Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1298

Saudi Arabia Arrest 9 CIA Agents Working for ISIS*

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The plot thickens.

Hwaairfan's Blog

Saudi Arabia Arrest 9 CIA Agents Working for ISIS*

By Sean Adl-Tabatabai

Russia have confirmed that Saudi authorities have arrested members of a known CIA-ISIS terror cell operating within their country. The arrests follow Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) giving intel to Saudi authorities that proved the CIA were actively funding and arming ISIS.

The arrests come weeks after President Putin warned Saudi Arabia that Russia had “finite patience” regarding their complicity with the U.S. CIA in arming and funding ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq.

Whatdoesitmean.com reports:

Within the past 24 hours, this report continues, the GIP communicated to the SVR that based upon the Federation intelligence given to them under President Putin’s order, this known CIA-Islamic State terror network operating in Saudi Arabia was “targeted/raided” resulting in the capture of 33 of its members, 9 more still being hunted with substantial rewards announced for their capture, and…

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Debunking the Notion of Good Wars

In the following video author David Swanson discusses his book War is a Lie. As a long time anti-war campaigner, Swanson’s purpose is to demolish the widespread belief that some wars (eg the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War and World War II) are “good wars. He carefully dispels the lies ruling elites have told us about each of these wars, simultaneously clarifying that each had the true purpose of expanding American empire.

With numerous historical examples, he demonstrates that war was totally unnecessary to win American independence (eg the US launched the War of 1812 as an excuse to invade Canada.). And not only was the Civil War unnecessary to end slavery, but slavery didn’t end in the US until World War II. (See 1941: The Year Slavery Finally Ended)

Swanson is extremely critical of environmentalists who are too timid to condemn war as the major destroyer of the environment and civil libertarians who condemn torture and assassination without condemning war as the root cause of these atrocities. He’s also highly critical of activists who bemoan that the corporate elite is too powerfully entrenched to be crushed by a mass movement.

Unlike most presentations, the Q&A’s – which start at 31:00 – are the best part of this video.

 

Anonymous declares war on the CDC, FDA and Monsanto over the literal poisoning of our children with #Op_Pharma

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I can’t think of a more deserving target.

YOUR PERCEPTION IS NOT REALITY

War has been declared. But it’s not the tax increasing, lie and slavery inducing wars like President Johnson’s war on poverty, Nixon’s war on drugs or Bush/Obama’s war on terror. No, this is a war that you may already be fighting; a war that exposes the underbelly of Big Pharma and the governmental agencies that promote them. The group Anonymous is now gearing up for this battle with a new video announcement, as reported by Natural News:

“An ‘Anonymous’ YouTube user named ‘TheAnonMessage’ has just announced #Op_Pharma, a coordinated effort to expose the ‘lies and corruption of the medical system’ and Big Pharma… The video introduction uses clips from a documentary that includes the voice of the Health Ranger and other outspoken critics of the pharmaceutical cartels. From there, the video shows a ‘V for Vendetta’ video while a computer generated voice speaks the following:

<a href=”http://www.newstarget.com/middle-1.ht... <img src=”http://www.newstarget.com/middle-1.jpg” width=”300″…

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Sanders backs Obama “kill list,” troops to Syria

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Bernie Sanders parades his imperialist credentials.

Counter Information

By a reporter

27 April 2016

Towards the end of a town hall meeting in Philadelphia broadcast last Monday night over MSNBC, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders declared his support for the Obama administration’s program of assassination by drone-fired missiles and its steady build-up of US troop strength in Syria and Iraq.

These statements underscore the unity across the bourgeois political spectrum, among all the presidential candidates of the Democratic and Republican parties, in favor of stepped-up military intervention in the Middle East, including the use of drones that have killed thousands of civilians.

The discussion was initiated by a 29-year-old Sanders supporter, not by MSNBC host Chris Hayes, the moderator of the town hall—a significant fact, since no journalist for the corporate-controlled media has pressed any of the candidates about drone missile assassinations or other lawless actions by the Obama administration.

The questioner, Miguel Garces, was clearly skeptical about Obama’s…

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Portuguese appeals court orders extradition of ex-CIA officer to Italy

image credit: culture of war torture

An appeals court in Portugal has ruled that a former officer of the Central Intelligence Agency is to be extradited to Italy, where she faces charges of helping kidnap a man as part of a secret operation [aka extraordinary rendition] sponsored by the United States government. Sabrina De Sousa, 59, was an accredited diplomat stationed at the US consulate in Milan, Italy, in 2003, when a CIA team kidnapped Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from a Milan street in broad daylight. Nasr, who goes by the nickname Abu Omar, is a former member of Egyptian militant group al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, and was believed by the CIA to have links to al-Qaeda. Soon after his abduction, Nasr was renditioned to Egypt, where he says he was brutally tortured, raped, and held illegally for years before being released without charge.

Source: Portuguese appeals court orders extradition of ex-CIA officer to Italy

Wall Street: More Deeply Corrupt than We Thought (No Really)

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

By Michael Lewis

W W Norton (2015

 Book Review

 Flash Boys is a true story about front running, the unethical practice of a stockbroker executing orders on a stock while taking advantage of advance knowledge of pending orders from elsewhere in the market.* From the bleak picture Lewis paints, it appears that investors – whether institutional or private – have virtually no way of protecting themselves against front running.

Like Lewis’s 2010 book The Big Short, Flash Boys reads just like a thriller, complete with exquisitely drawn heroes and villains. In this case, the heroes are crusading Canadian banker Brad Katsuyama and the assorted geeks and nerds who helped him start his own stock exchange. Katsuyama started IEX in 2013, after the Royal Bank of Canada and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refused to support his efforts to expose and end the practice of front running. By purposely slowing their transmission rates, IEX makes it impossible for high frequency traders to “front run” the trades occurring on the exchange. This has enabled Katsuyama to protect investors who use his exchange, while simultaneously collecting data on suspicious trades.

Flash Boys, a bestseller, originally came out in 2014. The 2015 edition includes an afterward in which Lewis describes being viciously attacked by the big Wall Street banks and brokers. He also enumerates a number of prosecutions of high frequency traders and brokerage firms (by the FBI, SEC and Financial Regulatory Authority) resulting from from Katsuyama’s work publicity from Flash Boys’ publication.

*The way this works in practice is you order 10,000 shares of a stock at a given price and a high frequency trader somewhere buys 10,000 shares at that price and resells them to you at a slightly higher price. Complex computer algorithms enable high frequency traders to exploit minute differences in transmission frequency to execute these secret trades – which usually take place in “dark pools” – private stock exchanges which keep no public record of their trades. All the major investment banks (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America etc) have dark pools and high frequency traders pay for the privilege of trading in their dark pools.

The Strange Death of Hugo Chavez

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Growing evidence suggests Chavez was assassinated by US intelligence.

Counter Information

An Interview with Eva Golinger

By Mike Whitney

“Hugo Chavez defied the most powerful interests, and he refused to bow down….I believe there is a very strong possibility that President Chavez was assassinated.”

— Eva Golinger

April 25, 2016 “Information Clearing House” – “Counterpunch“-  MW– Do you think that Hugo Chavez was murdered and, if so, who do you think might have been involved?

Eva Golinger–  I believe there is a very strong possibility that President Chavez was assassinated. There were notorious and documented assassination attempts against him throughout his presidency. Most notable was the April 11, 2002 coup d’etat, during which he was kidnapped and set to be assassinated had it not been for the unprecedented uprising of the Venezuelan people and loyal military forces that rescued him and returned him to power within 48 hours. I was able to find irrefutable evidence using…

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Will Trump Cause the Downfall of the Republican Party?

Excellent talk by NPR correspondent Mara Liasson outlining how Donald Trump’s candidacy threatens to put the Republican Party out of business. A pity she never speaks this frankly on public radio.

She explores the efforts by the Wall Street based Republican leadership to woo blue collar voters (based on social issues such as abortion, immigration, etc) without addressing their economic needs – how this has backfired with Trump’s presidential candidacy.

 

Bristol Substitutes Vinegar for Cancer-Causing Roundup

In response to growing local concern about a World Health Organization (WHO) warning that glyphosate (aka Roundup) probably causes cancer, the city of Bristol has begun using strong vinegar to kill weeds in streets and parks.

The Bristol City Council decision to substitute vinegar for Roundup is part of a year long trial.

Earlier this month the European Parliament voted to  ban  most uses of glyphosate – particularly “in or close to” public parks, playgrounds and gardens.”

Horticultural vinegar, which contains more acetic acid than regular malt vinegar, can be used as an inexpensive weed treatment. Vinegar-based herbicides will harm any plant they comes into contact with so is best used on patios and driveways rather than lawns. It will only damage the top of the plant, leaving the roots intact.

The trial has been met with mixed reactions in Bristol.   Some residents hate the stench. Others point to European communities who have successfully used vinegar for years. Pesticide Safe Bristol Alliance says it’s ‘bizarre’ the council has opted for vinegar when safer, modern technologies are available.

A Metro online poll is running 55% to 45% in favor of the vinegar trial.

On May 10, the New Plymouth Green Party will present a petition to New Plymouth District Council to end the district’s use of Roundup in our city parks and streets.

Have your say:

Take Our Poll

In the Wake of Ecuador’s Earthquake: “Zero” Humanitarian Aid from the US, Palestine Sends Rescue Team

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Is anyone surprised?

Counter Information

By Telesur


Global Research, April 22, 2016


Telesur 21 April 2016

Latin America sent three quarters of the world’s rescuers to Ecuador, Europe the second-highest amount, and the United States zero.

Latin America far surpasses any region in sending humanitarian aid and rescue experts to Ecuador for earthquake relief, with Venezuela sending almost a third of all rescue specialists and Palestine sending 19—19 more than the United States.

Palestine is the only country outside of Europe and Latin America that sent rescue experts to Ecuador, though Russia sent 30 tons of humanitarian aid, and China sent a satellite and a 911 system, mobile hospitals and US$100,000 to the Ecuadorean Red Cross.

Latin America sent a total of 702 rescuers, with even impoverished and violence-ridden Honduras sending a rescuer. Cuba sent the most after Ecuador’s neighboring countries and Mexico, followed by left-wing Bolivia.

Europe also sent almost 200 rescuers, some…

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