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Good Morning!
Longwood Gardens. August, 2012 by joanneleon
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
~Albert Einstein
News
US 'should hand over footage of drone strikes or face UN inquiry'
The UN special rapporteur on human rights to urge establishing a mechanism to investigate such killings
The US must open itself to an independent investigation into its use of drone strikes or the United Nations will be forced to step in, Ben Emmerson QC said yesterday.
His comments came as Pakistani officials said that a US drone strike had killed at least four militants after targeting their vehicles in North Waziristan on Sunday. Attacks by American unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are deeply unpopular in the country, which claims they violate its sovereignty and fan anti-US sentiment.
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Mr Emmerson, a leading London barrister and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, said America is facing mounting global pressure over its use of UAVs and he is preparing a report for the next session of the Human Rights Council in March. The issue, he insists, will “remain at the top of the UN political agenda until some consensus and transparency has been achieved”.
Assange: 'The US War on Whistleblowers Must End'
Speaking to media and crowds below, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared on a low balcony of the Ecuadoran embassy in London on Sunday, his first public appearance since seeking refuge there two months ago, and said, "The U.S. war on whistleblowers must end."
Screengrab from RT video of Assange's address (See below.)
Assange was greeted by cheers from supporters, whom he thanked, as a heavy police force surrounded the area.
Wikileaks.org has released Assange's full statement [ ... ]
My Visit to a London Embassy Under Threat
by Jeff Cohen
At the door of the rather small embassy, I was met by cops who interrogated me about who I was and why I sought entry. I had to wonder if the embassy was under siege by Britain on behalf of Washington, which reportedly stands ready to prosecute the WikiLeaks founder. Again, that's for the "crime" of publishing -- not sexual assault.
Besides all the mainstream journalists, cameras and satellite trucks across the street from Ecuador's embassy, I was heartened to see British citizens protesting their government's actions -- and also standing up for Bradley Manning, the young U.S. Army private who faces life in prison as the accused WikiLeaks leaker of documents showing military and diplomatic crimes by the U.S. government. Among the placards I saw: "Exposing War Crimes Is Not a Crime -- Free Assange, Free Manning" and "Protect Freedom to Publish." and "If Wars Can Be Started by Lies, They Can Be Stopped By Truth."
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As the father of two daughters (who are with me in London), I take sexual assault allegations seriously (Assange has never been charged). But standing outside this embassy surrounded by British police, it looked to me like a classic case of powerful Western states uniting to intimidate a less powerful country on behalf of their prerogatives toward domination and war. It had nothing to do with “the rule of law.” And it had nothing to do with women's rights.
Assange Lightning Rod Places U.S. Bullying and South American Contradictions on Vivid Display
For just one man, Julian Assange has certainly managed to discombobulate and disrupt a large swathe of the geopolitical system. Not only is Sweden gunning for Assange, but there is little doubt that Britain and the U.S. will now stop at nothing to get their hands on the controversial founder of whistle-blowing outfit WikiLeaks. Having apparently concluded that he could no longer count on the support of his native Australia, which is beholden to Washington, Assange has now thrown in his lot with the tiny South American nation of Ecuador. Could this John Le Carré story of diplomatic intrigue get any stranger?
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Meanwhile, even as the South Americans sort out their own agenda and contradictions, Washington has been playing its usual cynical games. When Ecuador pressed the Organization of American States (or OAS) to hold a meeting over the Assange affair, Washington opposed any such move. Ridiculously, the U.S. Envoy to the OAS said any such talks “would be unhelpful and harmful to the OAS' reputation as an institution.”
The official added for good measure that Washington does not “recognize the concept of diplomatic asylum as a matter of international law.” Straining credibility, the State Department played innocent and declared “we believe this is a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the United Kingdom and that the OAS has no role to play in this matter.”
On Surveillance, Feds Are Listening but Not Talking
When Obama was in the Senate, he said it should be amended. Now, not so much.
In May, the Senate intelligence committee approved the extension 13-2, with only Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mark Udall, D-Colo., voting against. Now, Wyden has put a hold on the bill, preventing a quick vote, and 13 senators -- including two Republicans -- have written Clapper with a few questions.
"We are not prepared ... to dismiss questions about how many Americans have had their phone calls or emails collected as trivial or unimportant," they wrote. "... If, as we have noted, the intelligence community has not even estimated how many Americans have had their communications collected under section 702, then it is possible the number is quite large."
Irish Bailout Masters Press For Rental Home Seizures: Mortgages
Ireland’s bankers and bailout masters are pressing the government to make it easier to seize homes bought as investments to rent out as defaults on the loans surge after Western Europe’s worst real-estate collapse.
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Resistance to evictions and repossessions is at least partly linked to the country’s history, in particular the so- called Great Famine, which saw thousands of families thrown off the land in the period around 1850. Later, around 1880, when Ireland was controlled by Britain, the so-called Land League’s resistance to evictions during rent strikes often ended in violence against landlords and their agents.
More recently, opposition to repossessions stems at least in part from the banks’ reliance on taxpayer support to avoid collapse in the wake of the 2008 collapse. In all, the state has injected or pledged about 64 billion euros to banks, and five of the six largest domestic lenders are now in government hands.
When Wall Street Watchdogs Hunt Whistle-Blowers
You’ve probably never heard of Peter Sivere, a former compliance officer at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
Yet his distressing story shows -- on a personal level -- that for all the tough talk about better enforcement of financial wrongdoing, just how tightly government regulators are aligned with the big Wall Street banks they are supposed to keep an eye on. [ ... ]
Fannie and Freddie: The Walking Dead
After nearly four years of a zombie existence, the U.S. Treasury Department finally pulled the trigger on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
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It's long been assumed that Fannie and Freddie would eventually be put out to pasture. By effectively taking away their ability to recapitalize themselves, Treasury has made that a reality. But what happens next remains an open question.
The administration has floated several options and is said to be leaning toward some type of government guarantee for the mortgage finance system, but no plan has been proposed. While Treasury deserves some credit for at least moving the ball forward, it is also ensuring Fannie and Freddie remain wards of the state until something else takes their place.
Robert Fisk: Syria's conflict has crossed the border, and the ghost of Lebanon's civil war returns
Kidnappings in Beirut highlight a sectarian divide made worse by neighbouring violence
Q. Why is the Syrian conflict spilling over the border?
A. The 17-month uprising is evolving into an increasingly sectarian civil war and many of the religious tensions on the ground are mirrored in Lebanon. Many Lebanese Shia Muslims support President Assad, as do the country's Alawites (the sect to which the Assad dynasty belongs). Lebanon also has a large population of Sunni Muslims who actively support the mostly Sunni uprising.
Robert Fisk: UN leaves Syria to its bloody fate
Special report: As the international troops retreat, heavy arms will flood into what will become a free-fire zone
The UN's commander in Damascus bid a miserable goodbye to his mission yesterday, unconvincingly claiming that the UN would not abandon Syria, but in fact turning the country into a free-fire zone the moment his last 100 soldiers begin their retreat tomorrow. Whenever the UN withdraws its personnel from the Middle East, calamity always follows in its wake – the departure of UN weapons inspectors from Iraq in 2003 presaged the Anglo-American invasion – and, privately, the UN fears the way is now open for the West and Gulf Arabs to pour heavy weapons into Syria to assist the rebellion against the Assad regime.
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Should the UN's Syrian mission have been led by a diplomat rather than a soldier – no-one here appears to understand why the Norwegian General Mood, General Gaye's predecessor, left his post – and should it have spent more time talking to opposition forces outside Syria, were questions still being debated within the UN yesterday. And why end the mission now? Because there were some in UN headquarters in New York who knew from the start that the assignment was not intended to succeed? Or because the Western nations and Gulf sponsors do not want UN observers snooping into the amount of new and more lethal weaponry which they may be planning to send to the "Free Syrian Army" and its more bearded allies in those parts of Syria in which Bashar's writ no longer runs?
Insight: At Guantanamo tribunals, don't mention the "T" word
(Reuters) - CIA agents have written books about it. Former President George W. Bush has explained why he thought it was necessary and legal. Yet the al Qaeda suspects who were subjected to so-called harsh interrogation techniques, and the lawyers charged with defending them at the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals, are not allowed to talk about the treatment they consider torture.
Defense attorneys say that and other Kafkaesque legal restrictions on what they can discuss with their clients and raise in the courtroom undermine their ability to mount a proper defense on charges that could lead to the death penalty.
Those restrictions will be the focus of a pretrial hearing that convenes this week.
Blog Posts of Interest
Aug. 19, 1953: When the Eisenhower Administration destroyed Iran's secular democracy by Laurence Lewis
Assange's Speech Mentions Three of My Whistleblower Clients: Calls for End to War on Whistleblowers by Jesselyn Radack
Political Prisoner #1: Don Siegelman by One Pissed Off Liberal
We are ready for some serious change. We are ready to take up the tools of a free and analytic press to peacefully undermine the stranglehold of the kleptocrats on our battered democracy. We are ready to expose and publicize their greed, lies and illegal machinations and hold their enablers in government and the media to account. Are you in?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
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