'Illegal' Drone Strikes Condemned In Landslide Vote By European Politicians

Obama and his coward CIA drone murderers headed for war crimes trials 

HUFFINGTON POST
By Jessica Elgot
02/27/2014

Europe's politicians have voted by a landslide to propose a ban on US drone strikes that have killed thousands in Yemen and Pakistan, calling the killings "unlawful". 

 

 

The European Parliament voted by a majority of 534 to 49 MEPs to support a resolution demanding that EU Member States “do not perpetrate unlawful targeted killings or facilitate such killings by other states”, and calling on them to “oppose and ban practices of extra judicial targeted killings.”

Green MEP and chair of the Parliament's sub-committee on human rights Barbara Lochbihler said: "The European Parliament has today raised serious concerns with the use of military drones and the deaths of thousands of civilians resulting from drone strikes.

"MEPs have delivered a strong rebuke to the practice of targeted aerial killings outside a declared war zone, as well as the use of armed drones in war situations outside of the international legal framework.

"The EU needs to address the legal, ethical and security challenges posed by the increasing use of drones, including the urgent need to secure complete transparency and accountability. 

 

 

"The resolution also stresses that EU member states should strictly refrain from participating in or facilitating extrajudicial targeted killings, for instance by sharing relevant information with countries such as the US."

The UK and Germany will now come under increased pressure to disclose their involvement and tacit condoning of the US drone programme, which both have resisted citing national security concerns.

But both countries are believed to have aided the drone programme, a tactic President Barack Obama is known to favour, through intelligence-sharing and the provision of infrastructure at US airbases on their soil.

The resolution, sponsored by the Green group of MEPs with cross-party support, adds that "drone strikes by a State on the territory of another State without the consent of the latter constitute a violation of international law and of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of that country... thousands of civilians have reportedly been killed or seriously injured by drone strikes [but] these figures are difficult to estimate, owing to lack of transparency and obstacles to effective investigation.” 

 

 

MEPs who voted in favour agreed that drone strikes are causing "considerable harm to the daily lives of ordinary civilians in the countries concerned, including deep anxiety and psychological trauma, disruption of economic and social activities and reduced access to education among affected communities.”

Last week, legal charity Reprieve lodged a complaint with the International Criminal Court concerning the involvement of NATO member states in facilitating strikes in Pakistan. 

 

The complaint highlighted the case of Kareem Khan, whose civilian brother and son were killed in a 2009 strike in the Waziristan area of Pakistan. Khan has in recent days met with Parliamentarians from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands to discuss the impact of drone strikes in the area.

 

 

Khan called the vote “heartening news" and a sign that "Europe is listening to those who have been harmed".

 

He added: "Drone strikes are not the answer. Today, Europe has taken a first step to bringing a stop to these illegal, unaccountable killings; I hope that national governments will follow suit, so that one day I may finally get justice.”

 

Reprieve Legal Director Kat Craig said: “Today’s vote represents a triumph of conscience by MEPs, who have issued a clear call to national European governments to come clean on their complicity with the CIA’s illegal drones programme, and bring it to an immediate halt.

"This should be a wake-up call to countries like the UK and Germany; they need to clean up their act not only by ensuring that they stop cooperating with extrajudicial killings, but also by pressuring the US for greater transparency and accountability.”

 

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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Rare, Polio - Like Disease Afflicting California Kids Mystifies Health Officials

Doctors downplay mystery disease; refuse to discuss origins of pathogen or whether it is viral or bacterial

THE GUARDIAN
02/25/2014

An extremely rare, polio-like disease has appeared in more than a dozen California children within the past year, and each of them suffered paralysis to one or more arms or legs, Stanford University researchers say. But public health officials haven’t identified any common causes connecting the cases.

 

 

Polio virus

The illness is still being investigated and appears to be very unusual, but Dr Keith Van Haren at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University warned Monday that any child showing a sudden onset of weakness in their limbs or symptoms of paralysis should be immediately seen by a doctor.

“The disease resembles but is not the same as polio,” he said. “But this is serious. Most of the children we’ve seen so far have not recovered use of their arm or their leg.”

But doctors are not sure if it’s a virus or something else, he said. Van Haren said he has studied five cases from Monterey up through the San Francisco Bay Area, including two that were identified as the disease enterovirus-68, which is from the same family as the polio viruses. He said there have been about 20 cases statewide.

“We want to temper the concern, because at the moment, it does not appear to represent a major epidemic but only a very rare phenomenon,” he said, noting similar outbreaks in Asia and Australia.

But for some children, like Sofia Jarvis, 4, of Berkeley, rare doesn’t mean safe.

She first developed what looked like asthma two years ago, but then her left arm stopped moving, and it has remained paralyzed ever since.

“You can imagine. We had two boys that are very healthy, and Sofia was healthy until that point,” said her mother, Jessica Tomei. “We did not realize what we were in store for. We did not realize her arm would be permanently paralyzed.”

Van Haren, who diagnosed Sofia, said polio vaccines do not protect children from the disease, but he stressed that it is still important for children to receive that vaccine.

Dr Jane Seward of the Centers for disease control and prevention in Atlanta said Monday that the research is still underway in California, and there are a variety of infectious diseases that can cause childhood paralysis.

Any of a number of illnesses could be at work, and it’s possible some of the cases had one infection and some had another. Regarding the presence of EV-68 in at least two cases, “it could be an incidental finding”, Seward said.

Until officials get more information, Seward said they are not looking around the country for similar cases of EV-68.

The California department of public health has not identified any common causes that suggest that the cases are linked, said Dr Gil Chavez, the deputy director of the Center for Infectious Disease and state epidemiologist.

“Physicians and public health officials who have encountered similar illnesses have submitted 20 reports to CDPH, and CDPH has conducted preliminary tests on 15 of these specimens,” he said. “Thus far, the department has not identified any common causes that suggest that the cases are linked.”

University of California, San Francisco, neurology professor Emmanuelle Waubant said doctors believe, but don’t have proof, that it’s a virus that for most children shows up only as a benign cold. She said a few children, due to their biological makeup, are having much more serious symptoms and she hoped doctors would look for them.

“For a lot of the neurologists who have trained in the last 30 years, it’s extremely rare to see polio or polio-like syndrome,” she said.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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Ukraine Turmoil Poses Difficult Questions For EU

Dying, destitute EU now panics at prospect of being overrun by Russia following CIA engineered coup they incited and enabled; Ukraine loses fight for democracy

THE IRISH TIMES
By Suzanne Lynch
02/27/2014

The events of the last 10 days in Ukraine have raised uncomfortable questions for the European Union, particularly regarding its relationship with neighbouring states. 

 

 

The EU’s negotiations with Ukraine over the last five years meant it was inevitable it would be embroiled in the crisis. The EU’s immediate response as reports began to emerge of the violence was swift.

The deal struck by the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland at an all- night meeting with Victor Yanukovich may have been superseded by events on Saturday, but it succeeded in bringing some calm to the chaos, sending a strong message that an outside force was at least taking an interest in, if not fully in control of, events.

Similarly, the decision to hold an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels a week ago was important symbolically, even if the vote to impose sanctions now appears pitifully inadequate, with Yanukovich’s whereabouts unknown.

The EU has been drawn into the centre of the complex political and economic picture that is emerging from Kiev. Of immediate concern is the country’s economic situation.

 

 

NATO on the retreat

With almost $13 billion (€9.5 billion) of debt due for repayment this year, the country is hovering close to default. Soaring bond yields mean it cannot borrow at sustainable rates, the currency has tumbled, and foreign currency reserves are depleting, even if the ousting of Yanukovich and prospect of a bailout package from the West was greeted by a rally in bond markets.

(Franklin Templeton and its top investor Michael Hasenstab, who bought up to 10 per cent of Irish Government debt during the Irish bailout, is among the biggest holders of Ukraine’s sovereign bonds.)

Aid package

EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn’s declaration at the G20 summit in Sydney last week that the EU was prepared to offer an aid package immediately pushed the financial responsibility on to Brussels’ shoulders, leaving officials fielding questions all week on what such a package would involve. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton deflected questions on the issue at her press conference in Kiev on Monday. 

 

 

Kerry now panics at out of control CIA/EU financed coup

An arrangement with the IMF is the most likely prospect. The Washington-based fund has twice offered the country loan packages since 2008, but stopped the process over Ukraine’s failure to implement reforms. Concern about the adequacy of an IMF package, which can takes months to negotiate, has prompted Ukraine to consider bilateral loans from Poland and the US. 

 

European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso also called on Russia, which has halted its promised aid programme to Ukraine, to help.

Another bailout

In effect the EU now has another bailout on its hands, something that is likely to garner little support from EU citizens. Ukraine’s urgent need for cash means the EU is also obliged to respond financially.

The crisis has also raised questions about the EU’s neighbourhood policy. Conceived at a time when it was undergoing a wave of enlargement a decade ago, its aim was to create a “ring of countries” that would become more integrated without necessarily becoming members.

The EU’s eastern partnership policy – which specifically looks at the post-Soviet countries to the east and southern Caucuses – aims to strengthen the ties between the former Soviet republics and the EU. 

 

 

Ukraine loses bid for democracy, will now once again become province of Russia thanks to U.S. bankrolled fascist thugs

But the collapse of the association agreement with Ukraine has raised questions about Europe’s strategy on the east, particularly its failure to offer eastern partners the prospect of membership.

A similar move by Armenia in September to back out of an agreement because of Russian pressure should have been a wake-up call for EU diplomats, many believe.

Privately, officials in Brussels closely involved in the negotiations with Ukraine suspect the EU was too ambivalent about the process, with member states divided between those such as Poland, Lithuania and Sweden who favour complete integration with Ukraine, and others who are more cautious. “The message was too ambiguous. We should have been clearer about what exactly was on offer,” says one diplomat.

EU leaders now face the prospect of Yulia Tymoshenko’s attendance at next week’s European People’s Party summit in Dublin. Many are uncomfortable with the idea of aligning themselves with the former prime minister, a controversial figure. It may be that Ukraine will be the main story at the Dublin congress, not the EPP’s selection of a candidate for commission president.

 

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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Ukraine : “Thugs R Us” Western - Backed Extremists’ Intimidation Techniques

Obama will be held responsible for the deaths incurred in this CIA engineered coup financed with U.S. taxpayer dollars

RT
02/27/2014

Regional parliament members in a Ukrainian city held a session at gunpoint when one of the radical nationalist opposition leaders came to them, armed to the teeth, as the law of power seems to be prevailing in the tumultuous post-coup country. (Watch video here.) 

 

 

CIA financed Ukrainian fascists

A Kalashnikov appears to be the best argument in a debate for Aleksandr Muzychko, an activist of the nationalist “Pravy Sektor” (Right Sector) movement and one of the Maidan’s most prominent and controversial leaders.

On Tuesday he came to the Rovno regional parliament, where he threatened the regional MPs with a machine-gun and a number of other weapons as he demanded a decision on granting apartments to the families of protesters who were killed during last week’s violent clashes in central Kiev.

“Who wants to take away my machine-gun? Who wants to take away my gun? Who wants to take away my knives? I dare you!” Muzychko said.

His lobbying methods have apparently been imported from Chechnya, where the man, aka Sashko Bilyi, was fighting alongside separatist forces in the 1990s. He now boasts of having demolished Russian tanks and killed Russian soldiers.

While Sashko Bilyi was intimidating the Rovno MPs into signing bills, his fellow activists in Kiev were putting pressure on Central Election Commission (CEC) officials ahead of the early elections in May. 

 

 

Ukrainian fascists with U.S. traitor fascist John McCain

“Pravy Sektor” members together with activists from another nationalist movement, “Spilna Sprava”(Common Cause), have demanded a complete replacement of staff at the CEC, as well as changes in electoral law. The movements are also calling for the prosecution of those MPs they claim were involved in “rigging” previous elections in Ukraine, despite the results being recognized internationally.

“The corrupt, criminal composition of the CEC must be completely replaced,” Spilna Sprava activist Aleksandr Shevchenko said in a statement, adding that there was no point in holding elections under the watchful eye of the “world’s best election cheats.” In order to guarantee “fair and transparent elections,”activists will stay in CEC offices to “swiftly inform the Maidan” about any suspicious activity, he said, adding that he was not trying to “exert any pressure.” 

 

 

CIA whore Victoria Nuland with fascist dupes

Officials across the country have been resigning from the former ruling Party of Regions fearing retribution, as events on the ground suggest that Ukrainian radicals have been resorting to scaremongering to suppress counter-revolutionary feelings.

On Monday, the prosecutor’s office in the Volyn region in western Ukraine and members of the Party of Regions in the adjacent Rovno region said they were being pressured and urged to resign by radicals. A statement by the 24 employees of the office in Volyn says that radicals from the Right Sector intimidated them with “physical threats to them and their families… by displaying firearms, entering premises of public institutions, including the prosecutor’s office and demanding the dismissal of management.”

Deputy Chairman of the Party of Regions in Rivne, Alla Ivoylovoy, said that “armed masked youths burst into the homes” of the party’s members, demanding a list of activists who “participated in the so-called anti-Maidan protest, threatening physical violence and arson of houses.” 

 

 

The Ukrainian Communist Party, which has been closely aligned with Yanukovich’s Party of Regions, has also been under attack. The house of the party’s leader, Pyotr Simonenko, was set on fire on Monday.

Simonenko’s wife, Oksana Vashenko, told Radio Svoboda that assailants broke into their house to seek incriminating evidence against her husband. Unable to find any evidence, men brought “several boxes” of Molotov cocktails into the house to burn the residence down, to “hide the fact that nothing was found there,” Vashenko said.

The party said it was concerned with the recent burst of “anti-communist psychosis” and the “acts of vandalism and violence” which resulted in toppling the statues to former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and monuments to the ‘Soviet Soldier’ commemorating the collective sacrifice of the Soviet army fighting against Nazi forces.

The country’s new leadership, Communist Party officials said, is not condemning these actions, while neo-Nazi movements are on the rise in the country.

The former head of the Presidential Administration, Andrey Klyuyev has suffered a gunshot wound to his leg. He was attacked on his way back to Kiev after submitting his resignation personally to Yanukovich in the Crimea, his press secretary Artyom Petrenko said. Klyuyev’s house was raided twice by a crowd of unknown assailants earlier on February 23 and 24, Potrenko said. The former official is now being treated in hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.

Molotov cocktails for churches

The coup has heightened religious tensions in Ukraine, where the majority of Orthodox churches are subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, while some pledge loyalty to the Kiev one, established in 1992 and unrecognized by Eastern Orthodox communion.

Inspired by the anti-Russian feeling of the Maidan protests, radical activists have been coming up with all kinds of threats to Orthodox churches under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.

On Tuesday, a group of 10 men arrived at the Diocese of Sumy Ukrainian Orthodox Church to force the clergy to pray for the activists in Ukraine.

“They said they are outraged that the clergy of Sumy diocese are allegedly not praying for the victims of the Maidan,” Itar-Tass reported a statement from the diocese as saying.

Archbishop Eulogy met with one of the men who tried to convince the bishop of the need for joint worship with the Archbishop Methodius of Kiev Patriarchate at the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral.

“Having received clarification that canonical rules do not allow him to do so, the men said that the building of the diocese and the cathedral will be bombarded with Molotov cocktails,” the diocese’s press service said.

In a separate incident on the same day, the entrance to the famous Pochaevsky Monastery in western Ukraine was blocked by activists belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Kiev Patriarchate.

“Around noon, six buses drove up to the monastery,” said the monk. “They blocked the entrance, not letting the pilgrims in, people are alarmed.” The group tried to enter the monastery but were prevented from doing so because of their “aggressive behavior.”

The Kiev Patriarchate eventually had to deny rumors that there was a plan to seize churches of the Moscow Patriarchate.

“The Kiev Patriarchate is not calling for attacks on or for seizures of churches under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. We have been calling on our brothers and sisters in the Moscow Patriarchate to unite into one manorial Orthodox church. That’s why we are not interested in instigating enmity in those we wish to unite with,” the Kiev Patriarchate said in a statement, Interfax reported.

 

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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California Slaughterhouse Allegedly Sold Beef With Cancer

Corporate criminals now attempt to poison Californians into submission

PRESS TV
02/27/2014

Inside sources say that the nearly 9 million pounds of beef recalled from a California Slaughterhouse earlier this month may come from cows sick with cancer. 

 

 

Rancho Feeding Corp., a Northern California company, which is now under investigation by the US Department of Agriculture, recalled 8.7 million pounds of beef parts (3.95 million kg) as ordered by inspectors for lack of full federal inspection and processing unhealthy animals.

The company allegedly purchased dairy cows sick with eye cancer, decapitated them to hide the disease from inspectors and sold the beef illegally, an anonymous source has told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Rancho, we're told, was slaughtering them, somehow after hours or in other ways where the inspector didn't know about it," the source revealed. "Because the carcass looked good, (Rancho) mixed it back in with other beef that it sold under its label."

Rancho’s lawyers have forbidden employees from speaking to the media. 

 

 

Tumour on the nose of a cow

Bill Niman, the former owner of Niman Ranch who is widely considered a pioneer of humane and sustainable livestock farming, also processed his cattle at Rancho. 

 

He did not rule out the claims since according to him Rancho is one of the only facilities that slaughters retired dairy cows which are often not very healthy. 

 

"A farmer sends a cow in with cancer, and he knows it has cancer-eye -- it's a growth on the eye, this is not a microbial situation," he told the Village Voice. "The inspectors, they know it has cancer-eye. So the farmer shouldn't have sent it, and the inspector should have caught it."

Experts say cows inflicted with eye cancer are not necessarily dangerous to eat unless the cancer has spread to other organs. 

 

 

"If I'm out on top of Mount Everest and have a cow (with eye cancer) and I'm hungry, I'm going to cook her well and deal with getting down the mountain," James Cullor, professor of population health and reproduction at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, told the Chronicle. "But if I'm here in this country, I will choose to not consume the animal. I wouldn't feed the animal to my grandchildren."

The amount of the recalled meat equals one year’s worth of meat products processed by Rancho Feeding Corp, which has been under investigation by USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, according to the Associated Press. 

 

 

The USDA listed 18 categories of beef parts that are subject to recall, such as feet, lips, cheeks, hearts and tongues. They are in boxes of up to 60 lbs (27 kg). Last month, in another case, the same company was forced to recall more than 40,000 pounds of meat product, processed on Jan. 8, that weren’t fully inspected, FSIS said.

 

Unhealthy meat product can cause serious and adverse health consequences, FSIS said. The agency issued a Class I recall, as some products could be still frozen and in storage.

No illnesses have so far been reported in relation to the beefs.

AN/DT

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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BREAKING : Russian-Backed Fighters Restrict Access To Crimean Port

Blowback from Obama's CIA engineered coup expands; Russian flag now flies over regional parliament building as interim president issues threats to Russia

GLOBE AND MAIL
By Mark MaCKINNON
02/27/2014  1550 Western Jakarta Time

Ukraine’s sovereignty over the southern region of Crimea appeared to be under threat Wednesday, as Russian-backed fighters moved dozens of kilometres outside their base in this Black Sea port, establishing a checkpoint on the main road connecting Sevastopol to the regional capital.

 

 

President Vladimir Putin also ordered the Russian military in its central and western commands – more than 150,000 troops with hundreds of tanks and helicopter gunships – to be put on alert for war games in the areas bordering Ukraine. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu characterized the manoeuvre as a snap military drill, similar to others Mr. Putin has ordered in the past in other parts of the country.

But the timing of the military moves raised already sky-high tensions in Ukraine, as well as suspicions that Russia is considering some form of intervention in this former Soviet republic, and prompted warnings from U.S. officials against any intervention.

The Globe and Mail saw at least a dozen men wearing fatigues – supported by an armoured personnel carrier – standing under a Russian flag at a checkpoint erected roughly halfway along the 80-kilometre road from Sevastopol to Simferopol, putting it close to the administrative border that separates the Sevastopol municipality from the rest of Crimea and Ukraine.

 

 

Pro-Russian activists gather to form local public guards to oppose pro-EU groups

 

The men, some wearing balaclavas, used flashlights to look inside each vehicle approaching Sevastopol. They reportedly later told journalists they were local “volunteers.”

Earlier Wednesday, at least two armoured personnel carriers were seen manoeuvring in the centre of this port city, which has historic ties to Russia and hosts Russia’s Black Sea Fleet under an agreement between Moscow and Kiev. Mr. Shoigu said the Kremlin was “carefully watching what is happening in Crimea” and would take “measures to guarantee the safety of facilities, infrastructure and arsenals of the Black Sea fleet.”

 

 

Kerry issues usual irrelevant threats

Mr. Shoigu said the drills will last until March 3. Russia has so far refused to recognize the regime that came to power in Kiev following the violent ouster of Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovych. Meanwhile, the West is rushing to support it, with Washington and Brussels giving vocal support – and promising money – to the protest movement that overthrew an elected government. 

 

Foreign Minister John Baird is also rushing to Kiev this week, aiming to show Canada’s solidarity with interim president Oleksander Turchynov and the prime minister-designate Arseniy Yatseniuk.

 

 

President Barack Obama warned “outside actors in the region … to end provocative rhetoric and actions.” Instead, Moscow should use its “influence in support of unity, peace and an inclusive path forward,” Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman said.

Many here in Crimea, however, say they would welcome Russian intervention. While many of the revolutionaries in Kiev are Ukrainian-speakers who want to see the country take steps towards joining the European Union, many Crimeans see themselves as Russians who were left outside the borders of their motherland when the Soviet Union fell apart.

Thousands of ethnic Russians rallied Wednesday outside the regional parliament building in Simferopol, shouting for deputies to call a referendum about seceding from Ukraine and possibly joining Russia. Deputies had been expected to introduce some kind of resolution on Wednesday regarding Crimea’s future, but they were blocked by thousands of ethnic Tatars who say they want to remain in Ukraine. Minor clashes broke out, and one person died of a heart attack, before parliament agreed to postpone any vote on secession.

 

 

CIA coup now blows back on architect Obama

“We don’t want to be with Ukraine. … Sevastopol, Kerch and Simferopol all want to join Russia,” said Darya Artyomenko, a 23-year-old law student who attended the Simferopol rally. Her voice was barely audible above chants of “Russia!” and “Referendum!” Ms. Artyomenko said she didn’t want to live in a country controlled by “fascists” from western Ukraine whom she believes are intent on eliminating the Russian language and culture.

In Brussels, North Atlantic Treaty Organization defence ministers ignored Russia’s war-games alert and called for co-operation in Ukraine’s unfolding crisis. The Western alliance, which includes Canada, said it supported “Ukrainian sovereignty and independence, territorial integrity, democratic development, and the principle of inviolability of frontiers.” NATO has invited Ukraine to join the military alliance – a move bitterly opposed by Russia.

Russian-speakers in the east and south of the country were angered that one of the first actions taken by the post-revolution parliament in Kiev was to repeal a law, adopted under the toppled Mr. Yanukovych, that allowed regions like Crimea to adopt Russian as an official second language, alongside Ukrainian.

 

 

Russian Spetsnaz troops

 

“Nobody asked south Ukraine if we want this new government,” said Svetalana Khromova, a 36-year-old childcare worker who joined the Simferopol demonstration. “We’ve lived here for 200 years. We’ve always spoken Russian and we’ll keep speaking Russian.”

While many Russian-speakers feel threatened by the idea of living under the new government in Kiev, other ethnic groups say they have no interest in seeing Crimea join Russia.

The pro-Russian demonstration in Simferopol was countered by thousands of Crimean Tatars, who are Muslims and speak a Turkic dialect. They blocked the doors of parliament and kept the regional assembly from meeting. Mixing chants of “Glory to Ukraine!” with “God is great!” the Tatars claimed a victory Wednesday when they forced the parliament to call of its planned session.

Many of Ukraine’s 300,000 Crimean Tatars associate Russian rule with the Soviet period, which saw the entire population was deported en masse by Joseph Stalin in 1944. Many only returned to Crimea after the fall of the Soviet Union and the birth of independent Ukraine in 1991.

“We don’t expect anything good from Russia,” said 52-year-old Ibazir Ilyasov. “Ukrainian nationalists and Crimean nationalists have the same enemy: Russia.”

Ethnic Russians make up about 58 per cent of Crimea’s two million residents. Ukrainians make up 24 per cent, while Crimean Tatars are 12 per cent. In Sevastopol, ethnic Russians make up 70 per cent of the city’s population of 340,000.

 

With a report from Paul Koring in Washington

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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Third Of California Town's Officers Tied To Scheme

California's emptying prisons now make way for a flood of coward, feral pigs

THE CALIFORNIAN
By Channing Joseph and Martha Mendoza
02/26/2014

KING CITY (AP) — 

 

One-third of a central California town’s police force was taken off duty after several officers were arrested in a scheme to take for themselves the impounded cars of some poor Hispanic residents, authorities said.

 

 

Corrupt California pigs have long been out of control

In the scheme, vehicles were impounded and towed, and when the car owners couldn’t pay the fees, the vehicles were sold or given away for free to some officers, Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said Tuesday.

Four King City officers — including the recently retired police chief and the acting chief — have been arrested in the scheme, and two others were also arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges, Flippo said. The officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, KSBW-TV reported.

“There has been a significant breakdown in the internal leadership of the King City Police Department,” Flippo said. “It also appears to me that some officers have dishonored their badge.”

 

 

 

The six officers account for more than a third of the 17-member force in the agricultural town of 13,000 people about 150 miles southeast of San Francisco.

Early Tuesday morning, teams from the Monterey County sheriff’s office, the FBI, the Salinas Police Department and the district attorney’s bureau of investigation arrested the officers after a months-long investigation. It began as a response to complaints by residents of corruption and criminal acts within the department dating back at least 3 1 / 2years, Flippo said.

 

 

The probe revealed that the scheme focused on poor Hispanic residents — including many who don’t speak English. More than 200 vehicles had been impounded, Flippo said, and 87 percent had been taken in by the same towing company.

In some cases, authorities said, officers simply kept the cars for their own use.

 

The four officers tied to the alleged car theft scheme have each been charged with bribery, accepting a bribe or embezzlement. They are Sgt. Bobby Javier Carrillo, Acting Chief Bruce Edward Miller, former Chief Dominic David Baldiviez and Mario Alonso Mottu Sr.

Brian Albert Miller, the operator of the towing company who is also the brother of the acting chief, has also been arrested in the case.

The other two officers arrested Tuesday are facing charges unrelated to the scheme. Officer Jaime Andrade was accused of possession of an assault weapon and illegal storage of a firearm, and Officer Mark Allen Baker was arrested on suspicion of criminal threats.

 

 

 

Investigators said Carrillo was the car scheme’s ring leader and that for every 10 to 15 vehicles he impounded, he would receive one free vehicle to keep or sell.

Authorities said Carrillo gave one of those vehicles to Bruce Miller, who was then a police captain and has been charged with accepting a bribe, the Salinas Californian reported.

Authorities also say Baldiviez gave Mottu a 2001 Ford Crown Victoria patrol car belonging to King City or the King City Police Explorers, the newspaper said.

 

 

All seven of those arrested were bailed out of jail within hours, KSBW reported.

“I’m completely surprised by the arrest this morning,” Bruce Miller told a KSBW reporter on his way out of jail after posting bail.

 

He said he had known his department was being investigated but had no idea that he was a suspect. He denied that he had accepted any bribes in the scheme.

“My reputation is soiled,” he said. “There’s no coming back from this, even if I’m found innocent. People are always going to look poorly upon me.”

Tuesday evening in King City was typically quiet, with the historic main street’s bakeries, markets, taquerias and restaurants mostly empty.

The windows were steamy at Bailey’s Gym, where a handful of people were working out.

Owner Greg Bailey, who also works as a correctional officer at a nearby prison, said he has known Miller for a long time and is skeptical about the charges.

“When the finger gets pointed at you, you’ve got to dig your feet in and fight your way back,” he said.

Bailey said it’s not uncommon for immigrants to drive without insurance, and if they are caught, their vehicles are impounded. He said his own car was hit by someone driving without insurance.

Bailey said he is concerned about the sudden, sharp reduction in the police force.

“There was a safety issue prior to this happening,” he said, noting gangs are active in the town.

Hector and Laura Vasquez set down a heavy sofa they were carrying in the showroom of their Dor’s Furniture store to chat about the arrests.

Speaking in Spanish, Laura Vasquez said it didn’t seem right that the officers were bailed out so quickly after her husband described what had happened.

“They’re supposed to be keeping us safe, but they’re the ones who are breaking the law,” she said.

Hector Vasquez said there’s frequent talk in the U.S. of how corrupt Mexican law enforcement agents are.

“So that’s a little awkward,” he said.

The front office of the King City police station was closed Tuesday afternoon.

King City Manager Michael Powers told The Associated Press that Monterey County sheriff’s deputies and officers from the nearby cities of Gonzales and Soledad have volunteered to help police the city now that so many of its officers have been taken off duty.

“Obviously, people are in shock, and so is the city staff,” Powers said. “But at the same time, we can’t tolerate corruption in the police department.”

Channing Joseph reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Paul Elias and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco also contributed to this story.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

  

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Ralph Nader : Obama The "Executioner"

Obama's reign of terror has made U.S. world pariah

PRESS TV
By Ralph Nader
02/26/2014

In his new book, Ralph Nader calls for the end of “unconstitutional wars and unchecked militarism” — and lays blame on President Barack Obama for going beyond even George W. Bush. 

 

 

Nader writes in “Unstoppable” that Obama “has extended the Bush doctrine by declaring his unilateral right, as secret prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner, to destroy anybody, anywhere in the world, including American citizens, suspected to be engaged in alleged terrorist activities, all this vaguely and loosely defined as anti-US security.”

He continues, “Inspired by the military actions of the Clinton administration, the Obama and Bush teams made a seamless transition into a militarized foreign policy, extending even further the illegal reach of wars of choice, invasions, incursions, and drone attacks, carried out irrespective of national sovereignties.”

The consumer crusader’s new book also makes the case for a bipartisan effort to “dismantle the corporate state.”

 

 

Nader, best known recently for his unsuccessful presidential runs, writes in “Unstoppable” (out in April), that “positive spirited persons of the Right and of the Left” can, in fact, come together. 

 

 “This book is addressed first to those people who are not knee-jerk rejectionists,” Nader writes. “It’s meant for those who want to explore another beckoning pathway — one that can rescue our country from being driven further into the ground and turn into a nation where many more of its inhabitants can fulfill their potential.”

 

“A major area of potential for building alliances comes from the deep aversion many people have to the wars of empire and corporate control over their lives, particularly the ever-tightening influence of Big Business on the mainstream media, elections, and our local, state, and federal governments.”

Much of the book focuses on Nader’s 25 proposed reforms, including linking the minimum wage with inflation and rethinking the war on drugs.

“The classification and prosecution of drug use as a crime has activated and corrupted law enforcement, encouraged a truly self-defeating form of big government, endangered urban neighborhoods and many thousands of lives, and drained tens of billions of dollars a year from taxpayers.” 

 

 

Nader says that “almost all the politicians are for sale — with few enough successful exceptions to point to as the preferable, contrasting alternative of politicians actually concerned with the good of the people.”

Nader — no regular on the D.C. cocktail circuit — admits that pushing against the corporate state has its downfalls, especially for conservatives.

“Your social life might shut down,” he writes. “Invitations to homes and restaurants for dinner start to decline. You’re not on the guest list anymore. Outings with your customary friends and their families become rarer. Your deviation from the norm is seen as apostasy or blasphemy. A few tough-skinned conservatives may shrug this off. Most are hurt and cannot easily abide ostracism.”

GJH/ISH

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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Documents Say Navy Knew Fukushima Dangerously Contaminated The USS Reagan

Yet another Obama cover-up in progress in addition to the suppression of Fukushima fallout radiation data in the U.S.

ECOWATCH
By Harvey Waserman
02/26/2014

A stunning new report indicates the U.S. Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago. 

 

 

If true, the revelations cast new light on the $1 billion lawsuit filed by the sailors against Tokyo Electric Power. Many of the sailors are already suffering devastating health impacts, but are being stonewalled by Tepco and the Navy.

The Reagan had joined several other U.S. ships in Operation Tomodachi (“Friendship”) to aid victims of the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami. Photographic evidence and first-person testimony confirms that on March 12, 2011 the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to melt and explode.

In the midst of a snow storm, deck hands were enveloped in a warm cloud that came with a metallic taste. Sailors testify that the Reagan’s 5,500-member crew was told over the ship’s intercom to avoid drinking or bathing in desalinized water drawn from a radioactive sea. The huge carrier quickly ceased its humanitarian efforts and sailed 100 miles out to sea, where newly published internal Navy communications confirm it was still taking serious doses of radioactive fallout. 

 

 

Scores of sailors from the Reagan and other ships stationed nearby now report a wide range of ailments reminiscent of those documented downwind from atomic bomb tests in the Pacific and Nevada, and at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. 

 

 

 

A similar metallic taste was described by pilots who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and by central Pennsylvanians downwind of Three Mile Island. Some parts of the atolls downwind from the South Pacific bomb tests remain uninhabitable six decades later.

Among the 81 plaintiffs in the federal class action are a sailor who was pregnant during the mission, and her “Baby A.G.,” born that October with multiple genetic mutations.

Officially, Tepco and the Navy say the dose levels were safe. 

 

 

The melted-down Fukushima Number Four reactor

But a stunning new report by an American scholar based in Tokyo confirms that Naval officers communicated about what they knew to be the serious irradiation of the Reagan. 

 

Written by Kyle Cunningham and published in Japan Focus, “Mobilizing Nuclear Bias” describes the interplay between the U.S. and Japanese governments as Fukushima devolved into disaster.

Cunningham writes that transcribed conversations obtained through the Freedom of Information Act feature naval officials who acknowledge that even while 100 miles away from Fukushima, the Reagan’s readings “compared to just normal background [are] about 30 times what you would detect just on a normal air sample out to sea.”

On the nuclear-powered carrier “all of our continuous monitors alarmed at the same level, at this value. And then we took portable air samples on the flight deck and got the same value,” the transcript says.

Serious fallout was also apparently found on helicopters coming back from relief missions. One unnamed U.S. government expert is quoted in the Japan Focus article as saying: 

 

 

"At 100 meters away it (the helicopter) was reading 4 sieverts per hour. That is an astronomical number and it told me, what that number means to me, a trained person, is there is no water on the reactor cores and they are just melting down, there is nothing containing the release of radioactivity. It is an unmitigated, unshielded number. (Confidential communication, Sept. 17, 2012)."

The transcript then contains discussion of health impacts that could come within a matter of “10 hours. It’s a thyroid issue.”

Tepco and the Navy contend the Reagan did not receive a high enough dose to warrant serious concern. But Japan, South Korea and Guam deemed the carrier too radioactive to enter their ports. Stock photographs show sailors working en masse to scrub the ship down.

The $4.3 billion boat is now docked in San Diego. Critics question whether it belongs there at all. Attempts to decontaminate U.S. ships irradiated during the Pacific nuclear bombs tests from 1946-1963 proved fruitless. Hundreds of sailors were exposed to heavy doses of radiation, but some ships had to be sunk anyway.

Leaks at the Fukushima site continue to worsen. Despite its denials, Tepco recently admitted it had underestimated certain radiation releases by a factor of 500 percent. A new report indicates that particles of radioactive Cesium 134 from Fukushima have been detected in the ocean off the west coast of North America.

Global concerns continue to rise about Fukushima’s on-going crises with liquid leaks, the troubled removal of radioactive fuel rods, the search for three missing melted cores, organized crime influence at the site and much more. The flow of information has been seriously darkened by the pro-nuclear Abe Administration’s State Secrets Act, which imposes major penalties on those who might report what happens at Fukushima.

But if this new evidence holds true, it means that the Navy knew the Ronald Reagan was being plastered with serious radioactive fallout and it casts the accident in a light even more sinister than previously believed.

The stricken sailors are barred from suing the Navy, and their case against Tepco will depend on a series of complex international challenges.

But one thing is certain: neither they nor the global community have been getting anything near the full truth about Fukushima.

Visit EcoWatch’s NUCLEAR page for more related news on this topic.

Harvey Wasserman edits www.nukefree.org, where petitions calling for the repeal of Japan’s State Secrets Act and a global takeover at Fukushima are linked. He is author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 
 

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Gorbachev, Ukraine, And Slaying Dragons

A panicking Obama now threatens Russia over out of control CIA engineered coup

WORLD NEWS
By Dallas Darling
02/25/2014

"Just like reformers before me, I thought that we had a system that could be improved. Instead, I learned that we had a system that needed to be replaced." -Mikhail Gorbachev
 
Ukrainian ballots have blood on them. Three months of deadly protests and pitched battles have wounded and killed hundreds of citizens. Meanwhile, Ukraine's parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovich. Mikhail Gorbachev, another former leader of a different country and time, recognized this Red Revolution noting that the political crisis in Ukraine stemmed from its government's failure to act democratically. In a muddled world of fiery breathing dragons, even coups can appear democratic.

But representative governments have a way of sometimes behaving badly. Gorbachev was also ousted and arrested after establishing long awaited political and economic reforms in the former Soviet Union. His crime was being a moral reformer, in the sense that, he set out to restructure the Communist Party instead of destroying it. Because of this, members of the State Emergency Committee placed Gorbachev under house arrest in 1991, preventing him from signing a treaty that provided autonomy to the Soviet republics.



Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovich's rival, hailed the coup, calling armed protesters "heroes." Her release marks another radical transformation in Ukrainian history, one that will move it closer to Europe. It will also quicken privatization and increase inequality, something that globalization and Tymoshenko's prior reforms have already done. Ukrainians have mixed emotions. Don't be surprised if this new change drives a deeper wedge between eastern and western Ukraine, someday creating two countries.

For his part, Yanukovich, unlike Gorbachev, was no Nobel prize winner. As Yanukovich continues his flight, he leaves behind an abandoned estate which paints a portrait of wealth and splendor. His magnificent house, with its private zoo and replicas of ancient Greek statues and lavish waterways and parks, resembles the follies of past rulers. Inconsequential leaders should always be cautious of Suprema Radas: parliamentary power to remove the president in the event of state treason or another crime.(2)

But just how treasonous and criminal was Yanukovich's behavior? Was it his lifestyle, or merely wanting to remain pro Moscow? Tymoshenko announced assurances that the Ukraine will join the European Union and move closer to the U.S.. However, seldom do fiery speeches slay disillusionment.


Neither do they eliminate high unemployment and health problems, neo-Nazism and pro-Stalinism, political and economic corruption, nor ethnic and religious differences. Armed extremists are still roaming the streets of Kiev.

Gorbachev and Yanukovich were unable to slay all of the dragons that haunted them and their respective nations, especially the dragons that remained entrenched in state, military, and corporate institutions. They could not change the views of some political opponents who remained in power, whom then interpreted and used the same representative laws and constitution against them. Gorbachev was arrested. As for Yanukovich, some are wanting to try him for "mass murder of peaceful citizens."

Mikhail Gorbachev

Deeply embedded in Ukrainian mythology is the dragon slayer Kyrylo Kozhumiaka. He was endowed with tremendous strength and ultimately freed the people of Kiev from the vicious reign of a dragon.(1) In this seemingly modern world, there are still dragons but with differing forms. Along with disillusionment and poverty, illegitimacy and mistrust, armed violence and secession, and national debt and the push and pull factors of international forces, there are the dragons of representative politics and of choice.


Ironically, it was Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost that helped people in the Ukraine demand more freedoms and ultimate independence. But economic reforms and openness, restructuring and transparency, even a representative democracy that turns misrepresentative, can become dangerous. Like dragons, they seek to devour whoever and whenever.

Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.

(1) Gall, Timothy L. Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. New York, New York: Gale Publishers, 1998., p. 394.

(2) Maddex, Robert L. Constitutions of the World. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 2001., p. 366.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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