U.S. Sues American Co. For Requiring Workers to Speak English

U.S. Sues American Co. For Requiring Workers to Speak English

JULY 01, 2014

The United States government is actually suing a private American business for discriminating against Hispanic and Asian employees because they don’t speak English on the job.
It involves a Green Bay Wisconsin metal and plastic manufacturer that fired a group of Hmong and Hispanic workers over their English skills, “even though those skills were not needed to perform their jobs,” according to the feds. More importantly, forcing employees to speak English in the U.S. violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, says the Obama administration.
Here’s the twisted explanation from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws; the Civil Rights Act protects employees from discrimination based on national origin, which includes the linguistic characteristics of a national origin group. Therefore, according to this reasoning, foreigners have the right to speak their native language even during work hours at an American company that requires English.
Requirements of English fluency and so-called English only rules are often implemented to make what is really discrimination appear acceptable, says the government attorney handling this case. “But superficial appearances are not fooling anyone,” he assures. “When speaking English fluently is not, in fact, required for the safe and effective performance of a job, nor for the successful operation of the employer’s business, requiring employees to be fluent in English usually constitutes employment discrimination on the basis of national origin — and thus violates federal law.”
Under President Obama the EEOC has taken a number of unprecedented actions to protect foreigners in the workplace, including illegal immigrants. In 2009 the agency issued a controversial order making a workplace English rule illegal. The directive came after the EEOC bullied a national healthcare firm to pay nearly half a million dollars to settle a discrimination lawsuit in which the government alleged that Hispanic workers were punished for speaking Spanish.
The agency has been on a roll ever since, taking legal action against businesses across the country accusing them of everything from discriminating against minorities for running criminal background and credit checks to discriminating against Muslims for not allowing hijabs on the job. The criminal background and credit checks disproportionately exclude blacks from hire, according to EEOC lawsuits against several companies. Businesses that forbid Muslim women from wearing a hijab at work violate religious rights guaranteed under the nation’s civil rights laws even when all head coverings are banned for all employees, the EEOC asserts
Last fall an Obama-appointed federal judge handed the administration a major victory, ruling that a Muslim woman’s civil rights were indeed violated by an American clothing retailer that didn’t allow her to wear the head scarf as required by her religion. The EEOC had filed the lawsuit against retail giant Abercrombie & Fitch, accusing it of religious discrimination for firing 19-year-old Umme-Hani Khan for wearing a hijab at a northern California store. The company, which focuses on hip casual wear for consumers aged 18 to 22, has a policy against head covers of any kind for its employees.

U.S. Launches $1 Mil Spanish Outreach Campaign on Dangers of Crossing Desert

U.S. Launches $1 Mil Spanish Outreach Campaign on Dangers of Crossing Desert

JULY 03, 2014

After getting besieged with tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children in the last few months, the Obama administration is investing $1 million on a Spanish media campaign aimed at stopping the flow by publicizing the dangers of crossing the southwest border.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency in charge of the project, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), is calling it the Dangers Awareness Campaign and it will target community groups, the media, parents and relatives in the U.S. and Central America. The key message, in Spanish, will be to “save and protect the lives of migrant children attempting to cross the southwest border,” according to a CBP announcement.
Hundreds of billboards will carry the message in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and thousands of public service announcements will broadcast on radio and television in those countries. The key point, according to CBP, is that the journey is too dangerous. The ads will also say that children will not get legal papers if they make it into the U.S. and the announcements will encourage Mexicans and Central Americans to protect the children, presumably by not sending them north, because “they are the future.”
The outreach campaign will also include media events in metropolitan areas of the U.S. with high concentrations of Central Americans, including Houston, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York and Miami. The idea behind this is to get Central Americans living in this country—many of them illegally—to convince their relatives back home not to send their kids over. One poster features a lonely kid sitting on a rock in the middle of the desert. In Spanish it says: “I thought it would be easier for my child to get papers in the north. It wasn’t true.”
The influx has created a huge crisis for the U.S., which is housing many of the illegal alien minors at military bases. As of mid-June more than 52,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) have entered the country, according to government figures, most of them through the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Border Patrol officials have told Judicial Watch that many of the UACs say reports of amnesty are responsible for the sudden deluge. A JW analysis of media coverage in the Central American countries where the youths are coming from also shows that news outlets are reporting that the U.S. will allow the minors to remain in the country. Some even quote their foreign diplomats explaining an arrangement with the U.S. government.
President Obama initially referred to the crisis as a humanitarian issue, but this week DHS expanded it to a “multifaceted humanitarian and security” issue. The most immediate problem, says CPB Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, is caring for the children. “They’re arriving exhausted and scared, in need of food and water,” he said. “Our agency and the Department of Homeland Security have mobilized to address this situation in a way consistent with our laws and our American values.” He commended his employees for their professionalism and compassion. “They’ve made heroic efforts with these children; rescuing them and caring for them in the most humane and compassionate way. I am extremely proud of their dedication and of how they have risen to this challenge.”
Time will tell if Uncle Sam’s $1 million investment pays off or at least helps slow down the flow of illegal alien children that will inevitably become the burden of America taxpayers. In addition to educating illegal border crossers about the dangers of trekking through the desert, the State Department and the White House are working with senior government officials in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico to “address the conditions in Central America that are spurring the migration,” according to the CBP announcement. Stay tuned for the results of that campaign.

Ft. Bliss Hangar Covertly Used as Illegal Alien Processing Center

Ft. Bliss Hangar Covertly Used as Illegal Alien Processing Center

JUNE 13, 2014

Update with Pentagon comment 6/16/14
The Obama administration has not identified Ft. Bliss in Texas as an illegal immigrant processing/holding location yet busloads have arrived at the El Paso military base in the last few days, a high-level inside source tells Judicial Watch.
A hangar on the Biggs Army Airfield is quietly being used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to process, house and transition the influx of illegal immigrant minors that have arrived from Central America in the last few weeks, according to the source. Three large buses recently pulled into the hangar then unloaded passengers out of sight as if to hide what’s going on, JW’s source reveals.
The official version from the government is to pretend nothing is going on. The media relations department at Ft. Bliss referred Judicial Watch to Army Public Affairs in Washington D.C. Lieutenant Colonel Alayne P. Conway at Army Public Affairs then referred JW to Ken Wolf, a deputy director at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington D.C. He never bothered getting back to us.
The Obama administration has identified three military installations—Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Ventura County Naval Base in southern California and Ft. Still Army Base in Oklahoma—as the only ones being used to process the barrage of illegal alien youths that have crossed into the U.S. through Mexico recently. A Nogales Transition Center in Arizona is also housing about 1,000 sexually active teenagers (JW reported on that earlier this week) and the McAllen Customs and Border Patrol facility in Texas is also holding about the same number.
No mention anywhere about Ft. Bliss, which may lead some to wonder if there are other facilities that are being concealed to downplay the crisis from the American public. The Obama administration blames the sudden migration of Central American youths on the region’s persistent violence and the president himself has determined that it’s a humanitarian crisis that’s never the less under control. Earlier this week a veteran Border Patrol agent told JW that rumors of amnesty are responsible for the unforeseen bombardment. When agents ask the illegal border crossers what drove them, “we are hearing a lot of amnistía (amnesty),” said Art Del Cueto, the Tucson Border Patrol Union president.
Media outlets in Central America are reinforcing this storyline. Honduras’s largest newspaper reports this week that the minors will spend three to four months in federal camps until they can be turned over to family in the U.S. Besides receiving food and shelter, the Honduran newspaper article says, kids will receive English classes, participate in sports and other programs while their relatives are tracked down in the U.S. El Salvador’s largest newspaper reported just a few days ago that DHS officials confirmed that the amnesty offered to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors under DACA could be extended two more years. The article quotes DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson saying that everyone agrees that a minor who crossed the border illegally in search of a parent or a better life is not breaking our laws.
This has caused the crisis to spiral so out of control that U.S. Border Patrol agents are being recruited to serve as babysitters for the flood of illegal immigrant minors that have entered the country recently through the Rio Grande region of Texas, according to an internal document obtained by Judicial Watch. Agents with “child care or juvenile teaching and/or counseling” experience are being called upon to work extra shifts at the various shelters that are housing the illegal alien minors. Agents will be “responsible for feeding, monitoring, interacting and providing security” for the youths until they are placed elsewhere. Keep in mind this is the front-line DHS agency responsible for preventing terrorists and weapons of mass destruction from entering the United States.
Update: Three days after this story got published, a Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Tom Crosson, contacted Judicial Watch to finally offer an official comment from the government. He said it’s “completely false” that Ft. Bliss is being used to process or house the “UACs,” (Unaccompanied Alien Children) crossing illegally into the U.S. JW stands by its story.

U.S. Sends Millions to Help Youths in Countries Invading it With Illegal Alien Minors

U.S. Sends Millions to Help Youths in Countries Invading it With Illegal Alien Minors

JUNE 19, 2014

Besides getting slammed with the exorbitant cost of caring for the recent invasion of illegal immigrant minors, U.S. taxpayers are doling out $2.5 million for juvenile justice reform in the Central American countries where they are coming from.
It’s as if the United States is a cash cow for this particular cause. The Obama administration claims that the tens of thousands of minors—officially coined Unaccompanied Alien Children or UAC by the government—are suddenly arriving en mass because they’re fleeing violence in their country. Truth is, the three Central American nations sending the overwhelming chunk of illegal aliens—Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala—have long been renowned as hotbeds of crime that long ago spread north.
The U.S. has been deeply impacted over the years. In fact, the deadliest and most feared street gang in this country, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), was founded in Los Angeles by immigrants who fled El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s. Since then, the MS-13, well known for its violence and brutality, has spread to most major American cities, including the metro D.C. area where federal authorities say gang members operate prostitution rings using girls as young as 12 years old.
In Central America it’s quite common that children join these deadly criminal enterprises at a very young age. The Obama administration is sending money to “promote alternatives to incarceration” and improve prison conditions for those who do end up in jail in Guatemala, El Salvador and/or Panama. “Corrections systems in these countries suffer from acute overcrowding and inefficiencies which contribute to poor conditions and, at worst, active criminal recruiting and leadership of criminal activities from within prisons,” according to the grant announcement posted by the government.
Uncle Sam’s $2.5 million check will, among other things “improve corrections administration and professionalism” in these Central American countries. It will also create opportunities for “re-socialization” of the offenders through community service, paid work or studies to learn a profession or trade and pay for legal representation. The administration justifies the investment by asserting that it will minimize the impact of international crime and illegal drugs on the United States, its citizens and partner nations.
In the meantime, the U.S. continues taking in Central American youths—and in some cases their parents—that have entered the country through the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. One mainstream newspaper reports this week that there’s no end in sight to the onslaught. “They are now arriving at a rate of more than 35,000 a month,” the article says and the number is expected to reach up to 90,000 across the Southwest border by the end of the year. “Once they are processed, the Border Patrol has been flying many families to other states and releasing them en masse at bust stations with notices to appear in immigration courts at their destinations,” according to the article. Could there be a bigger compromise of national security?
Judicial Watch has reported extensively on this scandal and what it’s costing American taxpayers. In fact, JW participated in a White House press call last week where senior administration officials revealed that they were asking Congress for more than $2 billion to deal with the “humanitarian crisis.” Art Del Cueto, the president of the Tucson Border Patrol Union, told JW that many of the youths coming in are not little kids, but rather older teens with possible gang affiliations. While they gangbang in the U.S., our government keeps sending money to improve prison conditions for their brethren back home.

Spain Arrests Freed Gitmo Captive Running Jihadist Recruitment Network

Spain Arrests Freed Gitmo Captive Running Jihadist Recruitment Network

JUNE 20, 2014

In a story unlikely to receive attention from the mainstream media in the United States, a former Guantanamo Bay captive has been arrested in Spain for operating what authorities there say is a sophisticated jihadist recruitment network.
Spanish media is reporting that the one-time Gitmo prisoner is a 46-year-old Moroccan named Lahcen Ikassrien, who heads an Islamic cell that recruits fighters for the Syrian and Iraqi-based terror group known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Ikassrien and seven others were arrested in Madrid recently as part of a dozen raids on terrorism cells in the Spanish capital, Madrid.
The ISIL has received global attention recently for its terrorist activities in Iraq, where the extremist group seized the country’s second-largest city of Mosul. A number of international press reports have revealed that ISIL militants have massacred and captured Iraqi soldiers during the raid. Ikassrien, who spent four years at the U.S. Military prison in southeastern Cuba, recruited and sent jihadists to Iraq via Turkey, according to Spanish authorities cited in the news story.
After leaving Gitmo Ikassrien embarked on a sob tour for the leftist human rights group Amnesty International, mostly offering lectures throughout Spain recounting how he was mistreated by the evil Americans from the time he was arrested in Afghanistan until he was released from Gitmo years later. Here are some tidbits from one of the Spanish-language lectures delivered by Ikassrien; the prisoners at Guantanamo are all “suffering” he says, confirming that “everyone knows that Americans are the biggest assassins and torturers.” He goes into detail about how he was chained and tortured by U.S. forces, that he and his comrades were stripped and left without food and water for lengthy periods at Gitmo.
In the video Ikassrien seems like a regular guy, with short-cropped hair, a neatly trimmed beard and a stylish sweater with a matching scarf. The audience clearly sympathizes with him as he delivers the lecture almost matter-of-factly, in a soft tone sprinkled with smiles. Ikassrien proceeds to trash the United States and mentions, almost enthusiastically, that there could be positive changes under President Obama. How proud the commander-in-chief must be to have this type of endorsement.
The timing of this terrorist’s arrest couldn’t be worse for Obama because he’s in the process of emptying out Gitmo to fulfill a campaign promise of closing the prison. The world’s most dangerous terrorists—including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and USS Cole bomber Bad al-Rahim al-Nassir—remain at the maximum security compound. At its peak the facility had 770 captives and now the number is down to 154 as the president works to empty it out.
Many former Gitmo captives return to terrorist causes after getting released, according to government, press and independent think-tank reports. Judicial Watch, which has traveled to Gitmo multiple times to monitor the terrorists’ Military Commission proceedings, has reported this for years. The Pentagon and various intelligence agencies have also documented that many Gitmo captives rejoin terrorist missions after leaving the military compound.
In a report to Congress a few years ago, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) revealed that of 598 detainees released up to that point, 150 were confirmed or suspected of “reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer.” In fact, a one-time Gitmo captive became an Al Qaeda chief who masterminded a U.S. Embassy bombing after getting released, according to a mainstream newspaper. His name is Said Ali al-Shihri and after leaving Gitmo he became an Al Qaeda deputy chief in Yemen and he organized a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen’s capital. The former captive was also involved in car bombings outside the American Embassy that killed 16 people. That was about five years ago and the recidivism among former Gitmo captives is still in full force today.
Just a few weeks ago a mainstream newspaper published an alarming story about three hardened Moroccan militants released from Gitmo to the Moroccan government under the assumption that they wouldn’t commit terrorist acts. Instead they wound up leading one of the most violent Islamist groups fighting in Syria’s civil war. Pointing out that this is hardly an isolated case, the article cites recent DNI figures that confirm 29% of 614 detainees released from Gitmo have returned to violence.

Lawmaker Denied Ft. Sill Entry After Reports of Displacing Soldiers to Accommodate Illegal Aliens

Lawmaker Denied Ft. Sill Entry After Reports of Displacing Soldiers to Accommodate Illegal Aliens

JULY 02, 2014

Following reports that soldiers were booted from their barracks at an Oklahoma Army base to make room for a wave of illegal immigrant minors, the Obama administration is refusing to give the federal lawmaker who represents the state in Congress access to the facility.
Could it be that the administration is hiding something? The facility, Ft. Sill, is located in Lawton about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. It serves as the United States Army and Marine Corps’ Field Artillery School and houses nearly 9,000 soldiers along with 62,621 family members, according to its official Army website. Last week Judicial Watch received reports that single enlisted soldiers were transferred from their barracks to tents in order to accommodate the flood of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) coming from Central America.
A Ft. Sill spokesman, Keith Pannell, told Judicial Watch that no soldier has been displaced because illegal immigrants are being housed in quarters that have been empty for months. “No soldiers have been moved out of any barracks to make room for UACs,” Pannell told JW. “Those barracks were being remodeled and the last time they were occupied was in April.” Pannell wouldn’t offer any further details on the arrangement, including the number illegal aliens staying at the base.
One of the state’s representatives in Congress, Jim Bridenstine, tried to visit but was denied access to the facility. In a statement issued this week Congressman Bridenstine’s office says Ft. Sill is housing up to 1,200 UACs, but the lawmaker couldn’t offer any more information because he wasn’t allowed inside. He says a fence covered with material that totally obscures any view has been erected around the barracks housing the UACs “There is no excuse for denying a Federal Representative from Oklahoma access to a federal facility in Oklahoma where unaccompanied children are being held,” said Bridenstine, a former Navy pilot.
This crisis has been cloaked in secrecy from the start and the administration has withheld crucial information from the American public. For instance JW reported that a Texas military base is being covertly used as an illegal immigrant processing/holding location. A hangar at the El Paso facility, Ft. Bliss, is quietly being used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to process, house and transition the influx of illegal immigrant minors that have arrived in the U.S. in recent weeks, a high-level inside source told JW. A Pentagon official demanded JW pull the story three days after it got published but backed off when we requested he put it in writing.
JW has also been in touch with Homeland Security sources on the scene who have confirmed that the barrage of illegal immigrant minors has created an out-of-control disaster with jam-packed holding centers, rampant diseases and sexually active teenagers at a Nogales facility. The president of the Tucson Border Patrol Union, Art Del Cueto, told JW that many of the migrants are not little kids, but rather 17-year-olds with possible ties to gang members. Yet, Del Cueto confirms, many will be released to relatives in the U.S.
The government is so overwhelmed that U.S. Border Patrol agents are being recruited to serve as babysitters, according to an internal document obtained by JW. This is the front-line federal agency responsible for preventing terrorists and weapons of mass destruction from entering the United States. Yet agents with “child care or juvenile teaching and/or counseling” are being recruited to feed, monitor, interact and provide security for the illegal alien minors until they are placed elsewhere.

Former Israeli Defence Minister Calls on Government to Assassinate Hamas Leaders

Former Israeli Defence Minister Calls on Government to Assassinate Hamas Leaders

By Middle East Monitor

Global Research, July 05, 2014

Middle East Monitor

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: Crimes against Humanity

In-depth Report: PALESTINE

Israel’s former Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer called for the Israeli government to immediately assassinate Hamas leaders, an Israeli news site has reported.
Ben-Eliezer is reported to have said:

“The government must immediately return to the assassination policy, and let Hamas leaders understand that there is no security for them day and night and that there is no difference between political and army wing leaders.”

He said: “Hamas political leadership incites and inflames the atmosphere [against Israel] and encourages terrorism.”
Ben-Eliezer called on the Israeli government to strengthen Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and to pressure him to remove Hamas from government and then work on the resumption of the peace process.

The Militarization of American Public Schools

The Militarization of American Public Schools

By Steve Filips and Don Barrett

Global Research, July 05, 2014

World Socialist Web Site

Region: USA

Theme: Militarization and WMD

This fall, Syracuse, New York will join the still small but growing list of public schools dedicated to the training of students for military service in the United States Armed Forces.
This past April, the Syracuse Central School District (SCSD) approved the closure of Fowler High School in the city’s impoverished Westside section and its transformation into the Public Service Leadership Academy (PSLA), which will focus on training students for military service, to work in the Department of Homeland Security, or as police officers and firefighters.
There are 18 military academies as part of the public school system in the United States. Six are located in Chicago. All of these schools are associated with the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), whose goals include indoctrinating students with “patriotism,” “responsiveness to all authority” and an increasing “respect for the role of the US Armed Forces in support of national objectives.”
Most of these schools are located in working class and low-income communities and rely upon the lack of job and college options available to students to push them into the military.
The Westside section of Syracuse is one such area. It is a poverty-stricken area of the city that has been struggling with increasing inequality in the Obama “economic recovery,” and staggering levels of poverty, particularly among children. Childhood poverty approaches 50 percent and for those in the 18-24 year age bracket—those just out of high school—the rate approaches two thirds. (See: “Syracuse, New York housing in shambles” and “Deindustrialization and unemployment in Syracuse, New York”)
Employment opportunities for vulnerable students are slim and decent jobs are rarer still, thus leaving them as targets for poverty conscription to the military and police forces. In addition, the new Public Service Leadership Academy will also grant recruiters earlier access to students, allowing them to get their foot in the door to recruit among this young and captive audience.
Abandoned factory adjacent to Fowler High
PSLA will be comprised of four career academies. In addition to the Military Science Academy are the Homeland Security Academy, First Responders Academy and Entrepreneurial Academy. The academies will be phased in over four years, beginning this September with ninth graders and adding a grade each year.
The Military Science Academy begins this September. This program will consist of the Navy’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC), which relies on partial funding from the Syracuse school district. Those enrolled will “gain a foundation in maritime heritage, the significance of sea power, the fundamentals of naval operations, seamanship, navigation and meteorology.”
The Homeland Security Academy will feature computer forensics, cyber security and geospatial intelligence. The First Responders Academy will focus on training students to be police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, while the Entrepreneurial Academy will give students training in cosmetology and barbering as well as in the electrical trades.
In addition, students enrolled in the First Responder Academy, Homeland Security Academy and the Military Science Academy will also take four years of Arabic, American Sign Language or Spanish. Not being bashful about these languages being needed as US imperialism engages in more wars, the SCSD web site states, “The intelligence community has been open about the need for interpreters, engineers, scientists and other professionals who speak these languages, which are essential for emergency/disaster management.”
The JROTC was part of the legislation of the National Defense Act of 1916 to bolster recruitment efforts as the United States was expanding its military to participate in World War I, concurrent with growing public opposition to the war effort.
The act authorizes the military to seek and have contact with students 17 and older, but there is a program geared to establish early contact with students as young as 11 for the Middle School Cadet Corp. For many decades the JROTC functioned as clubs in public high schools. What is new is that entire high schools are now being transformed into military training centers.
The closing of Fowler High School and its replacement with the PSLA is part of a plan by the SCSD to close three public schools in Syracuse. In addition to the high school, the school district will close Delaware Elementary, also in the Westside section, and Hughes Elementary in the city’s Southside.
Photo from the Syracuse City School District web site promoting the Military Science Academy
The increased scrutiny and threats for reorganization of the school began in 2009 by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and culminated with a recent review, which cited the continued poor performance of Fowler High and the necessity of a drastic intervention. The NYSED based their decision on insufficient academic improvement when taking into consideration what the state describes as their “significant financial investment at Fowler.”
The flow of money administered by the state for Fowler has amounted to only $5.6 million overall since 2010. During this period other budget cuts still allowed teacher levels to drop and class sizes to increase, with the accompanying frustration of teachers, students and parents. Without any doubt, the main factor negatively affecting student achievement is rarely mentioned when reforms are discussed: Poverty and inequality are marginalized as the primary causes of the decaying educational system.
Lindsay Gordon and her fiancé Joe Buske spoke with WSWS reporters. When asked her thoughts on the lack of resources for education, she responded indignantly, “Instead of spending money on other things I think they should be defending our children’s education.”
She was unaware of the statistic that 85 of the world’s richest individuals have as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people. “It’s a shame,” she exclaimed, “They do nothing for our future; our children are our future—the next generation.”
She added, “Money needs to be spent for having a brighter future; children are not going to have the appropriate education and the appropriate help they need because of the budget cuts. Our children are not getting a fair chance to a fair and equal education.”
Lindsay described how she worries about her own child’s future. “I have a two-year-old daughter,” she said. “She goes to school in three years, and I’m going to make sure that she receives that education. I don’t think it’s fair. Children [remaining] in these areas are [always] getting budget cuts … so it is absolutely unfair, it’s unethical.”
Joe Buske and Lindsay Gordon
Joe Buske commented on the militarization plans for Fowler High, saying, “We’ve spent money on wars, which I believe could have been better spent on needs at home. We were sold a story to send troops there to bring ‘democracy’ and I think that is something that should be left up to people there to decide on.”
He added, “No one asked for our opinion before going to war.” He said he is currently working for a hospital earning $15 an hour and knew of many who were struggling with unemployment, food stamp cuts and lack of health insurance.
A number of young people who asked to remain anonymous felt strongly about social conditions in the area. One young person said, “I would say that my experience having gone to Fowler High two years ago was that class sizes are larger and the amount of what we were learning was not equal to the time I had spent in a high school in the suburbs.”
A senior-year student who had just finished his final exams that afternoon said that in his experience over four years at Fowler High, there was a noticeable lowering of the quality of education. He said his future plans were for higher education, but that nearly two out of three students at Fowler would not graduate their senior year.
The lack of opportunities for work leads to the preying on young people to join the military. The transformation of public high schools into institutions such as the Public Service Leadership Academy in Syracuse is a continuation of the political establishment’s militarization of society, to support US military policy and to utilize police state measures to impose even deeper levels of social inequality.

US Troops Have Secretly Been Deployed to Somalia Since 2007

US Troops Have Secretly Been Deployed to Somalia Since 2007

By Thomas Gaist

Global Research, July 05, 2014

World Socialist Web Site

Region: sub-Saharan Africa

Theme: US NATO War Agenda

Some 120 American soldiers are on the ground inside Somalia, a deployment that has been ongoing since 2007 but was never publicly announced, US officials admitted this week in statements to Reuters news agency.
The Pentagon had publicized a small deployment of advisers to Somalia in October of 2013, but the presence of the larger force—there since 2007—was still being kept secret. In January 2014, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) admitted the presence of US troops in the country but claimed the number was lower than five. BBC international correspondent Mark Doyle wrote in an article this week that he personally saw heavily armed and “clearly operational” US troops during a recent visit to Somalia.
Reuters made the US presence public, not as the result of investigative journalism or a leak from someone critical of the secret, illegal US military deployment, but in the wake of a speech by a US government official, Wendy Sherman, under secretary of state for political affairs. She publicly declared that a “small contingent of US military personnel” including special operations forces had been present in parts of Somalia for several years. The news agency then contacted other US officials to get the actual number of troops involved.
The episode sheds light on the role of the American media. None of the television networks have reported the direct involvement of US forces in Somalia. Newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post have repeatedly sent correspondents to Somalia over the past seven years without ever reporting the presence of a significance force of US military personnel. The Post actually published an extensive profile of US military operations in Africa, largely involving Special Forces, that made no mention of the Somalia force.
The deployment of a significant number of “trainers” and “advisers,” that is, of Special Forces soldiers, for years on end and without any form of public disclosure, raises ominous questions. What other secret deployments has Washington ordered during the past decade? How many new secret wars will the president and his top appointees decide to launch during the next year?
Bourgeois democracy in the US is being supplanted by an emerging totalitarianism based on unlimited executive power. Deployments are made in secret and revealed to the public years after the fact. The executive branch claims for itself and exercises the right to deploy military and intelligence forces anywhere on the planet, admitting no check on this authority.
Statements make clear that Washington is preparing to deepen its military engagement in Somalia, using the pretext of combating the “terrorist” group al Shabaab, a militia that developed out of the youth wing of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and commands an estimated 4,000-7,000 fighters. In October, US Special Forces mounted a raid against the al Shabaab stronghold city of Barawe.
Speaking to Reuters, the US officials said the American military is preparing for increased engagement with the Somali National Army (SNA), which has already benefited from at least $170 million in US military aid. “What you’ll see with this upcoming fiscal year is the beginning of engagement with the SNA proper,” according to an unnamed US defense official. US forces are already involved in training and equipping armies from Uganda and Burundi affiliated with AMISOM, the African Union’s military mission in Somalia.
US imperialism is determined to politically dominate Somalia, a strategically crucial country in the Horn of Africa, as part of its drive to return the entire continent to a state of naked colonial submission before the Western powers. Somalia sits adjacent to some of the most critical sea-lanes on the planet, with huge quantities of oil sailing past everyday.
The US has established a new Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in the capital, Mogadishu, according to reports. The US has also announced it will appoint an ambassador to Somalia for the first time since 1993, though for security reasons he will not reside inside Somali boarders.
Forces from the European Union (EU) are also currently present in Somalia and involved in training local armies.
While the imperialist powers blame al Shabaab for the catastrophic situation in Somalia, the US and its regional allies have reduced the country to rubble over a protracted period of interventions. Al Shabaab’s parent organization, the ICU, came to power amidst the social chaos that developed after the 1991 US withdrawal of its support for the Siad Barre regime, which it had backed since the 1970s.
In 1993, the US deployed 30,000 troops to Somalia on the pretext of delivering food assistance, killing hundreds of Somalis before withdrawing after the disastrous Battle of Mogadishu. Then, in 2006, the US backed an Ethiopian-led invasion of the country, producing a war between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the ICU that killed at least 16,700 civilians and displaced 1.9 million more.

Germany Detains “Double Agent” for “Spying on Spy Investigation” obama sucks so bad he cant even spy good

Germany Detains “Double Agent” for “Spying on Spy Investigation”

By Jon Queally

Global Research, July 05, 2014

Common Dreams 4 July 2014

Region: Europe

Theme: Intelligence

German intelligence officer reportedly confessed to reporting back to US government about inquiry into NSA surveillance of German targets

A member of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency has been detained for possibly spying for the US. The 31-year-old is suspected of giving a US spy agency information about a parliamentary inquiry of NSA activities. (Image: PictureAlliance/DPA))German news outlets on Friday are reporting that a so-called “double agent” has been detained after confessing to investigators that he was paid by U.S. agents to spy on the German parliamentary panel now investigating the extent of U.S. National Security Agency’s surveillance inside the country.
According to Deutsche Welle:

During questioning, the suspect reportedly told investigators that he had gathered information on an investigative committee from Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. The panel is conducting an inquiry into NSA surveillance on German officials and citizens.
A spokesperson for the Federal Prosecutor’s office declined to provide further details about the case, according to news agency AFP.
German-US relations have been on the rocks since revelations of mass surveillance not only on German citizens, but also on Chancellor Angela Merkel and other politicians made headlines last year.

Der Spiegel (Google Translate) notes that initial information indicates the individual—who worked for the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s equivalent of the NSA—had “been specifically looking for information related to the NSA investigation committee of the Bundestag and given them to his American contact man.”
As journalist Glenn Greenwald immediately observed:

That’d be the ultimate irony: US Govt spied on German parliamentary investigation into US Govt spying on Germans http://t.co/P9WkGT83oQ
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 4, 2014

And David Meyer, writing for Gigaom, adds:

The 31-year-old was originally arrested on suspicion of having contact with Russian intelligence, but then apparently confessed to having reported back at least once to the Americans on the Bundestag committee’s activities. He reportedly did this for money. The reports raise the possibility that he may be lying, but also note that the committee has long suspected it was being spied on. If this is all true, it may turn out to be an even bigger diplomatic scandal than the NSA’s bugging of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, a formal probe into which was announced a month ago.

On Thursday, the Bundestag’s investigative committee looking into NSA surveillance heard testimony from two U.S. whistleblowers who worked, Thomas Drake and William Binney, for the spy agency but objected to what they consider its troubling tactics. As Deutsche Welle reports, Binney—who once headed the agencies technology division—accused the NSA of having a “totalitarian mentality” and wanting “total information control” over U.S. citizens and the entirety of the global digital environment. He went on to compare the NSA’s approach to that used by dictators against oppressed populations. According to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA):

Drake said the BND had become a “vermiform appendix of the NSA,” referring to accusations it had been passing data on German citizens on to the American service – an act forbidden under Germany’s constitution.

“The silence of the BND is terrible,” Drake told the committee, and said people had a right to know what was going on. “You shouldn’t wait for a German Edward Snowden to lift the veil.”

Obama Faces Iraqi Conundrum

 Obama Faces Iraqi Conundrum

By Nikolai Bobkin

Global Research, July 05, 2014

Strategic Culture Foundation 3 July 2014

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: US NATO War Agenda

In-depth Report: IRAQ REPORT

Obama has nothing to be proud of when it comes to his Middle East policy. One failure after another everywhere you look, it starts to get really eerie. With Libya, Egypt, Syria failures behind, Iraq adds to the list. The US has always sided with those who started unrest while Saudi Arabia was pouring fuel of fire pursuing the dream of using terrorists as a tool for turning the Arab world into the Wahhabi safe haven.
The Wahhabi formations used the US support while operating in Syria. Now they are back to Iraq to capture a major part of the territory. As Dick Cheney admitted the United States gave the Middle East away to terrorists who can do as they please and impose their ways on others to the heart’s content. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant emerged in Syria supported by the United States. Now having suffered a defeat in its fight against Damascus, the militants made a U-turn to threaten Baghdad. The Iraq shaped by the United States within its present borders is facing the threat of elimination.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) has already declared the establishment of caliphate and called on the jihadists throughout the whole world to pledge allegiance. The Iraqi Sunni Muslims opposed to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, former military from the Saddam Hussein armed forces and small terrorist groups joined the Islamic State movement. It’s easy to guess what is in store for Iraqi Shiites in case the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant comes to power in the country – another story of mass genocide will become a burning issue of contemporary history. The Sunni radicals don’t make a secret of their plans which include the elimination of Shiite shrines and execution of Shia preachers. The Iraqi Shiites are supported by Iran; if the war intensifies the Iranian involvement becomes an option. As of now, Tehran believes Iraq needs no boots on the ground – neither US, nor Iranian.
The Islamic Republic of Iran will not send armed forces to fight against Takfiri terrorists in Iraq but will help Baghdad if it demands military equipment, a high-rankling diplomat says. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks during a visit to Moscow where he held talk with Russian officials on June 1. “If Iraq ever requires our arms for an effective combat against terrorism, we will provide these arms in accordance with international law and our bilateral contracts,” he said. Although Iraq has a strong army, Iran is ready to send military consultants to the neighboring country to help with battles against the al-Qaeda splinter Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Amir-Abdollahian noted.
Until recently Washington had supported the tough policy towards the Iraqi Sunni Muslims and initiated the persecutions of former supporters and functionaries of the Saddam Hussein’s regime. The late ruler still has many followers filling the ranks of staunch opposition to the incumbent government. The United States is putting the blame for the goings-on on Prime Minister of Iraq, the one they installed in power and who did not quite meet the expectations. The pro-Iranian foreign policy of the Shiite – dominated government is the major irritant. According to the United States plans, chaos, civil war, the division of the country – all told these factors will put a stop to Iraqi-Iranian rapprochement. That’s how Tehran interprets the US reaction to the events in Iraq as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant started its offensive. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes no bones about it saying the enemies of Arab’s resurrection try to use others to pour fuel on the war in the Middle East and make Sunni and Shia Muslims clash. Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, deputy joint chief of staff of the armed forces and a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer, told Iran’s al
Alam television that Iran’s response to the militias would be “certain and serious”. Jazayeri’s remarks late on Saturday did not provide details on the assistance Iran could give Baghdad, beyond saying Iran could help with what he called popular defence and intelligence. “Iran has told Iraqi officials it is ready to provide them with our successful experiments in popular all-around defence, the same winning strategy used in Syria to put the terrorists on the defensive… This same strategy is now taking shape in Iraq – mobilizing masses of all ethnic groups,” he told the television station. “A response is certain and serious,” he said. “With Syria, too, we announced we would not allow terrorists in the hire of foreign intelligence services to rule and dictate to Syrian people. We will certainly have the same approach with Iraq.”
The remarks came as Iraqi helicopter gunships struck suspected insurgent positions in Tikrit on June 28 as part of a government offensive to retake the northern city from Sunni jihadists led by ISIL (ISIS), residents and officials said. No doubt Iran will defend its borders and Shia holy shrines of Najaf and Karbala. The battle will decide the outcome of the conflict. Tehran will not hold talks with extremists; the preparations are in full swing to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Iran enjoys solid support inside Iraq. Maliki is not the key figure. The man Iran really relies on is Ayatollah Ali al-Husain al-Sistani, the highest-ranking Shia marja in Iraq and the leader of the Yawza of Najaf, an Iranian citizen. He is the one who has clout. The Ayatollah has already called on the Iraqi Shiites to repel the Islamic State offensive. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards will work as instructors to train Shiite volunteers’ formations. Perhaps al-Maliki will manage to cope without Americans relying on the Shiite volunteer units and Iranian military aid. It will make Baghdad even more anti-US.
The US will hardly get any geopolitical dividends playing a game of its own without taking the other states’ interests into consideration. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that not just the US and UK, but all of the region’s countries should participate in dealing with the Iraqi crisis. If Iraq collapses it could destabilize the entire Middle East and the adjacent regions, with unrest lasting for years, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 28. “If Iraq collapses – and considering that Libya has almost collapsed already, and someone apparently wants Syria to share a similar fate – the whole region would simply explode and unrest would become its dominant feature. And it would affect not just the Middle East and Northern Africa, but the adjacent regions as well,” Lavrov said. “We urge others to make conclusions out of what happened in Iraq, Libya and Yemen – the countries where not all of the problems were dealt with. The country’s unity is still being severely tested. It’s not London and Washington that should make the decisions, like it was in Iraq in 2003, but all of the region’s countries, all of the neighbors of Iraq,” Lavrov said.
Only those in the Middle East who have avoided an outright US involvement managed to stay stable. The Central Intelligence Agency’s analysts predict that with Iraq collapsed, Afghanistan is next. The United States appears not to understand what it does. On the one hand they are ready to follow the advice of Saudi Arabia to keep away from the Iraqi turmoil and shy away from cooperation with Iran. On the other hand, the White House still does not fully realize what dire fallout the collapse of Iraq may entail. Israel is also pushing the Obama administration from support of Iraqi integrity.
Shimon Peres made a probe when he said a Kurdish state has de-facto been established. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also declared his support of the idea to create an independent Kurdish state in the northern part of Iraq. The borders and political system of such a state could to great extent influence the events in the region. The Kurds living in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran make up the largest ethnos in the world without a state of its own. Actually the Iraqi Kurdistan is an independent canton while Iraq appears to be moving to a confederate state. Iraqi Kurdistan is oil rich. It’s the sixth largest reserve in the world. It was reported a few days
ago the first tanker with oil bought in Iraqi Kurdistan dropped anchor in an Israeli port. Iraq believes the oil is stolen. The Kurds face difficulties with customers. Israel and Kurdistan have common interests running counter to goal of preserving united Iraq.
Obviously the creation of independent Kurdistan will entail international problems. No way will Turkey, Iran and Syria reconcile with the idea of getting their Kurdish enclaves separated making them parts of another state. The emergence of independent Kurdistan may pose a security threat to the statehood of these countries. Tehran believes getting out of Baghdad’s control may make Kurdistan a springboard to be used by Israel to deliver military strikes against Iran. The Iranian Kurdish population exceeds by 2-3 million the number of Kurds living in Iraq. The West has always been interested in using the Kurdish factor as leverage against the government of Iran.
Barack Obama said the United States will take steps to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. He never made precise what kind of measures he means. Till the White House is blowing hot and cold, the extremists are taking advantage of the situation. They can do away with Iraq, the United States will reap no benefits and the Middle East will face the horrible fallout plunging the region into dire straits of political turmoil.

Scotland’s Independence from the United Kingdom: What Happens to England?

Scotland’s Independence from the United Kingdom: What Happens to England?

The September Referendum

By Lesley Docksey

Global Research, June 30, 2014

Region: Europe

Theme: Culture, Society & History, Politics and Religion

As if Prime Minister David Cameron hasn’t got enough problems, the promised referendum allowing Scotland to vote on whether people want independence from the rest of the United Kingdom looms ever closer, and some polls show that the gap between the Yes and No camps is closing. 
It will be a tight race come September.  While staying within the UK still leads in the polls, over 50% of people believe an independent Scotland could be successful.
One reason for the increasing number of once-independent areas seeking to regain that independence is that people also want to recover their character, their heritage, their sense of belonging to that particular patch of the earth which defines who they are.
While most of us are happy to trade, to buy products from other countries, to take part in what is now a “global community”, we want to do it on our own terms.  We do not want to be governed by global corporations which have far too much influence on our governments.
Globalisation is a process of homogenisation.  We do not want to be mixed together until we are all the same tiny digits in the corporate balance sheet.  We want to be different, and we want to market that difference.  We want our contributions to the world to be recognised as ours, not swallowed up by some greater, faceless state.
Let me make it clear – I am English.  I am British in the sense of belonging (as did my ancestors) to the British Isles, which is not a nation but a geographic location, a part of which is England.  I come from a place, not a political entity.  And I am definitely not United Kingdom-ish.  I have huge loyalty to my land but little in the way of political “patriotism”.
When I visit Wales or Scotland I am conscious of entering countries separate from mine, full of Welsh and Scots – not Brits.  We define ourselves as Welsh, Scottish or English.  We belong to countries with different accents, idioms and languages, different histories and cultures, legends and customs, and ways of thinking and perception.  And I love it that way.
Therefore I respect the fact that many Scots want to return to being independent of the United Kingdom – not that any of our ancestors got to vote on the issue of being “United” back in the 17^th century.  I also respect the fact that the Scots are holding a referendum on whether to regain their independence from Westminster, and that it is their referendum, not mine.
There’s another thing.  Although it has not been openly said, is it really Westminster that many Scots feel the need to separate themselves from?  Because there are quite a lot of us English folk who feel the same!
But as an Englishwoman, I am ashamed of some of the arguments put forward by the “Better Together” camp.  That title for a start.  And the launch of Better Together was used by ex-Chancellor Alistair Darling, himself a Scotsman, to make much of the fact that an independent Scotland would “lose its standing in the world”.
Even worse, a diminished United Kingdom would lose its “clout”.  Very important, clout is, to self-important politicians.  They don’t get to interfere in other countries’ affairs, something that other countries might consider a good thing.
How tediously long is the list of what Scotland would lose if it cut its ties with England.  Oh yes.  It is England that is all-important.  Little mention is made of Wales or Northern Ireland, but then they are not host to Westminster or the “financial capital of the world”.
Better Together said Scotland can’t be part of the EU.  Why not?  They can easily apply for membership or is Westminster going to have a hissy-fit and veto their entry?  But the ex-head of the EU Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said “it would be extremely difficult”.
Ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown threatens an independent Scotland with the loss of the EU rebate that we currently enjoy.  Where EU membership is concerned, would Scots be worse or better off?  How much do they really benefit from the UK’s rebate – compared to England?  Better Together says they would be worse off.  The Yes campaign says not, and points out that Gordon Brown, Scottish born and bred, didn’t negotiate a better deal for Scotland when he had the opportunity.
Up pops the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband saying that “Scotland may need border controls”.  Surely not if Scotland stays within the EU, where there is free movement across borders.  What next – a re-fortification of Hadrian’s Wall?
Scotland couldn’t possibly share our currency, although for many years Scottish banks have issued Scottish currency.  And the Committee of Scottish Bankers has this to say: “… no banknote whatsoever (including Bank of England notes!) qualifies for the term ‘legal tender’ north of the border and the Scottish economy seems to manage without that legal protection.”  So they could print their own, no problem.  Or, perish the thought, they could adopt the Euro.
There might be a problem with the banks themselves – the main Scottish banks are not Scottish owned.  How many UK financial institutions, utilities, insurance/pension funds and corporate businesses are solely UK-owned?  Ah, but so many businesses operating in Scotland would have to relocate.  Why?  Business locates at its convenience; where money is to be made or where there is a good labour force.  Big business these days doesn’t do nationalism or patriotism (if it ever did), despite what the CBI tried to maintain.
Gordon Brown feared Scotland would lose the BBC.  But they do have Scottish TV and satellite TV, and if I can receive Al Jazeera and Russia Today in rural England I daresay they won’t feel too cut off, although they might miss BBC Alba.  Even worse, Scotland wouldn’t be able to access any funding for local projects from our lottery money.
Some of these arguments are looking a little desperate, and the more ridiculous ones result in a few more people saying they’ll vote for independence – which must be why the big guns have been rolled out.  It started in January with Vladimir Putin on the Andrew Marr Show, although Education Secretary Michael Gove has just opined that Putin would use Scottish independence as an excuse to “dictate to the world”.  Seriously.  But if people like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Pope Francis and Chinese Premier Li can now stick their oars into the referendum debate, then so can I.  I am, after all, a rather nearer neighbour to the Scots than any of them.
This frothing and foaming at the mouth from Better Together always seems to boil down to one thing – money.  Sir William Patey claims that only by remaining a part of the UK will Scotland have access to the IMF and the World Bank.  Why would they want to since, should Scotland run into financial muddy waters, the IMF and the World Bank would be the first to come knocking at their door offering, as they have with other poor benighted countries, the kind of financial assistance that will pauper them for the foreseeable future.
Why not consider what we would lose if Scotland became independent, apart from what’s left of North Sea oil?  And Faslane.  With nowhere else to base them, the Trident missiles would have to go.
While relentlessly talking about what an independent Scotland would lose, how much poorer it might be in terms of money or power, Better Together has conveniently forgotten the impressive contribution Scotland has made, not just to the UK, but to the world.  That such a small part of “Great” Britain should have contributed so much to the way we live now is astonishing.  For instance:
James Watt, inventor and mechanical engineer, renowned for his improvements in steam engine technology.  The unit of measurement of electrical power – the watt – is named in his honour. Another engineer, John Logie Baird, invented television, without which the world would be a very different place.
The Scots not only invented the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell) and logarithms (John Napier), developed radar (Robert Watson-Watt), penicillin (Alexander Fleming), and antiseptics (Joseph Lister).  They also founded modern geology (James Hutton), invented the bicycle, the threshing machine, a reaping machine (forerunner of the combine harvester) the “Mac” raincoat (Charles Mackintosh), the vacuum flask (James Dewar) and our road surfacing (John McAdam).
They have produced great philosophers (David Hume), economists (Adam Smith), and chemists (Joseph Black), writers and poets (including the wonderful Hugh MacDiarmid and the hilarious William McGonagall), actors, sportsmen and women and artists/architects like Charles Rennie Mackintosh, recently in the news because of the disastrous fire at the Glasgow School of Art, one of the most inspiring buildings anywhere.  And perhaps I should mention another of my heroes, photography pioneer David Octavius Hill.
Whether in politics, medicine, science, engineering or the arts, Scotland has not only greatly altered the way we live but added to the way we think.  And some Scots have been very forward thinking:
In seeking to reform the Scottish Kirk, and backed by some lords who were in favour of reformation, John Knox wrote this wish list 450 years ago:
That all Church land should be used for three purposes, namely

1. for the upkeep of the kirk
2. for the support of the disabled and the aged poor and the provision of work for the unemployed
3. for a public elementary school education for every child

Unfortunately the lords being lords and fond of owning as much as they could, they ended up with the land and the Kirk got the kirks.  But there, for some, is another reason for Scottish independence – the possibility that they will finally follow up on their Land Reform Act.
Looking at that small snapshot of Scotland’s richness of invention, capability and expertise, I think it sheer arrogance for Better Together to insist Scotland can’t exist without the rest of us.  The arguments for a No vote would be more impressive if they talked about how, in so many ways, the rest of us might be impoverished if Scotland chooses to leave us.
And whether Scotland becomes independent or remains within the UK, it will always be its unique Scottish self.  The Scots will see to that.

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The “Battle for Europe” is Raging. How America Undermines Franco-Russian Relations

The “Battle for Europe” is Raging. How America Undermines Franco-Russian Relations

US Blackmailed France using the Banque Nationale de Paris as Hostage

By Umberto Pascali

Global Research, July 02, 2014

Region: Europe, Russia and FSU, USA

Theme: Global Economy, Oil and Energy, US NATO War Agenda

On July 1st, during a meeting with all Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives, President Vladimir Putin revealed the details of a blatant blackmail against France. The US Administration used its unilateral (and de facto illegal) sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan to punish France and in particular the Banque Nationale de Paris – Paribas. The Bank was blackmailed in to paying $8.97 billion for not submitting to the malicious diktat of the power-drunk but weakening hegemon, even though the sanctions are not a decision agreed to by France.

In a development that has a direct impact on national sovereignty, Senior BNP executive Dominique Remy resigned in mid-May after New York state banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky (read Wall Street) named him as one of the 12 officials who should step down due to their roles in the “scandal”.

Putin revealed publicly something even worse. The case against France’s BNP was set up by Washington in order to blackmail France and force the country to refuse the delivery to Russia of two French-produced Mistral-class helicopter carriers for $1.6billion.
France and Russia, however, did not back down on the Mistral deal: at this very moment 400 Russian sailors are receiving training on the first Mistral in a French port.
Far from representing a demonstration of hegemonic power, the degrading blackmail is strengthening the links between Russia and the main countries of the European Union: namely France, Germany and Italy.
Putin told the Russian ambassadors:

“… What is being done to the French banks can cause nothing but indignation in Europe in general and here as well. We are aware of the pressure our American partners are putting on France to force it not to supply Mistrals to Russia. We even know that they hinted that if France does not deliver the Mistrals, the sanctions will be quietly lifted from their banks, or at least they will be significantly minimised.

What is this if not blackmail? Is this the right way to act on the international arena? Besides, when we speak of sanctions, we always assume that sanctions are applied pursuant to Article 7 of the UN Charter. Otherwise, these are not sanctions in the true legal sense of the word, but something different, some other unilateral policy instrument….” http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/22586

The increasingly irrational and predatory US foreign policy has reached its climax,  characterised by a vast gamma of tools of pressure and intimidation. Now the US bully policy of the “with me or against me” is pushing more and more countries to look at a rational alternative.

Putin’s Russia, contrary to the desperate Wall Street media, is shining as a beacon of rationality and humanity, as the only adult and reliable person in the global saloon in which the drunk US cowboy is shooting his last bullets.

The Ukraine crisis, the creation of the grotesque ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the frantic pressure on Romania, Serbia, Italy and others to denounce the agreement with Russia for the South Stream gas pipeline and prevent Russia from exporting its raw materials – these seems to be the last bullets shot in the air.

Italy, for one, answered with a clear-cut statement by the state secretary for European affairs Sandro Gozi:

”The South Stream project has always been and remains most important for Italy.”

The interview was published on June 30, the day before Italy assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

“As Italy takes over the European Union presidency, we give absolute priority to establishing political and economic integration with Kiev while resuming strategic partnership between the EU and Russia,… Relations with Moscow can be neither broken off nor suspended. On the contrary, we are convinced of the need to strengthen them further.”

One of the first calls Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini made at the beginning of the six month of Italian Presidency was with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov announcing a visit to Moscow within the month of July.

Serbia itself, after an internal debate to evaluate the strength of the US threats, decided to go ahead with the South Stream. And, of course, so did Austria during the official visit of Putin in Vienna on June 24. As the German agency Deutsche Welle wrote, uncharacteristically allowing itself a hint of polemics:

“Austria defies US, EU over South Stream during Putin visit – Austria’s OMV and Russia’s Gazprom have signed a deal for the Austrian section of the controversial South Stream gas pipeline that bypasses Ukraine. Austria’s president, Heinz Fischer, has rejected US and EU criticism.”  http://www.dw.de/austria-defies-us-eu-over-south-stream-during-putin-visit/a-17734602

Germany is happily supplied with Russian gas through the North Stream.

Many in Europe expects now a new line from the European Union, despite the anti European policy the London’s city – controlled Brussels bureaucracy.

Behind the façade, the “Battle for Europe” is raging.
The ferocious and desperate ultimata coming from Washington appears increasingly impotent. And it is more and more clear why US-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland in her infamous conversation with ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt in preparation for the coup d’etat in Kiev pronounced her immortal: “Fuck the EU!” The bloody destabilization of Ukraine was a means to an end: Keep Europe under control. It’s not working.

DOJ Pardon Atty. Quits as Obama Plans to Free Thousands of Drug Convicts

DOJ Pardon Atty. Quits as Obama Plans to Free Thousands of Drug Convicts

APRIL 24, 2014

As President Obama prepares to use his executive power to release thousands of felons (serving time under “racist” drug sentences) the Justice Department’s top official in charge of pardons quits rather than let criminals out of jail.
At least someone at the agency charged with enforcing the law and providing federal leadership in controlling crime, has some scruples. Of course, the official statement on the abrupt resignation of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Pardon Attorney, Ron Rodgers, is that he suddenly requested reassignment after heading the division for six years. One newswire story quotes a DOJ Deputy Attorney General saying that Rodgers’ departure is “in the tradition” of senior executive service attorneys who ask for reassignment.
The facts tell a different story. As head of the DOJ’s Pardons Office Rodgers clashed with the Obama administration over a controversial plan to release—or reduce the sentences of—convicted drug offenders. It’s part of the president’s effort to end racial discrimination in drug-related sentences. It started with the 2010 signing of a law (Fair Sentencing Act) that for the first time in decades relaxed drug-crime sentences he claims discriminate against minority offenders. The measure severely weakens a decades-old law enacted during the infamous crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged urban communities nationwide in the 1980s.
But the Fair Sentencing Act is not retroactive so the president launched a broad plan this month to help those sentenced under the older, stricter law which required mandatory prison for first-time offenders and a five-year sentence for trafficking offenses involving more than five grams of crack cocaine. This punished a disproportionate number of blacks, the administration says, compared to more affluent whites and Hispanics that enjoy lighter sentences for possessing the more expensive powder cocaine that most blacks can’t afford.
So this week Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new DOJ clemency initiative that’s expected to free thousands of prisoners serving time for crimes related to crack cocaine. The agency expects to get bombarded with petitions, Holder said in a video posted on the DOJ website, and will assign dozens of new attorneys to its pardon office, which is now headed by an Obama team player named Deborah Leff. The clemencies will “restore a degree of justice, fairness and proportionality,” Holder said, adding that the DOJ is “committed to recommending as many qualified applicants as possible for reduced sentences.”
More than 20,000 inmates “sentenced under the old regime” will likely qualify for clemency, according to Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who held a press conference this week to announce the initiative. “For our criminal justice system to be effective, it needs to not only be fair; but it also must be perceived as being fair,” Cole said. “Older, stringent punishments that are out of line with sentences imposed under today’s laws erode people’s confidence in our criminal justice system, and I am confident that this initiative will go far to promote the most fundamental of American ideals – equal justice under law.”
With that said, here’s an interesting tidbit related to this story. One of the federal lawmakers (California Congresswoman Maxine Waters) that for years pushed to reduce drug sentences over racial disparities accused the CIA of selling crack cocaine to blacks in her south central Los Angeles district to raise money to support clandestine operations in Latin America, including a guerrilla army. Waters and her buddy, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, were driving forces behind the Fair Sentencing Act and are undoubtedly celebrating the new clemency criteria.

Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack

CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happening at the CIA, in the wake of the deadly Benghazi terror attack.

Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the assault by armed militants last September 11 in eastern Libya.
Programming note: Was there a political cover up surrounding the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans? Watch a CNN special investigation — The Truth About Benghazi, Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.
Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.
CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency's Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.

Read: Analysis: CIA role in Benghazi underreported
Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency's missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency's workings.
The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.
It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.
In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, "You don't jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well."
Another says, "You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation."
"Agency employees typically are polygraphed every three to four years. Never more than that," said former CIA operative and CNN analyst Robert Baer.
In other words, the rate of the kind of polygraphs alleged by sources is rare.
"If somebody is being polygraphed every month, or every two months it's called an issue polygraph, and that means that the polygraph division suspects something, or they're looking for something, or they're on a fishing expedition. But it's absolutely not routine at all to be polygraphed monthly, or bi-monthly," said Baer.
CIA spokesman Dean Boyd asserted in a statement that the agency has been open with Congress.
"The CIA has worked closely with its oversight committees to provide them with an extraordinary amount of information related to the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi," the statement said.
"CIA employees are always free to speak to Congress if they want," the statement continued. "The CIA enabled all officers involved in Benghazi the opportunity to meet with Congress. We are not aware of any CIA employee who has experienced retaliation, including any non-routine security procedures, or who has been prevented from sharing a concern with Congress about the Benghazi incident."
Among the many secrets still yet to be told about the Benghazi mission, is just how many Americans were there the night of the attack.
A source now tells CNN that number was 35, with as many as seven wounded, some seriously.
While it is still not known how many of them were CIA, a source tells CNN that 21 Americans were working in the building known as the annex, believed to be run by the agency.
The lack of information and pressure to silence CIA operatives is disturbing to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, whose district includes CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
"I think it is a form of a cover-up, and I think it's an attempt to push it under the rug, and I think the American people are feeling the same way," said the Republican.
"We should have the people who were on the scene come in, testify under oath, do it publicly, and lay it out. And there really isn't any national security issue involved with regards to that," he said.
Wolf has repeatedly gone to the House floor, asking for a select committee to be set-up, a Watergate-style probe involving several intelligence committee investigators assigned to get to the bottom of the failures that took place in Benghazi, and find out just what the State Department and CIA were doing there.
More than 150 fellow Republican members of Congress have signed his request, and just this week eight Republicans sent a letter to the new head of the FBI, James  Comey, asking that he brief Congress within 30 days.
Read: White House releases 100 pages of Benghazi e-mails
In the aftermath of the attack, Wolf said he was contacted by people closely tied with CIA operatives and contractors who wanted to talk.
Then suddenly, there was silence.
"Initially they were not afraid to come forward. They wanted the opportunity, and they wanted to be subpoenaed, because if you're subpoenaed, it sort of protects you, you're forced to come before Congress. Now that's all changed," said Wolf.
Lawmakers also want to know about the weapons in Libya, and what happened to them.
Speculation on Capitol Hill has included the possibility the U.S. agencies operating in Benghazi were secretly helping to move surface-to-air missiles out of Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels.
It is clear that two U.S. agencies were operating in Benghazi, one was the State Department, and the other was the CIA.
The State Department told CNN in an e-mail that it was only helping the new Libyan government destroy weapons deemed "damaged, aged or too unsafe retain," and that it was not involved in any transfer of weapons to other countries.
But the State Department also clearly told CNN, they "can't speak for any other agencies."
The CIA would not comment on whether it was involved in the transfer of any weapons.
Have a tip? Go to cnn.com/investigate.

Posted by Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston Filed under: World Lead