Yearly Archives: 2013

How the System Treats a Good Cop

"As a New York City Police Officer assigned to the 81st Precinct, Adrian Schoolcraft became disillusioned when supervisors talked about manipulating crime statistics and carrying out illegal arrests. Schoolcraft blew the whistle – and immediately paid a steep price. A police strike force raided Schoolcraft’s apartment and forcibly confined him to a mental ward at Jamaica Hospital under the care of Dr. Isak Isakov, supposedly to prevent him from harming himself. He was held there for six days. An internal investigation validated nearly all of Schoolcraft’s claims – yet nobody has ever been punished for his abduction and false imprisonment." Continue reading →

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Anti-marijuana New York assemblyman busted for weed possession

"A Republican lawmaker in New York who has a record of voting against medical marijuana legalization has been arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. State police said that a suspicious odor was noticed in Assemblyman Steve Katz’s vehicle when they pulled him over for driving around 80 mph in a 75 mph zone at around 10 a.m. Thursday morning. Katz was given an appearance ticket for having less than 25 grams and is scheduled to appear in Coeymans Town Court on March 8. He also faces charges for speeding." Continue reading →

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New York police running criminal checks on domestic abuse victims

"New York City police have been ordered to run criminal background checks on domestic abuse victims, The New York Post reported on Friday. According to a March 5 memo obtained by the newspaper, Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski has directed detectives to run background checks on both the accuser and the alleged perpetrator in domestic violence cases. If victims are found to have outstanding warrants, police are ordered to arrest them. The new policy is already drawing criticism from victims’ advocates." Continue reading →

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Russia warns UK against arming Syrian rebels

"The UK and Russia remain at odds over the supply of arms to Syria's opposition, with Moscow suggesting that any move by the British government to give the rebels military equipment would breach international law. The foreign secretary, William Hague, last week announced that Britain was stepping up its support for Syria's opposition National Coalition and would be providing non-lethal equipment to rebel fighters. The government is inching towards arming the rebels, with David Cameron indicating on Wednesday that the UK might be prepared to bypass an EU arms embargo as events on the ground unfold." Continue reading →

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‘Where is the evidence my son was a terrorist?’

"The parents of a British-born man killed by a US drone strike after being stripped of his UK citizenship have spoken out for the first time – to say they will never forgive the British Government for his death. Mohamed Sakr was born and brought up in London before he was targeted and killed in February 2012 in Somalia. Now his Egyptian-born parents Gamal and Eman Sakr, who have lived in Britain for 35 years, have accused ministers of betraying this country's democratic values. The couple said they believe their son was left vulnerable to the attack after the Government stripped him of his British citizenship months before he was killed." Continue reading →

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CIA may target Syrian extremists with drones: LA Times

"The US Central Intelligence Agency is collecting information on Islamic radicals in Syria for possible lethal drone strikes against them at a later stage. CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, which runs drone programs targeting militants in Pakistan and Yemen, had recently shifted several targeting officers to improve intelligence gathering on militants in Syria. The agency is working closely with Saudi, Jordanian and other regional spy services active in Syria. The State Department believes that one of the strongest Syrian opposition militias, Al Nusra Front, is a terrorist organization that is indistinguishable from the group Al-Qaeda in Iraq." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCIA may target Syrian extremists with drones: LA Times

Obama couldn’t eat at Hill meeting without food ‘taster’

"Following President Obama’s lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins described the food served and said the president was not able to eat since his 'taster' was not present. 'He looked longingly at it,' Collins continued. 'He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.'" Continue reading →

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Bush-era state secrecy expert: Presidents abuse power like in Kafka or Orwell novels

"William Leonard, who was entrusted with ensuring proper treatment of state secrets by government agencies in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said that over the past decade both the Obama and the previous Bush administrations had manipulated their classification authority to create new executive powers without congressional oversight or judicial review. Leonard, the former head of the Information Security Oversight Office from 2002 to 2007, said that what was at stake was 'the abuse of the very form of government we are operating under, as unilateral executive powers go unchallenged.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBush-era state secrecy expert: Presidents abuse power like in Kafka or Orwell novels

Drones killing innocent Pakistanis, U.N. official says

"The study concludes that the strikes have killed far more people than the United States has acknowledged, and traumatized many more innocent people. That trauma is destroying a way of life, Emmerson said. 'The Pashtun tribes of the ... area have suffered enormously under the drone campaign.' And tribal law prescribes revenge for the killing of a tribe member, which serves to radicalize more young men against the United States, he said. Pakistan considers the strikes counterproductive, illegal and a violation of its sovereignty." Continue reading →

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Veteran Faces Jail Time For Using Marijuana As Treatment For PTSD

"Former U.S. Navy Corpsman Jeremy Usher came home in 2003 from Iraq and Afghanistan to sleepless nights and panic attacks, with vivid flashbacks of combat, horrifying nightmares, anxiety and depression, all amid memory loss and a severe stutter. He's doing well in counseling and school, he says, but he faces jail time for using marijuana medicinally while on probation to manage his PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Jeremy finds himself in legal limbo. Medicinal marijuana is the one treatment that's helped him with his PTSD, but he violates his probation when he uses it, which puts him at risk of going back to jail." Continue reading →

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