August 11, 2013

Yemenis Call US Drone Strikes an "Overreaction" to Al Qaida Threat

Playing Whack-A-Mole droning suspected "terrorists" isn't so much fun, if you are
the "suspect" or if you happen to live next door to one.

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Yemenis Call US Drone Strikes an Overreaction to Al Qaida Threat
10 August 2013 07:05 * By Adam Baron * McClatchy Newspapers | Report

SANAA, Yemen — The United States’ launching of eight drone strikes in Yemen in the span of 13 days has ignited widespread outrage in the country. The anger over the strikes, which came as an al Qaida-related threat shuttered U.S. embassies and consulates in Yemen and 15 other countries, has overwhelmed attention to the threat itself, which many here view skeptically anyway.

“In the end, I think the American reaction has been far more than has been reasonable,” said Abdulghani al Iryani, a Sanaa-based political analyst. “It comes off almost as a show of strength. But, ultimately, it may end up backfiring, as al Qaida is getting more attention now than they would have even if they carried out an attack.”

~snip~

The surge of strikes, the most concentrated series of drone hits since 2002, has come in four provinces, Abyan in the south, Shabwa and Hadramawt in Yemen’s southeast and Mareb in the country’s center. That alone underscores the difficulty of combating al Qaida’s Yemen affiliate, al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Earlier this year, the central government was able to push one of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula’s main affiliates, Ansar al Shariah, from strongholds it had seized during the push by dissidents to topple the government of then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh. But the bulk of the fighters were able to escape to other parts of the country, including areas with comparatively little history of an al Qaida presence, such as Hadramawt, which has emerged as a focus of recent U.S. strikes. A number of the strikes appear to have been aimed at senior al Qaida figures in this country, but it isn’t clear how many of the targets have been killed.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/18090-yemenis-call-us-drone-strikes-an-overreaction-to-al-qaida-threat

August 11, 2013

The U.S. Empire Provokes Terrorism

The U.S. Empire Provokes Terrorism
By Sheldon Richman * OpEdNews * 8/10/2013 at 16:51:26

Perhaps we'll never know if intercepted chatter between al-Qaeda leaders -- which prompted the U.S. government to close dozens of diplomatic missions in the Muslim world and to issue a worldwide travel alert -- was serious or not. But mischief shouldn't be ruled out. Without cost or risk, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's successor, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen), can have a big laugh as they send American officials running around as though their hair were on fire. Why should they attempt to pull off some spectacular but risky action when they can disrupt things -- closing embassies is no small deal -- so easily? As a bonus, President Obama's claim about al-Qaeda's degradation is revealed as an empty boast. (Yemeni officials claim they foiled a plot. But who knows?)

The United States has been fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan for a dozen years, but not because the former rulers are a direct threat to the American people. Rather, the Bush and Obama administrations insisted, if the Taliban was not defeated, Afghanistan would again become a sanctuary for al-Qaeda. Now we see (if we hadn't already) that this was a mere rationalization for the projection of American power. Al-Qaeda doesn't need Afghanistan. Bin Laden wasn't found there. Al-Zawahiri presumably isn't there. And the latest alleged unspecified threat comes from Yemen, 2,000 miles from Kabul. Doesn't that expose the 12 years of American-inflicted death and destruction, not to mention the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars, as a monumental waste of life and treasure?

~snip~

Does (the 9/11/01 attack on the WTC) mean the U.S. government must maintain a global empire in order to eradicate the sources of anti-American terrorism? Absolutely not -- quite the contrary. It is the global empire that provoked the al-Qaeda attacks in the first place. Contrary to the popular notion that the organization struck U.S. "interests" out of the blue while our country minded its own business, the U.S. government for decades has supported violent regimes in the Middle East and North Africa: from Saudi Arabia's corrupt and brutal monarchy, to the Egyptian military dictatorship, to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, to Israel's unconscionable occupation of Palestine.

American administrations, Republican and Democrat, have directly inflicted death and suffering on people in the Muslim world -- through the 1990s economic sanctions on Iraq, for example. (Today's sanctions on Iran now impose hardship on another group of Muslims.) Every time an al-Qaeda official or operative has the chance, he points out that his hatred of America stems not from its "freedoms" but from this bloody record. Unrelenting U.S. drone attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia, in which noncombatants are killed, don't win friends. They recruit enemies bent on revenge.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-U-S-Empire-Provokes-T-by-Sheldon-Richman-130810-784.html

August 11, 2013

WTF is wrong with this country?

In the USA:
Two-Year-Old Taken from Parents Because They Smoked Pot is Murdered in Foster Care
It is time for Child Protective Services to recognize that foster care is potentially more damaging to a child than a parent's marijuana use.
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/taken-pot-smoking-parents-2-year-old-murdered-foster-care

Meanwhile, in Switzerland:
In Switzerland, Marijuana Use Helps Keep Prisons Calm and Safe
The Swiss prison guards agree that marijuana use among inmates is a good thing.
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/switzerland-marijuana-use-helps-keep-prisons-calm-and-safe

I mean, WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with us? This is so fucking nuts. We should just give all this
land back to the Native Americans and concede that we have totally botched our chance at ever
becoming any kind of "City on a Hill" that the world would want to emulate because we are so
cool, so democratic, so humane, so compassionate, so just.

August 9, 2013

Obama gets "personal" as rift with Russia over Snowden grows

Obama gets "personal" as rift with Russia over Snowden grows
By Danny Schechter * OpEdNews * 8/8/2013

New York, New York -- When heads of state personally intervene in matters of espionage, and demand that alleged spies be released or extradited, it is unusual -- and highly inappropriate.

It seems clear that President Obama violated that "old rule" by immersing himself so publicly, personally, and blatantly with White House pressure on Vladimir Putin to send the American whistleblower Edward Snowden back to the US, in the spirit of a Monopoly game: to "go directly to jail without passing go."

With the Announcement that the President will not meet with Putin during his forthcoming visit to the G20 meeting in Russia, because he is "disappointed with the Russian Leader," we seem to have taken a walk back down memory lane to the cold war days of tit-for-tat actions and reactions that elevate tensions. In the old days, it was usually Moscow that could be counted on for harsh responses; now it seems to be Washington that has a bad case of acid reflux whenever Putin's name comes up.

It also seems clear that he has taken Putin's decision to grant temporary asylum to Snowden personally, after using all diplomatic channels, family pressure and even a bizarre promise from the Attorney General not to torture Snowden.

Noted Yves Smith on Naked Capitalism:



http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-gets-personal-as-r-by-Danny-Schechter-130808-192.html

August 9, 2013

Death Before NSA Dishonor: Encrypted Services Stage Suicide Revolt

Death Before NSA Dishonor: Encrypted Services Stage Suicide Revolt
Popular sites Lavabit and Silent Circle would rather close down than betray customer privacy in face of government requests they deem 'unconstitutional'
Friday, August 9, 2013 * Common Dreams * by Jon Queally, staff writer

The encrypted email service provider Silent Circle has followed its competitor Lavabit who on Thursday announced it would shutter its services rather than be compelled by the US government to hand over the private data and emails from its customers, one of whom is believed to be NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Supporters of internet freedom and privacy protections were shocked at the news, but also expressing gratitude for what they see as a service provider choosing the protections of it own customers over the threat of lost profits or requests by the government that they deemed inappropriate and unconstitutional.

As Reuters reports:



"Given the impressive powers of the government to obtain emails and records from service providers, both with and without legal authority, it is encouraging to see service providers take steps to limit their ability to access user data," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Kurt Opsahl in a web posting.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/09

August 8, 2013

UNFUCK THE WORLD - JUST SAY 'NO' TO NEOFASCIST "SLAVE V. SLAVE" STATE

JUST SAY 'NO' TO NEOFASCIST "SLAVE V. SLAVE" STATE

August 8, 2013

Brandon Toy: US Wars, Dehumanization, and Me

This is an awesome read, a glimpse inside the head of whistleblower Brandon Toy
...so bookmark as needed, as it is a longish article.
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US Wars, Dehumanization, and Me
Thursday, August 8, 2013 * Common Dreams * Brandon Toy

An Iraq veteran and five-year employee at private defense contracting corporation General Dynamics publicly resigned from the private defense contractor in late July in protest of the company's arming of US-led wars, declaring: "I have always believed that if every foot soldier threw down his rifle war would end. I hereby throw mine down."

Brandon Toy sent his resignation letter in an email to his immediate supervisors, coworkers, and the corporate chain of command, as well as to Common Dreams, who published the statement. The letter has since gone viral, racketing tens of thousands of views on social media sites. In his own words, Toy shares the story of his personal transformation, first as a veteran and then as an employee of a private defense contractor.

The Dehumanization of War

I arrived in Baghdad believing that Iraqis were simple people in need of having civilization thrust upon them, and that we were the enlightened civil ones who would show them the right way to live. To me, they were less than human.

One pivotal night three years ago, I bragged to my wife and cousins about a family I had terrified by pointing my rifle at them to get them to stop in traffic. I laughed about the way the father and mother had frantically waved their arms at me, begging not to be shot.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/08/08-7

August 8, 2013

BREAKING: Obama promises completely "open & transparent" government!

"No More Secrecy!!"

Oh wait, this was in 2008. Never mind.

August 8, 2013

US Gov't Training: "Political dissent = a 'terrorist' security threat"

This is precisely why I feel this whole sorry assed "terrorist" meme is a well-engineered hoax
to implement a 1%er coup d'tat in broad daylight, using OUR tax dollars to enslave us under the
thumb of a draconian 100%-saturation Surveillance & Security State.

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Govt Training Game Marks Political Dissent as 'High Threat'
CyberAwareness Challenge prepares millions of federal employees for peer-policing of 'suspicious' coworkers
August 8, 2013 * Common Dreams * Lauren McCauley, staff writer

How does the government hope to spot the next Edward Snowden? And how can federal employees pitch in to spot the 'threat'? Thanks to a video game dubbed the "CyberAwareness Challenge" created by private contractor Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), federal employees can be trained in the fine arts of password creation, social networking security and stealth peer-policing among coworkers.

(snip)

The game, which is reportedly given to a "wide range of federal employees," takes new hires through a series of tests during which they are challenged to make the "secure" decision. In round three, participants are asked to assess the threat levels posed by their coworkers.

In one instance, the game warns federal workers that they should consider a hypothetical Indian-American woman named Hema a "high threat" because she frequently visits family abroad, has money troubles and "speaks openly of unhappiness with U.S. foreign policy."

In response to these 'indicators,' particularly the note regarding political dissatisfaction, Federation of American Scientists government secrecy expert Steve Aftergood told Huffington Post, "It is not a threat indicator. It could apply to most members of Congress, if not to most Americans. By presenting the matter this way, the slide suggests that overt dissent is a security concern. That is an error."

(snip)

The game was produced in October 2012—one month before the Obama administration finalized its "Stasi-like" Insider Threat policy, revealed last month by McClatchy who reported at the time:

In an initiative aimed at rooting out future leakers and other security violators, President Barack Obama has ordered federal employees to report suspicious actions of their colleagues based on behavioral profiling techniques that are not scientifically proven to work, according to experts and government documents.

The techniques are a key pillar of the Insider Threat Program, an unprecedented government-wide crackdown under which millions of federal bureaucrats and contractors must watch out for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers. Those who fail to report them could face penalties, including criminal charges.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/08-5

August 7, 2013

Greenwald to Reuters: "many more revelations on spying by the U.S. government" to come

I certainly hope that Greenwald knows how to stay safe, has good security
for himself, etc. and that he avoids driving highly computerized automobiles.
I wish him well in what he is doing.

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New U.S. spying revelations coming from Snowden leak: journalist
August 6, 2013 * Reuters * By Anthony Boadles

(Reuters) - Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who published documents leaked by fugitive former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, plans to make new revelations "within the next 10 days or so" on secret U.S. surveillance of the Internet.

"The articles we have published so far are a very small part of the revelations that ought to be published," Greenwald on Tuesday told a Brazilian congressional hearing that is investigating the U.S. internet surveillance in Brazil.

"There will certainly be many more revelations on spying by the U.S. government and how they are invading the communications of Brasil and Latin America," he said in Portuguese.

The Rio de Janeiro-based columnist for Britain's Guardian newspaper said he has recruited the help of experts to understand some of the 15,000 to 20,000 classified documents from the National Security Agency that Snowden passed him, some of which are "very long and complex and take time to read."

Greenwald told Reuters he does not believe the pro-transparency website WikiLeaks had obtained a package of documents from Snowden, and that only he and filmmaker Laura Poitras have complete archives of the leaked material.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/07/us-usa-security-snowden-brazil-idUSBRE97600L20130807