Richard ZuleyThe Guardian – by Spencer Ackerman

A Chicago detective who led one of the most shocking acts of torture ever conducted at Guantánamo Bay was responsible for implementing a disturbingly similar, years-long regime of brutality to elicit murder confessions from Americans.

In a dark foreshadowing of the United States’ post-9/11 descent into torture, a Guardian investigation can reveal that Richard Zuley, a detective on Chicago’s north side from 1977 to 2007, repeatedly engaged in methods of interrogation resulting in at least one wrongful conviction and subsequent cases more recently thrown into doubt following allegations of abuse.   Continue reading “Guantánamo torturer led brutal Chicago regime of shackling and confession”

208458New Eastern Outlook – by Jim Dean

Support by United States rulers is rather in the nature of the support that the rope gives to a hanged man… Nikita Khrushchev

No I am not hyping the title to get reads. The Ukrainian worker’s wage rate has fallen below that of Tajikistan and the true body count was finally revealed. While the West crows about hurting the Russian economy and the ruble, the West’s post-coup puppet government is destroying Ukraine’s economy solely to enforce its violent take over.   Continue reading “The Western Holocausting of Ukraine”

Potential Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush Press TV

Potential Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush says the United States should increase military spending if it wants peace.

“Having a military that is equal to any threat … makes it less likely that we will need to put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way,” Bush will say in a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, according to excerpts issued to reporters late Tuesday night.   Continue reading “Jeb Bush calls for more military spending to encourage peace”

Malcolm Harris took this photo over Alamo.8 News Now – by George Knapp and Matt Adams

LAS VEGAS — Strange things in the sky are an everyday occurrence in Nevada. Right now, our skies are buzzing with aircraft flying in Red Flag exercises, and who knows what’s being tested up at Area 51.

But the object that recently appeared over a nearby town has people scratching their heads, wondering, what the heck was that?

The person who photographed the object contacted the I-Team.   Continue reading “I-Team: Chemtrails open skies up to debate”

Fox News – by Nick Kalman

Congressional Republicans are unveiling what they say is a new plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, but the ‘blueprint,’ as they call it, looks an awful lot like what’s been floated before.

The Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment – or CARE – Act was crafted by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.   Continue reading “Republicans unveil new ObamaCare replacement plan”

web1_cliven_bundy_nye_county.jpgLas Vegas Review-Journal – by Henry Brean

The Bureau of Land Management is giving the public an extra month to review its sweeping new resource management plan for Southern Nevada, but that isn’t likely to satisfy those with concerns about the document and the agency behind it.

Clark County officials initially suggested the public comment period should be extended for a year, while some commissioners in Nye County seem to want nothing at all to do with the plan — or the BLM.   Continue reading “BLM extends comment period for controversial management plan”

Cliven Lance Bundy/Previous arrest photo8 News Now

LAS VEGAS (AP) — An adult son of southern Nevada rancher and states’ rights advocate Cliven Bundy has been sentenced to state prison for violating probation on two felony convictions dating to 2013.

Cliven Lance Bundy blamed missed court dates and a failure after almost two years to complete a one-year court-run drug diversion program on an addiction to pain medications and heroin.   Continue reading “Cliven Bundy’s son gets prison for 2013 felony convictions”

13-year-old Baltimore girl left bloody after being hit with a school officer's baton [WBAL-TV]Raw Story – by ARTURO GARCIA

A 13-year-old Baltimore girl needed 10 stitches in her head after a police officer hit her with a baton in an altercation caught on video, WBAL-TV reported.

The video, released today, shows the encounter between the officer and the girl, identified as Diamond. A photograph taken after the incident last October shows a bandage on Diamond’s head and bloodstains on her Vanguard Middle School shirt. Two of her relatives, who also attend Vanguard, were also involved. The name of the officer involved in the incident has not been released.    Continue reading “Baltimore girl left bleeding after officer attacks her with a baton”

Jackson and ClayUS History

The SECOND BANK OF THE UNITED STATES was chartered in 1816 for a term of 20 years. The time limitation reflected the concerns of many in Congress about the concentration of financial power in a private corporation. The Bank of the United States was a depository for federal funds and paid national debts, but it was answerable only to its directors and stockholders and not to the electorate.

The supporters of a central bank were those involved in industrial and commercial ventures. They wanted a strong currency and central control of the economy. The opponents, principally agrarians, were distrustful of the federal government. The critical question — with whom would President Jackson side?   Continue reading “The Age of Jackson – The War Against the Bank”

CIA-Hollywood21st Century Wire – by Jay Dyer

One of the more fanciful, or thought to be fanciful, topics I’ve been covering for a good while now is the subject of the relationship of the CIA to Hollywood. 

Recent blockbusters like Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper focus on the military and intelligence agencies in supposed “based on true events” scenarios, but is more at work here?  The film industry has always loved tales of espionage, but in reality, the creation and manufacturing of a completely alternate reality and history is far more extensive than most would assume.   Continue reading “Hollywood and The CIA: A Dark Marriage Revealed”

Alter-Net – by Todd Miller, Gabriel Schivone

It was October 2012. Roei Elkabetz, a brigadier general for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), was explaining his country’s border policing strategies. In his PowerPoint presentation, a photo of the enclosure wall that isolates the Gaza Strip from Israel clicked onscreen. “We have learned lots from Gaza,” he told the audience. “It’s a great laboratory.”

Elkabetz was speaking at a border technology conference and fair surrounded by a dazzling display of technology — the components of his boundary-building lab. There were surveillance balloons with high-powered cameras floating over a desert-camouflaged armored vehicle made by Lockheed Martin. There were seismic sensor systems used to detect the movement of people and other wonders of the modern border-policing world. Around Elkabetz, you could see vivid examples of where the future of such policing was heading, as imagined not by a dystopian science fiction writer but by some of the top corporate techno-innovators on the planet.   Continue reading “How Israeli High-Tech Firms Are Turning the U.S.-Mexico Border into a New Kind of Hell”

Reuters / Dado RuvicRT

Google says that, with some 300 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube each minute, it is impossible to block all terrorist-related material from the platform.

Google public policy manager Verity Harding said that “to pre-screen those videos before they are uploaded would be like screening a phone call before it’s made,” AP reported.

She also said that “there are community groups and others who do this on a larger scale and they’re incredibly helpful to us.”   Continue reading “Bulk of YouTube videos so huge, it is hard to filter out all terror-related content – Google”

Times of Israel

Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer defended on Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech before the US Congress on March 3, just two weeks before Israeli national elections, saying it was the prime minister’s “sacred duty” to present his stance on Iran — a stance sharply at odds with the Obama administration.

Speaking at an Israel Bonds event in Florida, Dermer charged that the nuclear agreement being discussed between the P5+1 and Tehran “could endanger the very existence of the State of Israel,” by leaving Iran as a “nuclear threshold state.”   Continue reading “Israel’s US envoy: PM’s planned Congress speech ‘a sacred duty’”

Zero Hedge 

Amid the devastation of yesterday’s Mariupol artillery strikes which killed or wounded dozens, which was promptly blamed by both sides on the “adversary” – and has been proclaimed by both ‘sides’ (more on that later) as more violent than before the truce – an ‘odd’ clip has emerged that appears to provide all the ‘proof’ a US intelligence officer would need to surmise that US military boots are on the ground in Ukraine. As the following clip shows, a Ukrainian journalist approaches what she thinks is a Ukrainian soldier (since he is wearing a Ukrainian military uniform and is carrying an AK) and asked him as they run through the battlezone, “tell me, what happened here?” His response, which requires no translation, speaks for itself.   Continue reading ““Out Of My Face Please” – Why Are US Soldiers In Mariupol?”