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CNN manufactures ‘news’ in Syria
Awhile back, CNN was caught with its pants down. CNN’s “on the scene source Danny” in Syria was caught staging events. CNN’s source and camera operator can be seen ordering gunfire and explosions in an area that is otherwise quiet. They are also heard discussing the script, which is clearly false. The Syrian government has stated that Western media is propaganda. There is certainly violence by both sides in the Syrian conflict, but this shows the class nature of the media.
This isn’t new. During the first Gulf War, similar cases of staged events were uncovered:
“Charles Jaco was the CNN reporter famous for covering the 1990 Persian Gulf War.
The first part of this video shows the stage set he was on, and he was clowning around with fellow CNN staff. The Saudi Arabian “hotel” in the background were fake palm trees and a blue wall in a studio. This clip was leaked by CNN staff.
The second part of this video was a live CNN satellite feed recorded onto VHS showing the final cut. Charles Jaco was wearing a different jacket, but he had the same act. The acting was terrible as Charles Jaco wore a gas mask, and his fellow correspondent Carl Rochelle wore a helmet. The sirens and missile sound effects are part of the stage set. The camera never pans out or shows the sky.”
Other media has also created fake videos:
SOMALIA: CIA transfers drone strikes to military
SOMALIA: CIA transfers drone strikes to military
(source: hrw.org)
(New York, NY) – Remarks by a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official suggesting the agency is not legally bound by the laws of war underscore the urgent need for the Obama administration to transfer command of all aerial drone strikes to the armed forces, Human Rights Watch said today.
The CIA’s general counsel, Stephen Preston, in a speech entitled “CIA and the Rule of Law” at Harvard Law School on April 10, 2012, said the agency would implement its authority to use force “in a mannerconsistent with the … basic principles” of the laws of war. The laws of war are not mere principles but legally binding restrictions on all forces of the parties to an armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said.
“When the CIA general counsel says that the agency need only act in ‘a manner consistent’ with the ‘principles’ of international law, he is saying the laws of war aren’t really law at all,” said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. “The Obama administration should make it clear that there’s no ‘CIA exception’ for its international legal obligations.”
Preston’s statement coincides with a report in the Washington Post that the CIA is seeking authority to expand its drone campaign in Yemen. In the decade since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Bush and Obama administrations have engaged in a campaign of “targeted killings” – deliberate, lethal attacks aimed at specific individuals under the color of law. Most of these attacks are reported to have occurred in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, armed with missiles and laser-guided bombs.
The CIA is playing an increasing role in drone attacks with no transparency or demonstrated accountability, Human Rights Watch said. Pending transfer of command for drone strikes to the military, the Obama administration should ensure and publicly affirm that the CIA is bound by international law in conducting its drone operations.
While the laws of war do not prohibit intelligence agencies from participating in combat operations, states are obligated to investigate credible allegations of war crimes and provide redress for victims of unlawful attacks. The US government’s refusal to acknowledge the CIA’s international legal obligations or provide information on strikes where there have been credible allegations of laws-of-war violations leaves little basis for determining whether the US is meeting its international legal obligations, Human Rights Watch said.
The lawfulness of a targeted killing hinges in part on the applicable international law, which is determined by the context in which the attack takes place. The laws of war permit attacks during situations of armed conflict only against valid military targets. Attacks causing disproportionate loss of civilian life or property are prohibited.
In situations outside of armed conflict, the use of lethal force is addressed by international human rights law, which permits the use of lethal force only when necessary to save human life. In these law-enforcement situations, individuals cannot be targeted with lethal force merely because of past unlawful behavior, but only for imminent or other grave threats to life when arrest is not reasonably possible.
The US government has downplayed the applicability of international human rights law to drone attacks in situations in which there is no evident armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said.
“The Obama administration seems to have decided that wherever it conducts a targeted killing, it is by definition engaged in armed conflict, even far from any obvious battlefield,” Ross said. “What would the US say if Russia or China took the same approach to attack perceived enemies in the streets of New York or Washington?”
Bahrain petrol bomb inferno: Video of violent clashes after protester
The people of Bahrain are rising against the US-backed and Gulf Arab-backed monarchy there. There is almost no media coverage in the West about the brutal crimes by the dictatorship there because the US supports Bahrain. On the other hand, in Syria, the US and Gulf Arabs are financing a civil war in order to plunge the country into chaos in order to pave the way for an attack on Iran.
UK annihilates records of colonial crimes
UK annihilates records of colonial crimes
(Source: PressTV)
Thousands of documents detailing some of the most shameful acts and crimes committed during the final years of the British empire were systematically destroyed to prevent them falling into the hands of post-independence governments, an official review has concluded.
Those papers that survived the purge were flown discreetly to Britain where they were hidden for 50 years in a secret Foreign Office archive, beyond the reach of historians and members of the public, and in breach of legal obligations for them to be transferred into the public domain.
The archive came to light last year when a group of Kenyans detained and allegedly tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion won the right to sue the British government.
The Foreign Office promised to release the 8,800 files from 37 former colonies held at the highly-secure government communications centre at Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire.
The historian appointed to oversee the review and transfer, Tony Badger, master of Clare College, Cambridge, says the discovery of the archive put the Foreign Office in an “embarrassing, scandalous” position.
“These documents should have been in the public archives in the 1980s,” he said. “It’s long overdue.”
The papers at Hanslope Park include monthly intelligence reports on the “elimination” of the colonial authority’s enemies in 1950s Malaya; records showing ministers in London were aware of the torture and murder of Mau Mau insurgents in Kenya, including a case of aman said to have been “roasted alive”; and papers detailing the lengths to which the UK went to forcibly remove islanders from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
MOL/JR/HE
Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/237227.html
LA Police kill unarmed, fleeing teen with 90 rounds
LA Police kill unarmed, fleeing teen with 90 rounds
(SOURCE:PRESSTV)
A Los Angeles teen was killed by a hail of police gunfire on Wednesday night after eight officers fired 90 rounds in total as he appeared to point an object at them, according to The Associated Press.
Police confronted 19-year-old Abdul Arian following a car chase that was caught on video, during which he allegedly called 911 and warned that he had a weapon and would hurt officers if they pointed firearms at him. After he was gunned down, officers discovered that he was unarmed.
Arian also allegedly published a number of disturbing messages on his Facebook page, and “checked in” via global position systems to the highway where the police chase began, writing simply, “Home sweet home.” The pursuit began shortly thereafter when he refused to pull over after officers noticed him driving erratically.
“He wanted to be an LAPD cop, and the LAPD killed him,” the teen’s uncle, Hamed Arian, told The Los Angeles Times, adding that he believes the item in his hands was a cell phone.
“He was not depressed or anything, whatsoever,” he also told Los Angeles news station KTLA.
Chinese state quashes leftist websites
Chinese state quashes leftist websites
(new-power.org)
China abandoned its revolutionary principles in the 1970s. China has long since reverted back to capitalism. Recently, the Chinese state has attacked several leftist and Maoist websites in order to quash political dissent. There has been a growing revival of revolutionary ideas in China. This is yet more evidence that China has long since turned capitalist. Leading Lights support a model of socialism that preserves the right to dissent under most, ordinary circumstances:
“The Web sites Maoflag.net, Jinbushe.org (or “Progress Society”) and wyzxsx.com, the Internet home of Utopia, a neo-Maoist group, were among those closed to Internet users in China. All three have been outspoken in their support of the popular and charismatic former Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, who was fired March 15. They were also cheerleaders for Bo’s “Chongqing model” of development, which emphasized a strong state-centered economy and social welfare policies to address income inequality.
The crackdown was the latest step in an ongoing tightening of Internet controls since Bo’s dismissal, as top Party officials seek to contain the public fallout from China’s most serious political crisis in decades. Web search terms have been blocked and other sites shut down, and some of Bo’s past associates have been removed from their posts and placed under investigation.
On Friday, the Maoflag and Utopia Web sites initially carried an identical message saying they had been shut down for a month by the State Council Information Office and the Public Security Bureau for “posting articles and information that are anti-constitution, maliciously attacking national officials, and spreading rumors about 18th Party Congress.” That message was later taken down, replaced by a note saying they were having technical problems.
The 18th Congress, set for this fall, is due to select a new party secretary and president — now slated to be the current vice president, Xi Jinping — and seven of nine new members on the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, which effectively runs the country.
Another leftist site, redchinacn.com, was also closed late Friday, and comments were disabled on the nationalist news site m4.cn, originally known as the “anti-CNN” Web site. In a telephone interview, Rao Jin, the founder of m4.cn, said the site’s bulletin board was being revised to include more lifestyle and entertainment features. He acknowledged, “We do face very big pressure now,” but added, “It’s not convenient to tell you the details.”
On the opposite side of the political spectrum, the Chinese-language Web site of China Elections and Governance, which is run by the Carter Center and advocates political reform, also was inaccessible Friday. A notice said the site was experiencing technical problems.
“The party doesn’t want too much noise before the 18th Party Congress,” said Chen Yongmiao, an independent political observer in Beijing. “The rightists want political reform. The leftists want social welfare” and a more equitable distribution of wealth. “The party just wants the two sides to be quiet and stop talking about politics.”
Until his ignominious firing last month, Bo — the son of revolutionary hero Bo Yibo — was widely considered to be in line for one of the nine Standing Committee positions. His removal has not been officially explained, leaving an information vacuum that is being filled with Internet-fueled rumors, including unsubstantiated claims that he is under investigation for corruption or that his popular following unnerved a leadership that favors faceless, collective decision-making.”
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-shuts-leftist-web-sites-as-political-strife-continues/2012/04/06/gIQAnJLUzS_story.html
Confirmed: CIA secret prison in Poland
Confirmed: CIA secret prison in Poland
Another CIA-run interrogation ‘black site’ has been exposed after the confessions of top-ranking Polish officials blew the lid on the dirtiest secret in Eastern Europe.
The former head of Poland’s intelligence service secret Zbigniew Siemiatkowski has been charged with taking part in establishing a secret prison for the CIA in a remote part of the country. Allegedly, foreign prisoners in the detention center were tortured in connection with America’s global war on terror.
Siemiatkowski refused to comment on the matter, citing the country’s secrecy laws. However, he did not deny the report.
Rumors about Poland hosting a CIA-run prison had circulated for years, though the country’s authorities dismissed them as absurd. However, the UN and the Council of Europe had long claimed they had evidence of the site’s existence.
Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and former Prime Minister Leszek Miller both repeatedly denied the knowledge of the prison.
The official investigation into a CIA-run prison in Poland started in 2008, a year after Donald Tusk took office. It took three years for evidence of the site to come to light.
Allegedly, a secret interrogation facility for terror suspects was operating in Stare Kiejkuty, a small village in remote Poland, from December 2002 to the fall of 2003, “depriving prisoners of war of their freedom” and “allowing corporal punishment.”
Earlier, two prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, claimed they were prisoners at this ‘black site.’ Polish prosecutors have already given the two “victim status”.
Among other possible detainees are self-proclaimed 9/11 terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, perpetrator of the 2000 USS Cole bombing Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, and Palestinian terror suspect Abu Zubaydah.
According to the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, up to eight prisoners underwent “extraordinary rendition” to be tortured in Poland.
The harsh interrogation techniques used by the American spooks included waterboarding, starvation, cooling of the body, visual and acoustic deprivation for extended periods of time, slamming prisoners against walls, and mock execution, among many other methods.
Naturally, torture is not allowed in any European country, Poland included. If it is proven that Poland did in fact allow torture to take place at a CIA facility in their country, the matter could be taken before the European Court of Human Rights. The prosecution of Polish and American agents would also remain a distinct possibility.
“We can think about Polish intelligence officers who most probably somehow collaborated with the CIA in establishing this site. We can think about the CIA officers, because if they made it [tortures] in the territory of Poland – it is a crime,” human rights lawyer and head of the legal division at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Dr Adam Bodnar told RT.
“But as you most probably know, the US authorities would not give any data regarding them and would not allow them to be extradited,” he concluded.
Never ever again in Poland?
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk fully supports the high-profile case against the former senior official.
Tusk charged that Poland has become a “political victim” of US officials.
“This may be painful, but concrete evidence that Poland is no longer a country where politicians can fix something under the table and expect it not to [eventually] come out — even if they do so with the world’s greatest superpower,” Tusk stated.
In fact, the Polish PM was left no other choice but to recognize the existence of the CIA prison in his country. Tusk charged that Poland has become the “political victim” of US officials leaking some aspects of their bilateral relations.
“Poland is a democracy where national and international law must be observed,” Poland’s PM stated, demanding an investigation into the matter. “Let there be no doubt about it either in Poland or on the other side of the ocean,” he said harshly.
“Poland will no longer be a country where politicians, even if they are working arm-in-arm with the world’s greatest superpower, could make some deal somewhere under the table and then it would never see daylight,” he said in reference to the ongoing investigation which is meant to ensure that nothing like this will happen in Poland again.
The US never disclosed the whereabouts of the so-called “black sites,” but human rights groups named Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Thailand as the most likely hosts.
Lithuania was the first country in Europe to admit it had allowed the CIA to establish two secret detention facilities in 2002-2006.
In November 2011, Lithuania faced a lawsuit for hosting a secret CIA prison on its soil when Abu Zubaydah, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, claimed he was detained and tortured there.
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