Death Squads in Afghanistan http://mostlywater.org/death_squads_afghanistanIt should no longer be a matter of dispute that US Special Forces in Afghanistan are responsible for an increasing number of murders, whether part of targeted extra-judicial killings or the result of bad intelligence...Special Forces have become the US military version of death squads.
Colombia's Deadly "Democracy" http://mostlywater.org/colombias_deadly_democracyFather Javier Girardo...estimated that, between 1988 and 1995, more than 60,000 Colombians lost their lives to the internal conflict in Colombia – most of them at the hands of the state, either in the form of the official Colombian military or the paramilitary forces supported by the state...As for the Colombian state’s support for the paramilitaries, also known as “death squads,” that is well-known.
Kidnapped Venezuelan TV reporter freed; friend charged with plotting the crime http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/?q=en/node/7031 Prosecutors have charged two people in the kidnapping of Luis Gerardo Nunez, a reporter for the Globovision TV network who was rescued in Caracas Friday night by police after a ransom was paid, Globovision and El Carabobeno report. He was abducted for at least 48 hours.
The reporter, 24, was under constant threat of death by his captors, who sought approximately $230,000 in ransom. They had considered Nunez to be wealthy because of a photo posted on Facebook, in which he posed next to an airplane, Ultimas Noticias says.
One of the suspects in Nunez' abduction is his friend and former co-worker, radio producer Francisco Contreras, El Universal says.Nunez was apparently targeted because his abductors saw the photo and assumed that his family had money because they had an airplane. Authorities believe Contreras planned the kidnapping.
comment-i love it ,did you catch it?''One of the suspects in Nunez' abduction is his friend and former co-worker, radio producer Francisco Contreras ''
San Francisco's Toxic Sludge is Good for You! http://www.naturalnews.com/028667_toxic_sludge_compost.html
'If someone were to begin marketing toxic sewer sludge as "high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic" compost, he or she would likely be considered a crook and possibly sued for false advertising. Unfortunately, this is what the city of San Francisco and Synagro, "the largest recycler of organic residuals in the United States," have begun doing to the people of San Francisco.
Most waste treatment facilities across the U.S. contract treatment and disposal responsibilities to Synagro. Because it is no longer permissible to dump toxic sewage directly in the ocean, most of it ends up being reused on farm fields as "fertilizer." However, San Francisco is the first city to have launched an aggressive public relations campaign to trick its citizens into thinking that the toxic sewage is an organic compost.'
Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit http://beyourownleader.blogspot.com/2010/04/police-state-canada-2010-and-g20-summit.html'The G20 summit will be held on June 26-27 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre preceded by the G8 summit which will take place in Huntsville, Ontario. The secretive meetings will be attended by world leaders, finance ministers, central bank governors, along with thousands of other delegates.
It will be the largest security event in Canadian history exceeding the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Downtown Toronto will be turned into a security fortress with fences, barricades, checkpoints and street closures thus greatly affecting local residents. While the G8/G20 summits will attract their share of peaceful protesters, other more radical and fringe elements may try to capitalize on the event.'
Possible Supreme Court Pick Had Ties With Goldman Sachs http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2010-04-26-kagan_N.htm
'A top prospect for the Supreme Court was a paid member of an advisory panel for the embattled investment firm Goldman Sachs, federal financial disclosures show.Solicitor General Elena Kagan was a member of the Research Advisory Council of the Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute, according to the financial disclosures she filed when President Obama appointed her last year to her current post.
Kagan served on the Goldman panel from 2005 through 2008, when she was dean of Harvard Law School, and received a $10,000 stipend for her service in 2008, her disclosure forms show. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs did not respond to requests for comment Monday.'
Airlines to Get £2 Billion of Taxpayers Money for an Ash Cloud That Didn't Exist http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1269270/Iceland-volcano-Airlines-2bn-taxpayer-funded-ash-pay-outs.html
'Airlines could share in a £ 2billion taxpayer-funded compensation bonanza in the wake of the volcanic ash chaos which turned Europe into a six-day no-fly zone. The European Union has agreed to allow state help for airlines which have complained bitterly that the flight ban has cost them millions. They will be offered emergency loans and allowed to postpone payments of charges.'
VIDEO-2 HOURS-Police State Four: The Rise of FEMA Full Length http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klqv9t1zVwwPOLICE STATE 4 chronicles the sickening depths to which our republic has fallen. Veteran documentary filmmaker Alex Jones conclusively proves the existence of a secret network of FEMA camps, now being expanded nationwide. The military industrial complex is transforming our once free nation into a giant prison camp. A cashless society control grid, constructed in the name of fighting terrorism, was actually built to enslave the American people.
Body scanners, sound cannons, citizen spies, staged terror and cameras on every street corner -- it's only the beginning of the New World Order's hellish plan.
This film exposes how the "Continuity of Government" program has established an all powerful shadow state. Prepare to enter the secretive world of emergency dictatorship, FEMA camps, and a shredded Constitution. Witness police and military savagely attacking innocent citizens as our own government unleashes false flag operations to justify its oppression. Then watch as Alex Jones takes on corrupt mercenary police and exposes mainstream media brainwashing.
'Queen Elizabeth II the Largest Landowner on Earth.' http://www.whoownstheworld.com/about-the-book/largest-landowner/'Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom and of 31 other states and territories, is the legal owner of about 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth’s non ocean surface.
She is the only person on earth who owns whole countries, and who owns countries that are not her own domestic territory. This land ownership is separate from her role as head of state and is different from other monarchies where no such claim is made – Norway, Belgium, Denmark etc. The value of her land holding. £17,600,000,000,000 (approx).
comment-she is also the ultimate insider trader,and shes also biggest sharehodler in Rio Tinto Zinc...The Crown Jewels: The Queen Is The Ultimate Insider Trader http://american_almanac.tripod.com/crown.htm
Goldman Boss Lloyd Blankfein Denies Moral Obligation Towards Clients http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7642325/Goldman-boss-Lloyd-Blankfein-denies-moral-obligation-towards-clients.html
'Lloyd Blankfein has admitted that he believes Goldman Sachs has no moral obligation to tell clients it is betting against a product it is asking them to buy. The stark admission – made by the bank's chairman at the end of a more than nine-hour marathon hearing before the US Senate – came in spite of his assertion that "I think people trust us" as he tried to fend off accusations that Goldman inflated the US housing bubble.
Senator Carl Levin told the veteran banker that he "wouldn't trust" Goldman as he repeatedly asked whether the bank would disclose its position "when they're buying something you solicit them to buy, and then you're taking a position against them?"'
EU Parliament members call for wiretap investigation http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/9384-european-parliament-members-call-for-wiretap-investigation.html
Members of the European Parliament's Green Party called for the signing of the EU-Colombia free trade agreement to be put off until allegations that Colombian security agency DAS wiretapped the parliament have been investigated.
Obama Calls Honduran President Lobo For First Time http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/april/27/centralamerica10042704.htmWASHINGTON - U.S. President Obama Monday phoned the first time with Honduran President Lobo to discuss the situation in Honduras, said the White House.President Obama commended Lobo for his "leadership in his first months in office in promoting national reconciliation and restoring democratic and constitutional order in Honduras," said the White House in a statement.
In their first phone conversation, the two presidents discussed human rights situation in Honduras and the importance of Honduras' reintegration into the Organization of American States (OAS), according to the statement.Lobo claimed victory in a general election in November last year following a constitutional crisis, and was sworn in as president in January.
The crisis was ignited by a military-backed coup, in which then- president Manuel Zelaya was ousted and exiled to Costa Rica on June 28. Later that day, Congress Speaker Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as interim president. The coup has resulted in a deep opinion divergence inside the country.The international community condemned the coup and urged the post-coup leadership to restore constitutional order in the country. The OAS suspended Honduras' membership on July 4.
comment-also read....Journalist Political Murders In Honduras http://www.insidecostarica.com/special_reports/2010/2010-03/honduras_political_murders.htm US Tries to Divide Honduran Resistance http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/march/19/centralamerica10031901.htm centralamerica10031901.htm Lobo appoints SOA-trained military coup protagonist as head of telecom http://quotha.net/node/797
Honduran campesinos under the gun Pt1 http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5013&updaterx=2010-04-21+11%3A11 VIDEO-Honduran campesinos under the gun Pt.2 http://quotha.net/node/889
Protesters Shame G8 Agenda March and rally call for a new direction http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/3298Jada Voyageur lives downstream from the Tar Sands. "People in my community are dying of rare cancers," she says. Voyageur is a member of the Athabascan Chipewyan First Nation and was a guest speaker at the rally. "We live downstream from one of the most destructive projects on Earth and they keep approving more development."The government has no right to approve new developments because the land is not theirs, says Simon Reece, Downstream Coordinator for the Keepers of the Athabasca, who was also a speaker at the rally. "It's our land," he says.
"We're the ones that have been living here for thousands of years. We're getting encroached on again. Not just by Indian Affairs pushing us onto reserves but now by industry.""It's economics," says Reece, explaining a global system that's destroying communities and the environment. "The economics of North America is failing the whole world."
Greece: Driven into Crisis http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/345.php
Neoliberal order reigns in the world. Stock markets are recovering from the crash in the fall of 2008. Private banks are no longer weighed down by bad loans that were added to public deficits. The latter were rising anyways because the economic crisis had sent tax revenues on a downward slide. Add further bailout money for financial companies and fiscal stimulus and you get a veritable fiscal crisis of the state.
Gaza's Calm Determination By Norman Finkelstein http://www.zcommunications.org/gazas-calm-determination-by-norman-finkelstein
For most of the time in Gaza, our delegation was guarded by young Hamas militants...I felt moved and obliged to state publicly that...none of them was deserving of the death Israel has attempted to inflict on them...[T]hese young men have chosen to defend their homeland from foreign marauders with weapon in hand. Were I living in Gaza, still in my prime and able to muster the courage, I could easily be one of them.
Afghans Burn NATO Trucks in Response to Killing of 3 Civilians http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/26-2Afghan protesters torched NATO supply vehicles in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, hours after allegations emerged that U.S. and Afghan troops had killed three civilians, including two brothers, in their home.
Colombian Trafficker Arrested in Rio http://latamthought.org/2010/04/21/colombian-trafficker-arrested-in-rio/
On 16 April, a joint task force of Brazilian and US agencies (including the Drug Enforcement Administration) arrested Nestor Caro Chapparo, aka Felipe, as he was leaving his luxury apartment in Rio’s upscale Copacabana neighborhood.This is the second consecutive month Caro Chapparo has made headlines. Last month, a video was leaked showing a number of Colombian army colonels sharing a tender moment over a Vallenato at Caro Chapparo’s 2004 wedding.
The Twilight of the Western Oil Majors http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/26/the_twilight_of_the_western_oil_majorsBrazil is home to one of the last major oil frontiers in the world -- and a case study for how the balance of power in the international oil industry is shifting. In 2007, 10 years after the Brazilian government opened its oil industry to foreign investment, the state oil company Petrobras struck one of the richest oil veins in decades. Western oil companies such as Chevron, Total, and BP, thrilled by the rare prospect of a new exploration opportunity, lined up eagerly to invest.
But the outsiders have been stymied. Brazil, generally one of Latin America's most investment-friendly countries, is now boosting the state's role in developing its vast new oil reserves. And it's doing so with help from China, which has recently provided Petrobas with a massive loan, making the old titans of Big Oil increasingly superfluous
Unity Statement Against the Legislation of Hate in Arizona http://quotha.net/node/897A reminder: The United States government's heinous support of the repressive Honduras military coup regime is already provoking higher rates of migration to this country. It is all too often the violence of our policies in Mexico and Central America, supported by our tax dollars, that forces people to migrate here. Arizona's legislation, which makes brown a crime, must be stopped. It is time for us as a nation to refocus our xenophobic rage at those who are really responsible for this country's miserable state. And to destroy our borders.
VIDEO-Obama's Militarized Status Quo in Latin America - Panel Discussion From the 2010 Left Forum https://nacla.org/node/6532Obama's Militarized Status Quo in Latin America, March 20, 2010. from pdxjustice Media Productions
