The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Effect cause, this is.
Humans may have caused world's worst earthquakes
PTI : London, Sun Dec 15 2013
Some of the world's largest and most deadly recent earthquakes were not natural disasters at all but were caused by human activities such as mining, reservoir construction and oil and gas extraction, scientists say.
A global study of hundreds of quakes by Christian Klose, a consultant geophysicist, identified 92 large earthquakes likely to have been caused by humans.
African State Fragility Long-Term
Bitcoin Bungling – Digital Flames Eat Investment
Conference Results: Geopolitics of the Arctic
Crowdsourcing Dreams Around the World
Cyber Threats to Business: The Top Ten
Engaging the Muslim World with Public Diplomacy
Obama Suppressing 6,000-Page Report on CIA Torture Adopted by Senate Intelligence Committee
by: David Harris-Gershon on December 14th, 2013 | 3 Comments Ā»
Over a year ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt a historic, 6,000-page report which contains āstartling detailsā about CIA misdeeds related to its torture program.
The report, which cost $40 million to produce and appears to pose no national security threats, has been set for release since December 13, 2012. However, it has yet to see the light of day.
The reason: the Obama administration continues to suppress its release, apparently for no reason other than to protect the reputations of the guilty.
Per The Atlanticās Conor Friedersdorf:
[Over a year ago], the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt a 6,000-page report on the CIA rendition, detention, and interrogation program that led to torture. Its contents include details on each prisoner in CIA custody, the conditions of their confinement, whether they were tortured, the intelligence they provided, and the degree to which the CIA lied about its behavior to overseers. Senator Dianne Feinstein declared it one of the most significant oversight efforts in American history, noting that it contains āstartling detailsā and raises ācritical questions.ā But all these months later, the report is still being suppressed.
The Obama Administration has no valid reason to suppress the report. Its contents do not threaten national security, as evidenced by the fact that numerous figures who normally defer to the national-security state want it released with minor redactions. The most prominent of all is Vice President Joe Biden.
Tikkun's Contributing Editor Stephen Zunes shows why non-violence became so significant in the struggle for liberation in South Africa.Ā
Mandelaās utilitarianism and the struggle for liberation
STEPHEN ZUNESĀ 13 December
āMandela was a great leader because he recognized that the movement had become a civil insurrection, a largely nonviolent struggle. A great leader is one who recognizes where the movement is and leads them accordingly, not one who says, āDo it my way!āā
In the time since his death at age 95, Nelson Mandelaās thinking on the strategic direction of the liberation struggle in South Africa has been oversimplified by proponents of nonviolent and armed resistance alike. Ā His leadership in the relatively peaceful end to the brutal apartheid system was indeed critical, as was his leadership three decades earlier in the shift from nonviolent to armed resistance by the African National Congress (ANC).Ā Yet many analysts have largely ignored the critical events in South Africa which took place in between, during his nearly three decades in prison.
āStand downā: CIA Benghazi team clash led to controversial order
WASHINGTON ā CIA officers revealed a clash over how quickly they should go help the besieged U.S. ambassador during the 2012 attack on an outpost in Libya, and a standing order for them to avoid violent encounters, according to a congressman and others who heard their private congressional testimony or were briefed on it.
The Obama administration has been dogged by complaints that the White House, Pentagon and State Department may not have done enough before and during the attack to save U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, and by accusations that it later engaged in a cover-up.
See Also:
China's rover leaves first tracks on moon in 40 years
The successful launch marks the next step in an ambitious space program that aims to send a Chinese astronaut to the moon.
BEIJING ā China's first moon rover set off slowly Sunday to travel across the right eye of the Man in the Moon, leaving the first wheeled tracks on the moon's surface in nearly 40 years.
No quote emerged to rival “one giant leap for mankind,” but with one loud confirmation by mission control ā “the probe landed safely” ā China established its status Saturday night as the third nation ever to achieve a “soft-landing” on the moon.
Two weeks after its launch from southwest China, the Chang'e 3 lunar probe, named after a moon goddess, made a careful descent that was reported live on state television. Only the USA and former Soviet Union have previously made soft landings on the moon, whereby the spacecraft and equipment remain intact and operable.
Further celebrations followed Sunday morning as its major cargo, a solar-powered lunar rover named Jade Rabbit after the goddess' pet, rolled down a ramp and set off on a three-month mission to hunt for natural resources and conduct geological surveys.
