Month: August 2013

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The senator from Illinois who said he was willing to compromise and talk to our enemies is running out of time and is lacking in foreign policy results. The relationship with Russia and Putin has just reached a new low. The West has treated Putin with disdain in earlier years, the former KGB member takes it all in stride and calls bluf on all threats coming his way. The relation with Congress shows no breakthrough and Obama has resorted to send top Republicans to the Middle-East as his envoys. Nice!? Obama is putting his bet on the renewed IP peace talks under leadership of John Kerry in the coming nine months. If these fail, what results will Obama have to show as his legacy of eight years in the White House? Upheaval in the Middle-East, a broken Iraq and Afghanistan in despair on human rights, security and governance. What did Obama’s surge of 33,000 troops achieve in the battle against the Taliban. The opening of the Taliban office in Qatar and its shut down within days is a damning illustration. Perhaps Obama is just trying too hard and has lost his ability to prioritize and relativity. Too much a control freak and thereby passing the threshold of becoming an authoritarian incapable of accepting criticism. I will never understand his choice of key positions for Samantha Power and Susan Rice. Could it be his loyalty to individuals is fogging his judgement to the ultimate goal of US foreign policy? His best choice (by default!) is John Kerry as new Secretary of State.

Obama Administration Winning the Battle Against Journalists’ Rights

(The Contributor) July 24, 2013 – The part of the First Amendment that prohibits “abridging the freedom … of the press” is now up against the wall, as the Obama administration continues to assault the kind of journalism that can expose government secrets.

Last Friday, the administration got what it wanted – an ice-cold chilling effect — from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled on the case of New York Times reporter James Risen. The court “delivered a blow to investigative journalism in America by ruling that reporters have no First Amendment protection that would safeguard the confidentiality of their sources in the event of a criminal trial,” the Guardian reported.

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The Executive Branch fought for that ruling — and is now celebrating. “We agree with the decision,” said a Justice Department spokesman. “We are examining the next steps in the prosecution of this case.” The Risen case, and potentially many others, are now under the ominous shadow of the Appeals Court’s pronouncement: “There is no First Amendment testimonial privilege, absolute or qualified, that protects a reporter from being compelled to testify … in criminal proceedings.”

At the Freedom of the Press Foundation, co-founder Trevor Timm calls the court ruling “the most significant reporter’s privilege decision in decades” and asserts that the court “eviscerated that privilege.” He’s not exaggerating. Press freedom is at stake.

Journalists who can be compelled to violate the confidentiality of their sources, or otherwise go to prison, are reduced to doing little more than providing stenographic services to pass along the official story. That’s what the White House wants.

The federal Fourth Circuit covers the geographical area where most of the U.S. government’s intelligence, surveillance and top-level military agencies — including the NSA and CIA — are headquartered. The ruling “pretty much guts national security journalism in the states in which it matters,” Marcy Wheeler writes.

That court decision came seven days after the Justice Department released its “News Media Policies” report [pdf] announcing “significant revisions to the Department’s policies regarding investigations that involve members of the news media.”

Did the NSA Help New Zealand Spy on a Reporter in Afghanistan?

(Atlantic Wire) – According to Snowden (and The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald), NSA analysts have broad access to collected data. It shares access to data it collects with Britain in a fairly frictionless manner. If New Zealand has similar access privileges, it may not require much approval from NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.

As for whether or not, the Defence Force would seek to surveil a journalist, the Star-Times suggests it would.

An internal Defence document leaked to the Star-Times reveals that defence security staff viewed investigative journalists as “hostile” threats requiring “counteraction”. The classified security manual lists security threats, including “certain investigative journalists” who may attempt to obtain “politically sensitive information”.

We know that the United States government has sought similar metadata on journalists. In May, the Associated Press revealed that the FBI had subpoeaned a number of records related to phone numbers the agency maintains. It’s not clear if that subpoena was to the metadata database compiled by the NSA or directly to the phone companies. (The metadata is collected by the NSA to track terror suspects, but the FBI can use information from it with a subpoena for criminal investigations.)

The strongest evidence against the idea again comes from the AP, in the form of a partial admission from the New Zealand government — one that even the reporter for the Star-Times called “unsettling” to his story.

New Zealand Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman acknowledged the existence of an embarrassing confidential order that lists investigative journalists alongside spies and terrorists as potential threats to New Zealand’s military. That document was leaked to Hager, who provided a copy to The Associated Press. Coleman said the order will be modified to remove references to journalists.

 He also said the New Zealand Defense Force had conducted an extensive search of its records over the weekend and had found no evidence that either it or any other agency had spied on Stephenson.

This is one of the side effects of the Snowden revelations. There was a time when a flat denial by a government would be sufficient. Now, governments that are complicit in the NSA’s surveillance are far less likely to get the benefit of the doubt. And it may take some time before we learn if that skepticism is warranted.

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’

Yemeni journalist who reported US missile strike is released from jail

(The Guardian) July 23, 2013 – A Yemeni journalist who was kept in prison for years at the apparent request of the Obama administration has been released in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, according to local reports.

Abdulelah Haider Shaye was imprisoned in 2010, after reporting that an attack on a suspected al-Qaida training camp in southern Yemen for which the Yemeni government claimed responsibility had actually been carried out by the United States. Shaye had visited the site and discovered pieces of cruise missiles and cluster bombs not found in Yemen’s arsenal, according to a Jeremy Scahill dispatch in the Nation.

Shaye was arrested in August 2010 and charged, the following month, with being an al-Qaida operative himself. He was known for his ability to make contacts with extremist groups, skills that led to regular work reporting for western media outlets such as ABC News and the New York Times. At his trial, his reporting work was marshaled as evidence of terrorist ties. In January 2011, he was sentenced to a five-year term.

The charges against Shaye provoked an outcry among tribal leaders, human-rights activists and fellow journalists. Bowing to the pressure, then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh pardoned Shaye weeks after his sentencing. But in a February 2011 phone call with Saleh, President Barack Obama “expressed his concern over the release” of Shaye. The pardon was revoked.

Twitter account Jeremy Scahill: On this night, I honor the newly freed journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye. Never should have been imprisoned pic.twitter.com/bGtTLBysVf

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Abdulelah Haider Shaye, imprisoned Yemeni journalist, reportedly freed (VIDEO)

Original story as reported in my diary:
Al-Awlaki Family Members Killed
By Oui on Sat Dec 26th, 2009 at 12:49:53 PM PDT

Yemen seems to be a hotspot where the U.S. has focused to counteract Al-Qaeda. For months heavy fighting by government forces with U.S. aid and CIA intelligence. The forces of Saudi Arabia have entered the battle zone along the extensive border. The influx of Somalian refugees has compounded the problems and stability of the Muslim state. Recently, U.S. cruise missile attack caused heavy casualties including 14 Bedouin children.

[Update] More than 120 people were reportedly killed by an airstrike in Yemen’s Saada province — and the Huthi insurgency is blaming the U.S. Air Force. (RT video)

I don’t know who Kenny Chesney is. I have never before even heard or seen the name. The guy’s got 14 gold records. I could give a shit. But if your job is to go to work with 52 other highly-trained athletes, most of whom who are black, you probably shouldn’t get caught on video derisively calling people niggers at a Kenny Chesney concert.

Now the Philadelphia Eagles have a problem.

It began when their star wide receiver, Jeremy Maclin, blew out his knee during the first week of training camp. That meant that a little known wide receiver named Riley Cooper was slotted in for a starting role. Then Riley Cooper went to a country music concert and started threatening to beat up niggers. Then the Eagles’ star running back, LeSean McCoy said he has no respect for Riley Cooper and would no longer consider him his friend.

The Eagles fined Mr. Cooper and are going to make him take sensitivity training, which just seems like some dotting the ‘i’ waste of time to me. McCoy kind of put his finger on the problem when he said this:

“I’m thinking like, I think I know him very well and then you do something like that, when you don’t think no cameras are around, you don’t think nobody’s around, everything is in closed doors, you show who you really are,” McCoy said. “I just think I know him a little better than I thought I did.”

There are a lot of assholes in pro sports, and one guy from the New England Patriots is about to go on trial for murder. So, getting drunk at a concert and letting your inner redneck out a little bit isn’t that big of a deal in the greater scope of things.

I was watching a segment on this brouhaha on The NFL Network, and one of the commentators who is a retired black NFL player said that he’d go to management and tell them that he didn’t want to play with Riley. He also explained that Cooper’s presence in the locker room would hurt the team’s chemistry and cause problems, which is almost definitely true.

That got me thinking a bit.

I know that international soccer has had very harsh penalties for racist comments and behavior for a long time. But, in America, it seems kind of strange that a person can be fined by their employer for saying something racist. Fired? Sure. But fined just seems like a restriction of free speech. It’s like, if you don’t want to be associated with me anymore because I’ve made a jerk out of myself, then that’s understandable, but don’t tell me what to say. Right?

Then there is the matter of a player going to management and trying to get a guy fired for something he said at a concert. Okay, you legitimately don’t want to play with the guy and you think his presence will hurt the team’s prospects. But do you take it to management? Or do you let management know by talking to the press?

For his part, Riley Cooper has been contrite and apologetic. His quarterback did several years in jail for torturing dogs, so it’s not like he’s the biggest asshole on the team. And it’s possible that he’ll learn something from this and be a better person.

I don’t know. It’s not a big deal, but it somehow raised a lot of questions for me. If I were his coach, I wouldn’t want him around. Of course, if I were Riley Cooper, I probably wouldn’t want to be running full speed on a football field at a bunch of guys who don’t take kindly to people talking about beating up niggers at country music concerts.

He made his bed and he can lie in it, but I still think shame is the most effective weapon against racism.

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Today I saw a BBC news coverage of Nada al-Ahdal in court, the judge ordered her to stay with her uncle in Sana’a and her parents will also move to the capital of Yemen.

VIDEO: 11-year-old Yemeni girl flees home to avoid forced marriage

(JPost) – The Internet video of an 11-year-old Yemeni girl who ran away from home after her parents sought to force her into an arranged marriage has gone viral.

The girl, Nada al-Ahdal, is seen in the video, which was translated and first posted by the Middle East Media Research Institute, protesting her parents’ decision while accusing them of threatening her life if she refused to go along with their plans.

Link to video YouTube

“Go ahead and marry me off. I’ll kill myself,” she is seen saying. “Don’t they have any compassion? I’m better off dead. I’d rather die,” she continued. “It’s not [the kids’] fault. I’m not the only one. It can happen to any child. … They have killed our dreams, they have killed everything inside us. There’s nothing left. There is no upbringing. This is criminal, this is simply criminal.”

BBC Report: Court decides girl can stay with uncle in Sana’a

Heh. It’s funny to see someone trolling Mitch McConnell from the right. As if Sen. McConnell is too accommodating to the president. What a joke!

Meanwhile, the Human Turtle is basically tied in the polls with Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, and the majority of Kentucky voters want McConnell to go fly a kite.

And he’s doing such a good job. Just today, the Senate filibustered the appropriation bill for Transportation and HUD even though six Republicans voted for it in committee. So, the bill is good but we can’t have a vote on it because…?

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As heads explode in Washington DC at 1000 Pennsylvania Ave and in US Congress on Capitol Hill …

Hypocrisy in US foreign policy reaches a new summit as presidents come and go, President Obama has sent two high-ranking officials to Egypt as peace envoys: Obama Sends McCain and Graham to General Sisi.

Snowden granted 1-year asylum in Russia, leaves airport

(RT.com) –  NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is allowed to enter the country’s territory. Snowden’s legal representative Anatoly Kucherena made the statement, with his words later confirmed by Russia’s Federal Migration service.

“I have just handed over to him papers from the Russian Immigration Service. They are what he needs to leave the transit zone.”  

Kucherena showed a photocopy of the document to the press. According to it, Snowden is free to stay in Russia until at least July 31, 2014. His asylum status may be extended annually upon request.

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Russia is confident that the latest development in the Snowden case will not affect US President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Moscow, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said.

“We are aware of the atmosphere being created in the US over Snowden, but we didn’t get any signals [indicating a possible cancellation of the visit] from American authorities,” he told RIA Novosti.

CNN Reports: White House ‘extremely disappointed’

• Snowden plans to settle and work in Russia

US ‘evaluating utility’ of summit with Russia after Snowden granted asylum

(RT.com) July 23, 2013 – The White House is re-evaluating whether US President, Barack Obama, needs to participate in the autumn’s summit with Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, after Moscow granted asylum to NSA leaker, Edward Snowden.

Jay Carney stressed the US did not view Edward Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum in Russia on Thursday, as a whistleblower or dissident saying the NSA former contractor is accused of leaking classified information in his home country.

“We see this as an unfortunate development and we are extremely disappointed by it,” Carney said adding the White House was set to contact the Russian authorities.

Carney stated that while no scheduling announcements were being made, the US is inspecting the worth of a summit with Russia. “We are evaluating the utility of the summit in light of this.”

Snowden Asylum Damages US-Russia Ties – US Senators

NSA holds emergency hearing to fight off anti-surveillance amendment in Congress

The National Security Agency has invited certain members of Congress to a top secret, invitation only meeting to discuss a proposed amendment that could end the NSA’s ability to conduct dragnet surveillance on millions of Americans.

A letter circulated only to select lawmakers early Tuesday announced that NSA Director General Keith B. Alexander would host a question and answer session with members of Congress in preparation of a vote on Capitol Hill expected to involve an amendment introduced last month by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan).

That amendment, a provision tacked along to a Department of Defense Appropriations Act along with nearly 100 others, aims to greatly diminish the NSA’s domestic spying powers in the wake of disclosures attributed to Edward Snowden, a 30-year-old former employee of Booz Allen Hamilton.

Tight NSA spy vote gives hope to program critics

• NSA Director Keith Alexander Booed At Hackers Conference

Women’s rights are obviously not at the forefront of Pashtun or Afghan culture, and I disagree with how they treat women. But I think it will take some time for the culture to change. I don’t think it is some kind of failure on our part that we haven’t be able to do more to change their traditional way of doing things. It’s a tricky issue, too. Where is the line between universal rights for women and respect for indigenous culture? Forget about the U.S. as an occupying power for a moment and think about our obligations as a member of the United Nations.

Aren’t we supposed to support protections against child marriage, polygamy and violence against women? Why do the Pashtun think such protections are anti-Islamic? Polygamy I can understand, but child marriage?

It’s their country and we ought to leave, but all people should be concerned about how women are treated in Afghanistan.

I’m not sure if this is reality-based, but I like it.

Representative Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, pressed the president for his strategy in the face of signals by Republicans that they would demand serious concessions before they voted to raise the government’s statutory borrowing limit.

“It’s a simple strategy, Peter. We’re not negotiating,” the president responded, according to Mr. Welch. “I’ve got nothing in my pocket. The cupboard is bare.”

Will he really be willing to watch our credit rating be destroyed and the global economy collapse?

There’s been a lot of speculation that Manning’s release of documents to WikiLeaks and their subsequent publication caused the deaths of US intelligence assets.

We recently saw this in a front page story: Bradley Manning Cleared of Strongest Charge

No need to speculate any longer; the answer is simply no.
During the sentencing hearing for Manning, Brigadier Robert Carr initially tried to mislead the court by stating:

“As a result of the Afghan logs I know of one individual killed – an Afghan national who had a relationship with the US government and the Taliban came out and said publicly that they had killed him as a result of him being associated with information in these logs,”

Brigadier Carr was a senior counter-intelligence officer who headed the Information Review Task Force that investigated the impact of WikiLeaks disclosures on behalf of the Defense Department.

On cross-examination, his story changed:

But under defence cross-examination Carr conceded that the victim’s name had not be included in the war logs made public by WikiLeaks. Asked by Lind whether the individual who was killed was tied to the disclosures, Carr replied: “The Taliban killed him and tied him to the disclosures. We went back and looked for the name in the disclosures. The name of the individual killed was not in the disclosures.”

On the basis of the witness’s clarification, Lind sustained an objection from the defence and scrubbed from the official record any reference to the alleged killing by the Taliban.

Link: Bradley Manning leak did not result in deaths by enemy forces, court hears

Manning has already suffered enough by the government’s prosecution and persecution. Time served should suffice as punishment.

Clarence Thomas’ wife sparks effort to impose tougher Supreme Court ethics

Last week it was revealed that Thomas’ wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, was part of a secret group that hoped to advance the conservative agenda. She had previously founded Liberty Central, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group that opposed the Affordable Care Act.

Scalia and Thomas have also participated in secretive political strategy sessions hosted by Koch Industries.

Actually, the sponsors of the bill are all Democrats, progressives for the most part (Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) – my representative! – Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). They are the ones who were “sparked” by the Justice Thomas and his humble stay at home wife money grubbing lobbyist and wingnut welfare recipient, Ginny. The bill has no chance of passing out of committee in the House (or the Senate for that matter), so it is, in effect, a political statement, and one not likely to garner much national attention outside the states of its sponsors, since our corporate media is as ethically challenged as are the Tom and Ginny Thomas. I had to laugh, however, when I read the story after first reading the headline. Still, any hypothetical Onion story with that headline probably would have been funnier.

By the By, Clarence Thomas is truly an Uncle Tom, so there’s that.

Ps. Here’s hoping his nephew has recovered fully from being punched, tasered and his resultant epileptic seizure.