Alternative News

How the Feds Manufacture “Criminals”

"Undercover IRS informants posing as drug dealers offered to buy cars with cash they described as proceeds from narcotics deals. After Joseph Johnson was arrested and charged with money laundering, federal prosecutor Wendy Olson offered him a deal in exchange for testifying against Kurt Barnes. To enhance Johnson’s credibility, Olson sought to prevent disclosure of Johnson’s prior felony convictions – which is essentially the same act for which Barnes now faces a prison term. The difference here is that Olson, unlike Barnes, actually succeeded in stealing something – in this case, a year of a man’s life. Continue reading →

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Government Bomb Plots

"If a private person undertook such a 'plot,' but called it off without carrying it out and then announced 'I meant it only as a joke,' wouldn't he face criminal prosecution nonetheless? Shouldn't the FBI agents involved in this make-believe 'plot' also be charged with a conspiracy to blow up a federal building? They were not only participants in the scheme, but its very instigators!" Continue reading →

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Police Go to Wrong House, Shoot Dog

"A local couple says a San Antonio police officer who shot their dog in the jaw early Sunday morning was at the wrong house. Albert Morales said his brother, Hector Serna, woke him up before dawn after hearing the gunshot and then pounding on his window. Serna and Morales said they went outside and the officer approached them saying there had been a 911 call about a deceased woman. Morales then said the officer told him he was responding to the call from another family blocks away on another street, who had once lived in their house." Continue reading →

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The John McKenna Case: Video Captures Baton Blows to University of Maryland Student

"The encounter between police officers and a University of Maryland student after a basketball game in 2010 lasted only 10 seconds, but how a jury interprets those moments, captured on video, will determine the fate of two veteran Prince George’s County police officers on trial this week. Ruddy, an assistant state’s attorney, urged jurors to hold the officers accountable in what he called an unprovoked beating of a skipping, singing student during a postgame celebration on the streets of College Park." Continue reading →

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New York police brutally beat man for sleeping at synagogue

"A confrontation with New York police that was caught on video last week has Jewish community leaders in New York City outraged. When the officers attempted to force his exit from the building, ignoring his claims that he was allowed to be there, Halevy resisted. That’s when one of the officers flew into a rage, putting his fists up like a boxer and launching a flurry of punches. As the video rolled, Halevy sustained repeated blows from the male officer while a female officer stood by hitting him with a club, then pepper-spraying him. Finally, an upwards of 10 officers ran into the building to ensure the man could not resist any further, and he was taken away." Continue reading →

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FBI terrorizes anarchists for refusing to testify before grand jury

"The Occupy Wall Street movement kicked into gear last September, and since its creation police across the US have been caught brutalizing non-violent protesters. In some cities, Anarchists have joined the movement and have become the targets for FBI raids in the Pacific-Northwest for alleged involvement in the violent protests in the US. RT's Web Producer, Andrew Blake gives us his take on the most recent cases and explains why these individuals are being targeted." Continue reading →

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If Iran Mines the Strait of Hormuz

"In a sea drill the US Navy only found half of the mines planted in a Strait of Hormuz simulation drill. I don't know if you buy the 'we only found the important ones' argument or not but I think this exercise shows how difficult/how long it would take to reopen the strait if the Iranians mined the passage. If Iran ever does mine the strait it could take weeks to clear it. In the mean time the price of oil would explode to the upside. Perhaps this simulation will make our leaders and policy makers beat the war drum a bit softer?" Continue reading →

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Glenn Greenwald: The lame rules for presidential debates: a perfect microcosm of US democracy

"All views that reside outside the narrow confines of the two parties are rigidly excluded. Anyone who might challenge or subvert the two-party duopoly is rendered invisible. Lobbyists who enrich themselves by peddling their influence run everything behind the scenes. Corporations pay for the process, which they exploit and is then run to bolster rather than threaten their interests. The media's role is to keep the discourse as restrictive and unthreatening as possible while peddling the delusion that it's all vibrant and free and independent and unrestrained. To understand the US political process, one can just look to how these sham debates are organized and how they function." Continue reading →

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Green Party candidate: Police handcuffed me to a chair for eight hours

"Stein criticized the group that organized the event, the Commission on Presidential Debates, which was put together as a joint effort by Democrats and Republicans to administer the debates after the League of Women Voters stepped out of that role in 1987. Stein said the two women were handcuffed the entire time they spent inside a facility specifically designed to hold protesters, even though they had only been charged with violations. She said a request for their release was denied because, she was told, authorities did not want them 'wandering around.'" Continue reading →

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Obama Rep. Schultz on The NDAA and Secret Kill List

"Last night at the presidential debate at Hofstra University, Luke Rudkowski got a chance to talk to Obama's representative congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Spin Room. The Spin room was full of spin as both Obama and Romney representative's dodged questions from WeAreChange after the debates." Continue reading →

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