time as the UPS and TuSimple program began, the United States Postal Service and TuSimple publicized a two-week pilot program to deliver mail between Phoenix and Dallas, a 1,000 mile trip.

TuSimple claims it can cut the average cost of shipping in a tractor-trailer by 30 percent. In an announcement about the new partnership, UPS Ventures managing partner, Todd Lewis, said the venture arm “collaborates with startups to explore new technologies and tailor them to help meet our specific needs.”

UPS would not share the terms of the deal with Gizmodo. TuSimple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

TuSimple puts its own autonomous tech—which relies on nine cameras and two LIDAR sensors—in Navistar vehicles.

TuSimple Video

Zero engagements in a storm.

TuSimple is now hooked up with both UPS and the US Post Office (USPS).

On February 16, I commented Self-Driving Truck Startup “TuSimple” Confident of Commercial Driverless by 2021.

The company’s cameras can see about 1,000 meters, or 3,280 feet ahead, said Chuck Price, TuSimple’s chief product officer. “From a half mile away we can spot emergency vehicles, cars broken down on the side of the road, people walking around,” said Price.

“We are confident that we will have our first commercial driverless operation in late 2020 to 2021,” Mr. Price said.

Technology Not the Holdup

For now there are backup drivers. That will change within the next two years.

Mom Thrown in Jail, Her Child Stolen—for Successfully Treating Her Cancer with CBD Oil

Posted by EN-AG in Child, Thrown

19-08-19 06:04:00,

By Matt Agorist

In the land of the free, parents whose children voluntarily wish to abstain from chemotherapy and have their parent’s consent, can and will be kidnapped and their parent jailed. This is exactly what is happening to Christina Dixon and her daughter Kylee—in spite of the fact that stopping chemo and using alternative treatment has worked.

“The only reason I’m in this position is because I stood up for my daughter’s life when she was on her last breath,” said Christina. “I’m literally getting punished for saving my daughter’s life.”

When Kylee was 11 years old, she was diagnosed with Undifferentiated Embryonal Sarcoma, a rare kind of liver cancer that happens mainly in children. For several grueling months, Kylee underwent chemotherapy for the cancer, which they said began to kill her.

When Christina and Kylee decided that Kylee had enough of the chemo, they decided to stop and refused the doctor’s orders. For making their own decision to stop the chemo and switching to an alternative treatment — which according to Christina, literally saver her daughter’s life — Kylee was kidnapped by the state.

The act of stealing someone’s child over medical decisions happens so often that there is a term for it: medical kidnapping.

“When you separate a parent from a child based on medical reasons—to me that’s concerning,” said Christina.

Christina had no ill intentions in mind when seeking out alternative treatments and explained that her daughter’s chemotherapy was agonizing and all she did was suffer.

“The best way I can describe it is like my kid was on death row,” said Christina. “Every single time—you literally feel your kid’s life getting taken away.”

They stuck out the chemotherapy for six months, but it was far too painful and evidently not working. So, they both made the decision to stop it and seek a different treatment.

Organically Grown CBD Oil and Products Available (Ad)

“I couldn’t do it anymore and my daughter wanted to go home. She had enough too. She begged me to take her home before they did more chemo,” said Christina.

Johnson launches anti-vaxxer crusade as measles outbreak grips UK

Posted by EN-AG in Johnson, Launches

19-08-19 06:00:00,

The British government has launched a campaign to combat misleading information spread by people opposed to vaccines, after the UK lost its “measles-free” status with the World Health Organization.

PM Boris Johnson announced on Monday that, along with other measures, parents who have concerns over the jabs will be given new evidence-based advice to correct any false information they may have learned.

Downing Street said it hopes the campaign will boost the rate of children who are fully vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), from 87 percent up to 95 percent.

Also on rt.com
Measles surges to ALARMING levels in nearly 100 countries, consequences may be ‘DISASTROUS’ – UN

The push comes as the UK finds itself in the midst of a measles crisis. There have already been 231 cases of measles in the UK in the first quarter of 2019. Earlier this year a Unicef report warned that half a million British children were not immunised against measles between 2010 and 2017. The spike caused Britain to lose its World Health Organization (WHO) “measles-free” status just three years after the virus was declared eliminated.

Britain isn’t alone in its fight against the age-old viral illness; Johnson called the effort a “global challenge.” There have been 364,808 measles cases reported around the world so far this year.

France, the most anti-vaccine nation in the world, with a third of the nation expressing distrust of the jab, last year made vaccinations compulsory. While the US is battling the greatest outbreak of measles since 1992 with 1,203 individual cases so far in 2019.

Also on rt.com
Anti-vax movement among TOP THREATS to global health, with HIV & Ebola, WHO says

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Former CIA Spook: “Russian Hoax Coup & Epstein Are Interlocked”

Posted by EN-AG in Former, spook

19-08-19 07:09:00,

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Former CIA Officer and whistleblower Kevin Shipp says the Russian hoax and attempted coup of President Trump and the sex trafficking case against Jeffery Epstein are linked together by the same Deep State players.

Shipp explains, “The FBI has completely raided his vault, and they have some pretty damning material…”

“I don’t know why it took so long, but they have raided Epstein’s island… So, there is a lot of damning information the FBI has now on certain people. At the top of the list, and the one who flew the most, was Bill Clinton. Then he lied about it. They are intertwined in that regard and with the Clinton Foundation that we know is a fraud. It is known around the world, and you’ve got these two intersections with Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Of course, Hillary Clinton is tied to the dossier in an attempt to get rid of Donald Trump. So, these webs interlocked with each other, and these people interlock with each other. Welcome to the global elite. Welcome to human trafficking. These things are connected, and with Epstein dead, there are a lot of prominent people breathing a sigh of relief—for now. Is Barr aggressive enough? He says he is going to pursue this case anyway. Is he going to call in the people seen on the CD’s, videos and photographs? That remains to be seen.”

On Epstein’s officially ruled suicide while in prison, Shipp says, “Epstein tries to commit ‘suicide,’ and his cellmate, a four-time convicted murderer, said he didn’t see (or hear) it because he had his headphones on. Attorney General William Barr was in charge of the safety of Jeffery Epstein. There should have been an entire contingent of U.S. Marshals to protect this huge witness, but there were none… Why is that? …”

“It is just unbelievable how they left this huge witness to die in prison. The prison guards were off, as we know. The cameras were not functioning. He was taken off of suicide watch and on and on we go. There are so many things that add up to this not being a suicide that it is remarkable.

America’s Benevolent Bombing of Serbia – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in America, Benevolent

19-08-19 07:03:00,

Twenty years ago, President Bill Clinton commenced bombing Serbia in the name of human rights, justice, and ethnic tolerance. Approximately 1,500 Serb civilians were killed by NATO bombing in one of the biggest sham morality plays of the modern era. As British professor Philip Hammond recently noted, the 78-day bombing campaign “was not a purely military operation: NATO also destroyed what it called ‘dual-use’ targets, such as factories, city bridges, and even the main television building in downtown Belgrade, in an attempt to terrorise the country into surrender.”

Clinton’s unprovoked attack on Serbia, intended to help ethnic Albanians seize control of Kosovo, set a precedent for “humanitarian” warring that was invoked by supporters of George W. Bush’s unprovoked attack on Iraq, Barack Oba-ma’s bombing of Libya, and Donald Trump’s bombing of Syria.

Clinton remains a hero in Kosovo, and there is an 11-foot statue of him standing in the capitol, Pristina, on Bill Clinton Boulevard. A commentator in the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper noted that the statue showed Clinton “with a left hand raised, a typical gesture of a leader greeting the masses. In his right hand he is holding documents engraved with the date when NATO started the bombardment of Serbia, 24 March 1999.” It would have been a more accurate representation if Clinton was shown standing on the corpses of the women, children, and others killed in the U.S. bombing campaign.

Bombing Serbia was a family affair in the Clinton White House. Hillary Clinton revealed to an interviewer in the summer of 1999,

“I urged him to bomb. You cannot let this go on at the end of a century that has seen the major holocaust of our time. What do we have NATO for if not to defend our way of life?”

A biography of Hillary Clinton, written by Gail Sheehy and published in late 1999, stated that Mrs. Clinton had refused to talk to the president for eight months after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. She resumed talking to her husband only when she phoned him and urged him in the strongest terms to begin bombing Serbia; the president began bombing within 24 hours. Alexander Cockburn observed in the Los Angeles Times,

It’s scarcely surprising that Hillary would have urged President Clinton to drop cluster bombs on the Serbs to defend “our way of life.” The first lady is a social engineer.

Criminal War Propaganda Directed against Iraq and Syria: “We Think the Price Is Worth It.” – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Criminal, Propaganda

19-08-19 06:46:00,

When we play their game, we will always lose, and they will always win. “They” are the largely unelected “Permanent State”, sometimes called the “Deep State”. “They” are the publicly bailed-out transnational, corporate monopolies and their political fronts that destroy domestic and foreign economies with their supranational “trade” agreements, their parasitical “neoliberal”, publicly bailed-out “privatization” schemes, their permanent warmaking, and their terrorism.

A large part of their game is indoctrination. They are experts at war propaganda. They can make broad-based domestic audiences believe almost anything. And they are doing it now. They have largely succeeded in fabricating Canadian consent to support ISIS and al Qaeda and affiliated terrorists.

We must break free from their words, their stories, their criminal war propaganda. Nomenclature is important.

The pre-planned NATO war of aggression against Syria is not a “civil war”. The term “civil war” connotes a false equivalency between both sides, an internal conflict. It is a war lie. The terrorists are Western -supported, they are al Qaeda and ISIS, the Syrian people overwhelmingly reject them. The elected Syrian government is legitimate, the terrorists are not.

Similarly, the notion that the war is a “revolution” is a lie. Western-supported terrorists displaced peaceful demonstrations, murdering government security personnel and others. It was an “intelligence” operation. Weapons and terrorists came from Libya and beyond.

It was never an “intervention”. Intervention is a sanitized word that camouflages the anti-humanitarian reality which is that Empire and its proxies mass murder children, women, and men. Empire’s sectarian terrorists mass murder Syrians, Empires bombs mass murder Syrians, and Empire’s economic warfare mass murders Syrians. The intent is there. Have we forgotten Madeline Albright and the mass murdering sanctions imposed on Iraq? “We think the price is worth it,” she said.

Even the term “proxy war” is misleading. There is no equivalency between the warring sides. Syria and its allies are fighting a just war, self-defense, all within the framework of international law. The other side consists of al Qaeda, criminal occupiers. No equivalency.

“Moderate” terrorists never existed. Think about that one. It’s true.

The Syrian soldier above protects Christian towns from the West’s sectarian terrorists.

The anti-democratic SDF/YPG/PKK/Rebadged ISIS are not “militias”.

Kim Dong Chul’s New Testimony: More Unpleasant Truth on Espionage in North Korea | New Eastern Outlook

Posted by EN-AG in Testimony, Unpleasant

19-08-19 06:38:00,

Five years ago, the author pointed out to what occurred after the North Korean authorities released three convicted US citizens (46-year-old Kenneth Bae, 24-year-old Matthew Todd Miller and 56-year-old Jeffrey E. Fowle), who were all considered “innocent victims of the regime.” Kenneth Bae, during his visit to an orphanage, took several compromising pictures illustrating what awful conditions the children live in; Matthew Miller wanted to be granted a political asylum in the North and got a six year imprisonment; Jeffrey E. Fowle accidentally left his pocket Bible in the toilet and was charged with religious propaganda.

Later another thing became clear. Fowle, upon his return home, wasted no time stating that he did indeed conduct religious propaganda and intentionally left the Bible so that it could be picked up, thus intending to contribute to Christianity dissemination in North Korea. Matthew Miller wanted to be arrested in the first place and planned it in order to “get to know the North Korean people better.” For this reason, he deliberately tried to give the North Koreans false information (records he had made on his laptop including schemes of the US troops withdrawal from South Korea and access to the US military base files), and, in court, he did not make any attempts to get acquitted. Kenneth Bae did not make any public statements because the legal proceedings, which received a lot of media coverage, ended with his guilt proved only too well and rather exhaustively.

But that is just the introduction. The audience might remember that, among the US citizens detained for espionage and later released against the backdrop of the US-North Korean rapprochement, there was Kim Dong Chul, a missionary and the president of the company engaged in services in the spheres of trade and hotel business in the Rason Special Economic Zone. In October 2015, Kim was arrested during the meeting with his informant where he received a flash stick on which information on the military facilities of the country was stored. He later held a detailed press conference, where he reported that, in 2011, he had been contacted by South Korean intelligence agents, under the direction and at the expense of whom he collected various information, including that of the military: “I was assigned to photograph military secrets and scandalous phenomena.” He was given a 10 year imprisonment,

Many of UK’s elderly endure ‘severe poverty’…Time to raise pension age to 75, says Tory think tank

Posted by EN-AG in elderly, endure

18-08-19 08:37:00,

A new report says that elderly people living in the UK suffer some of the highest levels of poverty in western Europe. The findings coincide with a Tory-linked policy paper that calls for the pension age to be raised to 75.

The Poverty level among people aged 65 or older in the UK is five times what it was in 1986, according to a paper written by Oxford University Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus.

In his report, called Pension Reforms and Old Age Inequalities in Europe, Ebbinghaus found that five percent of the elderly now live in poverty in the UK, compared to less than the one percent estimated in the 1980s.

Read more

The academic blamed the startling increase on Britain’s “ungenerous basic pensions,” pointing to the Dutch and Nordic welfare systems as models he thinks should be emulated. His study found that countries like Britain which privatize pensions suffer from greater inequality.

One would think that such data would hardly be a secret for would-be social policy makers. Yet the solutions offered by some have raised a few eyebrows. The report made headlines at the same time as a policy paper –penned by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ)– calling for the state pension age, currently 65, to be increased all the way up to 75 over the next 16 years.

The group, co-founded by former Conservative leader and work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan-Smith, claimed that the UK was “not responding to the needs and potential” of an aging workforce, with hundreds of thousands of people aged 50 to 64 deemed “economically inactive.”

The paper asserted that the elderly should be encouraged to “access the benefits of work” by providing them with training opportunities – and of course, a new and improved retirement age.

It wasn’t long until social media reacted with confusion and outrage.

Many pointed out that in vast areas of Britain, including parts of England, most of Scotland, Northern Ireland, as well as in many London boroughs, the average life expectancy for males is actually lower than the proposed pension eligibility age of 75.

With life expectancy in parts of Birmingham at 74,

Chinese State Media Announces 2.56M “Discredited Entities” Prevented From Purchasing Plane Tickets Under Social Credit System

Posted by EN-AG in Chinese, State

18-08-19 06:56:00,

By Chris Menahan

This is the system our ruling oligarchs are trying to implement in America.

China restricted 2.56 million discredited entities from purchasing plane tickets, and 90,000 entities from buying high-speed rail tickets in July: NDRC #socialcredit pic.twitter.com/4zAwJ7hrBn

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 16, 2019

This video taken in a bullet train in China went viral last year:

Here’s a dystopian vision of the future: A real announcement I recorded on the Beijing-Shanghai bullet train. (I’ve subtitled it so you can watch in silence.) pic.twitter.com/ZoRWtdcSMy

— James O’Malley (@Psythor) October 29, 2018

Big Tech has already implemented their own “social credit score” system where they punish people for their political views by deplatforming them, censoring their websites and closing their PayPal/bank accounts.

On the other hand, media outlets which push propaganda in accordance with the desires of our ruling oligarchs are rewarded by having their content algorithmically artificially boosted and handed millions of dollars.

This article was sourced from Information Liberation.

Follow InformationLiberation on Twitter, Facebook, Gab and Minds.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Destruction of the Pillars of the Syrian Economy: Terrorists Destroy Grain Silos, Farmer Tractors in Tal Al-Sakhr, North West of Hama – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Destruction, Pillars

18-08-19 09:08:00,

Nothing new with the crimes committed by the Turkish pariah Erdogan’s most loyal terrorists in Syria, like their sponsor Erdogan and like Israel, they are not satisfied with the crimes they commit upon entering a town, and during their presence, they continue before they leave.

In their advance to clean more of the Hama northern countryside and Idlib’s southern countryside from NATO’s Al-Qaeda terrorists, especially after cleaning Al-Hobait, Zakat, and Al-Arbaeen towns, the Syrian Arab Army managed to clean a number of other towns, in some of them the Al-Qaeda FSA terrorists were so defeated they fled before the SAA arrived.

However, in Tal Al-Sakhr, Turkey’s agents destroyed the grain silos, farmers’ tractors, and planted a large number of landmines and IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) before fleeing the town after losing the battle to the Syrian Arab Army. They just had to accomplish their task of destroying as much as possible of the Syrian people’s dearest assets, infrastructure, and even food source.

Syrian News Agency SANA documented the terrorist war crimes in Tal Al-Sakhr, a short part of their video below. We apologize for the unrelated music in the video from the source:

Click to watch

The systematic destruction of the pillars of the Syrian economy is one of the main targets of the US-led War of Terror against the Syrian people. From blowing up bridges, electric power stations, contaminating drinking water sources, destroying communication towers, to burning wheat fields, destroying silos after stealing the wheat to Turkey, dismantling and stealing factories to Turkey, blowing up public buildings, converting hospitals to terror command and prisons, blowing up hospitals, and not ending with planting landmines and explosives that they hope to continue to kill and maim Syrians, especially children, long after they’re gone.

US and EU sanctions and complete blockade against Syria manifested in its ugliest shape by confiscating a tanker carrying Iranian oil to the Mediterranean and trying to justify their piracy act over suspicions the oil was heading to Syria for the Syrian people to use to fuel their cars,