By Pepe Escobar

ON THE ROAD IN PROVENCE – To quote Lenin, what is to be done? Back to Brussels and Berlin? A close encounter with dreary Northern NATOstan, consumed by its paranoid anti-Russia obsession and enslaved by the infinitely expandable Pentagon euro-scam? Perhaps a jaunt to Syria war junkie Erdogastan?

Whether it’s a reality TV show on the Niger Delta sponsored by the State Department, theatre forums in Yemen’s fourth largest city, Hudaydah, sponsored by the Defense Department, or radio programs in Nairobi sponsored by USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives, the U.S. government is getting increasingly creative about how to use the cultural sector to do diplomacy, development and defense. Our government is not alone in this expansion of soft power, as governments throughout the European Union are sponsoring and spearheading similar initiatives throughout the Middle East and North Africa, for example.

Das ist eine ungeheuerliche Wortverdrehung. Der Unterschied zwischen einer Drohung und einer Warnung sollte den meisten Journalisten bekannt sein. Es ist also davon auszugehen, dass hier vorsätzlich Lügen und Kriegspropaganda geschürt werden, um Russland als Brandstifter zu diffamieren.

the Fourth‘s language is so clear that even Clapper should comprehend it: without a warrant, the government may not „violate“ anyone‘s „person, house, papers, and effects.“ Whether he‘s Australian or American, from Utah or Uzbekistan, living in or visiting Mexico or Massachusetts is irrelevant.

„Wait a minute!“ the NSA‘s bureaucrats sneer. „‚People‘ is just a synonym for ‚citizens.'“

Wrong.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department today unveiled a software program that allows US law enforcement agencies who adopt it to solicit and gather videos and photos of „emergency events“ from the public.

The source said Boutros Ghali had to be released because of his status as a political refugee in Britain, which includes a guarantee against imprisonment under the Geneva Convention.