Daily Archives: 17. Februar 2016


17.02.2016 - 22:14 [ Sputnik ]

John Pilger: Extremists Run America

The director of more than 50 films, Pilger explains why he believes „extremists“ run the political system in the United States and the UK.

He talks about why he supports Julian Assange, what whitleblowers mean to society today, and why he feels real change will never come from within mainstream political parties.

Pilger also discusses the motivation behind many of his most popular films, including what led him to travel to Iraq to document the effect of sanctions, what Libya was like prior to the NATO bombing of 2011, the state of aborigines in Australia, and the start of his career in 1970 when he documented the resistance of US soldiers during the war in Vietnam.

17.02.2016 - 20:49 [ The Greanville Post ]

Torture, the Republican Party and the Constitution

But at the base here is the truly inconvenient truth that the use of torture by US authorities is simply unconstitutional. Under article VI of the U.S. Constitution, as treaties signed and ratified by the U.S. government, both Conventions are part of “the supreme law of the land and [further] the judges of every state shall be bound by them.” This, not arguments over whether it ”works” or doesn’t, is the central one for this country and its political leadership.

17.02.2016 - 20:42 [ Occupy.com ]

State Media Troubles: Is the BBC Biased, Banker-Friendly and Corrupt?

The billionaires’ ownership and sponsorship of corporate media helps explain why the corporate media narrative serves their interests. In Britain, five billionaires own 80% of print media. This represents a trend happening in Britain and globally. And here‘s why it matters.

17.02.2016 - 20:36 [ Occupy.com ]

Environmentalists and Indigenous People Flex New Muscle In Canada‘s Resource Wars

2015 was one of the worst years on record for oil and gas producers in Canada. First, the Keystone XL pipeline project was stopped through the tireless efforts of activists on both sides of the border. Then, unrelated to this, the price of oil dropped so much that the industry’s products, especially bitumen from tar sands, became increasingly unprofitable. The low price of crude brought at least 40,000 direct job losses to the Canadian oil industry and as many as 100,000 overall last year. This is a trend that industry insiders predict will continue through 2016.

17.02.2016 - 20:27 [ NY Daily News ]

Houston man arrested by seven U.S. Marshals for not paying $1,500 student loan from 1987

Seven U.S. Marshals armed with automatic weapons arrested a Texas man for not paying a $1,500 student loan from three decades ago, he claims. Paul Aker said he was surprised at his Houston home on Thursday by seven people in combat gear.

„They grabbed me, they threw me down,“ the 48-year-old Aker told the Daily News on Tuesday. „Local PD is just standing there.“

17.02.2016 - 19:59 [ Truthout ]

US Farmers Allege Deception by Agrochemical Giant: The Case Against Syngenta

From Indiana to Louisiana, a movement among thousands of corn farmers in the United States is trying to hold a Swiss GMO agribusiness giant to account for willful deceit and is making steady progress in court. According to these lawsuits – which may soon become class action – Syngenta, one of the world‘s largest agrochemical companies, deliberately misled small farmers into thinking that the genetically modified Viptera corn it was pushing on them would be approved for export to China. When China‘s unpredictable import authorities held off on granting approval and then turned back a shipment that contained Syngenta‘s genetically modified crop, the glut of excess corn that farmers had on their hands caused prices to crash and resulted in nearly $6 billion in damages.

17.02.2016 - 19:52 [ German Foreign Policy ]

Die Quittung

Kein wohlwollender Hegemon
Angesichts des zunehmenden Aufbegehrens gegen die deutsche Dominanz über die EU werden inzwischen erste vorsichtig kritische Stimmen im Berliner Establishment laut. Wenn „darüber nachgedacht“ werde, „dass Berlin eine führende Rolle einnehmen solle“, dann könne diese „nicht darin bestehen, dass wir die Richtung vorgeben und die anderen uns folgen sollen“, äußerte zu Jahresbeginn der Leiter der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz, Wolfgang Ischinger.[12] „Wir waren jahrelang … kein benevolenter Hegemon, obwohl es längst klar war, welch große Macht wir in Europa gewonnen hatten“, räumt die ehemalige SPD-Politikerin Gesine Schwan ein.[13] Auch der einstige EU-Kommissar Günter Verheugen urteilt: „Was wir jetzt erleben, ist teilweise … eine Quittung dafür, dass eine ganze Reihe von europäischen Staaten sich von Berlin seit Jahren gegängelt und bevormundet fühlt.“[14] Nicht zuletzt mit Blick auf das zunehmende Aufbegehren gegen die deutsche Dominanz äußert Verheugen: „Das Jahr 2016 wird möglicherweise ein entscheidendes Jahr für die Überlebensfähigkeit der Europäischen Union.“

17.02.2016 - 18:49 [ Press TV ]

Saudi Arabia blocks UN aid ship bound for Yemen

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) says Saudi Arabia has seized a ship carrying food for Yemen over „humanitarian IT equipment“ and diverted it to its southwestern province of Jizan.

17.02.2016 - 18:47 [ RT ]

UN ‘conservative estimates’ show 700 children among 6,000 Yemen fatalities

At the same time, O‘Brien noted that for the past two weeks Saudi Arabia has continued to impede the work of UN staff in the country, “causing delays to important missions.” The diplomat said that Riyadh is also blocking sea access to Yemen‘s ports, and is preventing aid from traveling around the country,

17.02.2016 - 17:28 [ Gareth Porter / Antiwar ]

Obama’s ‘Moderate’ Syrian Deception

Former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who had been supporting an aggressive program of arming opposition brigades that had been approved by the CIA, told a January 2015 seminar in Washington, “For a long time we have looked the other way while the Nusra Front and armed groups on the ground, some of which are getting help from us, have coordinated in military operations against the regime.”

17.02.2016 - 17:16 [ Wikileaks ]

„EUNAVFOR MED – Operation SOPHIA“ – Six Monthly Report: June, 22nd to December, 31st 2015

The report, dated 29 January 2016, is written by the Operation Commander, Rear Admiral Enrico Credendino of the Italian Navy, for the European Union Military Committee and the Political and Security Committee of the EU. It gives refugee flow statistics and outlines the performed and planned operation phases (1, 2A, 2B and 3), the corresponding activities of the joint EU forces operating in the Mediterranean and the future strategies for the operation.

One of the main elements within the report is the planned, but still pending transition from Phase 2A (operating in High Seas) to Phase 2B (operating in Libyan Territorial Waters) due to the volatile government situation in Libya, where the building of a ‚Government of National Accord‘ (GNA) is still under way.

The report presses the responsible EU bodies to help speed up the process of forming a ‚reliable‘ government in Libya that in return is expected to ‚invite‘ EU forces to operate within their Territorial Waters (Phase 2B) and later even give permission to extend the EU military operations onshore (phase 3).

17.02.2016 - 17:09 [ Techdirt ]

Our Further Response To Australian Lawyer Stuart Gibson, Who Continues To Threaten Us

This past Friday, we published our response to an Australian lawyer, Stuart Gibson, who apparently works for a real law firm called Mills Oakley. I know that Gibson is a real lawyer, because he‘s represented big famous clients in the press before, including this impressive TV appearance in which he is left „categorically denying“ statements that his client appears to have made directly and then having to defend himself when the news anchor points out what his client has actually said. Anyway, Mr. Gibson did not appear to appreciate my blog post on Friday, and sent a series of short emails over the weekend, with increasing fervor, in which he insisted that I „get proper legal advice instead of publishing your utter dribble,“ that my „legal theories“ were „nonsensical“ and finally demanded to know if I had „the guts“ to face him in court.

17.02.2016 - 16:43 [ Netzpolitik ]

Endlich öffentlich: Aussage des BND-Mitarbeiters A. Sch., der XKeyscore beim Verfassungsschutz installierte

Im Dezember war A. Sch. in den NSA-Untersuchungsausschuss geladen. Die Öffentlichkeit hat den Zeugen, der eine zeitlang für die Einführung von XKeyscore vom BND an das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) abgesandt war, nie zu Gesicht bekommen – er stand unter besonderem Identitätsschutz. Seine gesamte Vernehmung war nicht-öffentlich, aber nicht komplett eingestuft.

17.02.2016 - 16:38 [ WIRED ]

Magistrate Orders Apple to Help FBI Hack San Bernardino Shooter’s Phone

A California magistrate has ordered Apple to help authorities hack a cell phone belonging to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino attack last year. In an ironic twist, however, the FBI didn’t ask the court to order Apple to unlock the phone, but merely to help the FBI in its bruteforce attempts to unlock the device on its own.

17.02.2016 - 16:35 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]

EFF to Support Apple in Encryption Battle

We learned on Tuesday evening that a U.S. federal magistrate judge ordered Apple to backdoor an iPhone that was used by one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino shootings in December. Apple is fighting the order which would compromise the security of all its users around the world.

17.02.2016 - 16:33 [ STOP-TTIP ]

Keine Visaabsolution durch TTIP

Polen, Zypern, Rumänien: Beispiele für Länder, in denen der Widerstand gegen TTIP in der Vergangenheit längst nicht so groß war wie in der anderen europäischen Ländern. Ein entscheidender Grund dafür ist die in diesen Ländern weitverbreitete Hoffnung, dass TTIP ihren Bürgern Visabefreiungen bringen wird.

17.02.2016 - 16:21 [ Solidar-Werkstatt ]

Bitte unterstützen: Smart Meter – Nein Danke!

Machen wir es wie die Niederlande! Keine Smart Meter in Österreich! Denn diese neuen Strommessgeräte ermöglichen die umfassende Bespitzelung unseres Lebens, sie sind teuer und hoch anfällig für Missbrauch, sie gefährden unsere Gesundheit und die Umwelt. Diese Aktion kann jetzt auch online unterstützt werden. Bitte unterschreiben und weiterve

17.02.2016 - 16:05 [ German Foreign Policy ]

Krise in Kiew

Diskutiert wird derzeit, eine „Technokratenregierung“ unter der jetzigen Finanzministerin Natalie Jaresko ins Amt zu bringen.[12] Damit übernähme westliches Personal in der Ukraine unmittelbar die Macht, ganz wie in einem Protektorat: Jaresko hat zwar vor ihrem Amtsantritt die ukrainische Staatsbürgerschaft erhalten, ist jedoch dessen ungeachtet eine ehemalige Mitarbeiterin des US-Außenministeriums. Allerdings gilt es als unwahrscheinlich, dass sie im ukrainischen Parlament eine Mehrheit erhielte: Die Werchowna Rada wird in hohem Maße von den Oligarchen kontrolliert. Neuwahlen würden das kaum ändern. Zudem wären sie aus Sicht des Staatspräsidenten und der Regierung auch keine gangbare Option: Der „Block Petro Poroschenko“ käme Umfragen zufolge zur Zeit allenfalls auf zehn Prozent; die Partei „Volksfront“ von Arsenjij Jazenjuk – immerhin amtierender Ministerpräsident verpasste sogar vollständig den Einzug ins Parlament.

17.02.2016 - 15:51 [ RT Deutsch ]

WikiLeaks: Operation SOPHIA – EU will in Libyen Marionettenregierung und Bodentruppen einsetzen

Geschrieben wurde der vertrauliche EU-Bericht, den WikiLeaks nun veröffentlichte, von Enrico Credendino, Konteradmiral der italienischen Marine und Kommandeur der EU-Militäroperation EUNAVOR MED (European Union Naval Force Mediterranean Sea). Adressaten sind der Militärausschuss der Europäischen Union und das Politische und Sicherheitspolitische Komitee.

17.02.2016 - 12:58 [ RT ]

Frankreichs Weg in den Polizeistaat? Ausnahmezustand nach Paris-Attentaten erneut verlängert

Geplant ist in Frankreich auch eine Verfassungsänderung: Zum einen soll Bürgern, die wegen terroristischer Aktivitäten verurteilt wurden, die Staatsbürgerschaft aberkannt werden, zum anderen strebt Paris an, die bisherige konstitutionelle zeitliche Begrenzung des Ausnahmezustands aufzuheben.

Und wie bedroht fühlen sich die deutschen Bürger? Wäre man hierzulande auch beriet, im Namen der Sicherheit Einschränkungen der Privatsphäre in Kauf zu nehmen? RT Deutsch fragte auf Berlins Straßen nach:

17.02.2016 - 12:46 [ Syrian Arab News Agency ]

Updated-Al-Jaafari calls for holding Turkish regime accountable for shelling Syrian territory

Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bashar Al-Jaafari called for holding the Turkish regime accountable for shelling Syrian territories, affirming that “Turkey tries to push all sides to escalate the situation in Syria.”

“The hostile acts of Ankara made, even, the countries which were supporting Turkey to express concern over its policy,” Al-Jaafari said in press statements following the Security Council session held on Tuesday upon Russia’s request to discuss the Turkish shelling of the Syrian lands.

17.02.2016 - 12:33 [ Wall Street Journal ]

Things on the Saudi-Russia Oil Meeting

Oil prices surged nearly 5% early Tuesday after energy ministers from Saudi Arabia and Russia—the world’s two largest crude producers—surprised the market by agreeing to meet in Qatar’s capital Doha on Tuesday to discuss their output. Here’s why the meeting is happening and why it matters.

17.02.2016 - 07:43 [ Youtube ]

Epic Scene: 8 Mile final battle rap Eminem

Now while he tries to stand tough
Notice that this man did not have his hands up
This free worlds got you gassed up
Now who‘s afraid of the big bad wolf

17.02.2016 - 07:08 [ Jan Korte / Neues Deutschland ]

Dieses Europa ist es nicht!

Als älterer, junger Linker macht mir der neue Nationalismus nach innen und außen Angst. Es macht Angst, wie geschichtslos, deutschtümelnd und kalt hier gezockt wird.

17.02.2016 - 06:46 [ Youtube ]

US Key Man in Syria Worked Closely with ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra

Veröffentlicht am 17.08.2014
One of the key US men in Syria, the „Free Syrian Army“ (FSA) Col. Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, who operated mostly in the Greater Aleppo area, was open about his daily communication and collaboration with extremist jihadists from the „Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant“ (ISIL) and al-Qaeda‘s official branch in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra. He refers to their fighters as brothers. In one footage after the rebel capture of Menagh military airbase, he even appeared standing next to an Egyptian jihadist from ISIL, Abu Jandal, while thanking him and his group for their contributions. The US is known to have funneled military aid to al-Okaidi and others in the FSA throughout the last couple of years.

17.02.2016 - 06:43 [ Zeit ]

Obama wirft Russland Mitschuld an Zerstörung in Syrien vor

Die Entscheidung des russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin, Truppen und Flugzeuge nach Syrien zu schicken, beschrieb er als „Testament der Schwäche von Assads Position“. „Man schickt seine Armee rein, wenn das Pferd, auf das man setzt, nichts bringt“, sagte Obama. „Ein Land ist zerschmettert worden, weil Assad gewillt war, es zu zerschmettern,“ sagte der US-Präsident.