The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Syria: Syrian TV reported that on 9 December the Syrian army captured the town of al-Nabk in west-central Syria after days of fighting. This town was the last rebel strong point on the road that links Damascus to Homs and the coast.
Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Syria Government-Kurds Steady”
A Reckless Disregard for Truth and Sanity
The Syrian Guns of August
Remember the thumping of Obama’s war drums for a US attack on Syria last August and September, including his spokesmen’s absurd invocations of Kosovo as a precedent for a limited cruise missile strike on Syria? The trigger for hyping that war fever was a sarin gas attack in Eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb, on August 21. Obama was quick to blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for crossing Obama’s bizarre Netanyahu-esque “red line.”
Thousands of Drones Set To Take Over Our Skies? – My New Video
Go here to turn the video into an MP3: http://us.
Keep fighting,
Lee
Checkbook Journalism – Leaking to Highest Bidders (Sibel Edmonds)
Contra-Cocaine Scandal – New Evidence (Robert Parry)
Counterinsurgency by Interventionist States (Small Wars Journal)
Cyber Attacks — Top Five in 2013
Dutch SIGINT Evaluation Report (mrkoot)
European Global Strategy: Six Problems
Future of Privacy Amidst Total Surveillance (Timothy Mack)
Future of (Total) Surveillance (Dick Pelletier)
Invisible Revolutions and the Collapse of Ruling Institutions (Chris Hedges)
Maps: Physical World Conquering Virtual (Rick Searle)
Satellites Predict Sudan Military Against Civilians (Akshaya Kumar)
US Quarterly Defense Review – Next (Shawn Brimley)
PMSC Using States: Who’s Been Naughty and Who’s Been Nice?
EXTRACT:
One problem though. Since Montreux came into being nobody has had a way to compare in any kind of systematic way how various states were ensuring that PMSC headquartered on their territory were complying with the document’s best practices. In effect, nobody has known which states using PMSC have been naughty and which have been nice. That is, until now.
On Dec 3 the Initiative for Human Rights in Business, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the American University Washington College of Law released a report Montreux Five Years On: An analysis of state efforts to implement Montreux Document legal obligations and good practice.
The report focuses on a subset of participating States: two Contracting and Home States (the United States and the United Kingdom), two Territorial States (Iraq and Afghanistan), and a special feature on one region (Latin America and the Caribbean). The report goes on to detail and assess the U.S., U.K., Iraq, and Afghanistan’s efforts to meet their Montreux Document commitments as captured in five categories: Determination of services; Due diligence in selecting, contracting, and authorizing PMSCs; Due diligence in monitoring PMSC activities; Ensuring accountability; and Providing access to effective remedy.
MEB remains, in our view, the greatest US-based information broker of all time, along with Reva Basch now fully retired. Below is her 13 November 2013 presentation to the Special Library Association.
Turning Information Into Insight
Other available titles include:
Welcome to the Internet of Things (IoT). Currently the idea of the IoT has many definitions. Most include a world in the not-too-distant future where most objects are computerized and seamlessly integrated into our information network, creating “smart” grids, homes, and environments.