Local and Global Community News – Activism / Protests - Animal Advocacy - Animal Rescue- Archaeology/Anthropology/Paleontology/Crypto-zoology , Corporate Assault on our Lives and Our Health, Environmental- Internet/IT - Signs of the Times – Wildlife : News Affiliate of Family Survival Protocol.com
Showing posts with label special interests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label special interests. Show all posts
Federal
drug agents have built a massive wiretapping operation in the Los
Angeles suburbs, secretly intercepting tens of thousands of Americans’
phone calls and text messages to monitor drug traffickers across the
United States despite objections from Justice Department lawyers who
fear the practice may not be legal.
Nearly all of that
surveillance was authorized by a single state court judge in Riverside
County, who last year signed off on almost five times as many wiretaps
as any other judge in the United States. The judge’s orders allowed
investigators — usually from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration —
to intercept more than 2 million conversations involving 44,000 people,
federal court records show.
The eavesdropping is aimed
at dismantling the drug rings that have turned Los Angeles’ eastern
suburbs into what the DEA says is the nation’s busiest shipping corridor
for heroin and methamphetamine. Riverside wiretaps are supposed to be
tied to crime within the county, but investigators have relied on them
to make arrests and seize shipments of cash and drugs as far away as New
York and Virginia, sometimes concealing the surveillance in the
process.
The surveillance has raised concerns
among Justice Department lawyers in Los Angeles, who have mostly refused
to use the results in federal court because they have concluded the
state court's eavesdropping orders are unlikely to withstand a legal
challenge, current and former Justice officials said .
“It was made very clear to the agents that if you’re going to go the
state route, then best wishes, good luck and all that, but that case
isn’t coming to federal court,” a former Justice Department lawyer said.
The lawyer and other officials described the situation on the condition
of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the
department’s internal deliberations.
Debris
from the A321 Russian airliner at the site of the crash in Wadi
el-Zolomat, a mountainous area in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, on November
1, 2015. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)
Israel provided intelligence
regarding the Russian plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula, which
indicated that a bomb had detonated on board, CNN reported on Sunday.
An
unnamed US official and diplomatic source said that Jerusalem handed
over information about the blast to the US and UK. One US official told
the news outlet he was “99.9% certain” the plane had been bombed, while
another said it was “likely.”
Israeli officials declined to comment on the report.
Earlier,
a member of the Egyptian investigation team said they were nearly
certain explosives had brought the plane down, killing all 224
passengers on board.
“The indications and analysis so far of the
sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb,” an investigator — who
asked to not be identified — told Reuters. “We are 90 percent sure it
was a bomb.”
As for the slim chance of another explanation to the crash, the investigator only commented, “I can’t discuss this now.”
US
and British officials have cited intelligence reports indicating that
the October 31 flight from the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to
St. Petersburg was brought down by a bomb on the plane.
Most of the passengers were from St. Petersburg and the surrounding region.
.............................................................................................
"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." Rahm Emanuel
.............................................................................................
People
mourn as they lay flowers in memory of the plane crash victims at
Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St. Petersburg. (AP Photo/Dmitry
Lovetsky)
As
investigators search for the cause of a plane crash that killed 224
people over the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday and Russia suspends all
flights to Egypt, U.S. officials said they are taking unspecified
precautionary measures to enhance the security of flights from the
Middle East.
“While the facts and circumstances surrounding the
tragic October 31 crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 on the Sinai Peninsula
are still under investigation, Transportation Security Administrator
(TSA) Peter Neffenger and I, out of an abundance of caution, have
identified a series of interim, precautionary enhancements to aviation
security with respect to commercial flights bound for the United States
from certain foreign airports in the region,” Jeh C. Johnson, secretary
for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.
Johnson
said the enhancements, also adopted by European aviation authorities,
“are designed to provide an additional layer of security for the
traveling public, and will be undertaken in consultation with relevant
foreign governments and relevant passenger and cargo airlines.” [Russia halts Eygpt flights amid widening probe into plane crash]
They include expanded screening and other “seen and unseen” security measures.
President Obama arrives at the TransCanada Stillwater Pipe Yard in Cushing, Okla. on March 22, 2012. (Associated Press) more >
By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Updated: 9:28 p.m. on Monday, November 2, 2015
The company proposing to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline asked the State Department
on Monday to halt indefinitely its ongoing review of the massive
project, adding new delays and uncertainties, and possibly ensuring that
final word will come from President Obama’s successor.
Amid legal challenges in Nebraska — ground zero in the fight over the project — TransCanada officials sent a letter to Secretary of State John F. Kerry and called on the administration to cease immediately its Keystone approval process.
The
move raises a real possibility Mr. Obama will not be the one to make a
decision on the pipeline and that the next president, perhaps one more
inclined to back new oil-and-gas infrastructure in the U.S., will be the
final arbiter.
Powerful environmental groups quickly condemned TransCanada’s request and said it’s clear the company simply wants to delay a decision until January 2017, when a Republican may enter the White House.
The
Vatican capped a months-long investigation into internal leaks to the
media by arresting two high-profile officials over the weekend, just
days before the publication of a pair of books promising incendiary
revelations about the Holy See.
“The leaking of confidential information and documents is a crime,”said a communiqué from the Vatican, which has its own police force and legal system.
Monsignor
Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda, a member of the Curia, the Catholic Church’s
de-facto central government, was arrested along with 33-year-old
Francesca Chaouqui, a laywoman who had previously worked as a corporate
lobbyist and public relations specialist. Vallejo Balda served as the
secretary of COSEA, a special taskforce assembled by Pope Francis in
2013 to make the Vatican’s opaque financial practices more transparent,
and Chaouqui had been invited to join the group by the Monsignor.
Chaouqui,
who has previously attracted controversy for posting nude photos of
herself and making anti-Vatican comments on social media, has since been
released, with a communiqué saying there was no evidence with which to
indict her, and that she had agreed to co-operate with the
investigation. Vallejo Balda, a 54-year-old Spaniard, remains in
custody.
The
U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry held a
biotechnology hearing for the first time in 10 years last week to
discuss the future of food technology as the industry responds to
increased demand, production challenges, and consumers’ calls for a safe
and transparent food supply. But the meeting came up short on
transparency and carried on more like a Monsanto share-holders meeting
than an unbiased inquiry into the pros and cons of biotechnology where
it concerns the food supply.
Senator after senator praised
biotechnology and genetically modified foods, claiming they had ‘come a
long way’ in ten years. Pamela Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery
Manufacturers Association said:
“The
Senate Agriculture hearing reaffirmed the broad consensus among
scientists and regulators that GMOs are safe and highlighted the real
world negative impacts a patchwork of state labeling mandates will have
on farmers, businesses and consumers. Action by Congress is urgently
needed this year to pass a national, uniform labeling standard.”
The
senate hearing was scheduled shortly after the US House of
Representatives passed the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of
2015,” otherwise known as the DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know) by a vote of 275-150.
In a huge legal win, a federal judge in San Francisco has issued a landmark ruling
that could serve to halt the DEA’s overly liberal interpretation of
laws that have allowed them power to conduct search and destroy missions
for medical marijuana.
In possibly the first-ever federal
decision of its kind, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, slapped more
than the DEA’s wrists. His decision stated that the Rohrabacher-Farr
amendment clearly prevents the Justice Department from spending taxpayer
money to hunt and chase marijuana users in states that have established
medical marijuana programs.
The federal ruling comes
from a case involving the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana founder,
Lynette Shaw, who was forced to close down her medical marijuana
dispensary in 2011 after the Justice Department served her with a
federal injunction.
A
school district in Tennessee voted to cancel classes and shut down its
schools as a result of a budget problem that has left the government
unable to fund the facilities. The school director blamed Obamacare for
its problems.
Clay County,
Tennessee operates three schools total – one high school and two that
cover pre-kindergarten through eighth grade – on a $9.5 million budget.
However, now more than 1,100 students are sitting at home while
officials try to figure out how to reopen the doors. A school board
meeting last week saw the board voting 6-4 to close the schools. A
separate vote to keep them open failed.
Notably, the county’s financial issues are not new. Clay County Director of Schools Jerry Strong told Associated Press that
officials have been struggling with the budget for three years, and
blamed county obligations such as state and government mandates,
particularly the Affordable Care Act, for the monetary hole.
"Clay County's inability to generate the revenue to offset the mandates is what's caused this to come to a head," he said.
The Outer Limits of Empire: A Tomdispatch Interview with Howard Zinn He's
tall and thin, with a shock of white hair. A bombardier in the great
war against fascism and an antiwar veteran of America's wars ever since,
he's best known as the author of the pathbreaking A People's History of the United States,
and as an expert on the unexpected voices of resistance that have so
regularly made themselves heard throughout our history. At 83 (though he
looks a decade younger), he is also a veteran of a rugged century and
yet there's nothing backward looking about him. His voice is quiet and
he clearly takes himself with a grain of salt, chuckling wryly on
occasion at his own comments. From time to time, when a thought pleases
him and his well-used face lights up or breaks out in a bona fide grin,
he looks positively boyish.
We sit down on the back porch of
the small coffee shop, alone, on a vacation morning. He has a croissant
and coffee in front of him. I suggest that perhaps we should start
after breakfast, but he assures me that there's no particular
contradiction between eating and talking and so, as a novice
interviewer, I awkwardly turn on my two tape recorders -- one of which,
on pause, will still miss several minutes of our conversation (our
equivalent, we joke, of Nixon's infamous 18-minute gap). In preparation,
he pushes aside his half-eaten breakfast, never to touch it again, and
we begin. Tomdispatch: You and Anthony Arnove just came out with a new book, Voices of a People's History of the United States,
featuring American voices of resistance from our earliest moments to
late last night. Now, we have a striking new voice of resistance, Cindy
Sheehan. I was wondering what you made of her? Howard Zinn:
Often a protest movement that's already underway -- and the present
antiwar movement was underway even before the Iraq War began -- gets a
special impetus, a special spark, from one person's act of defiance. I
think of Rosa Parks and that one act of hers and what it meant. TD: Can you think of other Cindy Sheehan-like figures in the past who made movements coalesce? Zinn:
In the antiwar movement of the Vietnam years, there wasn't one person,
but when I think back to the abolitionist movement, Frederick Douglass
was a special figure in that way. When he came north, out of slavery,
and spoke for the first time to a group of antislavery people, the
beginnings of a movement existed. [William Lloyd] Garrison had already
started [his antislavery newspaper] the Liberator, but
Frederick Douglass was able to represent slavery itself in a way that
Garrison and the other abolitionists could not. His dramatic appearance,
his eloquence, provided a special spark for the abolitionist movement. TD:
I guess Cindy Sheehan also represents something that can't be
represented by anyone else, almost, in fact, can't be represented -- the
American dead in the war and, of course, her own dead son. Zinn:
It's interesting. There have been mothers other than Cindy Sheehan who
have spoken out, but she decided on an act that had a special resonance,
which was simply to find where Bush was going [he chuckles to himself
at the thought] and have a confrontation between the two poles of this
war, between its maker and the opposition. She just parked herself near
Bush and became the center of national attention, of gravity, around
which people gathered, hundreds and hundreds of people.
The U.S. national debt grows at a rate of 45.486 dollar per second!
20,517,497,500,000
10/05/15 6:28pm CDT
$ 65.903
Debt per citizen
$ 113.353
Debt per taxpayer
Year
x billion U.S dollar
2004
7.379
2005
7.933
2006
8.507
2007
9.008
2008
10.025
2009
11.910
2010
13.562
2011
14.781
2012
16.059
2013
16.732
2014
17.810
For Real Time National Debt Numbers Visit The US Debt Clock
..........
Since our worlds collided on that fated day in 2008 when the
American dream became even more elusive for the majority of us there
has been some time to reflect on our mistakes. Some of us have learned
from what we have lived and experienced. Others, however, are still
stuck in the partisan la la land of Rabid Conservatism or Rabid
Liberalism. Each side pulling for its own without taking pause to
understand the long-range consequences of their actions.
Politicians
will do what politicians do best, protect their pockets and those
who keep them full. What excuse do the common folk (non-corporate or
lobbyist) have? You vote Republican or Democrat because they hold the
best future for our country? Or do you vote because it is all you
know and you cannot fathom the fact that both sides of the aisle
serve the same master? It has gone way beyond the scope of
political party or leanings. It is time to put those patriotic
gestures, slogans and mindsets to actual use by truly putting
your country first. We must put a stop to the criminal
Washington/Corporate agenda that is killing us.
Until we truly
and seriously address the criminals who are selling our Nation
and our children's future to the highest bidder we are doomed.
Are you ready to face the truth or will you just sit back and
blame another while you do nothing to change the problem?
The
only answer to the putrefaction that is taking place all across
this nation is in the hands of the people. Many laughed at the
Occupy movement. Some vilified those who wanted to make a
difference and voice their displeasure with the status quo. How
many of you have done anything to make a change? How many of you
have cared enough to even consider what role you may have to play?
Truly,
I do not see a way out of this unless people stop seeing right or
left and start seeing stars and stripes. This nation depends on it's People,
not its politicians. Why have we become so complacent that we are
no longer willing to fight the good fight for our freedom and
our way of life? When did this nation become the home of the
lazy and the weak? It is time the strong and the brave stood up,
if there are any left.
What will it take to make
you see that politics is a trap? An illusion to make us believe we
have a choice when in reality we have none. They have both
evolved to serve the same masters and fulfill the same agenda. An
agenda that serves neither you nor me. When will you wake up
from your blue and red slumber to see that we have all been
lied to ?
When do we take America back as a People not a political party?
The
time is growing short people! Unless you open your eyes and
understand what is truly at stake. You will never live in America
the Land of the Free and the Brave again. We will simply exist
in a land run by petty politics and corrupt corporations willing to
do whatever it takes to maximize their bottom line. Even if it means
exploiting our children's lives and futures.
Just
in case you still don't have a clue what I am talking about.
Here is a very short list of examples of the Corporate Assault on
Our Lives And Our Health that our politicians have allowed to take
place for a price.
GMO's in our food supply
Digestive disorders, Obesity,Endocrine disorders on the rise
Glyphosate in our foods, our water and our breast milk
Kidney and Liver damage on the rise
Fracking chemicals in the water supply
Cancers on the rise
Fluoride in the water supply
Vaccines causing deadly reactions in children and adults
Autism on the rise
Heavy metals in our food supply
Alzheimer's on the rise
Deadly chemicals being pawned off as sugar substitutes from saccharine to splenda
all have been found to cause cancer in animal studies. The
biggest culprit and most dangerous thus far being Aspartame.
Life saving drugs monopolized by Big Pharma to bloat prices beyond most people's reach. Daraprim being the latest going from $13.50 per pill to $750.00. Basically condemning those who cannot afford them to die.
There are so many more examples you just need to open your eyes and want to see the truth
When
we get our story wrong, we get our future wrong. Much like the
Trans-Pacific Partnership "trade deal", everything we are told about
capitalism and our economy is a pack of lies. Time for a new story,
says preeminent scholar and critic of corporate globalization, David
Korten, the best-selling author of When Corporations Rule the World and
The Great Turning. David has a brand new book, Change the Story, Change
the Future - a Living Economy for a Living Earth. He is the co-founder
and board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working
Group, founder and president of the Living Economies Forum (formerly the
People-Centered Development Forum), a member of the Club of Rome, and a
former board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
(BALLE) and associate of the International Forum on Globalization.
This Earth Day address was recorded April 22, 2015 at Seattle University Pigott Auditorium.
Community
Rights educator Paul Cienfuegos explains how "We The People" are
exercising the authority to govern ourselves and dismantle corporate
rule. When small farmers in rural Pennsylvania wanted to say "no" to a
corporate factory farm coming into their community, they learned they
couldn't, because it would violate the corporation's "rights" and state
pre-emption laws. So they did something technically illegal - their town
passed an innovative ordinance banning corporate factory farming. It
worked! The corporation left town. Pittsburgh upshifted the approach:
Rather than define what we don't want, define what we DO want. Their
"Right to Water" stopped natural gas fracking in the city. Ordinances
like this have been passed in over 150 communities in 9 states. Tune in
to learn how this works. Episode 258. [paulcienfuegos.com, celdf.org,
YouTube channel "Community Rights TV" and communityrightspdx.org]
Peak Moment TV exists because of viewers like you. Subscribe to news and donate at http://www.peakmoment.tv, right side. Thanks for being in the Peak Moment community.
Have
we forgotten about the national debt? Congressional Republican leaders
and the Obama administration have begun private talks about a new
two-year spending plan that would keep the government operating beyond
the 2016 election but would do little to address more fundamental
structural problems, including entitlement and health care spending for
an aging population.
Even before Congress completed work on a
short-term spending measure to avert a government shutdown at least
until early December, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY),
outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and President Obama held
preliminary talks on a possible multi-year budget agreement to increase
spending for both defense and domestic programs by lifting fiscal 2016
discretionary spending caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act. Related: New CBO Director Renews Warning on Long-Term Debt
The
agreement would be similar in scope to a two-year mini-budget agreement
that was struck by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
following a 16-day government shutdown in late 2013 that temporarily put
an end to inter-party budget warfare. That agreement allowed for $45
billion more in spending above the caps in 2014 and $20 billion more in
2015, as well as $20 billion of deficit reduction.
USS
Ronald Reagan and its embarked air wing, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5,
provide a combat-ready force that protects and defends the collective
maritime interests of the U.S. and its allies and partners in the
Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (Photo: U.S. Navy Specialist 2nd Class Paolo
Bayas)
The
Russians are bombing CIA-backed rebels in Syria and continuing to hold
parts of Ukraine. ISIS continues to spread in the Middle East and
inspire attacks around the world. Iran is receiving hundreds of billions
in sanctions relief, some of which will likely go to destabilizing the
Middle East. China is building illegal islands in the South China Sea.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees are streaming across Europe. The
Taliban is on the rise in Afghanistan. And our national secrets are
being vacuumed up by Chinese hackers.
At the same time, our national defense budget is being slashed.
Since 2011, the defense budget has been cut by 15 percent
in real terms. If you include the war budget, which has been going down
as we reduce troops in Afghanistan, the national defense has been cut
25 percent in four years.
As a result of these budget cuts, the
U.S. military is smaller than it was on 9/11 and in many cases the
smallest it has been in recent history.
The
world is a mess, our military is being slashed, and now President Obama
is going to veto a bipartisan bill that would increase the national
defense budget by 6 percent in real terms.
The House of
Representatives just passed the National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2016 (NDAA), and it is headed to the Senate. This is a
bipartisan bill that has been signed into law every year for 53 straight
years, but Obama plans to veto it for one simple reason: it doesn’t
increase non-defense spending. The president believes that defense and
non-defense spending should be increased, and, according to the White
House, “he will not fix defense without fixing non-defense spending.”
John Boehner Admits Republicans are Willing to Put U.S. at Risk to Play Partisan Politics
February 16, 2015 By Allen Clifton
Republicans
are anything if not predictable. The moment they gained power back in
the Senate it was obvious that they were going to use that power to play
petty partisan politics. The truth is, controlling Congress means very
little as long as the person in the White House has veto power.
So
no matter what sort of propaganda Republicans spew about the nonsense
they’re going to undoubtedly shove through Congress, it’s still on them
to send the president legislation that they know he will sign, otherwise
they’re essentially just wasting time.
The
president is the one person who’s voted into office on a national scale,
meaning that they’re the one individual who truly “represents the
majority of the people.” So no matter what anyone in Congress says, it’s
beholden upon them to make sure whatever bills they’re sending to the
president’s desk actually have a chance at being signed. It’s extremely
rare for both the House and Senate to have the two-thirds majority
needed to override a presidential veto.
All
that being said, as many already know the Department of Homeland
Security is set to run out of funding fairly soon. Normally this
wouldn’t be a huge deal; all it would take is for Congress to pass a
bill funding the department, which would almost certainly be signed by
President Obama.
Fresh
off the scene from those two epic embarrassments, the UN now wants to
tell governments of the world how to censor the internet. I wish I was
kidding.
From the Washington Post:
On
Thursday, the organization’s Broadband Commission for Digital
Development released a damning “world-wide wake-up call” on what it
calls “cyber VAWG,” or violence against women and girls. The report
concludes that online harassment is “a problem of pandemic proportion” —
which, nbd, we’ve all heard before. But the
United Nations then goes on to propose radical, proactive policy changes
for both governments and social networks, effectively projecting a
whole new vision for how the Internet could work.
Under
U.S. law — the law that, not coincidentally, governs most of the
world’s largest online platforms — intermediaries such as Twitter and
Facebook generally can’t be held responsible for what people do on them.
But the United Nations proposes both that social networks
proactively police every profile and post, and that government agencies
only “license” those who agree to do so.
People are being harassed online, and the solution is to censor everything and license speech? Remarkable.
Anti-pipeline
activist Allen Schreiber of Lincoln wears a shirt inscribed with
slogans opposing the Keystone XL pipeline during a rally outside the
State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb.
TransCanada, the
Calgary-based company behind the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, has
backed out of a lawsuit filed by more than 100 Nebraska landowners, the
company announced Tuesday.
The energy company had been trying to
gain access to private land along the proposed path of the tar sands
pipeline, but had been held up legally by landowners who were opposed to
letting the pipeline through their land. Now, instead of trying to gain
access to that land through legal means, TransCanada will apply for a
permit for Keystone XL with Nebraska’s Public Service Commission.
TransCanada says
the decision will bring more certainty to Keystone XL’s route through
Nebraska. But it also could cause further delays for the project, as a
PSC approval can take a year or longer.
Previously, TransCanada
sought to avoid the PSC approval process, choosing instead to give the
state’s governor final approval over the project’s application in
Nebraska. The law that gave the company the ability to choose was
heavily challenged in court, but ultimately upheld.
So
many politicians blatantly push for policies that harm all of us, just
because the special interests that fund their campaigns want them to.
Because
of this, Congress tries to hide -- taking vague positions, pushing for
watered down legislation, or remaining silent at critical moments.
This
week, they’re expected to renew debate on CISA, the Cybersecurity
Information Sharing Act, a bill that would give corporations sweeping
legal immunity when they share your data with the government.
Now more than ever, it’s so important that we don’t let our lawmakers hide in the shadows.
P.S.
As much as we’ve talked about how bad CISA is for expanding mass
surveillance, there’s another side to the law that just made it even
worse. Late last week, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island
introduced an amendment to expand the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the
law that has been used time and again to persecute digital activists,
including our friend Aaron Swartz. That’s despicable, and needs to be quashed immediately — so take action now to help kill CISA.
Yes, quite a shocker brought to you by the same
organization that bestowed the Peace Prize upon a man who talked a good
game. One who in truth has continued, expanded upon and mechanized the
wars attributed to war criminals Bush/Cheney. I suppose civilian deaths
by drone are not taken into account either?
Not
to mention the expansion of the continued erosion of the rights of
his own citizens by way of the former war criminals "Patriot Act",
NSA, Homeland Security and any number of Black Ops being funded by
taxpayer dollars at any given time . The very same war criminals in fact that many
nations wish to imprison for their crimes against humanity. But Obama
gets the Peace Prize and his killing spree continues without so much as
a peep from said organization.
All victims of human rights abuses should be able to look to the Human Rights Council as a forum and a springboard for action. (Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, 12 March 2007, Opening of the 4th Human Rights Council Session.)
Article
55 of United Nations Charter includes: “Universal respect for and
observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without
distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.”
In diametrical
opposition to these fine founding aspirations, the UN has appointed
Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council to head
(or should that be “behead”) an influential human rights panel. The
appointment was seemingly made in June, but only came to light on 17th September, due to documents obtained by UN Watch (1.)
…
Mr Faisal Bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador at the UN in
Geneva, was elected as Chair of a panel of independent experts on the UN
Human Rights Council.
As head of a five-strong group of
diplomats, the influential role would give Mr Trad the power to select
applicants from around the world for scores of expert roles in countries
where the UN has a mandate on human rights.
Such experts are often described as the “crown jewels” of the HRC, according to UN Watch.
The
“crown jewels” have been handed to a country with one of the worst
human rights records in the world. Saudi Arabia will head a Consultative
Group of five Ambassadors empowered to select applicants globally for
more than seventy seven positions to deal with human rights violations
and mandates.
In a spectacular new low for even a UN whose former
Secretary General, Kofi Annan, took eighteen months to admit publicly
that the 2003 invasion of, bombardment and near destruction of Iraq was
illegal, UN Watch points out that the UN has chosen: “a country that has
beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be head of a key Human
Rights panel …” (2)
In May, just prior to the appointment, the
Saudi government advertised for eight extra executioners to: “ … carry
out an increasing number of death sentences, which are usually
beheadings, carried out in public” (3.)
Seemingly: “no special
qualifications are needed.” The main function would be executing, but
job description: “also involves performing amputations …”
The advert was posted on the website of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of the Civil Service.
Japan
said Friday it would redesign its controversial Antarctic whaling
mission in a bid to make it more scientific, after a United Nations
court ruled it was a commercial hunt masquerading as research.
The
bullish response, which could see harpoon ships back in the Southern
Ocean next year, sets Tokyo back on a collision course with
environmentalists.
Campaigners had hailed the decision by the
International Court of Justice, with hopes that it might herald the end
of a practice they view as barbaric.
"We will carry out extensive
studies in cooperation with ministries concerned to submit a new
research programme by this autumn to the International Whaling
Commission (IWC), reflecting the criteria laid out in the verdict," said
Yoshimasa Hayashi, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Japan,
a member of the IWC, has hunted whales under a loophole allowing for
lethal research. It has always maintained that it was intending to prove
the whale population was large enough to sustain commercial hunting.
But it never hid the fact that the by-product of whale meat made its way onto menus.
"The verdict confirmed that the (IWC moratorium) is partly aimed at sustainable use of whale resources.
"Following
this, our country will firmly maintain its basic policy of conducting
whaling for research, on the basis of international law and scientific
foundations, to collect scientific data necessary for the regulation of
whale resources, and aim for resumption of commercial whaling."
Hayashi,
who had met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier in the day,
confirmed a previous announcement that the 2014-15 hunt in the Southern
Ocean would not go ahead.
Last month's court ruling does not
apply to Japan's two other whaling programmes: a "research" hunt in
coastal waters and in the northwestern Pacific, and a much smaller
programme that operates along the coast, which is not subject to the
international ban.
Japanese officials dine on whale in protest against court ruling
(AP)
Hundreds
of Japanese officials and pro-whaling lobbyists have eaten whale in
defiance of a international court ruling that ordered the country to
stop its Antarctic whaling program.
By
SBS with AAP
UPDATED 2:05 PM - 16 Apr 2014
The
26th whale meat tasting event in Tokyo was hosted near the nation's
parliament and was attended by lawmakers, officials and pro-whaling
lobbyists.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa
Hayashi told attendees that the country must protect its whale-eating
culture.
"[Japan] has a policy of harvesting and sustainably using
the protein source from the ocean, and that is unshakable," Associated
Press quoted Mr Hayashi as saying.
Meanwhile, a lower house MP criticised the arguments against whaling as emotional and not based on reason.
"Japan’s
whaling is based on scientific reasons, while counterarguments by
anti-whaling groups are emotional, saying they are against the hunts
because whales are cute or smart," the Japan Times reported Shunichi
Suzuki of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as saying.
Japan
has decided to continue its whaling program in the Pacific Ocean,
reports say, despite losing a United Nations court case on its other
"research" hunt in the Antarctic.
If confirmed, the move will
likely spark anger among environmentalists who hailed a ruling in March
by the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Tokyo's hunt in
the Southern Ocean was a commercial activity disguised as science.
Japan
has exploited a loophole in a 1986 moratorium that allowed it to
conduct lethal research on the mammals, but has openly admitted their
meat makes its way onto dinner tables.
Campaigners urged Tokyo to
follow the spirit of the ruling, and not just its letter, which
specifically referred to Japan's hunt in the Antarctic, not its other
research scheme in the northwest Pacific or its smaller coastal program.
But
after the ICJ verdict, a government review has said the Pacific hunt
should press ahead, public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News Agency
reported on Friday.
The review suggests the Pacific mission should
reduce its catch and focus more on carrying out research that does not
involve catching whales.
A spokesman for the fisheries agency said he was unable to comment.
![USA Today]({"default":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBktIIJ.img?h=43&w=43&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=t&l=f&f=png","dpi":1.8}){kind=small}
![Miniature DEA badges are displayed for sale in the gift shop at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Museum in Arlington, Virginia.]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"73","h":"49","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAa2NvB.img?h=875&w=1310&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1451&y=965"},"dpi":1.8,"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAa2NvB.img?h=751&w=1123&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1451&y=965"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAa2NvB.img?h=751&w=1123&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1451&y=965"}})
At the same time, our national defense budget is being slashed.
Since 2011, the defense budget has been cut by 15 percent in real terms. If you include the war budget, which has been going down as we reduce troops in Afghanistan, the national defense has been cut 25 percent in four years.
As a result of these budget cuts, the U.S. military is smaller than it was on 9/11 and in many cases the smallest it has been in recent history.