Alternative News

Recruited by Al-Qaeda: Foreign fighters in a Damascus jail tell their stories

"Raouchan Gazakov brought his family to Syria, taught his 5-year-old son to make bombs and bade farewell to his relative, a suicide bomber. RT’s Maria Finoshina talked to him in a Damascus prison and asked him why he came to fight for Al-Qaeda. In the Damascus prison, there are many stories of men recruited from faraway lands to come fight for jihad in Syria. In January, a leaked memo provided an inside look at how Saudi officials commuted the sentences of 1,200 death row inmates on the condition they join the rebels and fight against Assad in Syria, the Assyrian International News Agency reported." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRecruited by Al-Qaeda: Foreign fighters in a Damascus jail tell their stories

Why the US is Really Chasing War With Syria

"Global markets rallied overnight on hopes that a conflict may be avoided if Syria gives up its chemical weapons. If that’s the case, it’s a rally that will fade later in the week. That’s because the ongoing Syrian conflict has nothing to do with chemical weapons. It’s all about regime change, which is all about natural gas and pipelines. But this is not just ‘another’ Middle Eastern conflict. It’s much deeper, subtler, and potentially far more dangerous than preceding conflicts. As we’ll attempt to explain, the situation in Syria is a direct result of the relative decline of US imperial power." Continue reading →

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(Surveillance) Times have Changed

"It was only a year ago when the UK Home Office repeatedly made statements about how their capability to collect intelligence was degrading, and how new laws such as the Communications Data Bill were necessary to protect citizens. In hindsight, given the revelations about the UK domestic mass surveillance programs, these once desperate cries for more crime- and terrorism-fighting tools now look like nothing more than attempts to illegitimately spy more on all citizens. Quotes from those debates look rather different now." Continue reading →

Continue Reading(Surveillance) Times have Changed

Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches

"Today we are releasing new government documents that provide rare insight into how the government uses its powers at the border to search and seize Americans’ electronic devices. The government’s own records indicate that 4,957 passengers had their electronic devices searched between October 1, 2012 and August 31, 2013, and an additional 4,898 individuals were subject to electronic device searches the previous year. We have no way of knowing how many of those searches may have been carried out not to search for contraband—which is the reason ICE has been granted such broad search powers—but to exploit border search powers to evade the Constitution." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDocuments Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches

Feds Abused Anti-Terrorism Database To Track Chelsea Manning Supporter

'Keeping our borders secure apparently means allowing federal agents to delve as deeply as they want into electronics that cross the border, even if it's someone who just went to Mexico on vacation. Presumably, David House wasn't a threat to national security when he left for Mexico, but by the time he landed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, he was. House worked with the Bradley Manning Support Network and this was all the 'evidence' ICE needed to alert DHS agents that House would be returning from Mexico through Chicago -- and the wide-open policy on electronic searches was all the agents needed to seize and search House's phone and laptop." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeds Abused Anti-Terrorism Database To Track Chelsea Manning Supporter

The U.S. Is Getting “Played” In Syria

"Even if the U.S./NATO is going to wage war, is this how you do it? Do you telegraph your moves days ahead of time? I must have missed that class when I studied at the Naval War College. By comparison, little E-1 Pvt. Bradley Manning (or is it Chelsea?) will rot for many decades in prison (the women’s wing?) after being convicted of releasing a pile of classified emails. And young Ed Snowden is a hunted man because he told the world that the National Security Agency sucks signals out of the ether. I’m shocked to know that! But Obama administration officials are holding press conferences — Press! Conferences! — to offer up the tactical details of any attack that’s set to hit Syria." Continue reading →

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Misesians on 9/11, Then and Now

"I attended the Mises Institute’s Supporters Summit in 2001. Occurring shortly after 9/11, which was itself unsettling in its pointless bloodshed, we also knew that so much more bloodshed was to come, and that all the planned attacks on human liberty and decency, such as the USA-PATRIOT ACT, were all in the works. Libertarians were virtually alone in opposing the planned expansions of government power in the wake of 9/11, and we saw the attacks for what they were: criminal attacks on human persons and property which nonetheless have not been set right or rendered impossible by more than a decade of nearly untrammeled government theft, war, regulation, and spying." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Where did the US$ 700 billion go?

"You remember TARP? It was the feds' $700 billion program to rescue the US economy from a correction. Neil Barofsky was in charge of it. So we decided to go down and ask him how it turned out: '[..] What did they do with the money? They were supposed to increase lending so as to help bring about a recovery. None of them did that. Instead, they used it to repay each other's loans. In other words, they used it to reduce the amount of credit available...not increase it. And they bought US agency bonds...just as you'd expect. And they paid out their bonuses. In other words, they looked out for themselves...just as you'd expect.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Where did the US$ 700 billion go?

Luke Rudkowski Questions Larry Silverstein On WTC 7 [2011]

"There are so many unanswered questions about the days 9/11, and instead of making up theories and speculating, we go to the horses mouth to get answers. Sadly, the response we get from these questions only invites more speculation about what happened on 9/11." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLuke Rudkowski Questions Larry Silverstein On WTC 7 [2011]

Richard Gage Talks Global ReThink 911 Campaign

"The engineers and architects who signed the ReThink911 petition question the physics and science of the collapse of the twin towers as defined by the US Government. These building professionals are being joined in their calls by a growing number of lawmakers in Washington. Former Senators Bob Graham and Mike Gravel have called for re-opening the 9-11 investigation. But most recently Alan Grayson of Florida. Grayson recently stated on CSPAN that classified 9/11 documents should be released." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRichard Gage Talks Global ReThink 911 Campaign