United Nations to question U.S. over spying allegations

"The United Nations will approach the US government over a report by a German magazine that US intelligence spied on video conferences by top UN officials, a spokesman said Monday. 'We are aware of the reports, and we intend to be in touch with the relevant authorities on this,' a UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, told reporters, adding that this meant the US administration. Haq told reporters the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations has become 'well established international law, therefore member states are expected to act accordingly to protect the inviolability of diplomatic missions.'" Continue reading

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Tony Blair supports intervention against Assad regime in Syria

"Tony Blair has called on the west to stop 'wringing our hands' as he endorsed intervention against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and warned governments against ostracising the military dictatorship in Egypt. In his first intervention since the chemical weapons attack last week, the former prime minister said the west should not be neutral in protecting Syrians from the Assad regime and 'affiliates of al-Qaida' seeking to exploit the instability. Blair, who was humiliated by Assad during a trip to Damascus after the 9/11 attacks, when the Syrian president likened Palestinian suicide bombers to the Free French, said it was time to intervene against the regime." Continue reading

Continue ReadingTony Blair supports intervention against Assad regime in Syria

Obama moves towards sending military weapons to Somalia

[April 2013] "President Barack Obama took the first step Monday toward providing US military assistance to Somali forces battling Islamist militants, after the easing of a UN arms embargo last month. Obama signed a determination stating that having the legal capacity to offer defense equipment to Somalia was in the national interest of the United States and could promote peace and stability in East Africa. The move allows the US Secretary of State to consider the provision of arms to Somalia but does not signal a decision to provide specific assistance. Since 2007, the United States has provided $133 million in security sector assistance to Somalia." Continue reading

Continue ReadingObama moves towards sending military weapons to Somalia

Paul Craig Roberts: Another Western War Crime In The Making

"The UK Independent reports that over this past week-end Obama, Cameron, and Hollande agreed to launch cruise missile attacks against the Syrian government within two weeks despite the lack of any authorization from the UN and despite the absence of any evidence in behalf of Washington’s claim that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the Washington-backed “rebels”, largely US supported external forces, seeking to overthrow the Syrian government. Indeed, one reason for the rush to war is to prevent the UN inspection that Washington knows would disprove its claim and possibly implicate Washington in the false flag attack by the 'rebels.'" Continue reading

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: Another Western War Crime In The Making

John Kerry: Syria guilty of ‘a moral obscenity’

"Speaking amid reports that Washington and its allies are preparing to launch a punitive cruise missile strike on Syrian targets, US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Bashar al-Assad’s regime of engaging in a cover-up. Kerry said Washington would provide more evidence of who was behind the attack, and that US President Barack Obama was determined that the guilty would face consequences. With China and Moscow expected to boycott any resolution backing a military strike, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the West could act even without full UN Security Council backing." Continue reading

Continue ReadingJohn Kerry: Syria guilty of ‘a moral obscenity’

NSA broke encryption on UN communications: report

"The move provided the agency with 'a dramatic improvement of data from video teleconferences and the ability to decrypt this data traffic.' The NSA, on one occasion, also allegedly caught the Chinese secret services eavesdropping on the UN in 2011, it added, quoting an internal report. Der Spiegel also claims that the US agency kept tabs on the European Union after it moved into new offices in New York in September 2012. Earlier reports in Der Spiegel and Britain’s the Guardian newspaper had detailed alleged widespread covert surveillance by the NSA of EU offices, including diplomatic missions in Washington and at the United Nations in New York, as well as Brussels." Continue reading

Continue ReadingNSA broke encryption on UN communications: report

UK’s secret Mid-East internet surveillance base is revealed in Edward Snowden leaks

"Britain runs a secret internet-monitoring station in the Middle East to intercept and process vast quantities of emails, telephone calls and web traffic on behalf of Western intelligence agencies, The Independent has learnt. The station is able to tap into and extract data from the underwater fibre-optic cables passing through the region. The information is then processed for intelligence and passed to GCHQ in Cheltenham and shared with the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States. The Government claims the station is a key element in the West’s 'war on terror' and provides a vital 'early warning' system for potential attacks around the world." Continue reading

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Mike Gogulski: We Need Freedom of Speech in our Financial Commerce

"Financial privacy has almost completely disappeared, except for the very wealthiest. Cash transactions larger than $10,000, €5,000, €2,500,€1,500, €1,000 and now even €500 are being or have been outlawed in some places. And on and on. The suppression of financial speech is being used as a weapon of war against the people of this planet just as surely as drone strikes, pervasive surveillance and land mines are and have been. The time has come to begin separating money and currency from state, irrevocably and irretrievably. Free people and a free world deserve currencies that they control directly." Continue reading

Continue ReadingMike Gogulski: We Need Freedom of Speech in our Financial Commerce

Obama in crossfire as battle for control of the Fed heats up

"At stake is the chairmanship of an organization whose global influence has grown ever larger in recent years. The impact of the Fed’s policies can be seen everywhere. On top of its global role, the Fed has beefed up its activities as regulator in the US. Whoever gets the job will be taking over a position more powerful than the one Bernanke inherited when he was appointed in 2006. Obama said recently that the appointment 'is definitely one of the most important economic decisions I will make in the remainder of my presidency. The Federal Reserve chairman is not just one of the most important economic policymakers in America. He or she is one of the most important policymakers in the world.'" Continue reading

Continue ReadingObama in crossfire as battle for control of the Fed heats up