Category: Irrational Violence


POLITICO

 

 

 

 

The public has no right to examine classified Justice Department legal opinions on the so-called “targeted killing” of Americans and foreigners, even though President Barack Obama recently acknowledged that the U.S. used drones to kill alleged Al Qaeda operative Anwar Al-Awlaki, the Obama Administration argued in a legal brief filed Friday.

 

The brief argues that the official declassification, which also included the acknowledgement that three other American citizens have died in such operations outside active combat zones, “should not affect (or be relevant to)” the appeals court’s review of a district court judge’s ruling that legal memoranda sought by the New York Times and the ACLU were exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

 

In the brief filed with the New York-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (and posted here), Justice Department lawyers do say that the declassification gives them new leeway to describe the relevant DOJ records in general terms.

 

“Given recent acknowledgments by the President and other senior officials of the previously properly classified fact that the United States carried out the targeted strike that killed Anwar al- Awlaki, DOJ has now determined that it can provide some limited additional information about classified documents in its possession that are responsive to the ACLU request,” says the brief submitted under the names of DOJ Civil Division Chief Stuart Delery and U.S. Attorney Preet Bhahara.

 

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U.S. ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime’

  • Leaked emails from defense contractor refers to chemical weapons saying ‘the idea is approved by Washington’
  • Obama issued warning to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that use of chemical warfare was ‘totally unacceptable’

By Louise Boyle

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Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country.

A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme ‘approved by Washington’ is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.

Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people.

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War games: An explosion in the Syrian city of Homs last month. It has been now been suggested that the U.S. backed the use of chemical weapons to spur international military intervention

War games: An explosion in the Syrian city of Homs last month. It has been now been suggested that the U.S. backed the use of chemical weapons to spur international military intervention

According to Infowars.com, the December 25 email was sent from Britam’s Business Development Director David Goulding to company founder Philip Doughty.

It reads: ‘Phil… We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington.

‘We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have.

‘They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record.

‘Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?

‘Kind regards, David.’

Britam Defence had not yet returned a request for comment to MailOnline.

Enlarge   Leaked: The email was allegedly sent from a top official at a British defense contractor regarding a 'Washington approved' chemical attack in Syria which could be blamed on Assad's regime

Leaked: The email was allegedly sent from a top official at a British defense contractor regarding a ‘Washington approved’ chemical attack in Syria which could be blamed on Assad’s regime

The emails were released by a Malaysian hacker who also obtained senior executives resumés and copies of passports via an unprotected company server, according to Cyber War News.

Dave Goulding’s Linkedin profile lists him as Business Development Director at Britam Defence Ltd in Security and Investigations. A business networking profile for Phil Doughty lists him as Chief Operationg Officer for Britam, United Arab Emirates, Security and Investigations.

The U.S. State Department had not returned a request for comment on the alleged emails to MailOnline today at time of publication.

However the use of chemical warfare was raised at a press briefing in D.C. on January 28.

A spokesman said that the U.S. joined the international community in ‘setting common redlines about the consequences of using chemical weapons’.

Countless losses: Families attempt to identify the bodies of Syrian fighters shot and dumped in a river in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo today

Countless losses: Families attempt to identify the bodies of Syrian fighters shot and dumped in a river in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo today

Read More  and  Watch Video Here

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CYBERWARNEWS.INFO

britam defence hacked, confidential documents leaked, site offline

By on

britamdefence_logo

Update: Full report here

A British defence company has been breached and as a result a heap of documents have been published online and now the site has gone offline.

The attack is on britam defence (http://www.britamdefence.com/) and  has been claimed by a hacker using the handle JAsIrX who uploaded the leaked information to various file sharing websites and released it via a single pastebin post with the a message about the release (see bottom).

The documents come in 6 parts and total over 423MB compress zip files and inside the compress files appears to be a common layout of three main folders named !!Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Inside these appear to be documents like passports, incident reports about drunk employees which are labelled private and confidential as well.

A quick look into the files shows shocking plans for chemical warfare attacks where they have planned to lure victims to kill zones. The file can be found in the Iran folder under OPLAN (Ruhayyat) 1433H-1.doc.

 

Read More Here

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20 Examples Of How America Is Rapidly Going Down The Toilet

Toilet - Photo by Tenzinx3Deep corruption is eating away at every level of American society like cancer.  We can see this in our families, we can see this in our businesses, and we can especially see this in our government.  We have the highest rate of divorce in the world, we have the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the world, we have the highest rate of obesity in world, and nobody has higher rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes than we do.  The suicide rate is soaring and our economy is falling apart.  Meanwhile, our politicians seem absolutely clueless and we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt that the world has ever seen.  Has America ever been in such bad shape before?  The following are 20 examples of how America is rapidly going down the toilet…

#1 Why do so many members of the media have family members that work for the White House?  Is this one of the reasons why the mainstream media is so soft on Obama?  Just check out the following list which was recently compiled by the Washington Post

The list of prominent news people with close White House relations includes ABC News President Ben Sherwood, who is the brother of Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a top national-security adviser to President Obama. His counterpart at CBS, news division president David Rhodes, is the brother of Benjamin Rhodes, a key foreign-policy specialist. CNN’s deputy Washington bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is married to Tom Nides, who until earlier this year was deputy secretary of state under Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Further, White House press secretary Jay Carney’s wife is Claire Shipman, a veteran reporter for ABC. And NPR’s White House correspondent, Ari Shapiro, is married to a lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, who joined the White House counsel’s office in April.

#2 Why are IRS agents training with AR-15 rifles?  Exactly who do those IRS agents expect to be using those weapons against?

#3 The city of Detroit is on the verge of declaring the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, but a 41-year-old city worker is about to starting drawing a $96,000 annual pension

Matt Schenk isn’t your average retiree. He’s 41, works full-time and collects $194,000 a year at the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

But as soon as next month, he’ll start collecting an estimated $96,000 annual pension, courtesy of an early retirement incentive offered to Wayne County appointees.  It had no age restriction.

#4 The number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military is up 35 percent since 2010.

#5 The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 rose by close to 30 percent between 1999 and 2010.  The number of Americans that are killed by suicide now exceeds the number of Americans that die as a result of car accidents.

#6 The United States has the highest rate of obesity on the planet by far.  The U.S. also has the highest rate of cancer, the highest rate of heart disease and the highest rate of diabetes.

#7 An illegal immigrant brutally raped and killed a 9-month-old girl in Richland, Washington recently, but you won’t hear anything about it from the big mainstream news networks because it might hurt the immigration bill being pushed through Congress.

#8 Even though the United States has been able to fully secure the border between North Korea and South Korea for the past 60 years, U.S. Senator Check Schumer says that it would take “years and years and years” to secure the border between the United States and Mexico.

#9 All over America illegal immigrants are turning pleasant communities into crime-infested cesspools.  The following is what Doug Hoagland says is going on down in California…

 

Read More Here

‘We have not responded to punches with punches. From now on security forces will respond differently,’ Turkish PM says

 

 

Turkey: protesters at entrance to Gezi Park

Protesters at the entrance to Gezi Park, which Istanbul’s governor has ordered them to clear for their own safety. Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA

 

Turkey‘s prime minister defied a growing wave of international criticism on Wednesday and issued a chilling warning to the protesters who have captured central Istanbul for a fortnight, declaring that the demonstrations against his rule would be over within 24 hours.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ultimatum, which he said was conveyed to his police chief and interior minister, ratcheted up the tension in Turkey after a relatively calm day following the mass teargas attacks by riot police in Istanbul city centre on Tuesday evening.

“We have not responded to punches with punches. From now on security forces will respond differently,” Erdoğan said after meeting a team said to be representing the protesters for the first time. “This issue will be over in 24 hours.”

The sense of a looming denouement at Gezi Park off Taksim Square in central Istanbul was reinforced when a deputy leader of Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) said the park had to be cleared of demonstrators as soon as possible.

Thousands of protesters again gathered at the park yesterday, with phalanxes of riot police marshalling nearby.

The ruling party’s deputy chairman and government Hüseyin Çelik added that a city-wide referendum could be held on the initial issue that sparked the wave of national protest – whether the park should be demolished to make way for a shopping mall and a replica of an old military barracks.

The belligerent statement, contrasting with more conciliatory language from President Abdullah Gül, who urged dialogue with legitimate peaceful protesters, the vast majority of the tens of thousands who have taken to the streets over the past two weeks.

The sense of a final showdown was reinforced by Istanbul’s governor, Hüseyin Avni Mutlu, who ordered the protesters to clear the park for their own “safety”.

“Families should take their children out of there,” he warned.

 

Read Full Article Here

 

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Turkish government open to referendum to end protests


Protesters sleep on a bench at the Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey. Riot police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets in day-long clashes that lasted into the early hours Wednesday. Photo: AP
Protesters sleep on a bench at the Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey. Riot police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets in day-long clashes that lasted into the early hours Wednesday. Photo: AP

Despite the offer, protesters continued to converge on Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the epicentre of repeated clashes between riot police firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

 

Turkey’s government on Wednesday offered a first concrete gesture aimed at ending nearly two weeks of street protests, proposing a referendum on a development project in Istanbul that triggered demonstrations that have become the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10-year tenure.

 

Despite the offer, protesters continued to converge on Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the epicentre of repeated clashes between riot police firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets, and stone-throwing youths for 13 days an early sign that the proposal hadn’t defused the demonstrators’ concerns.

 

Word of such a referendum came after Mr. Erdogan hosted talks with a small group of activists. Many civil society groups behind the protests boycotted those talks in the capital, Ankara, saying they weren’t invited and that the attendees didn’t represent them.

 

The discussion was the first sign that Mr. Erdogan was looking for an exit from the showdown, and came hours after some European leaders expressed concern about strong-arm Turkish police tactics and hopes that the prime minister would soften his stance.

Read Full Article Here

 

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WORLD BULLETIN

Updating: 13:26, 12 June 2013 Wednesday

 

The headscarfed mother, infant attacked by Gezi Park protestors

 

The headscarfed mother, infant attacked by Gezi Park protestors

A report has been published about the mother who was attacked by a mob of Gezi Park protestors for wearing a headscarf. Both mother and infant suffered physical injury.

 

World Bulletin/News Desk

 

The Taksim Gezi protests, which began with a small group with environmental concerns, have turned into nation-wide protests which have resulted in groups violently attacking people throughout Turkey.

 

The efforts by the secularist-nationalist fronts, which have provided direct support to the protests, to provoke the crowds and polarize society have reached an appalling scale. One mortifying case has been the attack on the daughter-in-law of an AK Party mayor of a township in Istanbul as she was walking with her 6 month old baby.

 

Suffering from trauma, the mother whose entire body is bruised has been unable to nurse her infant since the attack.

 

Read Full Article Here

 

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By J.B. WilliamsJune 10, 2013

NewsWithViews.com

As the nation searches for the proper peaceful remedy to the crisis known as Obama, good people of good intentions often research a common subject and arrive at a different conclusion. Such has been the case on the topic of whether or not Barack Hussein Obama can be impeached.

In a WND column dated July 14, 2011 titled Why Obama Cannot be Impeached, the writer states, “Rage continues to build across this country over the obvious forged birth certificate Barry Soetoro, aka Barack Obama, released April 27, 2011, as do calls for his impeachment. However, Obama cannot be impeached.”

The author’s position is based upon statements from Dr. Edwin Vieira, a Harvard trained attorney, who’s works are focused primarily on land rights and militias. Dr. Vieira issued his position in a 2008 piece written and released before the 2008 election, Vieira suggests that once Obama takes office via fraud, he cannot be impeached, on the basis that impeaching a usurper of the office would somehow validate his tenure in office. Is he right?

To be sure, the Obama Crisis presents a highly unusual set of circumstances, rising to the level of constitutional crisis in a number of ways. The proper peaceful remedy is indeed worthy of research and debate. Only once the people agree on a proper course of action, can action be taken… so, it is imperative that the people reach agreement on this matter.

Who is right in the debate is much less important than reaching an actionable position of agreement. The endless debate on the subject only leaves all concerned citizens paralyzed by confusion and lack of coherent direction in how to solve the crisis.

It is for this reason that I have returned to historical data on the subject of impeachment in search of the foundations for impeachment remedies found in Article II – Section IV of the U.S. Constitution.

“The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” – Article II – Section IV of the U.S. Constitution

I fully understand and even agree with the claim that Barack Hussein Obama (aka Barry Soetoro) gained access to the Office of President via massive fraud, including identity fraud, campaign fraud and campaign finance fraud, just for starters.

I further agree that Mr. Obama’s acts during his unconstitutional and illegal seizing of the Oval Office, as well as his unconstitutional acts while in office, rise to the level of impeachable offenses, high crimes, usurpations and likely even treason.

But I do not agree that Obama/Soetoro cannot be removed from office via impeachment. In fact, I believe that Obama can only be removed from office via impeachment. Here’s the basis for my belief…

James Madison explained the requirement for impeachment during the debates of the Constitutional Convention of 1787: “Some provision should be made for defending the community against the incapacity, negligence, or perfidy of the chief magistrate. He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers.”

In Federalist Paper No. 65, Alexander Hamilton explained that “impeachment of the president should take place for offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated political, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to society itself.”

And indeed, in Commentaries on the Constitution, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story (1811-1845) explained: “The offenses to which the remedy of impeachment has been and will continue to be principally applied are of a political nature… What are aptly termed political offenses, growing out of personal misconduct, or gross neglect, or usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interests.”

Common throughout historical references to the impeachment process is the concept that a violation or breach of public trust, or habitual disregard for the public interest is the fundamental definition of other high crimes and misdemeanors, as it relates to the Founders intended use of the impeachment clause found in Article II.

The legal debate over use of impeachment concerning immunity from criminal prosecutions of any individual occupying the Oval Office is covered quite extensively here. In conclusion, seizing the Oval Office by way of fraud, usurpations of the office, and acting in a manner at odds with public interests, constitutional authority or in breach of the public trust, are all impeachable offenses.

In Federalist Paper No. 70, Hamilton further explained: “Men in public trust will much oftener act in such a manner as to render them unworthy of being any longer trusted, than in such a manner as to make them obnoxious and subject to legal punishment.” – “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment, and Punishment, according to Law.”

In short, the Oval Office (not the individual occupying the office) has protections against criminal charges or prosecutions during the tenure of office, be it legitimate tenure or not.

“In 1973, the Justice Department concluded that the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions. We have been asked to summarize and review the analysis provided in support of that conclusion, and to consider whether any subsequent developments in the law lead us today to reconsider and modify or disavow that determination. We believe that the conclusion reached by the Department in 1973 still represents the best interpretation of the Constitution.”Full legal reference here

This means that before any occupant of the Oval Office can be charged with or prosecuted for crimes, they must first be removed from office via impeachment, so that the business of the people can continue while the individual is being prosecuted for criminal activities.

Read Full Article Here

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Petition to Impeach Barack Hussein Obama

Fellowship of the Minds

impeach Obama

PETITION URGENTLY REQUESTING THAT  CONGRESS LAUNCH AN INDEPENDENT AND  COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION INTO UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES ON THE  PART OF  PRESIDENT  BARACK OBAMA

To: All members of the U.S. Congress:

Whereas, President Barack Obama not only failed to aid U.S. personnel under lethal and prolonged terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, resulting in the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, but also led an outrageously deceitful cover-up for weeks afterward, rivaling the Watergate-era cover-up that ended the presidency of Richard Nixon;

Whereas, the IRS under Obama – in accord with direct instructions from congressional Democrats – has engaged in the most egregious and widespread attack on conservative groups in modern history, with the knowledge of top agency officials;

Whereas, the Obama Justice Department, on top of its many first-term scandals, has spied on and harassed journalists at Fox News and the Associated Press, prompting widespread, bipartisan condemnation of the DOJ for “criminalizing journalism”;

Whereas, top constitutional attorneys from across the political spectrum now agree that Obama has committed certain specific offenses that unquestionably rise to the level of impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanors”;

Whereas, one of these offenses – that of illegally conducting war against Libya – has been deemed by a bipartisan panel of constitutional experts to be “clearly an impeachable offense” and “gross usurpation of the war power”;

Whereas, Obama’s policy of targeted assassinations of U.S. citizens without any constitutionally required due process – including the drone assassination of an American-born 16-year-old as he was eating dinner – is unanimously deemed by experts, both liberal and conservative, as “an impeachable offense”;

Whereas, Obama’s Justice Department has presided over the disastrous “Fast and Furious” operation in which approximately 2,000 firearms were directed from U.S. gun shops across the U.S.-Mexico border and into the hands of members of Mexican drug cartels, resulting in the deaths of as many as 100 people, including U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry – a scandal that constitutional experts agree constitutes, at a minimum, clear grounds for impeaching Attorney General Eric Holder;

Read More Here

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Why Isn’t the Murder of an American Boy an Impeachable Offense?

by Jacob Hornberger, FFF

Article 2, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

In 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice for matters arising out of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

If perjury and obstruction of justice constitute high crimes or misdemeanors, then doesn’t it seem rather obvious that the murder of an American citizen by the president would also constitute a high crime or misdemeanor, especially if the citizen is a child?

That’s precisely what President Obama, acting through U.S. national-security state agents, did on October 14, 2011. He murdered a 16-year-old American boy who was traveling in Yemen. The boy was Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was the son of accused terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, who the CIA had assassinated two weeks before.

Why did President Obama and the CIA or the military kill Abdulrahman? The president, the CIA, and the Pentagon have all chosen to remain silent on the matter, refusing to even acknowledge that they killed the boy. But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs implicitly provided the justification: “I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well being of their children. I don’t think becoming an al Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about doing your business.”

So, there you have it: the boy was apparently killed because he was considered to have the wrong father.

But if that’s a legitimate justification for killing a child, there are obviously a lot more children at risk in this country.

Proponents of the war on terrorism argue that the killing of the teenager wasn’t really a murder but rather an assassination. But isn’t that a distinction without a difference?

After all, compare Obama’s killing of Abdulrahman with Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s killing of Orlando Letelier. Pinochet took power in 1973, during the time that the Cold War and the war on communism were being waged. Pinochet, who the U.S. national-security state had helped install into power, not only began rounding up, incarcerating, torturing, abusing, and executing suspected communists without any judicial process, he also embarked on an program to assassinate Chilean communists found overseas.

Agents of Pinochet’s counterpart to the CIA, a secret police force called DINA, planned and orchestrated the killing of Orlando Letelier on the streets of Washington, D.C. Why was Letelier targeted for death? He was a socialist, a Chilean citizen who had served in the administration of President Salvador Allende, the democratically elected Marxist president whom Pinochet, President Richard Nixon, the CIA, and the U.S. military ousted from power and replaced with Pinochet’s military dictatorship. Therefore, as part of the war on communism, Letelier was considered to be a legitimate target for assassination.

On September 21, 1976, an assassination team headed by a man named Michael Townleyexploded a bomb that the team had planted under Letelier’s car. Letelier was killed, along with his American assistant who was also in the car, 25-year-old Ronni Moffitt.

Interestingly, the U.S. Justice Department did not consider the assassination to be legitimate under the concept of war and enemy combatants, notwithstanding the fact that the Cold War and global war on communism were still being waged. The Justice Department treated the killings of Letelier and Moffitt as murders. Townley and his team were indicted and prosecuted for the murders of Letelier and Moffitt.

How is Obama’s killing of Abdulrahman any different from Pinochet’s murder of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt? In the one case, a 16-year-old boy has had his life snuffed out because he had the wrong father. In the other case, a man had his life snuffed out because he had the wrong philosophical beliefs. Given that the Letelier and Moffitt killings were treated as murders, why shouldn’t the Abdulraham killing be treated as murder too?

Read More Here

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BBC

Ankara protesters clash with Turkish police

Anti-government protests in Turkey are entering a second week

Police in the Turkish capital Ankara have used tear gas and water cannon on demonstrators as anti-government protests get into a second week.

About 5,000 people had gathered in Kizilay Square in the city centre. Protesters and police also clashed in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city.

Turkey has seen a week of civil unrest sparked by a police crackdown on a local protest over an Istanbul park.

Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out early elections.

“You don’t decide on early elections because people are marching on the streets,” he said.

Local and presidential elections would take place next year as scheduled, said an official from Mr Erdogan’s governing AKP (Justice and Development Party). A general election is due in 2015.

The AKP has been in power in Turkey since 2002. Protesters say the government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and imposing Islamist values on a secular state.

In Istanbul, supporters of three rival football clubs – Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas – set aside their differences to march together to Taksim Square, the epicentre of the protests.

“We’re here against fascism, all together, shoulder to shoulder. Actually we should be thanking Tayyip Erdogan for bringing us together. He united the entire country [against him],” an unnamed Fenerbahce supporter told the Associated Press.

Read Full Article Here

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Bloomberg

Erdogan Denounces Protest Violence, Says Demands Welcome

Erdogan Denounces Protest Violence, Says Demands Welcome

Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

Demonstrators wave Turkish flags with portraits of Kemal Ataturk during a protest in Istanbul on June 6, 2013.

Huseyin Celik, deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party, denied opposition demands for early elections and said the country won’t bow to financial speculators seeking to profit from the unrest.

Celik, speaking after a more than four-hour meeting of the party’s executive committee in Istanbul today, said that while the government would listen to “legitimate demands” from the people, elections would only take place as planned in 2015.

“There is absolutely no reason that would require early elections,” Celik said, rebuffing earlier comments from opposition leader Devlet Bahceli. The government won’t “bow to demands from government opponents or the interest rate lobby.”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who returned yesterday from North Africa amid protesters’ calls for his resignation, led the party meeting. The event was brought forward from June 19 after rallies against plans to build on parkland in central Istanbul turned into anti-government demonstrations.

After several speeches condemning protesters, Erdogan yesterday spent time defending his government’s democratic credentials and environmental record. He condemned the protesters’ methods, saying they were violent, while expressing readiness to listen to demands voiced democratically.

Thousands of protesters held peaceful vigils against the government in Ankara and Istanbul yesterday, while police fired tear-gas canisters to disperse a group of demonstrators who had set roadblocks on fire in the low-income Gazi neighborhood of Istanbul, according to a report in Zaman newspaper today.

Alcohol Sales

Protesters have said Erdogan has become too autocratic, citing police violence, increased religious lessons at schools and curbs on alcohol sales.

“We’re opposed to violence, terror, vandalism,” Erdogan said at a conference on Turkey’s European Union membership bid yesterday. “For those who come to me with democratic demands, I’ll sacrifice my life.”

The conference took place at a central Istanbul hotel, guarded by a police cordon, and within walking distance of Taksim Square. The rallies spread nationwide after police used tear gas and water cannons on May 31 against demonstrators who had gathered in Gezi Park near Taksim.

“The Prime minister’s time is up,” Bahceli said as he called for early elections today. “There is need for renewal of the nation’s will. We are leaving the decision on timing of the ballot box to the prime minister.”

Read Full Article Here

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The Telegraph

Lady in the Red Dress and her dream of a Turkish rebirth

The reluctant heroine who symbolises the Istanbul protests tells Ruth Sherlock she believes people power will prevail in Turkey.

Ceyda Sungur,

Ceyda Sungur, “The Lady in the Red Dress”, has become the colour-coded emblem of Turkey’s new people-power movement.  Photo: OSMAN ORSAL/REUTERS

With her red cotton dress, white shoulder bag and flowing black hair, she has become the colour-coded emblem of Turkey’s new people-power movement.

Caught on camera as she was sprayed head to toe in tear gas, Ceyda Sungur’s treatment at the hands of Istanbul’s riot police seemed the epitome of using a “sledgehammer to crack a nut” and encapsulated the government’s heavy-handed response to a civilised protest.

Pictures of the “Lady in the Red Dress” quickly spread around the world via the internet. Those who shared the pictures online joined protesters in demanding to know why a woman who looked attired for a summer picnic had been treated like a masked, brick-throwing
anarchist.

Last week, Ms Sungur said she was a reluctant heroine, describing herself as just part of a wider grass-roots movement, and pointing out in brief remarks to a Turkish newspaper that hundreds of others had been gassed in similar fashion.

Now, though, having declined requests for interviews from all over the world, Ms Sungur, an academic, has spoken briefly but vividly to The Sunday Telegraph about her involvement in what happened, and how she is now working in a makeshift clinic to help others hurt in demonstrations.

“For me this is about freedom of speech and the power of the people,” said Ms Sungur, who was left choking for breath after the gas attack.

“Now people have, for the first time, the self-confidence to reclaim their power. They have the self-confidence to change everything.”

The photos of Ms Sungur set off a major escalation of the protests, which have pitted Turkey’s secular middle class against what they see as an increasingly authoritarian Islamist government.

So far three people have been killed and nearly 1,000 admitted to hospital, as the demonstrations have spread across the country.

As well as being shared via Facebook, Twitter and other social media, Ms Sungur’s image has become a permanent part of the protest landscape, appearing as a cartoon on posters, stickers and banners.

Protesters in the city of Izmir have even turned the image into a fairground-style billboard, where demonstrators can poke their head through a hole where her face is and posing for pictures.

Keen to keep out of the limelight, Ms Sungur, meanwhile, is continuing to work behind the scenes, volunteering at an improvised field hospital in Taksim Square, the epicentre of the Istanbul protests.

“We have created field stations on Taksim Square where we look after people who have been injured,” she said, declining to specify further details for fear that the volunteer doctors might be arrested.

Ms Sungur works in the planning department of Istanbul’s Technical University, a faculty not normally seen as a hotbed of radical politics.

She had little inkling of the anti-government revolt she was about to unleash when she and a group of architect friends first joined a sit-in to stop bulldozers moving in on Gazi Park, a small patch of green in Taksim Square.

Those friends described to The Sunday Telegraph their shock at what happened next. “Ceyda texted me to get to the park,” said Meriç Demir, 28. “Ten to 15 minutes later when we arrived she was yelling from the effect of the tear gas.

Meric Demir. (RUTH SHERLOCK FOR THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

“We were so surprised. Some of us began yelling, ‘we are academics, stop this!’ Some tried to help Ceyda. We were shocked because you don’t even spray insects in your home in such a direct way.”

On paper, the protest was little more than an impassioned planning dispute, with a group of environmentalists opposing a government-backed project for an ambitious redevelopment of the area.

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Turkey’s protesters proclaimed as true heirs of nation’s founding father

Ataturk, the secular reformer, has become the symbol for young Turks defying what they see as Erdogan’s reactionary reversion to the Ottoman past

Turkey protester carries flag with Ataturk picture

A protester in Istanbul’s Taksim Square carries a Turkish flag embellished with the image of its first president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Photograph: Kostas Tsironis/AP

Among the tents, snoozing youth and pleasant shady trees of Istanbul’s Gezi Park there are portraits of one man in a European suit. Wherever you look Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – founder of the Turkish Republic – gazes sternly at you. Photos of the first president hang from branches, have been affixed to tea stalls, and even encircle a giant banner showing Turkey‘s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dressed as Hitler.

“We really love Ataturk. He changed our state. He made it into a modern republic,” explained Murat Bakirdoven, a 24-year-old biology student who has been camping in the park for a week. Someone had stuck another photo of Ataturk – this time in a lounge suit, sitting on a leather chair, cigarette in hand – on a nearby tree. Bakirdoven added: “Erdogan wants us to forget him. Instead we are trying to create an Ataturk renaissance.”

For the protesters who have taken part in Turkey’s anti-government demonstrations, Ataturk is a hero. Dead for 75 years, he has become the reborn symbol of this student-driven anti-Erdogan movement. (The other motif is a penguin – a reference to the state media, which failed to report on the uprising for several days; one channel, CNN Turk, instead screened a nature documentary on Antarctica).

The symbolism goes to the heart of what this unprecedented uprising is about: Turkey’s modern identity. At issue is whether Turkey should be the progressive, secular European nation-state that Ataturk originally envisaged and shaped from the ruins of the Ottoman empire, or a more explicitly religious country, a sort of Muslim version of Christian democracy. The protesters want the former; Erdogan, and his ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development party (AKP), it appears, the latter.

What has infuriated protesters is what they perceive as Erdogan’s clunking attempts to impose his Islamic values on everyone else. Last month Turkey’s government passed a new law banning the sale of alcohol between 10pm and 6am, and banishing it from the vicinity of schools and mosques. Two years ago it forbade access from Turkey to pornographic websites and temporarily shut down YouTube. Erdogan has spoken out against gay rights. “All this built up a wall of pressure,” Bakirdoven said. Many also sense a creeping campaign to undermine Ataturk himself. Traditionally girls and boys would celebrate Ataturk day, 19 May, by dancing and singing in stadiums around the country. In 2012 Erdogan ditched the ceremony, saying no one wanted to see girls prance around in skimpy skirts. Then last week Erdogan defended his anti-alcohol legislation by obliquely calling Ataturk and his closest ally, Ismet Inonu, a couple of “drunkards”.

All of this has galvanised educated, middle-class Turks to defend their personal freedoms. It began as a small environmental protest against plans to redevelop Gezi Park, and Istanbul’s adjoining Taksim Square. But over the past two weeks it has morphed into a countrywide revolt. Three people have been killed, 4,000 injured and 900 arrested. The demonstrations have spread to more than 70 Turkish cities, including the capital, Ankara, and the restive western city of Izmir.

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Reblogged  from :  Blavatar  World

TOPSHOTS-TURKEY-POLITICS-UNREST
ARIS MESSINIS / AFP / Getty Images

Demonstrators wave Turkish flags and shout slogans during a protest at Gazi park next to Taksim Square in Istanbul on June 5, 2013.

ISTANBUL – Two ladies, one in red, the other in blue – that two iconic early images of Turkey’s uprising flashed around the world were of women now seems no coincidence. Of the tens of thousands of anti-government protestors who daily throng Istanbul’s ‘Occupied’ central square—now on Day 12—about half are female. Women have been at the forefront of a movement against what demonstrators say is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s increasing attempts to shape personal freedoms.

(MORE: As Turkey Protests Continue, Attention Falls on Failures of Turkish Media)

Dressed in a red cotton dress, academic Ceyda Sungur went to Istanbul’s Gezi Park in her lunch hour last week to support sit-in demonstrators protesting a government-backed redevelopment scheme that would destroy the trees. Bag slung over one arm, she was captured on film as a masked policeman doused her with pepper spray. The other image, dubbed ‘The Lady in Blue’, was of an unidentified young woman, arms outstretched, as she absorbed the full impact of a water cannon during street fighting that raged last weekend.

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Canada Free Press

DHS insider: It’s about to get very ugly

Seriously dangerous times ahead. Deadly times. War, and censorship under the color of authority and under the pretext of of national security

By Doug Hagmann (Bio and Archives)  Saturday, June 8, 2013

 

Washington, D.C.—Something quite unexpected happened just hours ago, in the dark of night, during a two-day layover in Washington, DC. My son and I are scheduled to take part in a seminar outside of Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend, so we combined our travels to include a side-trip to DC for a business meeting we had previously arranged. It was during this layover that something seemingly ripped from the pages of a spy novel took place.

While I was in the middle of a perfectly good and well needed sleep in the very early hours of this morning, I received a message. I cannot disclose how I received this message, at least not now. The discerning reader will understand why, which, by the way, would make a very interesting story alone. The message was extremely clear and precise. I was to meet my high level DHS insider at a very specific location in Washington, DC, at a time when most ‘normal’ people, except third-shift workers are still asleep. And, I was to come alone and make certain that I was not being followed, and I was to leave any cell phone or electronic device behind.

Seriously? I thought, as I was still trying to make sense of it all. Is all this really necessary? Is this really happening? I considered waking my son to accompany me, but opted to follow the instructions to the letter. Besides, I thought, he’s not the most affable middle-of-the-night person. I left a hastily written but detailed note in my hotel room before my departure in the event something happened. I looked at the digital clock on my rental car (my personal car would never survive our long distance trip). It was 3:20 a.m.

The meeting

I felt like I was part of a spy movie set in our nation’s capital. A chill rose up my spine as I waited in the dark of a chilly, misty and foggy pre-dawn morning. I was to meet with my DHS insider source at a time when most of the nation is asleep, at a place I could swear was featured in the movie All the President’s Men. No one and I mean no one knows I’m here, I thought, as I could see one of the most recognizable national landmarks in the distance.

My source appeared out of nowhere, or so it seemed, and handed me a cup of coffee with the astute observation that I looked like I needed it. So tell me, I asked impatiently, why do we have to meet at this time, at this location, and under such specific circumstances? ‘Because this might be our last meeting,’ he stated.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, the time, the place, or the chill of the misty rain that caused my sense of foreboding. “Explain,” I asked in an almost demanding tone. So he did, without mincing words.

The details

“If anyone thinks that what’s going on right now with all of this surveillance of American citizens is to fight some sort of foreign enemy, they’re delusional. If people think that this ‘scandal’ can’t get any worse, it will, hour by hour, day by day. This has the ability to bring down our national leadership, the administration and other senior elected officials working in collusion with this administration, both Republican and Democrats. People within the NSA, the Department of Justice, and others, they know who they are, need to come forth with the documentation of ‘policy and practice’ in their possession, disclose what they know, fight what’s going on, and just do their job. I have never seen anything like this, ever. The present administration is going after leakers, media sources, anyone and everyone who is even suspected of ‘betrayal.’ That’s what they call it, ‘betrayal.’ Can you believe the size of their cahones? This administration considers anyone telling the truth about Benghazi, the IRS, hell, you name the issue, ‘betrayal,’” he said.

“We know all this already,” I stated. He looked at me, giving me a look like I’ve never seen, and actually pushed his finger into my chest. “You don’t know jack,” he said, “this is bigger than you can imagine, bigger than anyone can imagine. This administration is collecting names of sources, whistle blowers and their families, names of media sources and everybody they talk to and have talked to, and they already have a huge list. If you’re not working for MSNBC or CNN, you’re probably on that list. If you are a website owner with a brisk readership and a conservative bent, you’re on that list. It’s a political dissident list, not an enemy threat list,” he stated.

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Police: Santa Monica gunman acted alone, killing 4

Michael Winter and William Cummings, USA TODAY 12:49 a.m. EDT June 8, 2013

A series of bloody confrontations ended with police slaying gunman on campus. Several motorists were shot along the way.

(Photo: Reed Saxon, AP)

In a series of violent confrontations Friday, a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle killed four people and wounded at least five others before being shot dead by police inside the Santa Monica College library, police said.

Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis said in a news briefing late Friday that a lone gunman carried out the shootings, which resulted in nine crime scenes that spanned several blocks.

“It’s a horrific event, and everyone wishes it hadn’t happened,” Lewis told the press.

Lewis also confirmed a “person of interest,” who was taken into custody earlier in the day, “has been released and is not a suspect.”

One of the dead was shot outside the library of the two-year college, where students were studying for or taking final exams.

The gunman, who was not immediately identified, was described as white or Latino with curly hair and 20 to 30 years old. Witnesses said he was dressed in black, wore body armor and a helmet and brandished a military-style assault rifle, a shotgun, a handgun and an ammunition belt.

He was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police in the library as students dived for cover or ran for safety. Beforehand, students, many wearing headphones, either did not hear or ignored several “pops.”

The 38-acre main campus remained locked down throughout the afternoon while the bomb squad examined suspicious bags the gunman left behind. The lockdown was lifted late Friday, but the school remains closed.

Three women in a car were shot and wounded during what the Santa Monica police called a “series of random encounters.” One later died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Another victim was in critical condition and one was in fair condition Friday night, the university hospital said.

Three other women, including one shot in a car, were treated for minor injuries at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica. One had shrapnel-type injuries and the two others had injuries not related to gunfire. All were treated and released.

The series of incidents — Santa Monica police said at least nine — began when a gunman shot up and set fire to a home located about a mile from campus.

Priscilla Morales cries as she is consoled by a parking enforcement officer Friday, in Santa Monica, Calif.  Morales was in the library at Santa Monica College, where a gunman who allegedly killed at least four people with an assault-style rifle was shot to death in a gunfight with police.
Priscilla Morales cries as she is consoled by a parking enforcement officer Friday, in Santa Monica, Calif. Morales was in the library at Santa Monica College, where a gunman who allegedly killed at least four people with an assault-style rifle was shot to death in a gunfight with police.  AP/Paul Alvarez Jr., Santa Monica Daily Press

Capt. Jason Wells, of the Santa Monica Fire Department, said late Friday that the cause of the fire is undetermined, but is being investigated due to the suspicious circumstances.

Two bodies were found in the house on Yorkshire Avenue, a fire department spokesman told the Associated Press. At least one of the two men died from gunshots, sources told KABC-TV.

Neighbors told KNBC-TV that the gunman’s father and brother lived in the home.

Jerry Cunningham Rathner, who lives nearby, told AP that she heard gunshots shortly before noon and then saw a man shooting at the neighbors’ home. The residence quickly erupted in flames and billowing smoke.

She said the gunman then went to the corner and pointed a military-style rifle at a woman in a car, ordering her to pull over. He then motioned to another car to slow down before opening fire.

Santa Monica Police officers prepare to search the campus of Santa Monica College,after multiple shootings were reported on the campus Friday.

Santa Monica Police officers prepare to search the campus of Santa Monica College,after multiple shootings were reported on the campus Friday.  Kevork Djansezian, Getty  

Los Angeles police officers check a home in the city's westside Palms district, that was believed to be connected in some way with shootings in nearby Santa Monica.
Los Angeles police officers check a home in the city’s westside Palms district, that was believed to be connected in some way with shootings in nearby Santa Monica.  Reed Saxon, AP

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Santa Monica gunman killed father, brother, sources say

UPDATE: Police say five, not seven, dead in shooting; gunman acted alone

The two bodies found in a burning Santa Monica house – the starting point in a shooting rampage – are believe to be the brother and father of the suspected gunman, law enforcement sources told The Times.

Six people were killed in the rampage, and police say the suspect used an AR-15 assault rifle.

He was killed by officers at Santa Monica College. Police don’t have a motive for the shootings. The shooting and fire appear to have stemmed from some type of family dispute, but the sources said police are still are from sure what happened.

Santa Monica College remained closed. And police were converging on an apartment in Mar Vista as part of the shooting investigation.

Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks described a violent shooting rampage that appears to have begun in the 2000 block of Yorkshire Avenue just before noon.

The gunman then moved west along Pico Boulevard, firing at cars and other targets.

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Texas woman arrested in ricin letters to Obama, Bloomberg: Officials

NBC News

In a new twist, the woman who blamed her husband for sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was charged Friday with sending the letters herself. NBC’s Ann Curry reports.

A Texas woman has been arrested in connection with the mailing of three letters containing a form of the poison ricin to President Obama, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, federal authorities said.

Shannon Rogers Guess Richardson of New Boston, Texas, originally called the Federal Bureau of Investigation claiming that her husband had sent the letters, officials said. The investigators found that she had sent the letters herself, they said.

Richardson is an actress with minor roles on television shows like The Walking Dead and the Vampire Diaries, and was arrested in Arkansas on charges that will be filed Friday afternoon, the authorities said. She has five sons, according to the New York Times.

Her husband, Nathaniel Richardson, is an Army veteran

Investigators have been probing who sent the three letters, all postmarked May 20 from Shreveport, La. and sent without a return address, authorities have said.

Authorities are still investigating the three ricin-laced letters sent to Michael Bloomberg, President Obama, and a lobbyist, but Texas-based actress Shannon Rogers Guess has said her Army veteran husband Nathanial Richardson is behind the letters. NBC’s Stephanie Gosk reports.

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Texas actress first accuses husband, but she’s arrested in ricin case

By Michael Martinez. Susan Candiotti and Carol Cratty, CNN
updated 7:54 PM EDT, Fri June 7, 2013
A Texas actress, Shannon Rogers Richardson, also known as Shannon Rogers Guess, has been arrested in connection with allegedly ricin-tainted letters that were mailed last month to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a federal law enforcement source said on Friday, June 7. A Texas actress, Shannon Rogers Richardson, also known as Shannon Rogers Guess, has been arrested in connection with allegedly ricin-tainted letters that were mailed last month to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a federal law enforcement source said on Friday, June 7.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Shannon Richardson, 35, initially told FBI her husband sent ricin-tainted letters
  • But she failed polygraph, and husband said she wanted to end marriage, FBI says
  • Before her arrest, she allegedly admits to mailing letters, but says husband forced her
  • Her husband files for divorce; she’s also pregnant, divorce lawsuit says

(CNN) — A Texas actress in a troubled marriage was arrested and charged Friday in connection with ricin-tainted letters that were mailed last month to President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, authorities said.

Shannon Richardson, 35, also known as Shannon Rogers and Shannon Guess, initially told the FBI that her husband, Nathaniel, sent the ricin-laced letters, but a polygraph exam found her to be “deceptive” on the matter, court papers said.

Investigators found that her computer storage devices contained the text of threatening letters sent to the president, but the couple’s computer records show her husband couldn’t have printed them out because he was at work at the time, an FBI arrest affidavit said.

On Thursday, Shannon Richardson told investigators she mailed the ricin-tainted letters, but she claimed that her husband typed the letters and forced her to print and mail them, the affidavit said.

Her husband denied involvement and claimed his wife wanted to end their marriage and leave him, the affidavit said. He told investigators that his wife was “intentionally misleading” them, the court papers said.

Shannon Richardson is accused of mailing a threatening communication to the president and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney John M. Bales’ office in Texas.

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