07 Other Atrocities – Page 330 – Public Intelligence Blog

Yemen: The first steps towards criminalising drone strikes, Obama take note

Yemen's National Dialogue Conference decision to criminalise drone strikes is an essential step toward a stable Yemen.

Ghada Eldemellawy

al Ja'zeera, 2 August 2013

“America’s actions are legal” claimed President Obama in a speech on drones earlier this year. It was the latest in a string of attempts made by his administration to justify covert strikes carried out by the US overseas – in countries including the Arab peninsula’s poorest nation, Yemen.

But back in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, it appears the country’s civil society disagrees. Members of Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference (NDC) – a US-supported initiative which will map out Yemen’s post-Arab Spring future – overwhelmingly voted to criminalise drone strikes in Yemen. The Yemeni people have spoken. Now Presidents Hadi and Obama must listen – for their own sake, as much as that of Yemen.

While it is clear that no leader may lawfully authorise another sovereign to slaughter his own people, the decision to criminalise drones strikes sends a clear warning message to Hadi – if the current practice is to continue, it may well lead to a criminal prosecution.

But it is not only the threat of a jail cell that should focus the Yemeni President’s mind. Through his unconditional consent to the use of drones in his country, President Hadi has already alienated many of his supporters, especially those, like him, from the south, which bear the brunt of the strikes.

Read full article with links and photos.

2013/08/052013/08/05

Berto Jongman: DEA “Recreates” Evidence to Conceal NSA Role 2.0 Adds Snowden-Greenwald Take

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Law Enforcement

Exclusive: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans

By John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke

Reuters, 5 August 2013

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin – not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to “recreate” the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence – information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

“I have never heard of anything like this at all,” said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor who served as a federal judge from 1994 to 2011. Gertner and other legal experts said the program sounds more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting domestic phone records. The NSA effort is geared toward stopping terrorists; the DEA program targets common criminals, primarily drug dealers.

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2013/08/052014/04/25

Eagle: Police in Pittsburg Storm House Over Uncut Grass

07 Other Atrocities, Idiocy, Law Enforcement

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

More low-rent police terrorism. They mean well, they are simply stupid and over-empowered by the militarization of the domestic police function. The bond with society has been broken — this calls into question the legitimacy of the police and the government they represent.

Published on Jun 21, 2013

TURTLE CREEK, PA — Police came barging into a woman's home because they wanted to arrest the owner for the length of her lawn. A tenant, Robyn Ruckman, recorded the encounter. As she answered the door, police treated her rudely and started making demands. She told them her name but that wasn't good enough. They wanted her to produce ID. https://www.facebook.com/PoliceStateUSA

After asking them to stay outside, police and health inspectors barged into her home. “You know, I don't even see a nametag,” Ruckman told the officer. “I don't give a sh*t what you see. Go get your ID. You see that?! It says POLICE.” Police were performing a 12-hour roundup of the town's offenders, including the horrendous crimes of having uncut grass. The Lawn Nazis took care of business that day, and the streets were safe once again. Robyn Ruckman got off easy that day, as she was not the landlord. It was the owner of the long grass that was to be put behind bars. SOURCE: http://www.wtae.com/news/local/allegh…

2013/08/04

Eagle: Police Murder 95-Year Old WWII War Hero — Wobbly, in a Home, They Taser Him and Then Shoot Him in Stomach with a Shotgun Beanbag

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Law Enforcement

The police are out of control. These two “officers” should hang. This is what the criminally insane 9/11 DHS “lies for empire” and printed money mind-set have accomplished. The militarization of the police — intellectually and morally limited to begin with — has destroyed the social contract between the community and its so-called goverance forces.

Die for your country! Or they’ll do it for you!

95-year-old veteran John Wrana fought for America in World War 2, but he didn’t get a chance to die for his country. Instead, his country killed him with a beanbag shotgun blast to the stomach after a thorough tasering.

The incident began after Wrana, who uses a walker, refused a surgery at his assisted living home. He grew agitated at the staff for pressuring him for medical attention. He was a war hero and didn’t like being pushed around.

Soon the police arrived to subdue the senior citizen, riot gear at the ready to take on the wobbly old man. Conflicting reports have emerged between officers and staff, with the employees of the home reporting that they asked officers not to harm him and requested to intervene.

Police decided instead to taser the war hero and follow it up with a beanbag to the guts. Officers reported that a knife had been pulled, but no knife was found on the scene. The police used a riot shield, shotgun and taser on a 95-year-old man in a walker who arguably presented no threat to anyone but himself.

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Continue reading “Eagle: Police Murder 95-Year Old WWII War Hero — Wobbly, in a Home, They Taser Him and Then Shoot Him in Stomach with a Shotgun Beanbag”

2013/08/042013/08/04

Marcus Aurelius: US IC Propaganda Play? A two-fer–lie about the threat, lie about the consequences? + Scorecard RECAP

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency

Intel community worried Obama administration disclosed too much about latest al Qaeda threat

Fear that sources and methods may have been compromised

By Lisa Ruth – The Washington Times Communities, Saturday, August 3, 2013

In warning about possible al Qaeda attacks against Americans overseas, U.S. officials may have provided too much detail about intercepted chatter and the source of the information, and that may make it more difficult to get such tips next time, former and current intelligence officials say.

. . . . . . .

“Now? We are going to have to start all over again. We are operating blind,” he says.

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Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: US IC Propaganda Play? A two-fer–lie about the threat, lie about the consequences? + Scorecard RECAP”

2013/08/032013/08/04

Marcus Aurelius: False Embassy Threat a Preamble to War? + Syria Islam Divide Iran Nuclear Israeli Insanity RECAP Update 1.1 — More Prison Breaks?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

The retired Marine colonel who cued me to this report opined that, “This is a hell of a lot closer to the mark than any Administration or DoS blathering.” I would be totally unsurprised to find him 100% spot-on. I invite your attention to the final para, highlighted. If that is true, the (in)actions of our government may have rendered us incapable, fiscally and operationally, of effective response. Another Task Force Smith, another Kaserine Pass could be the foreseeable result.

Unmasking the embassy threat

Embassy closures are a signal of the rapidly escalated intervention in the region by the US

There is one thing certain about the publicized threat to our embassies; it is not what it is presented to be. To accept the official explanation of a nebulous threat from al Qaeda as the reason for closing our embassies across the Middle East and North Africa is being dangerously naive and simplistic.

This is much more serious than what we are being told, but not for the reasons we are being given. We are seeing the consequences of a long running “Cold War” on two major fronts of political conflict that could escalate into military engagement with proxy nations of world super powers. The world, and life as we know it, could change in an instant should we awaken one morning to the news of bombs flying across the Middle East. That is a very real possibility, as we are now in a heightened proxy war environment. We are standing in a thick forest of dry tinder, and the smallest of sparks could ignite a conflagration the likes of which we have never before seen.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: False Embassy Threat a Preamble to War? + Syria Islam Divide Iran Nuclear Israeli Insanity RECAP Update 1.1 — More Prison Breaks?”

2013/08/02

Chuck Spinney: The Politicization of Science — Neo-Nazi Eugenics Rampant

06 Family, 06 Genocide, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

My good friend Pierre Sprey emailed me the attached article by Jonathan Latham along with his introduction. While this truly frightening critique applies to genetics, the politicization of science is a widespread phenomenon that is now undermining our contemporary culture. It can be seen many fields ranging from defense science to climate science. With Pierre's permission I am his forwarding introductory comment and as Latham very important essay to you.

—-[Begin Pierre's email]—-

I commend to you this excellent article, a most interesting example of negative marginal returns in science research:

The third and fourth paragraphs from the end are particularly telling:

“Not sufficiently understood by outsiders is the fact that most of science is essentially now a top-down project. There persists a romantic notion (retained by many scientists) that science is a process of free enquiry. In this view, the endless grant applications and the requests for applications are merely quality control measures, or irritants imposed by bureaucrats.

But free enquiry in science is all but extinct. In reality, only a tiny proportion of research in biology gets done outside of straightjackets imposed by funding agencies. Researchers design their projects around funding programs; universities organize their hiring around them, and every experiment is carefully designed to bolster the next grant application.

The consequences of this dynamic are that individual scientists have negligible power within the system; but more importantly it opens a route by which powerful political or commercial forces can surreptitiously set the science agenda from above.”

Needless to say, the article in toto is a reminder that the despicable Progressive penchant for eugenics–so fulsomely admired by Hitler and so eloquently excoriated by Alexander Cockburn–is once again flourishing among us.

Can it be a coincidence that this eugenic resurgence comes just when our ever-present native American fascist undercurrents are rising on a perigean spring tide of metasticizing secret surveillance, police aggrandizement, corporate kleptocracy, Judeo-Christian fanaticism and racist xenophobia?

Pierre Sprey

Science as Social Control: Political Paralysis and the Genetics Agenda

By Jonathan Latham, Independent Science News | News Analysis

Thursday, 01 August 2013 10:41

Category: 07 Other Atrocities

Berto Jongman: Yemen Criminalizes Drone Strikes