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Dragonfly. Photo by: joanneleon. August, 2013.
Dahlias. Photo by: joanneleon. August, 2013.
Dahlias. Photo by: joanneleon. August, 2013.
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I think Pres. Obama is the one who should be asking to see the dishes.
President Obama Says NSA Surveillance Program 'Not Being Abused'
More from the speech on Friday, August 9.
Obama Proposes FISA Reforms Amid Growing Concerns Over NSA Surveillance
"If you look at the reports ... what you're not reading about is the government actually abusing these programs ... what you're hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused," Obama said.
[Emphasis added]
Ex-State Department Spokesperson P.J. Crowley: The U.S. Should Describe Morsi Ouster As A Coup
NSA Violated Surveillance Rules Thousands of Times, Intercepted All 202 Area Code Calls By Accident
Did an 8-Year-Old Spy for America? U.S. Drone Killed Yemeni Man After Boy Planted Tracking Chip
And things in Iraq are pretty awful.
Thousands of Syrian refugees pour into Iraq
UN reports surge in numbers of refugees fleeing Syria via newly constructed pontoon bridge over Tigris river
It is a picture all too familiar from Syria: the slender green span of a newly constructed pontoon bridge crossing the Tigris river from the Syrian bank to the Iraqi province of Dohuk almost invisible beneath the weight of refugees.
They stretch at least a dozen deep for hundreds of metres back into the evening light, the dust from the feet of the milling crowd on the far side, waiting to cross, lit up by the setting sun.
Not sure I buy this as the whole story.
Ties With Egypt Army Constrain Washington
WASHINGTON — Most nations, including many close allies of the United States, require up to a week’s notice before American warplanes are allowed to cross their territory. Not Egypt, which offers near-automatic approval for military overflights, to resupply the war effort in Afghanistan or to carry out counterterrorism operations in the Middle East, Southwest Asia or the Horn of Africa.
Losing that route could significantly increase flight times to the region.
American warships are also allowed to cut to the front of the line through the Suez Canal in times of crisis, even when oil tankers are stacked up like cars on an interstate highway at rush hour. Without Egypt’s cooperation, military missions could take days longer.
Those are some of the largely invisible ways the Egyptian military has assisted the United States as it pursues its national security interests across the region — and why the generals now in charge in Cairo are not without their own leverage in dealing with Washington in the aftermath of President Obama’s condemnation Thursday of the military’s bloody crackdown on supporters of the former president, Mohamed Morsi.
Action
Stop Watching Us.
The revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus, if true, represent a stunning abuse of our basic rights. We demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs.
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