Monday, April 14, 2014

Chasing the Muslim Brotherhood movement moving to London .. / Abdel Bari Atwan

It was not strange or surprising, to be the Egyptian authorities of the first welcoming and BETA decision of David Cameron, the British prime minister to conduct an urgent investigation on the Muslim Brotherhood, and a comprehensive review of their thoughts and practices, including accusations Boukovhm behind an attack on a tourist bus in Egypt, killing three tourists In the month of February last year. Britain is under great pressure
By the three major Arab states waging a bloody war against the Muslim Brotherhood and classified as a movement "terrorist" are Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and practiced these countries put pressure on the British government to ban the movement, and not to allow the transformation of Britain into "safe haven" for leadership . The independence of the British courts, and asylum laws "flexible" and generous aid Social Security Corporation, are all factors that have made ​​Britain, and London in particular, is a magnet for political Islam and its activists, in the stage of the nineties, after the end of the war in Afghanistan for the Afghan mujahideen and their fellow Arabs, the flow of thousands of these to Britain and settled there, including the people turned to the leaders of the "Al Qaeda" later, such as Mr. Khalid Al-Fawaz ambassador organization former, which opened an office in public in Oxford Street, or Mr. Abu Musab al-Suri (Mustafa Setmariam) and Omar Abu Omar (Abu Qatada) . Nothing to fear the three countries mentioned above is what can be done by the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood who had taken refuge or may resort to Britain, and settle in, is what we can do out of the media centers shall mobilize political opposition and inciting against the regimes in their home countries, because the British laws do not impose restrictions on freedom of expression, and allow easy to open channels of television and daily newspapers or issuing periodic unlike the laws of other European countries. *** It is ironic that Saudi Arabia was the first to take advantage of this open media climate, when, issued its newspaper "Middle East" of the British capital, followed by the launch station "MBC" television in order to address the "public opinion" in her first, Then the rest of the Arab countries and influence policies in line with Saudi Arabia, and also the irony that these media influence was very friendly with the Muslim Brotherhood movement and their thoughts and support the jihad in Afghanistan, and it turns out this trend clearly through the issuance of the newspaper "Muslims." Things have changed, movement "Brotherhood" has moved from the list of allies to the list of enemies in recent years, and has become a source of threat Systems because it moved, according to its opponents, the movement of advocacy, to organize political transboundary works with all possible energy to the heart of the systems and access to power. Britain also changed since the attacks of July 2005 by four "suicide bombers" shared the ideology of "al-Qaeda" in the underground trains to London, and led to the deaths of nearly sixty people, in addition to wounding hundreds, paralyzing economic life and instilling panic in the ranks of the British. Tolerance, the British began to shrink gradually toward Islamist militant groups in general, and authorities began to impose restrictions militant to enter the preachers and clerics leading Islamist from the likes of Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was refused entry, and Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic movement in the floors occupied since 1948, and suffered many of the mosques and businesses owned by Muslims to the attacks and violence, and it came to an end the issuance of Britain for the first time in its history, laws that allow the withdrawal of nationality from any Muslim engages in acts of "terror", including the fight against the regime in Syria or in the ranks of militant groups such as young Muslim in Somalia, has been actually pull 36 nationalities so far most of the owners of the Arabs. The biggest obstacle that stands in front to meet the pressures of the three Arab countries to Britain in order to close down in the face of the Muslim Brotherhood who are looking to set up their tents in the capital, is that a large proportion of the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain citizens have British citizenship, in addition to this that there is a whole chapter between the government and the judiciary British who enjoys full independence. In the early nineties defected to Britain opponents Saudis are Dr. Saad al-Faqih and his partner in the reform, Dr. Muhammad al-Massari, and starting with the politically active opponent of the regime in their country's bothered by the ruling family, prompting her to threaten to cancel the arms deal Yamamah signed by the Kingdom with Britain, worth more than 70 billion dollars. British Prime Minister John Major at the time made ​​great efforts to persuade Saudi Arabia's King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, he could not deportation without a court ruling, because they advanced for the right to asylum, and the law prohibits expulsion or hand them over to their government. And actually moved to King Fahd Comrade Supreme, and retired Major political work, as well as his successor, Tony Blair, and Cameron is retiring after a year, either Drs Faqih and Masari what is still in Britain and enjoy its protection, and holds citizenship and their children studying in universities. The British government set up a commission of inquiry into the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, a home run to send a message double, the first of its allies and largest trading partners, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in which she says she takes their demands to shut the doors in the face of employees of the Brotherhood movement and their leaders in earnest, and the second to the Brotherhood-affiliated present in the Arab countries, and are looking to resort to them that they are not welcome at home. *** Verdict by a court in the province of Minya Egyptian to death 528 people, ten days ago, a large percentage of them supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, is the largest service provided by the Egyptian judiciary and the government, which intervened and directed its provisions, the Brotherhood movement and their supporters in terms of supporting an application for asylum progresses do any of them in Britain, and probably in other European countries, it is sufficient to give the asylum seeker this judgment to the court to prove that his life is in danger, and that the judiciary in the country is unfair and is not independent. Arab governments have issued edicts in minutes criminalizing the movement, "Brotherhood" and put it on the terrorism list, but in the West, a different picture, and must prove this charge with the documentation, which is a very difficult task, in our view, may take years of deliberations, legal, and that the committee, which formed to study the assessment of the Muslim Brotherhood movement and its activities and practices may need years to also submit its report to the government about the results of their research and studies. Our problem in the Arab countries, and even third world countries the absence of fair judiciary independent, which is an essential part of the system of democracy, but we believe that all the systems in the developed countries can do what they want, and issued verdicts that you want, unsanctioned just like her, any world Third. The pressures and temptations of all forms, you can buy everything, but if the judiciary was independent, and judges who apply the law of equality and justice for the son of "Mr." and the son of "ongoing" and without any discrimination.

ok if i google translate this why does it come up like this

saudi docs proof obama was born in the middle east  
مستندات السعودي ولد أوباما الإثبات في الشرق الأوسط

The Status of Women in the Middle East and North Africa ...

www.iwpr.org/...on.../file
Institute for Women's Policy Research
the Middle East and North. Africa (SWMENA) Project. Focus on Lebanon | Women's Freedom of Movement, &. Freedom from Harassment & Violence. A project ...


opic Brief - Institute for Women's Policy Research

www.iwpr.org/.../pubs/.../file
Institute for Women's Policy Research
the Middle East and North. Africa (SWMENA) Project. Focus on Lebanon | Control of Financial Assets. Topic Brief. A project by the International Foundation for ...
Missing: مستنداتالسعوديولدأوباما




مستندات السعودي ولد أوباما الإثبات في الشرق الأوسط

US and China Agree to Use Montreal Protocol to Cut Super Greenhouse Gases Agreement on HFCs Opens Door to Biggest Climate Mitigation Through 2020

US and China Agree to Use Montreal Protocol to Cut Super Greenhouse Gases
Agreement on HFCs Opens Door to Biggest Climate Mitigation Through 2020

Washington DC –President Obama and President Xi concluded their first-ever summit June 8th with two successful outcomes: an agreement to work together to reduce the threat from North Korea, and an agreement to “work together and with other countries through multilateral approaches that include using the expertise and institutions of the Montreal Protocol to phase down the production and consumption of HFCs….”

HFCs are known as super-greenhouse gases because many of these man-made chemicals have a global warming potential hundreds to thousands of times greater than CO2.

“Reducing factory-made HFCs under the Montreal Protocol is the biggest, fastest, and cheapest climate mitigation available to the world today, and is essential for slowing down the punishing climate impacts the world is already experiencing, including super storms like Sandy,” said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development and an expert on the Montreal Protocol.

“The Montreal Protocol has already phased out 97 similar chemicals by nearly 100% and has the expertise and experience to immediately phase down HFCs”, Zaelke added.  “Phasing down HFC will avoid the equivalent of 100 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions, ten time more than the CO2 the Kyoto Protocol has avoided to date.  This will avoid 0.5C in warming by the end of the century, a significant part of what the world needs to stay within the 2C red-line for irreversible climate change.”

HCFs are the fastest growing greenhouse gases in the US, China, India, and the EU.  If left unchecked, emissions of HFCs could grow to nearly 20% of CO2 by 2050 and 45% if CO2 emissions are limited in line with present international goals. 

The first proposal to phase down HFC under the Montreal Protocol was submitted in 2009 by the Federated States of Micronesia, to protect countries most vulnerable to climate impacts, including low-lying islands and coastal countries already suffering from accelerating sea level rise, and agriculture-dependent countries of Asia and Africa already suffering drought and shifting rainfall. The United States, Canada, and Mexico followed with a similar proposal.

More than 100 countries have signed on to declarations supporting action to reduce HFCs. Until the agreement between Obama and Xia, however, China had been one of the few countries blocking the consensus needed to pass the amendment.  India and Brazil are the other blocking countries.

A recent study led by Professor V. Ramanathan of Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that cutting HFCs and the other short-lived climate pollutants, including black carbon, methane, and tropospheric (ground-level) ozone, can cut the annual rate of sea-level rise by a quarter and cumulative sea-level rise by 22% by the end of the century.

 “The Obama-Xi deal provides political momentum that makes the HFC phase down under the Montreal Protocol all but inevitable,” said Zaelke.  “The HFC agreement also sets up the US and China to run the table on other short-lived climate pollutants.”

  • The White House statement on the US-China HFC agreement is here.
  • Zaelke & Bledsoe, Op-Ed, “A climate victory waiting for presidents Obama and Xi”, is here.

Contact Info: Erin Tulley, (202) 338-1300, etulley@igsd.org

Website : Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development

Harry Reid Bolsters Son’s Interests in Chinese Solar Plant Deal

Harry Reid Bolsters Son’s Interests in Chinese Solar Plant Deal

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Rory Reid, the eldest son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), is the chief representative for a Chinese energy firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada. ENN Energy Group, a clean-energy firm that manufactures a range of renewable-energy products, is seeking to construct its solar panel facility on a 9,000-acre stretch of land on a Clark County desert plot.
The controversy stems from the fact that Clark County officials voted to sell ENN the public land for $4.5 million, a figure startlingly below the $38.6-million appraisal. Conveniently, Sen. Reid has been one of ENN’s most prominent supporters, having helped mobilize the firm during a 2011 trip to China. Reid’s influence in the Chinese company has been so compelling that, according to Reuters, last month he tried to “pressure Nevada’s largest power company, NV Energy, to sign up as ENN’s first customer.”
Both Rory and his father have since denied having ever discussed the $5-billion deal. A spokeswoman for Sen. Reid, Kristen Orthman, insisted that he’d never deliberated over the project with his son. Rory Reid added, “I have never discussed the project with my father or his staff.”
Despite his assertions, critics say Rory Reid’s political ties in the deal seems rather explicit. In addition to being the son of a prominent U.S. senator, he also formerly chaired the Clark County commission. Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen, said Rory’s father is implicating himself in “an iffy ethical landscape” and should recuse himself from the solar project. "Is this just happening because ... it benefits the Reid family, or did Harry Reid actually believe in this?" Holman queried.
To expedite the project, ENN recruited Nevada’s largest and most renowned law firm, Lionel Sawyer & Collins, where Rory Reid works. Moreover, Richard Bryan, who has an extensive history in the state’s political system — a former Nevada governor, attorney general, and U.S. senator — heads the Chinese energy firm.
As reported, the ENN deal ignited a heated controversy, mainly because separate appraisals valued the plot of land at $29.6 million and $38.6 million, tens of millions of dollars more than the selling price. However, the county commissioners drafted a series of conditions that must be met before the project can launch, including achievements in job creation and investment, and a provision stating that ENN must have a power company committed to purchasing energy from the new plant. The latter requirement has been the primary obstacle — then, Harry Reid stepped in.
The Nevada senator recently initiated an online discussion, purportedly to address his annual energy summit, as an effort to persuade NV Energy, the state’s largest utility company, to ink a deal as ENN’s first customer. In the July 30 forum, Reid asserted that construction on the project “would start tomorrow if NV Energy would purchase the power.” The power company controls “95 percent of all of the electricity that is produced in Nevada and they should go along with this,” he added.
In addition to Reid’s and his son’s questionable affairs with the ENN project, the Nevada senator has had other dubious political dealings within the clean-energy sector. American solar firm Amonix, for example, recently slipped into financial disarray after receiving $6 million in federal tax credits and a $15.6-million grant in 2007 for research and development.
Amazingly, the company is only 16 months old, without any track record of success, yet it received a multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded jackpot. Many critics asked why. In a July article, the Las Vegas Review-Journal offered this answer:
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Gov. Brian Sandoval were among the political leaders who lauded the company when it announced it would start making solar panels in the Golden Triangle Industrial Park. Reid in particular has pushed for solar energy research and development in Nevada, drawing parallels between the value of Nevada sunshine and Saudi Arabian oil.
Of course, Amonix was not the only Nevada-based green energy project to lurch into financial ruin. Nevada Geothermal, a renewable energy company that secured a $98-million federal loan guarantee, acknowledged in an SEC filing this summer that “material uncertainties exist which cast significant doubt upon the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
Similar to his dealings with Amonix, Sen. Reid was largely instrumental in securing government support for Nevada Geothermal. In fact, according to the New York Times, Reid “pressur[ed] the Department of Interior to move more quickly on applications to build clean energy projects on federally owned land and urg[ed] other member of Congress to expand federal tax incentives to help build geothermal plants, benefits that Nevada Geothermal has taken advantage of.”
And now, it seems Sen. Reid’s political status has influenced not only the green-energy agendas in his state but the financial interests of Nevada’s largest law firm — where it just so happens his son is employed.

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

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Featured photo - How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations A page from a GCHQ top secret document prepared by its secretive JTRIG unit
One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents.
Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance. Today, we at the Intercept are publishing another new JTRIG document, in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.”
By publishing these stories one by one, our NBC reporting highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and destructive viruses. But, here, I want to focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.
Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums. Here is one illustrative list of tactics from the latest GCHQ document we’re publishing today:
Other tactics aimed at individuals are listed here, under the revealing title “discredit a target”:
Then there are the tactics used to destroy companies the agency targets:
GCHQ describes the purpose of JTRIG in starkly clear terms: “using online techniques to make something happen in the real or cyber world,” including “information ops (influence or disruption).”
Critically, the “targets” for this deceit and reputation-destruction extend far beyond the customary roster of normal spycraft: hostile nations and their leaders, military agencies, and intelligence services. In fact, the discussion of many of these techniques occurs in the context of using them in lieu of “traditional law enforcement” against people suspected (but not charged or convicted) of ordinary crimes or, more broadly still, “hacktivism”, meaning those who use online protest activity for political ends.
The title page of one of these documents reflects the agency’s own awareness that it is “pushing the boundaries” by using “cyber offensive” techniques against people who have nothing to do with terrorism or national security threats, and indeed, centrally involves law enforcement agents who investigate ordinary crimes:
No matter your views on Anonymous, “hacktivists” or garden-variety criminals, it is not difficult to see how dangerous it is to have secret government agencies being able to target any individuals they want – who have never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crimes – with these sorts of online, deception-based tactics of reputation destruction and disruption. There is a strong argument to make, as Jay Leiderman demonstrated in the Guardian in the context of the Paypal 14 hacktivist persecution, that the “denial of service” tactics used by hacktivists result in (at most) trivial damage (far less than the cyber-warfare tactics favored by the US and UK) and are far more akin to the type of political protest protected by the First Amendment.
The broader point is that, far beyond hacktivists, these surveillance agencies have vested themselves with the power to deliberately ruin people’s reputations and disrupt their online political activity even though they’ve been charged with no crimes, and even though their actions have no conceivable connection to terrorism or even national security threats. As Anonymous expert Gabriella Coleman of McGill University told me, “targeting Anonymous and hacktivists amounts to targeting citizens for expressing their political beliefs, resulting in the stifling of legitimate dissent.” Pointing to this study she published, Professor Coleman vehemently contested the assertion that “there is anything terrorist/violent in their actions.”
Government plans to monitor and influence internet communications, and covertly infiltrate online communities in order to sow dissension and disseminate false information, have long been the source of speculation. Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama adviser and the White House’s former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote a controversial paper in 2008 proposing that the US government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-”independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups.
Sunstein also proposed sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups” which spread what he views as false and damaging “conspiracy theories” about the government. Ironically, the very same Sunstein was recently named by Obama to serve as a member of the NSA review panel created by the White House, one that – while disputing key NSA claims – proceeded to propose many cosmetic reforms to the agency’s powers (most of which were ignored by the President who appointed them).
But these GCHQ documents are the first to prove that a major western government is using some of the most controversial techniques to disseminate deception online and harm the reputations of targets. Under the tactics they use, the state is deliberately spreading lies on the internet about whichever individuals it targets, including the use of what GCHQ itself calls “false flag operations” and emails to people’s families and friends. Who would possibly trust a government to exercise these powers at all, let alone do so in secret, with virtually no oversight, and outside of any cognizable legal framework?
Then there is the use of psychology and other social sciences to not only understand, but shape and control, how online activism and discourse unfolds. Today’s newly published document touts the work of GCHQ’s “Human Science Operations Cell,” devoted to “online human intelligence” and “strategic influence and disruption”:
Under the title “Online Covert Action”, the document details a variety of means to engage in “influence and info ops” as well as “disruption and computer net attack,” while dissecting how human beings can be manipulated using “leaders,” “trust,” “obedience” and “compliance”:

The documents lay out theories of how humans interact with one another, particularly online, and then attempt to identify ways to influence the outcomes – or “game” it:
We submitted numerous questions to GCHQ, including: (1) Does GCHQ in fact engage in “false flag operations” where material is posted to the Internet and falsely attributed to someone else?; (2) Does GCHQ engage in efforts to influence or manipulate political discourse online?; and (3) Does GCHQ’s mandate include targeting common criminals (such as boiler room operators), or only foreign threats?
As usual, they ignored those questions and opted instead to send their vague and nonresponsive boilerplate: “It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Furthermore, all of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All our operational processes rigorously support this position.”
These agencies’ refusal to “comment on intelligence matters” – meaning: talk at all about anything and everything they do – is precisely why whistleblowing is so urgent, the journalism that supports it so clearly in the public interest, and the increasingly unhinged attacks by these agencies so easy to understand. Claims that government agencies are infiltrating online communities and engaging in “false flag operations” to discredit targets are often dismissed as conspiracy theories, but these documents leave no doubt they are doing precisely that.
Whatever else is true, no government should be able to engage in these tactics: what justification is there for having government agencies target people – who have been charged with no crime – for reputation-destruction, infiltrate online political communities, and develop techniques for manipulating online discourse? But to allow those actions with no public knowledge or accountability is particularly unjustifiable.
Documents referenced in this article:

A WORD OF HOPE WE ARE NOT GOING TO BE DESROTED

Modern Jewish History:
The Spanish Expulsion

(1492)


Modern Jewish History: Table of Contents | Blood Libel | The Inquisition


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In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies." So begins Christopher Columbus's diary. The expulsion that Columbus refers to was so cataclysmic an event that ever since, the date 1492 has been almost as important in Jewish history as in American history. On July 30 of that year, the entire Jewish community, some 200,000 people, were expelled from Spain.
Tens of thousands of refugees died while trying to reach safety. In some instances, Spanish ship captains charged Jewish passengers exorbitant sums, then dumped them overboard in the middle of the ocean. In the last days before the expulsion, rumors spread throughout Spain that the fleeing refugees had swallowed gold and diamonds, and many Jews were knifed to death by brigands hoping to find treasures in their stomachs.
The Jews' expulsion had been the pet project of the Spanish Inquisition, headed by Father Tomas de Torquemada. Torquemada believed that as long as the Jews remained in Spain, they would influence the tens of thousands of recent Jewish converts to Christianity to continue practicing Judaism. Ferdinand and Isabella rejected Torquemada's demand that the Jews be expelled until January 1492, when the Spanish Army defeated Muslim forces in Granada, thereby restoring the whole of Spain to Christian rule. With their most important project, the country's unification, accomplished, the king and queen concluded that the Jews were expendable. On March 30, they issued the expulsion decree, the order to take effect in precisely four months. The short time span was a great boon to the rest of Spain, as the Jews were forced to liquidate their homes and businesses at absurdly low prices. Throughout those frantic months, Dominican priests actively encouraged Jews to convert to Christianity and thereby gain salvation both in this world and the next.
The most fortunate of the expelled Jews succeeded in escaping to Turkey. Sultan Bajazet welcomed them warmly. "How can you call Ferdinand of Aragon a wise king," he was fond of asking, "the same Ferdinand who impoverished his own land and enriched ours?" Among the most unfortunate refugees were those who fled to neighboring Portugal. In 1496, King Manuel of Portugal concluded an agreement to marry Isabella, the daughter of Spain's monarchs. As a condition of the marriage, the Spanish royal family insisted that Portugal expel her Jews. King Manuel agreed, although he was reluctant to lose his affluent and accomplished Jewish community.
In the end, only eight Portuguese Jews were actually expelled; tens of thousands of others were forcibly converted to Christianity on pain of death. The chief rabbi, Simon Maimi, was one of those who refused to convert. He was kept buried in earth up to his neck for seven days until he died. In the final analysis, all of these events took place because of the relentless will of one man, Tomas de Torquemada.
The Spanish Jews who ended up in Turkey, North Africa, Italy, and elsewhere throughout Europe and the Arab world, were known as Sephardim — Sefarad being the Hebrew name for Spain. After the expulsion, the Sephardim imposed an informal ban forbidding Jews from ever again living in Spain. Specifically because their earlier sojourn in that country had been so happy, the Jews regarded the expulsion as a terrible betrayal, and have remembered it ever since with particular bitterness. Of the dozens of expulsions directed against Jews throughout their history, the one from Spain remains the most infamous.

Sources: Joseph Telushkin. Jewish Literacy. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Pentagon says Russian jet buzzed U.S. warship

Pentagon says Russian jet buzzed U.S. warship

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WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon said a Russian aircraft made about a dozen low level flights near a U.S. Navy warship in the Black Sea, calling the actions "provocative."
The USS Donald Cook, a guided missile destroyer, was conducting routine operations in the western Black Sea on Saturday when the Russian attack aircraft flew near the ship and did not respond to multiple warnings from the American warship.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over Russia's actions in Ukraine.
The Russian Su-24 flew close by but not directly over the American ship, the Pentagon said.
The incident took 90 minutes during which the Americans repeatedly queried the Russians but received no response.
The Pentagon said in a statement Monday that the Russian aircraft was unarmed and never posed a threat to the American warship, but the actions were "unprofessional" and "provocative."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that President Obama expects to speak "soon" with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by phone, "perhaps today."
Contributing: David Jackson

proof michele is michael


BFP Breaking News- Omidyar’s PayPal Corporation Said To Be Implicated in Withheld NSA Documents

BFP Breaking News- Omidyar’s PayPal Corporation Said To Be Implicated in Withheld NSA Documents

| December 11, 2013 38 Comments
The U.S. Government, An Implicated Billionaire, Fortune-Seeking Journalists &        A Public in the Dark
Update 2:
Glenn Greenwald Goes on Record: “I Don’t Doubt PayPal Cooperates with NSA!”
Update 1:
Verbatim Copy of Mr. Binney’s Statement
The 50,000-pages of documents obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden contain extensive documentation of PayPal Corporation’s partnership and cooperation with the National Security Agency (NSA), according to three NSA veterans. To date, no information has been released as to the extent of the working relationship and cooperation between the two entities- NSA and PayPal Corporation. What’s more, the billionaire owner of PayPal Corporation has entered into a $250 Million business partnership with two journalists-Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, a journalist duo who possess the entire cache of evidence provided by Edward Snowden. Despite earlier pledges by the journalists in question, only one percent (1%) of Snowden’s documents has been released.
BFP was recently contacted by a retired NSA official who claims that the documents obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden contain extensive documentation pertaining to NSA’s partnership with major U.S. financial institutions, including credit card companies and PayPal Corporation. The official, who requested anonymity, also alleges that a deal was made in early June, 2013 between the journalists involved in this recent NSA scandal and U.S. government officials, which was then sealed by secrecy and nondisclosure agreements by all parties involved.
Upon receiving this report BFP contacted three other high-level former NSA officials for additional information and comments.
On December 11, 2013 we contacted Mr. William Binney, a former top official at the National Security Agency (NSA), and asked him to comment on the legitimacy of the above report, and whether he had any knowledge of the partnership and cooperation between NSA and financial institutions such as PayPal. He confirmed the legitimacy of the report and added:
The NSA has had the cooperation of major financial institutions, including credit card companies, to obtain all financial transactions of these companies’ clients-international and domestic. Further, the NSA not only obtains and stores the financial data of Americans and foreigners, but it also shares them with other government agencies such as the FBI and DEA.
When asked about the apparent conflict of interest and controversy involving the new business venture between the journalists in question and PayPal’s billionaire owner Pierre Omidyar, he had the following statement:
Sunlight, transparency, is the only cure; the only way to bring about needed changes. This is why the public is entitled to have all the evidence and documents. The partnership with PayPal’s owner, thus, the new ownership of Mr. Snowden’s documents by an individual who is implicated in these documents, presents grave concerns and consequences, and a major conflict of interest for transparency, integrity and whistleblowers.
Russell Tice, a former NSA Intelligence Analyst and Capabilities Operations Officer, also confirmed the report, and stated that based on his knowledge, NSA regularly obtains financial information from major financial institutions, including credit card companies and PayPal. In January 2009, during an interview with Keith Olberman, he stated that information from credit card records and other financial transaction was being collected and stored by NSA (See the interview here).
On December 10, 2013, in an exclusive interview with BFP, Mr. Tice expanded upon the NSA-Financial Institutions collusion:
For NSA, information from financial institutions such as PayPal is equally if not more valuable and sought after than that obtained from social media and other software companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Google.” He added, “I wouldn’t doubt the existence of evidence and documents implicating corporations such as PayPal within the large cache obtained by Edward Snowden. The partnership and data collection arrangements have existed for many years.”
When asked about his opinion on Glenn Greenwald’s new $250 Million venture partnership with PayPal Corporation’s billionaire owner Pierre Omidyar, multi-million dollar book and movie deals, and recent unexplained immunity from the U.S. government, he stated the following:
“I would be outraged and highly vocal if I were in Edward Snowden’s shoes. For a journalist whom I had placed my trust in to go and withhold documents meant for the public?! For the journalist to make fortune and fame based on my sacrifices and disclosure?! Forming a lucrative business partnership with entities who have direct conflicts of interest?! No. That wouldn’t have been acceptable.”
Despite our submitted requests for confirmation, denial or comments, PayPal has refrained from responding to this report and contained allegations.
Other whistleblowers from the intelligence community have also expressed grave concerns over the serious implications of the recent venture partnership between journalist Glenn Greenwald and PayPal owner Pierre Omidyar. Indeed, the journalists in question have decided to hold back the release of the remaining 99% of the whistleblower’s documents, and have been inconsistent and vague as to when and how much they intend to release further documents. Their decision to withhold the majority of the documents appears to coincide with their new $250 million business venture with PayPal’s Omidyar, and recent mega-bucks book and movie deals.
Crytome.Org’s John Young, whom we sought comments from for this news story, considers the claims by these former NSA insiders valid and legitimate:
Government access to financial transactions has always been top priority for all government agencies, worldwide. Nothing is more important to governments than where the money is, especially money for taxation required to avoid death-stake in the heart of governments. So it is consistent that NSA (and other spies) have access to all on- and off-line financial services providers. As you know, financial services are required to cooperate with their governments, perhaps second only to defense industries, perhaps first due to the need to track worldwide arms sales. Control of arms means control of wealth, and nothing is more appreciated by the few wealthy to offload arms cost to millions of taxpayers.
We asked Mr. Young how he viewed the implications of the same billionaire who is allegedly implicated in these documents, buying out the involved reporters (both of them) and getting ownership of the whistleblower’s leaked documents:
Billionaires are as obliged as financial services to cooperate with governments in order to protect their wealth and to guard against excessive taxation, expropriation, confiscation, prosecution, stigmatization and exclusion from government contracts. Cooperation with governments is essential for wealth accumulation, the greater the wealth the greater the cooperation… Whistleblowing on the whistleblowing industry is overdue, but that will take courage and ingenuity to avoid appearing to have been taken over by those expecting to avoid full disclosure.
Here is what WikiLeaks had to say about Pierre Omidyar and his PayPal Corporation’s war on whistleblowers:
“How can you take something seriously when the person behind this platform went along with the financial boycott against WikiLeaks?” Harrison was referring to the decision in December 2010 by PayPal, which is owned by eBay, to suspend WikiLeaks’ donation account and freeze its assets after pressure from the US government. The company’s boycott, combined with similar action taken by Visa and Mastercard, left WikiLeaks facing a funding crisis.
“His excuse is probably that there is nothing he could have done at the time,” Harrison continued. “Well, he is on the board of directors. He can’t shake off responsibility that easily. He didn’t even comment on it. He could have said something like: ‘we were forced to do this, but I am against it’.”
Whistleblower William Russell, who served with the NSA, U.S. Secret Service, and as an officer and transport pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps, had the following reaction to this exploitive PayPal-Journalist-Government collusion:
I completely agree with these whistleblowers. This is a major conflict of interest and highly convoluted. Omidyar has billions at stake if the details of his cooperation with government is ever exposed. So this guy pays $250 million and buys out the 2 journalists who have the entire cache?! Simply outrageous!”
Sibel Edmonds, the founder and director of National Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC) which represents over 150 government national security whistleblowers, states:
We have been told that these journalists have had over one hundred meetings with U.S. government officials in order to clear what “could be” or “could not be” released. That’s a fact, and it is highly disturbing. On one hand they say the government considers these documents and revelations highly classified and stolen property. Yet, we see a mainstream publisher offering millions of dollars to the journalist, and getting a ‘go ahead’ from the US government to publish it. We see a billionaire corporate man, never known for being pro civil liberties or Human Rights, and someone who is implicated in these illegal government activities paying off the journalists and getting ownership of the NSA documents. We see a government sanctioned Hollywood mega-million movie deal. We see lies, inconsistencies, contradictions, censorship, voluntary withholding, exploitation of a whistleblower … This smoke and mirrors filled fakery stinks to high heaven!
As stated by Guardian’s Rusbridger, who recently gave evidence to the British parliamentary committee about stories based on Snowden’s NSA leaks: Greenwald and the Guardian had consulted with government officials and intelligence agencies – including the FBI, GCHQ, the White House and the Cabinet Office – on more than 100 occasions before the publication of stories.
The enormous conflict of interest and ethical impropriety of PayPal owner Omidyar’s business venture with Glenn Greenwald, the journalist in possession of the documents, is not limited to PayPal being directly implicated in documents exposing NSA’s illegal activities and operations. There are other equally disturbing and outrageous facts that put in question the integrity of the journalists, including their sudden enormous gains, wealth, fame, and the apparent government’s consent.
There is documented evidence illustrating Pierre Omidyar’s historical attitude and position on publishers, reporters and whistleblowers who publicize incriminating government documents. Here is one, coming directly from billionaire Omidyar:
That’s right. The above twit was typed by Omidyar’s own fingers on July 16, 2009.
But please don’t be mistaken. Pierre Omidyar doesn’t only talk the talk. No sir, the man actually walks his talk. Slightly over a year after Omidyar made the above statement he engaged in the following action:
NEW YORK: US-based online payment service PayPal has decided to block financial transfers to WikiLeaks after governments around the world initiated legal action against the whistleblower website.
“PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity,” PayPal said in statement released late Friday.
Wikileaks was not the only whistleblower entity to fall victim to PayPal’s war on government whistleblowers’. In 2011, two years after freezing Wikileaks’ account, Omidyar’s PayPal cut off the account for Bradley Manning Support:
Glyn Moody now points us to the news that PayPal has also decided to cut off the group “Courage to Resist,” which was handling funds for Bradley Manning’s defense effort. PayPal admits there’s no legal basis for this. Apparently, the company just doesn’t believe that some people should be allowed a fair trial.
The report also notes that they’ve had a PayPal account in good standing since 2006, with no problems at all. It’s only once they were taking funds for Bradley Manning that PayPal shut them down. This is somewhat horrifying, frankly, and raises serious questions about PayPal as a business worth trusting.
Then, yet another recent example of violations inflicted by PayPal, this time upon Mailpile. Mailpile attempted to create a webmail client that is built with both security and usability in mind to counter government’s intrusions into hosted webmail accounts:
PayPal, for reasons known only to PayPal, has decided to freeze their funds and won’t let Mailpile access the money that people donated PayPal is demanding an insane level of detail into Mailpile’s personal finances and businessEven worse, it seems that the folks at PayPal recognize that it holds power over Mailpile, and seems almost to be lording that power over them
The history of the billionaire’s stand and actions, when it comes to liberties, whistleblowers and freedom of the press, seems to be limited to: opposing, fighting and quashing government whistleblowers at every chance. Simply put, Mr. Omidyar has been consistently maintaining his stand as a billionaire who is pro-government, anti-government whistleblowers, and against transparency.
Omidyar’s pro government and anti-whistleblowers philosophy and principles are shared equally when it comes to his partners and close associates. Here is Mr. Omidyar’s PayPal Partner and close friend- Max Levchin, who says that the NSA isn’t being evil, and that the agency’s violation is for our own good and protection from terrorists:
The NSA is designed to protect us from terrorism, so even if it oversteps its bounds, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin says we shouldn’t hate it. That’s diametrically opposed to the sentiment of many in the tech industry, including Michael Arrington who thinks the NSA’s spying doesn’t stop terrorism — it is terrorism.
“I think it’s ridiculous for a citizen of a country that view his government’s duty to protect me, protect all of us from evil, from harm, from terrorists, from foreign powers meaning ill — to classify a body of government that is designed to figure out what might hit us next and prevent it, throwing them into an evil bucket is just thoughtless.”
Let’s watch Pierre Omidyar’s PayPal partner and close friend in action, shall we?
PayPal Co-Founder Defends NSA Surveillance
This interview was conducted in the summer of 2013. This was right in the midst of the Edward Snowden and NSA Scandal. This is what Pierre Omidyar and his closest friend and PayPal partner believed then. And this is what they believe now. There has been no change either in Omidyar’s or his partner’s position and belief since. There has been zero indication of either of them seeing the light called civil liberties.
PayPal co-founder Max Levchin is not the only PayPal man who is pro-NSA illegal surveillance and corporate-government partnerships in targeting the population at large. Here are other PayPal Men and former partners who have been directly linked to government spying and surveillance operations, and of course, the CIA:
Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley firm, is, according to the tipster, providing the technology that enables the mass-surveillance NSA project known as PRISM.
Palantir (which, at time of writing, had not responded to requests for comment) was founded in 2004 by, among others, venture capitalist Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp. It’s a sort of second-party data intelligence company–it’s not a public company, but it was founded with early investment from the CIA and is heavily used by the military and the White House. Karp is an ex-PayPal guy, and leveraged his expertise in security he gained at PayPal (which was constantly fighting off hackers) into his new venture.
Here is more on this CIA Company and its originators, all from PayPal’s early days:
Palantir’s advisors include Condoleezza Rice and former CIA director George Tenet, who says in an interview that “I wish we had a tool of its power” before 9/11. General David Petraeus, the most recent former CIA chief, describes Palantir to FORBES as “a better mousetrap when a better mousetrap was needed” …
We must not forget PayPal’s position and its actual business goals. PayPal is an international e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. It operates in 190 markets and manages more than 232 million accounts, more than 100 million of them active. PayPal allows customers to send, receive, and hold funds in 26 currencies worldwide. It is subject to the US economic sanction list and subject to other rules and interventions required by US laws or the government. All that, and the fact that PayPal has always been a valuable asset and partner of the U.S. government, even when it comes to operations directed against the people’s rights and privacy.
Remember, NSA wants access to our data. All data. Based on the latest revelations we already know that:
“Companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft — they all get together with the NSA and provide the NSA with direct access to the backends to all of the systems you use to communicate, to store your data, to put things in the cloud, and even just to send birthday wishes and keep a record of your life. And they give the NSA direct access that they don’t need to oversee, so they can’t be held liable for it.”
So far, Greenwald and the rest of the mainstream media have been emphasizing a handful of company names valuable to the NSA as great sources of data gathering on individuals – companies and organizations such as Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft. Now think about it, if NSA is that interested in garbage personal details we post on Facebook, how interested would it be in a far more telling database such as PayPal, where it can get all our expenditures, money transfers, payments and donations?
Prior to Snowden revelations we had NSA’s easy access to and control of telecommunication companies such as AT&T and Verizon. Recently, based on less than 1% of Snowden’s documents we became aware of NSA’s incestuous partnership with social media and software companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple.
We still don’t have access to 99% of Snowden’s NSA documents and revelations. Obviously the 50,000+ page documentations includes many other companies and organizations, including those in possession of the public’s financial transaction data. We are talking credit card companies and other related financial institutions. More importantly, we are talking about one of the world’s largest online money transfer entities, PayPal Corporation.
Thus, we all should be alarmed when we see that those implicated in the whistleblower’s documented evidence are now forming a multi-million dollar business venture with those in possession of that evidence.  We all must question the unexplained changes in the U.S. government’s position on the ownership and publication of these documents. We must all be wary when we see how readily mainstream publishers and Hollywood studios are signing up to publicize these documents and the case with some unexplained immunity. We have to ask ourselves: what has changed? What gives? Only a few months ago there was all this talks about apprehension, jailing, hanging and droning of all parties involved. Only a few months ago the parties involved put on a magnificent show on how they were threatened, endangered, and were going to be persecuted and prosecuted. Then, suddenly, something changed. Something gave. Was it a secret deal struck between the government and the involved parties establishing immunity and support in return for something much more cynical and dark? Was it the involved parties using the cache as a blackmailing tool to secure a $250 million payoff?  Was it a solemn oath to withhold and never release the ‘real’ deal in return for a glamorous life with Hollywood studio deals and multi-million dollar book contracts? 
Which one is it? We have no way of knowing, since lips seem to have been sealed, and the release of the ‘real’ documents has been vaguely put on hold for years to come. On the other hand, thanks to some ‘real’ whistleblowers out there, we are getting some information putting this smoke and mirrors filled stage into perspective. Even if so far we have gotten to see only the tip of this convoluted and corrupted iceberg.
# # # #
Sibel Edmonds is the Publisher & Editor of Boiling Frogs Post, the Founder & Director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), and the author of the Memoir Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story. She is the recipient of the 2006 PEN Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “commitment to preserving the free flow of information in the United States in a time of growing international isolation and increasing government secrecy” Ms. Edmonds has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.
William Binney Spent almost 40 years at the NSA but resigned after Sept. 11 over concerns about growing domestic surveillance. He spent time as director of the NSA’s World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group and was a senior NSA crypto-mathematician largely responsible for automating the agency’s worldwide eavesdropping network.
Russell Tice is a Former NSA Intelligence Analyst & Capabilities Operations Officer Specializing in Offensive Information Warfare (O-IW). In 2005 Tice helped spark a national controversy over claims that the NSA and the DIA were engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional wiretaps on US citizens, and later admitted that he was one of the sources that were used in the NY Times’ reporting on the wiretap activity in 2005.
William H. Russell served nine years with the U.S. Secret Service as a Computer Systems Analyst, and nine years with NSA, working with and supervising NSA contractors for the installation and testing of computer systems. Mr. Russell also served four years as officer and transport pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Class of 1957, and is a Graduate of McPherson College, Kansas in Business Administration.
John Young is the founder and publisher of Crytome.Org, the digital library that functions as a repository for information about freedom of speech, cryptography, spying, and surveillance. According to its mission statement, “Cryptome welcomes documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular material on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national security, intelligence, and secret governance—open, secret and classified documents—but not limited to those.”
- See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/12/11/bfp-breaking-news-omidyars-paypal-corporation-said-to-be-implicated-in-withheld-nsa-documents/#sthash.ghAvpHrP.dpuf

Obama, Biden, Schumer, And Hillary Clinton Took Money From Koch Brothers…

Obama, Biden, Schumer, And Hillary Clinton Took Money From Koch Brothers…


Harry Reid unavailable for comment.
Via Truth Revolt:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to turn the Koch Brothers into the modern face of political evil, having mentioned them in the senate at least 134 times on the senate floor during the past few weeks. What he hasn’t explained is if they are so evil why do so many Democratic Party members of congress take their money?
During the past five congressional campaigns (2006-14) Koch money went to President Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Mark Pryor, Chuck Schumer and other members of Congress.
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