From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Relishing an opportunity to turn the tables on the U.S., Russia says the Senate’s investigation into the CIA torture practices has highlighted rampant rights abuse.
The Foreign Ministry’s rights envoy, Konstantin Dolgov, said in Thursday’s statement that the evidence contained in the report “contradict the U.S. aspirations to serve as a model of democracy.” Continue reading “Russia Criticizes US Over CIA Torture Report”
The Big Story Torture Everyone Is Missing
While the torture report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee is very important, it doesn’t address the big scoop regarding torture.
Instead, it is the Senate Armed Services Committee’s report that dropped the big bombshell regarding the U.S. torture program. Continue reading “The Media Is Focusing On the WRONG Senate Torture Report”
CIA agents who tortured inmates can be prosecuted anywhere in the world, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, Ben Emmerson, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
“They are considered as war crimes, they are crimes of international jurisdiction,” he said.
“Any country in the world can prosecute CIA agents involved in this activity, and Italy already has prosecuted, convicted 22 CIA agents, including the Milan station chief, and sentenced them to significant periods in prison in absentia.” Continue reading “UN official: CIA agents could be prosecuted”
CLEVELAND (Reuters) – The death of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy fatally shot by police in November has been formally ruled a homicide, according to a Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report released on Friday that found he was struck once in the abdomen.
Tamir Rice, who was black, was shot on Nov. 22 by police responding to a call of a suspect waving a handgun around in a Cleveland park. The weapon turned out to be a replica that typically fires plastic pellets. He died the next day. Continue reading “Cleveland boy’s death in police shooting declared homicide”
London airspace has been closed until 19:00 GMT after a computer failure, air traffic controllers have said.
The news was announced in a brief message on flight safety body Eurocontrol’s website.
UK air traffic controllers Nats confirmed a “technical problem” at its Swanwick control centre in Hampshire. Continue reading “London airspace closed after computer failure”
After a full day spent lying on her back on a muddy wooden plank, chipping with painstaking care at the underside of a stone block to free the time capsule hidden within, Museum of Fine Arts conservator Pam Hatchfield sat up in front of the State House to a round of applause, a green box held delicately in her hands.
“I feel happy and relieved. And excited. And really interested to see what’s in this box,” she said Thursday night, after posing for a selfie with the capsule for her mom. The extrication took more than seven hours and involved about a dozen workers. Continue reading “State House time capsule from 1795 unearthed”
ABC News – JEFF ZELENY and ARLETTE SAENZ
Just hours before a midnight deadline approached, the House of Representatives voted to approve a $1.1 trillion spending package to keep the federal government open — sending the measure over to the Senate for final passage.
The House voted 219-206 to approve the measure with 57 Democrats joining 162 Republicans to pass the package.
At the conclusion of the House vote, House Speaker John Boehner, said “My job tonight is to say thank you and Merry Christmas.” Continue reading “House Approves $1.1T Bill to Avoid Government Shutdown, Sends Bill to Senate”
In a major blow to privacy rights, the Supreme Court of Canada has decreed that police are allowed to conduct limited searches of suspects’ cellphones upon arrest, without obtaining a search warrant, though officers must follow strict guidelines.
In a 4-3 ruling on Wednesday the Court ruled that the seizure of information from the unlocked phone of armed robbery suspect, Kevin Fearon, in 2009 was constitutional and that evidence gathered from the search is admissible in court, setting a historic precedent for cellphone privacy, reports the Toronto Star. Continue reading “Top Canada court rules cops don’t need warrants to search cell phones”
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Steve Watson: An amendment to a Senate bill in Illinois has been overwhelmingly passed to ensure that recording police officers and government officials is now a felony.
The Amendment to Senate Bill 1342 was stealthily introduced on the back of an unrelated piece of legislation last week. It essentially reestablishes a completely unconstitutional eavesdropping law that was previously overturned by The Supreme Court in March for being too draconian. Continue reading “Filming Cops In Illinois Will Now Land You A Class 3 Felony”
Charlotte Observer – by Adrian Sainz
COURTLAND, Miss. Jessica Chambers was a regular at the rural convenience store gas station where Ali Fadhel worked, and the two often chatted. On Saturday, she came by in a dark-colored sweater and pajama pants that looked like sweatpants. She bought $14 worth of gas, more than the $5 or so she usually purchased, he said.
“I asked her, ‘Why are you putting so much gas?’ She said, ‘I’m going somewhere,'” Fadhel said.
An hour and a half later, she was found along a back road, severe burns all over her body. Someone had set her on fire, and she was able to briefly talk to firefighters before she died of thermal injuries. Continue reading “Officials: No arrests yet in case of burned woman”
Truthstream Media – by Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton
In 1975, as the United States of America approached 200 years as a nation, the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia issued a bold declaration of the attempt to build a “new world order,” penned by Henry Steele Commager.
We call upon the American people, on the threshold of the third century of their national existence, it reads in part, urging the importance of state borders to fade as power to global structures grows. Continue reading “New World Order: ‘Declaration of Interdependence’ Issued in 1975”
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ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – Albuquerque police officers say the man who caused a huge scare near Manzano Mesa Elementary and EMCOR last week turned himself in just a couple of hours ago at Kaseman Hospital in northeast Albuquerque. Police had Andrew Godsey in custody over the weekend but he bonded out before they could issue a warrant on new charges related to the gun scare. Continue reading “Suspect in big airsoft scare surrenders to police”
After a review of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s full report, the Justice Department is not expected to initiate any criminal charges against any CIA officers who participated in or authorized the Retention, Detention and Interrogation (RDI) program.
This means the Justice Department is standing by its earlier decision not to pursue criminal charges. Its investigators also reviewed the Committee’s full report and did not find any new information that they had not previously considered in reaching their determination. Continue reading “DOJ not expected to initiate charges against CIA officers over torture report”
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ETF Daily News Staff: The headlines were promising this week. Some 320,000 jobs have been added to the mix and the November figures for unemployment proclaim to be holding steady at the relatively respectable rate of 5.8%. Since most Americans are guilty of only scanning the headlines before going about their day, the news of more jobs and no new spikes in the unemployment figures may have made them feel relieved, or maybe even hopeful that the sun was breaking through the clouds and America had finally dodged an economic bullet. Continue reading “News From Washington: The Economy Is Improving And Other Lies They Hope You Believe”
The CIA’s rendition, interrogation, and detention programs were even more nightmarish than you could imagine.
Interrogations that lasted for days on end. Detainees forced to stand on broken legs, or go 180 hours in a row without sleep. A prison so cold, one suspect essentially froze to death. The Senate Intelligence Committee is finally releasing its review of the CIA’s detention and interrogation programs. And it is brutal. Continue reading “The Most Gruesome Moments in the CIA ‘Torture Report’”
HARTFORD, Conn. — The parents of 10 children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have filed or soon will file notices in probate court that they plan to make wrongful death claims on their children’s behalf.
Filing the forms that open estates in the children’s names, with their parents as the administrators, is a necessary legal step before a lawsuit can be filed.
Eight estates that were opened Monday are in the names of Benjamin Wheeler, Jessica Rekos, Jack Pinto, Grace McDonnell, Charlotte Bacon, Daniel Barden, Ana Marquez-Greene and Arielle Richman, according to probate court records. Continue reading “Parents of 10 children killed at Sandy Hook filing notices for wrongful death claims”
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