Senator Praises Inquisition as Proof that Torture Works
George W. Bush and a key general in Iraq both called the Iraq war a "crusade". Many other high-level civilian and military leaders also believe in fighting a religious war against Islam.
US, Canadian and Aussie wheat industries unite behind GM
Major wheat industry organizations from the US, Canada and Australia have announced that they intend to work together to commercialize genetically modified (GM) wheat crops.
Blue collar U.S. males lose more ground
One statistic that stands out in America's recession-stung economy is the unemployment rate for adult men: in April for the second month in a row it surged ahead of the national average to 9.4 percent versus 8.9 percent for all workers. The jobless rate for adult women was 7.1 percent.
Israel begins new settlement, despite U.S. opposition
The Peace Now movement called the move proof that "Netanyahu is not ready to commit to a two-state solution" and is striving to "prevent the creation of a Palestinian state."
Supreme Court upholds California medical pot law
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from two hold-out counties in Southern California that objected to the state's 13-year-old medical marijuana law and claimed it should be struck down as violating the federal drug control act.
Girl Scouts exposed: Lessons in lesbianism
When many parents think of Girl Scouts, they imagine young girls in uniform selling Thin Mints and Tagalong cookies – not learning about stone labyrinths, world peace, global warming, yoga, avatars, smudging incense, Zen gardens and feminist, communist and lesbian role models.
The Decline and Fall of the Globalist Empire
By Joe Schembrie
To bring manufacturing back to America, we don't need tariffs. We need to end the Globalist interventionist policies that distort economic incentives into driving away the bulk of our manufacturing base.
The Disease of Permanent War
By Chris Hedges
The embrace by any society of permanent war is a parasite that devours the heart and soul of a nation. Permanent war extinguishes liberal, democratic movements. It turns culture into nationalist cant. It degrades and corrupts education and the media, and wrecks the economy.
The U.S. is Using White Phosphorous in Afghanistan
By Dave Lindorff
When doctors started reporting that some of the victims of the US bombing of several villages in Farah Province last week an attack that left between 117 and 147 civilians dead, most of them women and children were turning up with deep, sharp burns on their body that “looked like” they’d been caused by white phosphorus, the US military was quick to deny responsibility.
Robot warriors will get a guide to ethics
When and what to fire will be part of hardware and software 'package' Court tosses case over GPS tracking
A Watervliet man will get a new trial on burglary charges after the state's top court ruled Tuesday it was wrong for a police investigator to slap a GPS device on the defendant's van to track his movements without a search warrant.
Audit the Fed, Then End It!
By Ron Paul
I have been very pleased with the progress of my legislation, HR 1207, which calls for a complete audit of the Federal Reserve and removes many significant barriers towards transparency of our monetary system.
American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper
By Stanislav Mishin
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed, against the backdrop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
Madoff Victims Investigated
The criminal investigation into who knew about Bernard L. Madoff's massive fraud has expanded to include some of his highest-profile investors, according to people familiar with the matter.
Brazil and China eye plan to axe dollar
Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president.
The move follows recent Chinese challenges to the status of the dollar as the world’s leading international currency.
Torture revelations shed light on lead-up to Iraq War, Plame outing
The recent revelation that the CIA waterboarded two al Qaeda detainees in an attempt to force them to confess to a non-existent link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein sheds fresh light on several puzzling episodes during the lead-up to the Iraq War.
From the you this was coming department: Can you catch swine flu from money?
It doesn't get talked about much, but paper currency -- the dollars, fives, 10s and 20s most people routinely touch every day -- can spread viruses from one person to another. So if you have contact with money that an infected individual has also handled, there's a possibility of catching the flu.
(Repace money with what? Microchips?)
Thousands protest Guatemala's alleged political killing
Thousands of Guatemalans took to the streets on Sunday demanding justice in the case of a slain lawyer who eerily accused the President of ordering his murder in a video that shook the country.
2 alleged spies flee Lebanon to Israel
Mathematics professor suspected of being part of Israeli espionage ring slips under border fence with his family; another suspect also escapes. Lebanese internal security chief: We have begun to crack the infrastructure of Israeli spy rings
Obama says Israeli settlement building must be stopped
US President Barack Obama said Monday after crucial talks with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israeli settlement building in the West Bank must be "stopped."
MK: Expansion of settlement 'slap in Obama's face'
Contractors tour Maskiot as Netanyahu lands in Washington; council chairman says timing 'coincidental', but Peace Now head claims planned expansion 'clear message to US'
FBI infiltrated Iowa anti-war group before GOP convention
An FBI informant and an undercover Minnesota sheriff's deputy spied on political activists in Iowa City last year before the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Break free of this world wide delusion
The web is in trouble. Last week craigslist, a vast classified-ads site, had to abandon its “erotic services” category because of claims that it was an “online brothel” being used by sexual predators. And in France L’Oréal discovered eBay could not be forced to stop selling cheap knock-offs of its products.
Our man in Bilderberg: Six days to lost innocence
Thanks to my needing the loo in the department of government security, I've finally found out what's been happening to me; why my world has turned 16 shades of meatball since stumbling six days ago into the mad, bad and dangerous-to-know world of Bilderberg. My story is over. Here's how it ends ...
Economy limiting services of local police
The recession is altering local law enforcement in the U.S. by forcing some agencies to close precincts, merge with other departments or even shut down.
At Geithner's Treasury, Key Decisions on Hold
Seven weeks after the Treasury Department announced that it was ousting General Motors chief G. Richard Wagoner Jr. in the federal bailout of the company, he is still technically on GM's payroll.
U.S. stirs a hornet's nest in Pakistan
By Eric Margolis
Pakistan finally bowed to Washington's angry demands last week by unleashing its military against rebellious Pashtun tribesmen of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) -- collectively mislabelled "Taliban" in the West.
Cops gone wild
For years, local residents have whispered to one another to stay off the roads at night during National Police Week because of all the police cars swerving wildly after the bars close. This year, the Metropolitan Police took the unusual step of ticketing cruisers because so many were parked illegally. Roll Call ran two photos last week of out-of-state police cars parked in a handicap spot and a space reserved for Zipcars. Emergency fire lanes across the city were blocked by police cars.
Detainee Interrogation: A Road Not Taken
A June 2005 memorandum (pdf) prepared by Mr. Zelikow and Gordon R. England, the acting deputy secretary of defense, proposed a comprehensive approach to detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists, that the authors said would be compatible with existing legal standards. But their approach was rejected by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Mr. Zelikow recalled in his testimony.
Dead from swine flu 6, dead from regular flu 13,000
Since January, more than 13,000 people have died of complications from seasonal flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly report on the causes of death in the nation.
Top U.S. officials can't be sued for post-9/11 abuse
The former U.S. attorney general and the FBI director cannot be subjected to a lawsuit by a Pakistani man claiming abuse while imprisoned in New York after the September 11, 2001, attacks the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
H1N1 Swine Flu Likely Already Infecting 100,000 Americans, Admits CDC
H1N1 influenza (swine flu) has spread beyond the ability of the CDC to track it, leading one of its health authorities (Daniel Jernigan) to admit that 100,000 Americans are likely already infected by the swine flu.
Woman cuffed for not holding escalator handrail
Anyone who has ridden an escalator and bothered to pay attention has seen – and likely ignored – little signs suggesting riders hold the grimy handrail.
VIPs At Secret Summit
ARMED guards are patrolling the grounds of the Athenian Riviera’s luxurious Astir Palace resort this weekend to ensure impenetrable privacy for a coterie of A1 celebrities – but don’t ask who they are.
Atlantis Astronauts Take Final Hubble Spacewalk
Atlantis astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustal started work an hour early on the fifth and final spacewalk of the mission to repair the aging space telescope. Once they finish performing repairs on the 19-year-old Hubble, it will never again undergo a servicing mission in space.
Our man at Bilderberg: I should be ashamed
You can't quite make out the face of the Bilderberg delegate on the waterskis, but I'm pretty sure from his shape that it isn't Ken Clarke. Is it the US deputy secretary of state, James Steinberg? No, Steinberg prefers a shorter rope. "Next year I bring a bigger lens," says Paul Dorneanu, the young Romanian Bilderberg hunter who took the photo.
Privacy advocates campaign against 'whole-body imaging' machines
Privacy advocates plan to call on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to suspend use of "whole-body imaging," the airport security technology that critics say performs "a virtual strip search" and produces "naked" pictures of passengers, CNN has learned.
Internet may go from free to fee
How much would you pay to read this page? At about 2,000 of the 50,000 or so words in the printed version of the Financial Times, it should in theory be worth about 4 per cent of the newspaper’s cover price – 10 US cents, 17½ euro cents or 8p.
More anti-Second Amendment proposed in Congress (Guilty until proven innocent)
On May 13 Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy and Congressman Steve Israel (NY-02) hosted a press conference to announce the introduction of the No Fly, No Buy Act, which seeks to close the ‘terror gap’ by preventing people whose names appear on the Transportation Security Administration’s terrorist “no fly list” from being eligible to buy guns.
Complaint seeks disbarment of Bush lawyers
A coalition of liberal groups filed petitions Monday seeking disbarment of Bush administration attorneys linked to memos on harsh interrogation techniques of detainees.
WHO chief does not raise swine flu alert level
The chief of the World Health Organization says she is not raising the world swine flu alert level just yet. Several countries including Britain, Japan and China had urged the UN health agency to change how it decides to raise the alert level.
New flu spreads in Japan
Japan confirmed on Monday 125 people, many of whom had not been abroad, had been infected with the new strain of H1N1 flu after New York recorded its first death from the virus and Chile reported its first two cases.
World's elite meet secretly in Athens
This year's invitees also included U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner; Larry Summers, the director of the U.S. National Economic Council; the Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke; World Bank President Robert Zoellick and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.
Google joins Bilderberg cabal
Daniel Estulin, author of "The True Story of the Bilderberg Group," said before the confab the main topic of the agenda for this meeting was the world economy. He said his sources inside the group told him the movers and shakers would be discussing two options – "either a prolonged, agonizing depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline, and poverty ... or an intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency."
Huge New York rehearsal for next terror strike
Hundreds of firefighters and police swarmed Ground Zero Sunday, the site where the World Trade Center once stood, in the largest security exercise here since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
As part of an elaborate dress rehearsal for a possible future terror strike, rescue workers exploded simulated bombs in a commuter train tunnel linking Manhattan to neighboring New Jersey, burrowed beneath the Hudson River.
The Lethal Media Silence on Kent State's Smoking Guns
By Bob Fitrakis
The 1970 killings by National Guardsmen of four students during a peaceful anti-war demonstration at Kent State University have now been shown to be cold-blooded, premeditated official murder. But the definitive proof of this monumental historic reality is not, apparently, worthy of significant analysis or comment in today's mainstream media.
Sixth death is linked to swine flu in U.S.
A New York assistant principal becomes the city's first victim. A health official says complications probably played a role in the man's death.
Pakistan Is Rapidly Adding Nuclear Arms, U.S. Says
Members of Congress have been told in confidential briefings that Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal even while racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program.
Obama Covers Up Pro-Abortion Record at Notre Dame, Heckled During Speech
After weeks of intense opposition and controversy surrounding President Barack Obama's commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame, Obama did what many observers expected him to do. He attempted to seek middle ground in the abortion debate and covered up his extensive pro-abortion record.
Under Rumsfeld, Pentagon published Bible verses on top-secret intel reports
In a lengthy article on Donald Rumsfeld’s rocky tenure as Defense Secretary, GQ published never-before-seen cover sheets from top-secret intelligence briefings produced by Rumsfeld’s Pentagon. Starting in the days surrounding the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the cover sheets featured inspirational Bible verses printed over military images, “and were delivered by Rumsfeld himself to the White House” to the president, “who referred to America’s war on terror as a ‘crusade.’”
Obama’s Animal Farm: Bigger, Bloodier Wars Equal Peace and Justice
By James Petras
Now President Obama has elevated the most notorious of the psychopaths, General Stanley McChrystal, to head the US and NATO military command in Afghanistan. McChrystal’s rise to leadership is marked by his central role in directing special operations teams engaged in extrajudicial assassinations, systematic torture, bombing of civilian communities and search and destroy missions. He is the very embodiment of the brutality and gore that accompanies military-driven empire building. Between September 2003 and August 2008, McChrystal directed the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations (JSO) Command which operates special teams in overseas assassinations.
Blood & Shadows
By Jim Kirwan
Another hundred days spent in the continuing global occupation by the forces of Shadow Governments worldwide: If anything has been changed here by Obama, those decisions served only to increase our problems.
U.K. Patriot Act Encroaches on Public Photography
Growing outrage is brewing among photographers in general over anecdotal evidence that police are also invoking parts of the Terrorism Act of 2000 to harass casual photographers and tourists.
Patriot Act Overrides Constitution Across America
“Never in my worst nightmare did I ever think that it would be my own government that I would have to protect my children from,” Lundeby said. “This is the United States, and I feel like I live in a Third World country now.”
Secretary Loophole
When Timothy Geithner worked at the International Monetary Fund, he managed a feat that probably very few Americans have even contemplated: he got himself reimbursed by his employer for taxes he never paid.
The 81% Tax Increase
[In my latest column, I look at the new Social Security and Medicare trustees reports. They show that the discounted present value of the unfunded liability of these programs is now more than $100 trillion—twice the private net worth of the entire country. We will need to raise income taxes by 81% to pay all the benefits that have been promised under current law.
As bad as that is, however, Social Security's problems are trivial compared to Medicare's. Its trustees also issued a report this week. On page 69 we see that just part A of that program, which pays for hospital care, has an unfunded liability of $36.4 trillion in perpetuity.
John Sifton: Torture Investigation Should Focus on Estimated 100 Prisoner Deaths
We get reaction to the Senate hearing on torture from private investigator and attorney John Sifton, executive director of One World Research, which carries out research for law firms and human rights groups. Sifton has conducted extensive investigations into the CIA interrogation and detention program. He says any investigation of Bush administration torture and rendition should include an estimated 100 homicides of prisoners in US custody.
Giving Some Love to the Inquisition
Robert Parry
Beyond the inhumanity of the Inquisition, there is the troubling fact that the torture tactics did “work” only in the sense that they extracted many false confessions and got victims to implicate other individuals who were, in turn, persecuted, tortured and put to death for their religious beliefs.
BPA Levels in Adults Up 70 Percent After Drinking From Plastic Bottles
Seventy-seven Harvard student volunteers experienced a nearly 70 percent increase in urinary levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a plastics component and synthetic estrogen linked to cancer, reproductive system damage and other serious conditions, after drinking cold beverages from BPA-laden polycarbonate bottles for just one week, according to researchers from Harvard University and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Norway trade union: Boycott Israel if peace process fails
Norway's largest labor union urged the Scandinavian country on Saturday to lead an international boycott of Israel if it did not reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Who, Me? Yes You!
By Peter Schiff
When, during the invasion of Iraq, the United States Government issued its famous deck of playing cards with the 52 arch villains of the Iraqi police state, Saddam Hussein’s face adorned the Ace of Spades. If the Obama Administration wanted to engage in a similar public relations campaign for the real estate crisis, the top card should be reserved for Alan Greenspan.
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine
By Stephen Lendman
International law demands that full "compensation....be paid" to compensate for what Israel plundered and destroyed. Palestinians want self-determination and "long-term peace" and security. They have every right to expect it. "We appeal to all peace loving people in the world to work to support" their struggle. Regional "peace, democracy, progress" and justice depend on it.
Robots That Kill For America
We are surrounded by robots, from automated dogs and vacuum cleaners at home to assistants in operating rooms and on the factory floor. The most influential (and the greatest number) of these robots, however, are in a place few Americans see: the battlefield. More than anything, robots are changing the way war works.
The Corporate ‘Person’
No ‘person’ can own another ‘person’ in the United States. Therefore, if a corporation IS a legal ‘person’ under the protection and jurisdiction of The Constitution, doesn’t that mean that they can’t be owned, and that they cannot own other ‘persons’ (i.e. – other corporations). If The Constitution applies to the Corporate ‘person’, doesn’t that mean that the WHOLE Constitution applies to them?
Phoenix News Station Reports on Illuminati
"They very well were the Illuminati, at least in Italy -- powerful people behind the scenes, operating in secrecy," said Levy, who has been in a legal battle with the Vatican for years.
Demonstrations against the secret meeting of the Bilderbergs in “Astera” hotel
Demonstrations against the secret meeting of the world leaders, calling their elite club “Bilderberg”, took place in front of “Astera” hotel in Athens. For the past few days the hotel has been guarded by divers, agents, and paratroops- just like in a Hollywood movie, because this has been the location of the meeting of some of the most powerful people on the planet, including kings and ministers, diplomats and businessmen, journalists and scientists.
Daniel Estulin on Bilderberg 2009
Veteran Bilderberg researcher Daniel Estulin joins The Corbett Report to discuss this year's Bilderberg conference.
