From the Trenches World Report

Unredacted – by Lauren Harper

Senator Feinstein’s quest to declassify her committee’s report on the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program has increased attention on the agency’s illegal –and decades-old– interrogation techniques. Now, newly-declassified portions of the CIA’s infamous 1963 KUBARK manual, a comprehensive guide for teaching interrogators how to effectively create “a world of fear, terror, anxiety, [and] dread,” helps to further contextualize the agency’s long-standing interrogation practices.

The fear of Communist expansion into the Western Hemisphere after Fidel Castro’s 1959 victory in the Cuban Revolution was the geo-political background for the 1963 KUBARK manual. Castro’s victory not only encouraged the 1964 U.S.-supported overthrow of democratically elected Brazilian President Joao Goulart; it also encouraged the CIA to spread KUBARK across the continent to help prop up pro-U.S. governments. After the Brazilian coup, right-wing military leaders across Latin America began seizing control from democratically elected governments with US encouragement, School of the Americas degrees, and a copy of the KUBARK manual.   Continue reading “The CIA’s Declassified Torture Handbook: How to Create a “World of Fear, Terror, Anxiety, Dread.””

Gun Owners of America

The founders did not establish a right to bear arms,” GOA’s Erich Pratt was quoted as saying to Newsmax.  “They assumed it already existed [and] said that it ‘shall not be infringed.’ [But] gun-control advocates frequently want to skip over those words.”

Gun Owners of America joined a chorus of pro-gun organizations in slamming idiotic comments made recently by former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.   Continue reading “GOA Slams Bloomberg and Justice Stevens for their Idiotic Ideas on the 2nd Amendment”

Bearing Arms – by Bob Owens

A Milford man appears to be the first person charged after failing to comply with Connecticut’s law requiring the registration of certain firearms and standard capacity magazines:

A 65-year-old man faces an array of charges after he allegedly shot a squirrel in his yard Monday morning.   Continue reading “FIRST ARREST? Connecticut Man Faces Charges For Unregistered “Assault Rifle,” Standard Capacity Magazines”

RT News

Jimmy Carter has become first former US president to speak out against the controversial Keystone XL project, which would see tar sands oil flow from Canada to the US.

Carter joined a group of nine other Nobel Prize winners who signed a letter to President Obama, urging him not to endorse the plan.   Continue reading “Jimmy Carter among Nobel Prize winners urging Keystone rejection”

RT News

Protesting Walmart’s tax privileges as it pays its workers notoriously low wages, the store’s employees and others have delivered a $7.8 billion “tax bill” to the Arizona home of the retail giant’s chairman, Rob Walton.

A report released this week showed Walmart is the beneficiary of $7.8 billion a year in tax breaks and subsidies from the US tax system. Employees of the retail giant and others used the opportunity to remind Walmart heir Walton how many of the company’s workers are forced to depend on social programs to get by, while Walmart reaps billions in profits.   Continue reading “Walmart employees deliver chairman $7.8 bn ‘tax bill’ for company’s tax breaks”

RT News

“Searching for an apartment in New York City can be challenging,” the prestigious New York University acknowledges on its website’s “Off Campus Living” page. On the contrary, the son of the school’s president apparently didn’t have any problem.

According to the New York Post, that cautionary understatement on the official NYU site hardly applied to Jed Sexton — a Harvard-educated aspiring actor who in 2002 miraculously happened upon a newly renovated duplex embedded right between NYU’s facilities in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.   Continue reading “NYU president turned faculty apartments into a duplex for his son”

RT News

The United States Navy announced that it will postpone the commissioning of its new nuclear-powered submarine, the North Dakota, due to an investigation into the quality of the components developed by the weapons contractor.

Additionally, the Navy stated that further design work would be necessary before the submarine could be commissioned. The Virginia-class North Dakota was scheduled to enter active service in May, but no new date has been set.   Continue reading “Navy delays commissioning of new nuclear submarine, opens investigation”

CenturyLink – by John Rogers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former city official who became a symbol of municipal greed was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison — less than half the time it will take the nearly bankrupt Los Angeles suburb of Bell to dig itself out of the estimated $150 million in debt he left behind.

A judge also ordered former Bell city manager Robert Rizzo to make $8.8 million in restitution, but prosecutors say that only covers the money he illegally took for himself.   Continue reading “Ex-official leaves huge debt for California city”

Newsmax – by Todd Beamon

The campaign to effectively end the Electoral College’s role in presidential elections has received an additional boost from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo signed the National Popular Vote Compact on Tuesday, under which the state would award its 29 electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote.   Continue reading “NY Gov. Cuomo Signs Law to Rig Electoral College”

Canada Free Press – by Gary Hunt

Late yesterday early evening, I received a message and link to on on-line article about the events at the Bundy’s Ranch.  I was asked if the article was accurate.  The article is at National Report and is titled “Multiple Militia Members Arrested at Bundy Ranch, Charged with Domestic Terrorism.”  The article, though no time stamp, appears to have been posted yesterday (April 15) at about 3:00 PM PDT.  It has no byline.   Continue reading “The Bundy Affair”

RT News

The United States Federal Reserve is usually the government office finding itself most often in the crosshairs of former Texas congressman Ron Paul, but now the longtime lawmaker is setting his sights on another agency: the Internal Revenue Service.

Paul’s relentless efforts to abolish the Fed have without a doubt been a hallmark of the 78-year-old libertarian’s career in Congress, but recent attempts from the IRS to compel a nonprofit organization run by the former presidential hopeful for details about its contributors has pushed him to pursue yet another fight with the federal government.   Continue reading “Ron Paul’s nonprofit refuses to disclose list of donors to the IRS”

RT News

Scientists are stumped as they try to determine exactly why the state of Idaho has been hit with hundreds of low- and medium-level earthquakes since late March.

The most powerful quake struck central Idaho on Saturday, April 12, when a 4.9 magnitude tremor shook walls and knocked objects off the tables. That quake was the strongest to hit the state since 2005, and was followed by another 4.4 magnitude quake on Monday – felt nearly 100 miles away by residents in Montana.   Continue reading “Central Idaho rocked by hundreds of earthquakes”

IB Times – by Angelo Young