Circle of 13: 19 December 2011

Monday, December 19, 2011

Forensic Examiner Found No Match of Cables on Manning’s Laptop to WikiLeaks’

A day after a government forensic expert testified that he’d found thousands of diplomatic cables on the Army computer of suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, he was forced to admit under cross-examination that none of the cables he compared to the ones WikiLeaks released matched.

Special Agent David Shaver, a forensic investigator with the Army’s Computer Crimes Investigations Unit, testified Sunday that he’d found 10,000 U.S. diplomatic cables in HTML format on the soldier’s classified work computer, as well as a corrupted text file containing more than 100,000 complete cables that had been converted to base-64 encoding.

Six months after Manning was arrested for allegedly leaking documents to WikiLeaks, the site began publishing 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables that ranged in date from December 1966 to the end of February 2010. But Shaver said none of the documents that he found on Manning’s computer, and that he then compared to those that WikiLeaks published, matched the WikiLeaks documents.

Shaver wasn’t asked how many cables he compared to the WikiLeaks cables, or which dates those cables had, he just said he matched “some of them.” In re-direct examination, however, he noted that the CSV file in which the cables were contained was corrupted and suggested this might indicate that it had not been possible to pass those cables to WikiLeaks for this reason. The defense objected to this assumption, however, noting that Shaver could not speculate on why the cables were not among those released by WikiLeaks.

13,000 Chinese Villagers Rise Up Against Economic Inequality, Threaten to March on Gov't Offices

The 13,000 residents of Wukan, in the wealthy province of Guangdong, are in open revolt against officialdom and have driven out local Communist Party leaders who they say have been stealing their land for years.

The villagers appear to be winning support from the public, with the first confirmed protest backing them held in the provincial capital Guangzhou on Sunday. The three demonstrators there were detained by police.

While the Guangzhou protest was relatively small, it is a sign that government efforts to block news of the unrest in Wukan have failed and the villagers are attracting public support.

Many local businesses have been closed for the past week while schools have been shuttered as riot police blockade the village, which has for months been the scene of occasionally violent protests over land seizures.

Authorities have vowed to crack down on the instigators of the latest unrest, which was triggered by the arrest nine days ago of five villagers, one of whom died last Sunday in police custody.

Authorities say the 42-year-old man suffered a heart attack, while relatives who saw the body said they believed he had been beaten to death.

Villagers told AFP on Sunday they will march to government offices in Lufeng city on Wednesday unless the body of Xue Jinbo is returned and the other four villagers still in police custody are released.

Battle Rages in Cairo as "Thugs" and Army Attack Protesters

TRNN Exclusive: Army attacks occupation of cabinet office, street fighting into the night, at least nine dead

Manufactured Fear - 15 minutes that will change your life

A history of false flag attacks used to manipulate the minds of the people!

No oil will pass Hormuz if Iran oil banned

An Iranian lawmaker says if Iran's oil industry is targeted by international sanctions the Islamic Republic will not let a single barrel of oil cross the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

“[The US] should know that in line with international law, such as Paragraph 4, Article 14 of Geneva 1958 Convention, if oil sanctions are imposed on Iran, we will not allow even a single barrel of oil to be exported to countries hostile to us,” Issa Jafari noted on Sunday.

He added that the Strait of Hormuz is the world's energy corridor through which a daily total of 35 million barrels of crude oil is exported.

The lawmaker further said that new sanctions were a plot by the US and its allies to divert global attention from the Occupy Wall Street movement and also to cover up the recent scandal with regards to the US spy drone violating Iran's airspace.

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Pharmaceutical Company Raises Drug Price from $10 to $1,500 Per Dose

Over 500,000 babies are born prematurely in the United States each year.

Unfortunately, with premature birth comes comes an increased risk for health consequences. As a “solution” for these premature births, KV pharmaceutical company offers a drug known as Makena, which is meant to reduce the risk for premature births.

But good luck using it if you’re interested, as the company recently raised the price from $10 to $1,500 per dose.

Pharmaceutical Companies Are in it For the Money

As many people are well aware, pharmaceutical companies care very little about your health. The KV pharmaceutical company now expects to make a whopping $30,000 over the course of a pregnancy with their drug Makena – a price most people would agree is completely ridiculous for such a ‘good cause’.

Once this change was picked up and made public by the mainstream media, however, the company made a move to lower the price from $1,500 to $690 per dose. Unfortunately, this price is still irrational, especially when compared to how high it is from the initial $10.

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Tagore in the land of Arabian Nights

No sooner had the Nobel Committee announced, on 13 November 1913, that Rabindranath Tagore had won the Nobel Prize for Literature than the news was broadcast to every country around the world. The Arabic-speaking world expressed its enthusiasm in an appropriate manner: The dailies of Egypt, Lebanon and several other Arab countries published the news with zeal and enthusiasm, presumably because Tagore was the first Asian to receive the award.
In addition to the Egyptian daily al-Ahram, many Egyptian journals of repute -- including al-Hilal, Saut al-Sharq, al-Jinan and al-Muqtataf -- published articles about Tagore. The next year, Wadi al-Bustani, a Lebanese writer and translator of Umar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat from Persian to Arabic, travelled to Calcutta and stayed as Tagore’s guest for two days. He was so charmed by his host’s disposition and erudition that he compared him to an angel on earth.
Al-Bustani was perhaps the first Arab to meet Tagore after he’d won the Nobel Prize and, after reading Gitanjali, The Gardener and Sadhana in English, he wrote a wonderful article in Arabic about the laureate. This homage was published in al-Hilal late in 1916. Soon afterwards, Bustani became the first to translate Gitanjali into Arabic.
Tagore travelled to Egypt in 1926 but did not mention this visit in his writing, except for a passing reference in Pareshey. Arabic sources reported that he landed at Alexandria and presented a lecture at the al-Hamra opera on 27 November 1926, during which he talked about the existence of God in every living being. On 29 November of that year, he gave another lecture, this time at Cairo’s Hadiqa al-Uzbukiyya opera; he spoke about the differences between Western and Eastern philosophies. Reporters for dailies from Egypt -- such as al-Balagh and al-Ahram -- and other Arab countries covered his talks with zeal.

[ ... ]

He has the unique distinction of being the only poet in the world whose poems are sung as the national anthems of two independent countries (India and Bangladesh), crossing geographical, linguistic and intellectual boundaries. He is equally well-loved in the land of the Arabian Nights: a number of Arab countries celebrated the 150th anniversary of his birth with gaiety and respect.

More...

Tagore poems at Occupy Poetry

On the Dark Side in Al Doura - A Soldier in the Shadows

WARNING: Graphic and disturbing photos between 38:40 and 40:45.
U.S. Army Ranger John Needham, who was awarded two purple hearts and three medals for heroism, wrote to military authorities in 2007 reporting war crimes that he witnessed being committed by his own command and fellow soldiers in Al Doura, Iraq. His charges were supported by atrocity photos which, in the public interest, are now released in this video. John paid a terrible price for his opposition to these acts. His story is tragic.

CBS reported obtaining an Army document from the Criminal Investigation Command suggestive of an investigation into these war crimes allegations. The Army's conclusion was that the "offense of War Crimes did not occur." However, CBS also stated that the report was “redacted and incomplete; 111 pages were withheld.”

This video is placed within the context of Vice President Dick Cheney's insistence that this nation's efforts "must go to the dark side;" which included ignoring the Geneva Conventions.

John's story is told, here, by his father, Michael Needham. It is produced in the spirit of the public interest and towards promoting justice and the rule of law.

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Israel’s Secret Weapon

Which country in the Middle East has undeclared Nuclear weapons? Which country in the Middle East has undeclared biological and chemical capabilities? Which country in the Middle East has no outside inspections? Which country jailed its nuclear whistleblower for 18 years? Vanunu told the world that Israel had developed between one hundred and two hundred atomic bombs and had gone on to develop neutron bombs and thermonuclear weapons. Enough to destroy the entire Middle East and nobody has done anything about i

t since. It’s thought plutonium is made in Dimona; nuclear weapons are assembled at Yodefat and stored at Zachariah and Eilabun. Three nuclear submarines are based in Haifa and Israel’s biological and chemical warfare laboratories are at Nes Ziona.

Israel never comments on such reports. But evidence continues to emerge. In 1992 an Israeli cargo plane crashed in Amsterdam killing forty-three people. The Israelis claimed it was carrying flowers and perfume. It took six years and a Dutch parliamentary enquiry before they admitted it was carrying DMMP, a key component for sarin nerve gas. The DMMP was bound for The Israeli Institute of Biological Research at Nes Ziona, one of Israel’s most secret defence sites. It is subject to no international inspection and reporting of its activities in Israel is prevented by strict military censorship.

Watch the full documentary now

Congress Declares “Offensive” War on the Internet in NDAA

Buried in the recently passed NDAA is a provision, perhaps just as dangerous as its other transgressions, that permits the Pentagon to wage an offensive Cyber War, “to defend our Nation, Allies and interests.”

Section 954 of the NDAA titled Military Activities in Cyberspace received no debate in Congress as well as in the media. The section states clearly:
Congress affirms that the Department of Defense has the capability, and upon direction by the President may conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our Nation, Allies and interests.
Even though there was virtually no debate about this provision by Congress or the press, the intention of action was expected. In July of this year, the Pentagon announced their strategy to treat cyberspace as an “operational domain” in their Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace.

Keiser Report: Exotic Pet Banking Fraudsters

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss Keiser's GIABO soup for the protesting person of the year and the true cost of bankers. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Leah McGrath Goodman about the price of oil and MF Global.

London 2012 - The enemy of democracy

So, while company directors, corrupt politicians and bankers are comfortably seated together to supervise and reap profits from the labour of others (how capitalist!) we'll still be on the streets showing that we're strong, we're angry and that these bastards are losing their control over us. Now, there is something that our rulers absolutely do not want broadcasting around the world. There'll be no shortage of cameras about, as pretty much every news agency in the world will be operating here in Britain this summer.

It's not hard to see why the rich are so worried. Protests, direct action, strikes and the like are set to undo every bit of material gain they're hoping to raid from the Olympic Games. How can the rich push the sponsors if the TV cameras are showing pictures of people angry at those exact same sorts of mega-corporations? How can the rich get their billionaire buddies to travel to Britain to spend their cash in London's fancy hotels and restaurants, if these places are under threat of being attacked by black bloc tactics? How can the British government continue to dictate to Greece and other countries through the IMF and EU about their economic policies when the people riot against British economic policy? How can foreign policy be enforced when TV screens from Hong Kong to Houston are showing pictures of people critical to these policies?

The answer is, they can't. So, prepare to kiss your fantasy of legitimate protest goodbye.

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15 dead as Kazakh workers fight cops

At least 15 people have been killed and 70 injured as Kazakh police opened on unarmed rebel oil workers and their supporters in the west of the country.

The uprising is now being further fuelled by anger at the brutal methods deployed by the state to attack the demonstrations calling for higher wages.

Reports the New York Times: "On Saturday, several hundred protesters blocked railroad tracks in Shetpe, a town north of Zhanaozen, to protest the treatment of the other activists. The police opened fire, killing one person and wounding about a dozen more.

More...

Dictatorship Naturally Arises Out Of Democracy

5500 arrests of peaceful protesters in 90 days.
0 arrests of economic criminals in 3 years.
Who are you protecting?

Welcome To The United Police States of America, Sponsored By Twitter

Imagine my surprise this morning when, without warning, my shiny new Twitter account (@d_seaman) was suspended and taken offline.

No more tweets for you. You now have 0 followers.

My crime? Talking too much about Occupy Wall Street (I'm not an Occupier, but as a blogger and journalist it strikes me as one of the most important stories out there -- hence the constant coverage), and talking too much about the controversial detainment without trial provisions contained in the FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would basically shred the Bill of Rights and subject American citizens to military police forces. The same level of civil rights protection that enemy combatants in a cave in Afghanistan receive!

Revealed: bankers' secret meetings with ministers

The full scale of big banks' lobbying of the Chancellor, George Osborne, to get him to water down banking reforms can be revealed today. Senior bank executives met or called Treasury ministers nine times in the weeks after Sir John Vickers published his landmark proposals on how to prevent another banking crisis, The Independent can reveal.

Bank bosses are fighting furiously behind the scenes to limit any changes to the way they do business. Fears are growing – articulated by Sir John himself – that the banks are successfully thwarting the Government's plans to overhaul the British banking system and the Treasury is weakening some of the key reforms as a result of intense lobbying.

Mr Osborne also personally met the Barclays boss Bob Diamond, the Royal Bank of Scotland's Stephen Hester and Lloyds' Antonio Horta-Osorio on separate occasions in the days before the Vickers report.

Mr Osborne will announce his official response to the Vickers Independent Commission on Banking proposals on Monday – it is certain to be scrutinised for any sign that the Government's resolve to tackle the sector has been weakened.

The commission recommended that banks should be required to "ring fence" their high street banking operations away from their "casino" investment operations; and to increase their capital buffers in order to reduce the chances of British taxpayers being forced to rescue them in future. (Taxpayers had to pump in £65.9bn to save Lloyds, RBS and HBOS.)

The full list of contacts between bankers and ministers, revealed through a request under the Freedom of Information Act by The Independent, shows that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mark Hoban held meetings with Mr Hester of RBS, Mr Diamond, and Douglas Flint of HSBC in the nine days after the release of the Vickers report in September as they lobbied against the plans. The largest banks have warned that the reforms could harm the economy and threatened to move their headquarters out of Britain.

The Gandhi Rap - be the change u want to see

Presentation on Gandhiji's Life with Gandhi rap sung by MC Yogi

'Absolutely no progress being made' at Fukushima nuke plant, undercover reporter says

Conditions at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are far worse than its operator or the government has admitted, according to freelance journalist Tomohiko Suzuki, who spent more than a month working undercover at the power station.

"Absolutely no progress is being made" towards the final resolution of the crisis, Suzuki told reporters at a Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan news conference on Dec. 15. Suzuki, 55, worked for a Toshiba Corp. subsidiary as a general laborer there from July 13 to Aug. 22, documenting sloppy repair work, companies including plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) playing fast and loose with their workers' radiation doses, and a marked concern for appearances over the safety of employees or the public.

For example, the no-entry zones around the plant -- the 20-kilometer radius exclusion zone and the extension covering most of the village of Iitate and other municipalities -- have more to do with convenience that actual safety, Suzuki says.

"(Nuclear) technology experts I've spoken to say that there are people living in areas where no one should be. It's almost as though they're living inside a nuclear plant," says Suzuki. Based on this and his own radiation readings, he believes the 80-kilometer-radius evacuation advisory issued by the United States government after the meltdowns was "about right," adding that the government probably decided on the current no-go zones to avoid the immense task of evacuating larger cities like Iwaki and Fukushima.

The situation at the plant itself is no better, where he says much of the work is simply "for show," fraught with corporate jealousies and secretiveness and "completely different" from the "all-Japan" cooperative effort being presented by the government.

Bishop arrested as #OWS protesters tear down fence to get to Duarte Square

On Saturday, a retired bishop was among more than 50 people arrested after the Occupy Wall Street movement stormed another New York City park in an attempt to find a new home.

Former Episcopal bishop George E. Packard was led away in cuffs after climbing a ladder to illegally enter Juan Pablo Duarte Square in the west SoHo neighbourhood of the city during the demo.

He was one of hundreds of demonstrators, members of the clergy and elected officials who descended on the park and scaled a chain-link fence by a lot they’re eyeing as a new campsite.

Packard, who is affiliated with the movement, writes a blog under the title ‘Occupied Bishop‘.

Police attacking brutally a peaceful protestor in Shakoora village-Bahrain . 17-12-2011

Greek protest dog goes global

Athens stray dog who has become an unofficial mascot of city protests and an online sensation this week reaped another accolade by featuring in Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' award.

Sable-furred Loukanikos -- 'sausage' in Greek -- was granted his own photo gallery in the magazine's annual honours which this year were dedicated to protesters in the Arab world, the crisis-hit EU, the United States and Russia.

Widely known on the Internet as the Greek capital's "riot dog," the central Syntagma Square canine already has his own Facebook page with over 24,000 approval hits.

The Greek capital has many stray dogs and several are drawn to the noisy street protests that have been a fixture of social life even before the country was hit by a crippling debt crisis in 2009.

But protest regulars say only Loukanikos, who appeared around four years ago, actively participates, displaying fearlessness and an apparent dislike of riot police.

See also: Dog demonstrates protest

U.S. Commemorates 9/11 By Toasting Stable Afghan Government From Top Of Freedom Tower - Year In Review

Satire from the Onion

Mumbai's turn for Civil Disobedience: Anna style

Mr Hazare's explanation that he chose Mumbai for his public protest because Delhi is too cold in December can't be taken at face value. He may appear to be simple and guileless but his team is clued up on public relations and media management. Between Anna and his team they have chosen a date his fast coincides with the date of birth of the Indian National Congress in Bombay 126 years ago.

It was also in Bombay that the Quit India movement was launched in 1942, which set off the Civil Disobedience Movement against the British Empire. Anna has already termed his Jan Lok Pal movement as the second freedom struggle for Indians. If the Jan Lok Pal Bill is not passed this week, he has called for 'Jail Bharo,' 'gherao' the homes of MPs and demand that the government "quit". These acts of Civil Disobedience, he thinks, are justified to bring the Congress government to its knees. The rich irony of trying to finish the Congress party in the city of its birth can't be lost on anyone.

Anna would prefer to hold his public fast in the August Kranti Maidan, which was once called the Gowalia Tank Maidan. It is from here that the slogan Quit India, coined by socialist leader and later Mayor of Bombay Yusuf Meharally, was raised and caught the imagination of the whole country.

It is from here in August 1942 that Mahatma Gandhi decided that the time was ripe to channel disenchantment against the rulers to bring about a revolution; a bloodless agitation which toppled the colonial government. Anna may not call himself a Mahatma but he has cast himself in the same mould. The symbolism wouldn't be lost if he can gather four to five thousand people to fast with him at this historic venue. Their slogans would be beamed via OB vans directly into the homes of middle class Indians and connect them, although remotely, to the agitation.

With estimates that more than a lakh Mumbaikars will turn up for the fast, providing security for the event would be a gargantuan challenge for the Mumbai Police. Delhi is used to such events -- political agitation on national issues is embedded in its DNA. Mumbai has long forgotten what it is to agitate for a cause that goes beyond Mumbai and Maharashtra.

More...

Protest in Wukan

A period of demonstration and protest in the Chinese village of Wukan has caught the attention of world media in the past several weeks (link, link). The village is in Guangdong, the dynamic coastal province. The demonstrations began in September against major land seizures by local government in alignment with developers, and became more intense in the past week when leader Xue Jinbo died in police custody. (Here is a good Wikipedia article on the village.) Land seizures seem to be the most volatile issue in China today, producing a large proportion of the roughly 90,000 civil disturbances the country currently faces a year.

Analysts are interested in probing the causes and dynamics of protest and resistance in contemporary China, including C. K. Lee (Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt) and Kevin O’Brien (Rightful Resistance in Rural China). Here, though, it may also be interesting to compare the current situation with the occurrence of similar incidents during the Qing Dynasty.

Fortunately, it is possible to do so on the basis of a recent relevant study. Ho-Fung Hung’s recent Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing Dynasty addresses exactly this issue in historical context. He looks at the period 1740-1839 and finds that the character of protest and resistance varied throughout the period. This is the early modernization period of Chinese history, and Hung believes that the subject of popular unrest has been overlooked in this period. The grasp of the central power of the state increased during this period, and it also represented a major advance in commercialization of Chinese society.

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In southern-China, the village of Wukan continued its open revolt against local authorities. Thousands of villagers gathered to shout slogans calling for the return of farmland they say has been illegally confiscated.

Press TV's Steven Ribet reports from Beijing.

As we've been telling you this week, tens of thousands of villagers are protesting in Wukan, in Guangdong Province. Now the situation has become a standoff as villagers have kicked out both local officials and police. That came after the suspicious death of one villager in police custody. Here's the latest.

The over twenty-thousand residents of the village of Wukan in south China's Guangdong Province have expelled all local Communist Party authorities, including police, and blocked road access to the village.

The British newspaper The Telegraph was able to get a journalist on the ground in Wukan on Tuesday. Malcom Moore called the current incident the first time on record that the Party has "lost all control" in a situation of "open revolt." This marks the latest escalation in an ongoing confrontation between villagers and local Communist Party officials they've called corrupt and abusive.

For three months, Wukan residents have been staging occasional large-scale protests against a longstanding series of abuses committed by local Party officials. The villagers' biggest grievance was corrupt officials profiting from illegally selling the villagers' land.

The current intensified protest, including the expelling of all police and officials, came after the death in Party custody of Xue Jinbo. He was a Wukan resident who had served as a negotiator with authorities. Party officials claim Xue died of "cardiac failure." But Xue's family say there was evidence of torture on his body, including broken thumbs and bruises.

By Monday, locals had stopped an attempt by hundreds of police and security personnel to enter Wukan. Those forces retreated to a backup location three miles distant, and are now blocking all food and water from entering the town.

As of now, at the fifth day of what some are calling a rebellion, police remain blocked from entering, and some townspeople are making comments suggesting that the confrontation has become about more than just land seizures.

The Telegraph quoted one villager as saying "We are not sleeping. A hundred men are keeping watch. We do not know what the government's next move will be, but we know we cannot trust them ever again."

The situation in Wukan remains uncertain. Other media have managed to enter the village. But anything about Wukan is being quickly censored on the Chinese internet.

Police State USA Officially Announced As Elites March Toward World Government

Luke Rudkowski of Wearechange.org schools pittsburgh police on their duty to the constitution and thier oath. Police use LRAD sound cannons and tear gas on peaceful protesters.

http://www.youtube.com/user/wearechange

More Information About The New World Order Can Be Found @ http://harrythomas.info and www.12160.org

2011 Right Livelihood Award Ceremony

http://www.rightlivelihood.org/

Statements
On Monday morning, 5 December, the 2011 Right Livelihood Award Recipients spoke at a press conference in Stockholm. For their statements, please refer to our press release.

Award Ceremony
The Award Ceremony took place on Monday evening, at 6 pm. The Award Acceptance speeches can be accessed via our press room.

NEW! Video clips of the Award Ceremony are online on our Youtube Channel.

Public programme
Everybody is welcome to meet the 2011 Laureates! There are events in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. Have a look at the programme and join.

011 Right Livelihood Awards go to ...

Huang Ming (China) receives the 2011 Honorary Award “for his outstanding success in the development and mass-deployment of cutting-edge technologies for harnessing solar energy, thereby showing how dynamic emerging economies can contribute to resolving the global crisis of anthropogenic climate change“.

The Jury awards Jacqueline Moudeina (Chad) "for her tireless efforts at great personal risk to win justice for the victims of the former dictatorship in Chad and to increase awareness and observance of human rights in Africa”.

The Jury awards GRAIN (International) “for their worldwide work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities and to expose the massive purchases of farmland in developing countries by foreign financial interests”.

The Jury recognises Ina May Gaskin (USA) “for her whole-life’s work teaching and advocating safe, woman-centred childbirth methods that best promote the physical and mental health of mother and child“.

ANONYMOUS: Message to the US Armed Forces

To the men and women of the US Armed Forces.

We are Anonymous.

We would like to remind you of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The purpose of Operation Iraqi Freedom was to remove all weapons of mass destruction, as well as to secure a better democracy for the citizens of Iraq. In the process of securing that democracy, It meant the protection of Iraqi citizens from an unjust government. Until the political regime changed for a better democracy. Now if we may direct your attention to the homeland. There's a New enemy to the United States constitution, this enemy is the current United States president. The president has passed a bill that practically destroys the United States constitution. The name of this bill is called The National Defense Authorization Act, The provisions in this bill will allow Federal personnel to indefinitely detain any American citizen that the government sees fit. The National Defense Authorization Act will allow any US citizen under suspicion only to be detained with no verifiable proof. Most critical are sections 1031 and 1032. Section 1031 states that all persons accused do not get a trial, American citizen or not. You as the men and women of the United States armed forces took an oath to uphold the United States constitution, and to defend it at all costs, do not allow this injustice upon the constitution proposed by the president, or orders from your superiors to hinder your judgment as human Beings, or to seek the facts and evidence to support terrorist activity. The government is already classifying protesting as low level terrorism. Do not follow suit, The protesters are exercising their first amendment rights to petition the government for a positive change, Not only did the government take away the people's rights but your rights as well. Before you are Marines, Army Rangers, Navy Crewmen, or Fighter Pilots, You are citizens first. The first amendment in the constitution gives United States citizens the right to freedom of speech, religion, press, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The United States constitution has worked flawlessly for the last 220 years. It is not the president's decision to change the constitution whenever he sees fit, the constitution was written by the founders of The United States. It is not the president's decision to make the United States a war zone and to enforce a nationwide police state. He is not the supreme ruler. He led the country to believe that HOPE would bring change for a better tomorrow, so far the only change has been a dictatorship that allows the brutal beatings of un-armed citizens, pepper spray to the faces of the elderly, and feet to the stomachs of pregnant women, as well as a bullet to the face of a military veteran named Scott Olson, from Oakland California, in hopes to silence a revolution that refuses to be silenced. This is America, the land of the FREE, We will not be silenced, We will not go quietly. You go to foreign countries to protect the citizens from dictatorship and unjust laws, now it's time to protect the citizens of your own nation as the United States government is now inflicting fear on its own people. You're allegiance is to the people of the United States. Not to the people that control the government.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive political injustice.
We do not forget political dictatorship.
To the United States government,
Expect us.

A Message To The Whole World From Anonymous - In 2011 The World Is Divided By Zero

tidal: occupy theory, occupy strategy

tidal: December 2011, Issue I

Petition for truth about Emanuela Orlandi to Benedict XVI

During the weekly ceremony of the Angelus a group people led by Pietro Orllandi -the brother of Emanuela Orlandi- marched silently and tried to deliver to Benedict XVI a petition letter signed by 40.000 citizens and a photo of Emanuela in hopes the Holy Father can do its utmost to shed light on one of the most enigmatic and unsolved cases of the last 3 decades in Italy.

Emanuela, the daughter of a Vatican employee is infact missing since 1983 when she was kidnapped at 15. During the last 28 years the numerous political-criminal theories and proceedings led to anything useful to her finding.

At the end of the march, Italian police officers denied to photojournalist the access to St. Peter square, preventing to report the complete story. Nevertheless some journalists were able to circumvent the controls.

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Noam Chomsky: Occupy movements' tactics extremely successful

The Occupy movement first began when a group of demonstrators gathered in New York's financial district on September 17 to protest against the unjust distribution of wealth in the country and the excessive influence of major corporations on US policies.

Despite the police crackdown and mass arrests, the Occupy movement, which grew out of the Occupy Wall Street movement, has now spread to many major US cities as well as to Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and other countries.

Here is what the well-known linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky believes.

Capitalists no longer need or want democracy

"the marriage between capitalism and democracy is over."
- Slavoj Zizek

Politics is never in a static state. It is always in transition.
Thousands of years ago Aristotle wrote how monarchies become aristocracies, become tyrannies, become democracies, become monarchies, and so forth.

The United States, being both a young country AND one of the oldest continuous democracies, doesn't have the cultural maturity to see the change when it approaches.
For instance, Americans are still in denial how the country went from being a democracy to an Empire in 1945.

We are also in denial about the changes the political economy has underwent since the early 1990's.
I use the term "political economy" because that was what the study of economics was called until about a century ago. It's what Adam Smith and David Ricardo studied.
The fact that the study of economics fails to take politics into account today is probably its biggest reason why it has become a total failure.

[ ... ]

other governments weren't falling into line. They actually had the nerve to use real democracy. This time it was Hungary.

The currency's 40 percent slump against the franc has raised repayment costs, pushing mortgage arrears to a two-decade high and prompting Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to brand the loans "debt slavery."
To help homeowners, Orban imposed currency losses on banks including Erste Group Bank AG and Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) that may total 900 million euros ($1.2 billion), according to Cristina Marzea, an analyst at Barclays Capital. Faced with the risk Orban would impose further measures, lenders have offered to accept $2.2 billion of additional losses if the government promised to take no further action. If it doesn't, banks are threatening they may withdraw from the country...
Almost 18 months after Orban was elected in April 2010, he passed a law allowing Hungarians to repay mortgages denominated in foreign currencies at discount of about 25 percent to today's exchange rate. As long as a client applies before Dec. 31 and repays the entire loan before Feb. 28, the banks have to make up the difference.
"I paid it back last week," Bod said. "I'm free of debt slavery," said the former industry minister. The plan "is easy to explain from a political viewpoint. It's cheap for the government, expensive for the banks, good for voters."

Make no mistake - this is a large step beyond what Iceland has done. This is real democracy that is helping the working class at the expense of the bankers.
This is a threat to the status quo and to bank profits. The EU and IMF have broken off talks with Hungary in response to this defiance.
Hungary's deficit is below the treaty imposed limit of 3% of GDP and their current account is in surplus. It'll be hard to justify the IMF and EU cracking down on them. Hungary, by standing up for their citizens against the international bankers and forcing them to take losses, could be setting a precedent. You can be sure that the rest of eastern Europe is watching closely.

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Founding Fathers and Ethnosymbols: Re-interpreting the Founding heritage according to Occupy

The Founding Father legacy is without a doubt the primary source of American nationalism. The American Revolution, George Washington, the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell are symbols which inspire pride and passion within the hearts of American citizens. The narrative of the emancipation of the thirteen united colonies and the subsequent establishment of the first modern republic is indeed the beating heart of American nationalistic sentiment.

An interesting field of study is the way in which these national symbols are re-interpreted politically. Although they may all point towards an idea of “Americanness” they are used to convey different messages by different social actors. In the past year, we have witnessed how the Tea Party has employed them, accusing Obama’s administration of straying off the sacred path set by our Founding principles; namely small government, individual freedom and free trade. And yet, very recently, even the Occupy movement has begun re-articulating the Founding legacy in progressive terms, invoking a new American Revolution to emancipate the nation from the stranglehold that corporations and financial institutions impose on the democratic process.

This re-articulation of Founding Father symbols is an act of liberation from the conservative interpretation they have traditionally been imbued with. It distances them from the domain of the political right. Moreover, it breaks the ideological chains which confine the Founding heritage to a narrow set of conservative, individualistic and capitalism-justifying principles, thereby allowing us to fully appreciate the emancipatory potential found within its political discourse.

Rape of Iraqi Women by US Forces as Weapon of War: Photos and Data Emerge (Warning Graphic)

(ASIAN TRIBUNE) In March 2006 four US soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division gang raped a 14 year old Iraqi girl and murdered her and her family —including a 5 year old child. An additional soldier was involved in the cover-up.

One of the killers, Steven Green, was found guilty on May 07, 2009 in the US District Court of Paducah and is now awaiting sentencing.

The leaked Public Affairs Guidance put the 101st media team into a “passive posture” — withholding information where possible. It conceals presence of both child victims, and describes the rape victim, who had just turned 14, as “a young woman”.

Occupy Movement Shows Support for Bradley Manning

On the second day of Bradley Manning's Article 32 hearing (equivalent of a pre-trial hearing), occupiers from Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and other cities showed their support for Manning. Hundreds of people marched and rallied at Ft. Meade, Maryland where the Article 32 is being held. This was also Manning's 24th birthday, the second birthday he has spent incarcerated.

The action Manning is accused of -- leaking documents that showed the truth of U.S. foreign policy -- share a common thread with the Occupy Movement. We are also exposing the truth of a dysfunctional and corrupt political system that has created an unfair economy and endless war. By exposing the truth the Occupy Movement is mobilizing people for transformational change. The documents allegedly leaked by Bradley Manning show the need for transformational change of U.S. foreign policy away from militarism, work on behalf of transnational corporations as well as unethical and illegal behavior toward a foreign policy of diplomacy, co-operation, human rights and actions on behalf of the American people.

Bradley Manning shows that one person can make a difference. The Occupy Movement, where everyone is a leader, shows that people will change the direction of the country. We stand in solidarity with Manning, just as we stand in solidarity with each other in working to create a new world.

Hakim Bey: "Occupy Wall Street, Act Two"

"Money Has An Enemy." — Charles Stein

Some radical historians claim the entire Historical Movement of the Social went wrong in 1870 when the Paris Commune failed to expropriate (or at least destroy) The Bank. Could this really be so?

Since 1973 Bank Power — "Money Interests" as the oldtime Populists and Grangers used to say — i.e., the power to create money as debt — has single-handedly destroyed all chances to remake any world closer to our heart's desire. Some anarchist theorists hold that there can be no real revolution except the revolt against money itself — because money itself WANTS capitalism (i.e. money) to rule. Money itself will always find a way to subvert democracy (or for that matter any government power that opposes Money's interests) and to establish the rule of Capital — i.e. of money itself.

"Alternative currencies" will not cure the situation (as Marx rightly sneered) because real [bad] money will always drive the "good" money out of circulation. Alt. money only "wins" in the scenario where it replaces money entirely. But in that case it will have simply become money itself (which is protean and can take many forms).

American progressive Populism — like the agrarian Grange or industrial Knights of Labor — knew certain esoteric secrets we should study. They believed the real producers ("labor") could organize alternative institutions (within the legal system) that could erode the rule of Money and perhaps eventually replace it: producers & consumers co-operatives and labor unions. Money would still be used at first — but not banks — so toxic debt could be avoided. True producers would mutually finance each other (ay at 1% interest to cover administrative costs). With "Mutual Banks of the People" plus co-ops they would protect their economic position and advance it thru labor agitation including strikes, boycotts, etc.

"Mutuality" works as a non-State non-central-buraucratic form of socialism, thus providing no unjust power positions for its administrators. it starts, like Occupy Wall Street, as a consensus-ruled direct democracy (the exact opposite of the Neo-Con freemarket "democracy" of predatory Capital). Revokable delegates are sent to larger regional or other administrative Councils.

Thus success of such a system means NEVER participating in representation or "republican" forms of legislative politics ("keep politics off the farm" — Grange Songbook). The American Populist movement made thefatal error in 1896 of joining the Democratic Party — and instead of being crucified on a cross of gold, American radicalism was crucified on a cross of silver. [I'm not going to explain this joke; look in the Encyclopedia under "William Jennings Bryan."]

The only true method of organizing the alternative world of Mutuality is thru voluntary non-state free institutions such as co-ops, mutual banking & insurance, alternative schools, various types of communalism and communitas, sustainable economic ventures (i.e. non-caitalist businesses) like independent farms and craft ateliers willing to federate with the commons outside of the sphere of bank/police/corporation power.

Of course if it ever reached a certain point of success this Mutualism would be directly challenged by Money Interest Power. Lawyers & police will swarm, then military force will be used. The question then will become a different question — War against Money. Could such a struggle be waged as "non-violent war?" In theory, maybe — in reality, who knows?

Message to the NWO: We Know

Peaceful Dissent. Vigorous Pursuit of Justice and Freedom.

You mind is your weapon. Fear is the enemy.

Don't be the bloke who incites violence; our revolution needs not a single shot.

Trust no one. Not even us. Think for yourself.

Much Love, Heads Up, Be Safe.

Iran Hits American Satellite

The Scoop of Yedihot Aharonot

Today, December 17, 2011, the largest Hebrew newspaper brought the scoop of the year. According to the newspaper, Iran blinded a CIA spy satellite. The paper added that a European intelligence source claimed Iran stunned the West by accurately aiming a laser burst at an American satellite in a never before reported incident.

One should be careful when assessing such a scoop from an Israeli newspaper. After all, Israel is openly pushing an American attack on Iran and this could be the false flag needed for launching such an attack. Israel wants to Wag the Dog Yet, the news appeared at an interesting time.

Iranian Jamming Technology

According to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, Iranians have successively gained access to jamming technology, allowing them to track unmanned aerial vehicle navigation capabilities. Former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Fox News last Sunday that such an option is possible. There are additional testimonies of that.

On December 4, Iran downed an American drone. Iranian TV has shown a video footage of a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel drone. It had been intercepted by an Iranian army's electronic warfare unit over the city of Kashmar. American sources had unofficially confirmed the loss. Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Unit, told that the drone "fell into the trap of the unit, which then managed to land it with minimum damage". This happened 140 miles from the Afghan border, well within Iranian air-space.

The drone events apparently shows Iran owns the technological base needed to develop such weapons.

FKN Newz: BEGGING FOR IT

http://www.fknnewz.com

Three myths about the detention bill - Greenwald

Condemnation of President Obama is intense, and growing, as a result of his announced intent to sign into law the indefinite detention bill embedded in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These denunciations come not only from the nation’s leading civil liberties and human rights groups, but also from the pro-Obama New York Times Editorial Page, which today has a scathing Editorial describing Obama’s stance as “a complete political cave-in, one that reinforces the impression of a fumbling presidency” and lamenting that “the bill has so many other objectionable aspects that we can’t go into them all,” as well as from vocal Obama supporters such as Andrew Sullivan, who wrote yesterday that this episode is “another sign that his campaign pledge to be vigilant about civil liberties in the war on terror was a lie.” In damage control mode, White-House-allied groups are now trying to ride to the rescue with attacks on the ACLU and dismissive belittling of the bill’s dangers.

For that reason, it is very worthwhile to briefly examine — and debunk — the three principal myths being spread by supporters of this bill, and to do so very simply: by citing the relevant provisions of the bill, as well as the relevant passages of the original 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), so that everyone can judge for themselves what this bill actually includes...

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Reincarnation proven? Child remembers previous life

'Skunk spray' used on protesters

Israeli soldiers have broken up a demonstration by hundreds of villagers and peace protesters outside the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, a week after a protester died at a similar event.

Video

Brutality of Egyptian repression against protesters

London Salutes Bradley Manning

On the day of Bradley Manning's birthday a group of protesters held a vigil outside the American Embassy in London calling for his freedom. He's accused of leaking US government secrets and turning them over to WikiLeaks. Private Manning is on trial at a military base at Fort Meade, Maryland
http://ynuk.tv

50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don't make dramatic changes immediately. If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just "tweaking" things here and there is not going to fix this economy. We truly do need a fundamental change in direction. America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding. If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.

At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point. Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse.

Syria deploys Russian anti-sea missiles on coast, Scuds on Turkish border

Russian military and diplomatic support for the Assad regime was underscored by the deployment Friday, Dec. 16, of advanced Moscow-supplied Yakhont (SSN-26) shore-to-sea missiles along Syria's Mediterranean shore to fend off a potential Western-Turkish invasion by sea. Last week, Russia airlifted to Syria 3 million face masks against chemical and biological weapons and the Admiral Kutznetsov carrier and strike group was sent on its way to Syria's Mediterranean port of Tartus.
Russian naval sources in Moscow stressed that the flotilla is armed with the most advanced weapons against submarines and aerial attack. Upon arrival, the Russian craft will launch a major marine-air maneuver in which Syrian units will take part.
Syria has received from Russia 72 Yakhont missiles able to hit marine targets up to a distance of 300 kilometers - i.e., over the horizon, our military sources report. The missile's radar remains inert, making it hard to detect, until it is close to target. It is then switched on to guide its aim.

Its high speed – 2,000 kmh – enables the Yakhont to strike before its target has time to activate self-defense systems.
Thursday night, in response to the deployment of 21 Syrian Scuds on the Turkish border, including five with chemical warheads, Ankara convened its top military council and declared its armed forces ready for war. Syria also rushed armored reinforcements to the Jordanian border.

DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report that the rush of Syrian war moves backed by Russia indicates that both believe a Western-Arab force is on the point of invading Syria. They are keeping an eye especially on Turkey which is suspected of having obtained a NATO marine and air umbrella, including the US Sixth Fleet, for military preparations aimed at ousting Bashar Assad, so repeating the operation against Libya's Muammar Qaddafi.
The diplomatic flurry around Syria was accentuated by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's arrival in Ankara Friday morning to find Turkish armed forces on war preparedness, and Syrian Vice President Farouk A-Shara's landing in Moscow for a crisis conference with Russian leaders.

NOAM CHOMSKY - TOP 10 MEDIA MANIPULATION STRATEGIES

Noam Chomsky, the distinguished American philosopher, political activist and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has compiled a list of the ten most powerful and effective strategies resorted to by the agendas “hidden” to establish a manipulation of the population through the media.

Thanks to the media paraphernalia and propaganda, have been created or destroyed social movements, justified wars, tempered financial crisis, spurred on some other ideological currents, and even given the phenomenon of media as producers of reality within the collective psyche. But how to detect the most common strategies for understanding these psychosocial tools which, surely, we participate? Fortunately Chomsky has been given the task of synthesizing and expose these practices, some more obvious and more sophisticated, but apparently all equally effective and, from a certain point of view, demeaning. Encourage stupidity, promote a sense of guilt, promote distraction, or construct artificial problems and then magically, solve them, are just some of these tactics.

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The Top 10 Films that Explain Why Occupy Wall St. Exists

One of the most entertaining yet unsurprising aspects of Occupy Wall St has been the response from traditional media. Whether intentionally playing dumb or genuinely clueless, the mainstream media has failed to inform the public and substantially address the key issues. But why are tens of thousands of people risking arrest all over the world, setting up encampments and protesting the status quo?

For everyone who has been following independent, alternative media, the answer is obvious. People who have been clued in to what's been going on in this country for the last decade are responding: Finally! A movement to match the scale of the problem is taking root here in America!

A new cultural zeitgeist is growing increasingly more visible in the shadow of the old - one that is steadily zeroing in on the root problems that are paralyzing the prosperity of our future: corporate personhood, an undemocratic system of government, a centralized fractional-reserve banking system, neoclassical economics and capitalism itself.

Seen in this light, it's understandable that the press would feign confusion. Unlike the now co-opted Tea Party movement, which has sadly only served to bolster the corporate welfare state and the interests of the 1%, the problems OWS are exposing are too threatening to the established powers to critically examine. Our demands are too big to be mentioned. And so from the media: We have no demands. We do not know what the problem is. We want handouts from government and simply want a free ride. However, as more people get tuned into alternative media and see the disparity between the reality and what the pundits have to say, the comical theater of the mass media only ingrains its own irrelevance.

Of course, for all the people who still get informed by the mass media, there is much work to do. To combat the misinformation, we need to become the media ourselves, and we have ample tools at our disposal. The biggest memes behind OWS - the ideas and analysis of the problem that gives the movement its inspiration - have been amply documented in several amazing documentaries that are freely available online.

So, following, are the top 10 films that capture the spirit and motivation of the movement. They are the heavy-weight truth bombs which provide the intellectual backing and substance to the slogans and chants. Watch these films. Share them with friends. By breaking the bottleneck the mass media holds on the flow of information and turning people on to alternative channels, we'll be able to build the collective understanding necessary to realize the ambitious goals of OWS.

If we work hard through the winter to get these messages out, we'll be primed by the spring to hit the tipping point that will finally rest control of our future out of the hands of the 1% and into our own.

Occupy Portland Outsmarts Police, Creating Blueprint for Other Occupations

The Portland Occupation stumbled upon a tactical innovation regarding occupying public spaces. This evolution in tactics was spontaneous, and went unreported in the media. On December 3rd, we took a park and were driven out of it by riot police; that much made the news. What the media didn’t report is that we re-took the park later that same evening, and the police realized that it would be senseless to attempt to clear it again, so they packed up their military weaponry and left. Occupy Portland has developed a tactic to keep a park when the police decide to enforce an eviction.

The tactical evolution that evolved relies on two military tactics that are thousands of years old- the tactical superiority of light infantry over heavy infantry, and the tactical superiority of the retreat over the advance.

1,900 Year Old Wisdom: “An Imbalance Between Rich and Poor Is the Oldest and Most Fatal Ailment of all Republics”

I noted in February that John Kenneth Galbraith and Marriner Eccles explained 50 years ago that inequality causes crashes, and that many modern economists agree.

I just found a slighter older statement saying the same thing.

Specifically, the well-known Greek historian Plutarch – who died in 120 A.D. – said:

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

1,900 Year Old Wisdom: “An Imbalance Between Rich and Poor Is the Oldest and Most Fatal Ailment of all Republics”

I noted in February that John Kenneth Galbraith and Marriner Eccles explained 50 years ago that inequality causes crashes, and that many modern economists agree.

I just found a slighter older statement saying the same thing.

Specifically, the well-known Greek historian Plutarch – who died in 120 A.D. – said:

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.