According to Al Arabiya, a majority-owned Saudi newspaper, "[a]t least 1,300 people have been killed in a nerve gas attack on Syria’s Ghouta region" for which the government of President Bashar al Assad was likely responsible. F. William Engdahl analyses the report and finds it distinctly fishy; "several things jump out as suspicious" he says.
The nine-hour detention of David Miranda (partner of Glenn Greenwald) at Heathrow airport reinforces the widely-held perception that the UK and US governments are trying to scare reporters away from covering stories on intelligence leaks. "That perception," writes Alan Rusbridger, "is right." Over the past few months, says Rusbridger, UK government officials have been demanding the return or destruction of leaked materials, culminating in the bizarre spectacle of "two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian's basement" so as to ensure, according to them, that the Chinese (!) would never get hold of the sensitive information.
This, insists Rusbridger, is journalism under attack. How long will it be until the State's growing infrastructure of surveillance makes true journalism virtually impossible?
Chris Floyd makes two points about Bradley Manning's mitigation plea. Noting The Guardian's comment that Manning's plea "will disappoint [his] thousands of supporters around the world, who believe he undertook a courageous act of whistleblowing because his conscience demanded it", Floyd remarks: (1) it's not what these whistleblowers are like as people that matters, it's what they've done that matters, and (2) just like all of us, Bradley Manning is a human being; he simply "tried to mitigate his own further torture -- but he didn't betray anyone. A plea for mercy, an apology -- however sincere or feigned -- is an entirely different thing from betrayal." *
RT's Abby Martin criticises (and critiques) MSNBC's Rachel Maddow for implying that there is a link between questioning the official account of 9/11 and violence. Just for the record: I question the official story of 9/11, but I am opposed to violence, and see no connection whatsoever between asking questions and acts of violence.
In this disturbing article published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva argue that it is morally acceptable to kill a newly-born baby if the reasons for doing so would have justified an abortion at an earlier stage. One might have thought that this would be limited to cases of severe handicap, which in my view would be bad enough; but no, their conclusion is that "after-birth abortion" (or "killing a newborn" as they themselves put it in their abstract) "should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled." *
"From the middle of a Dutch field at the OHM 2013 festival, I managed to do this interview for RT about GCHQ taking large sums of money from its US equivalent, the NSA." (Annie Machon)
"Major telecom companies have been assisting the UK intelligence agency GCHQ by granting access to all the traffic passing through their fiber-optic cables – and by developing Trojan software, leaked papers obtained by German media reveal."
"Judy Woodruff sits down with two former NSA officials [Russell Tice and William Binney] who blew the whistle on what they said were abuses at the NSA, along with that agency’s former inspector general, to talk about whether that secretive agency is recording all domestic calls in the U.S."
"Imagine there’s a list somewhere that contains every single webpage you have visited in the last five years. It also has everything you have ever searched for, every address you looked up on Google Maps, every email you sent, every chat message, every YouTube video you watched."
Chris White: "Continuing with the FAQ series, I answer one of the most common questions from new "truthers." There are many ways to answer this question so I took my time and tried to do so in a biblical way. I hope it helps anyone experiencing "Short Term New World Order Freak Out Syndrome." "
"For the last month or so, I have been working through a new series on the NT canon designed to help Christians understand ten basic facts about its origins." (Kruger)
"Some graffiti popping up on highways has a lot of people talking, and the state isn't too happy about how a group of vandals are trying to get their message across."
"When people drive around central Connecticut, it's hard to miss some of the graffiti popping up on bridges, overpasses and road signs that says "9-11 Truth," "W-T-C" and "Building 7."
"A secret document obtained by the Bureau reveals for the first time the Pakistan government’s internal assessment of dozens of drone strikes, and shows scores of civilian casualties."
"Of 746 people listed as killed in the drone strikes outlined in the document, at least 147 of the dead are clearly stated to be civilian victims, 94 of those are said to be children."
"Despite the size and scope of Edward Snowden's NSA whistleblowing, there's little sign of Washington DC changing its practices, and even less of an indication that any of its European allies will actually hold it to account."
"The horrible irony here is too obvious to ignore: the US government, through its NSA, is giving away taxpayer dollars so these corporations can profit from handing over all of your personal communications and data."
"Military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout have been purged from Pentagon computers and sent to the CIA, where they are less likely to ever be seen by the American public."
"The secret move, ordered by the nation's top special operations commander and described briefly in a draft report by the defense department's inspector general, appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps also the Freedom of Information Act."
Somehow, here at The Mind Renewed, we can't help thinking that this seems strangely reminiscent of the "burial at sea"! As Sibel Edmonds puts it at Boiling Frogs Post:
"The simple process of secret-making and classifying, and doing so as the sole authority not accountable to any one or power, gives our executive branch the power to claim anything, including the existence of the nonexistent. Now that’s some power!"
EndTheLie.com: " 'French PRISM' revealed : All commuication tracked, metadata collected", 04 July 2013.
"The French external intelligence agency spies on French citizen’s (sic) phone calls, emails and social media activity and web use, the Le Monde newspaper has reported, similar to what is done by the American NSA and British GCHQ."
Image: "Drapeau de la France.png", by Wox-globe-trotter via Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
"Hong Kong kept Snowden’s whereabouts secret so that an amerikan black-op strike or a drone could not be sent to murder him."
"With Hong Kong, China, Russia, Ecuador, and Cuba refusing to obey the Stasi’s orders, Washington is flailing around making a total fool of itself and its media prostitutes."
"The NSA is in position to blackmail everyone in the House and Senate, in the White House itself, in all the corporations, the universities, the media, every organization at home and abroad, who has anything to hide."
"Let’s quit calling the NSA the National Security Agency. Clearly, NSA is a threat to the security of every person in the entire world. Let’s call the NSA what it really is--the National Stasi Agency, the largest collection of Gestapo in human history."
Image: "WhSouthLawn.jpeg", by PHC C.M. Fitzpatrick [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
"A US editor has alleged he overheard security officials saying that the NSA leaker, and the Guardian columnist who broke his story, should be “disappeared.” Leaker Edward Snowden said that American spies often prefer silencing targets over due process." (RT)
