From the Trenches World Report

France24

The French parliament on Wednesday adopted a tough new anti-terrorism bill that gives authorities vastly expanded powers to search homes, restrict movement and close places of worship.

The bill, which was passed by the Senate after modifications to address concerns about civil liberties, makes permanent some of the exceptional measures contained in the state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 Paris attacks.   Continue reading “French parliament adopts controversial anti-terror bill”

Daily Mail

A fascinating collection of photos have resurfaced showing the hardships faced by German-Americans at the brutal height of the First World War.

As Europe was ravaged by fighting, German immigrants in the US suffered harassment, internment, lynchings – and even the humiliation of being tarred and feathered.

Although a little-remembered part of history today, America was wracked by the fear and paranoia that swept from coast to coast during the Great War.   Continue reading “Tragic plight of Germans in America during First World War”

Consortium News – by Robert Parry

Declassified records from the Reagan presidential library show how the U.S. government enlisted civilian agencies in psychological operations designed to exploit information as a way to manipulate the behavior of targeted foreign audiences and, at least indirectly, American citizens.

A just-declassified sign-in sheet for a meeting of an inter-agency “psyops” committee on Oct. 24, 1986, shows representatives from the Agency for International Development (USAID), the State Department, and the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) joining officials from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Department.   Continue reading “The Legacy of Reagan’s Civilian ‘Psyops’”

Yahoo News

It’s hard to believe that four decades have passed since one of rock’s best-known tragedies occurred. On Oct. 20, 1977, a chartered Convair CV-240 plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd — in the midst of a headlining tour and having released their fifth album, Street Survivors, three days prior — crashed in a Gillsburg, Miss., swamp after running out of fuel.

The toll was dire. Three band members (Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines, Steve’s older sister) perished; the others were all severely injured. Drummer Artimus Pyle, one of the few survivors able to walk, staggered out for help and was allegedly shot at by an alarmed farmer. Record label MCA scrambled to replace Skynyrd’s Street Survivors album cover, which eerily forecast the accident by depicting the band members engulfed in flames.   Continue reading “The legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd, 40 years after plane crash tragedy”

Daily Mail

Mandalay Bay shooting hero Jesus Campos was pressured into giving his only interview to Ellen DeGeneres because the giant company that owns the Las Vegas casino feared he would spill the beans about the shooting timeline if he was grilled by real journalists, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively.

MGM is worried that families of the 58 people murdered as well as many of the 546 injured  in the Mandalay Bay massacre will launch lawsuits potentially worth billions of dollars against the company, sources tell DailyMail.com.   Continue reading “Mandalay Bay owner insisted security guard Jesus Campos appear ONLY on Ellen and not be grilled by TV hardhitters fearing his answers to timeline questions could result in massive lawsuits from victims of the massacre”

The Electric Intifada – by Ali Abunimah

A city in Texas is requiring residents to verify that they do not boycott Israel in order to receive aid to rebuild from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.

Civil liberties defenders are calling the measure a violation of the US Constitution.

The Electronic Intifada has found that several major cities in Texas are also requiring similar verification from people who want to do business with them.   Continue reading “No hurricane aid if you boycott Israel, says Texas city”

Jon Rappaport

PBS Frontline (2/23/2016): “The opioid epidemic has been called the worst drug crisis in American history…with overdoses from heroin and other opioids now killing more than 27,000 people a year…” (Note: prescription opioids are now a very significant gateway-drug leading addicts into heroin.)

CBS News (8/1/2017): “Nearly 92 million U.S. adults, or about 38 percent of the population, took a legitimately prescribed opioid like OxyContin or Percocet in 2015, according to results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.”   Continue reading “Insider reveals how the opioid crime network operates”

Reason – by C.J. Ciaramella

A news report from Alabama offers two textbook cases of how sweeping powers of civil asset forfeiture allow police to seize people’s property with near impunity.

Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can take property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even if the owner is not charged with a crime. Law enforcement and prosecutors say the practice is a vital tool to disrupt drug trafficking and other organized crime by targeting ill-gotten gains. But in state after state, horror stories have emerged of regular people having their possessions expropriated and their lives turned upside down.  Continue reading “Alabama Police Use Asset Forfeiture to Ruin an Innocent Small Business Owner”