The New York Times – by David M. Herszenhorn

MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister dismissed as unconvincing the evidence presented by Secretary of State John Kerry of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government, saying on Monday that the United States had fallen far short of making a case for international cooperation on military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.     Continue reading “Russia Rejects U.S. Evidence on Syrian Chemical Attack”

Vladimir Putin 1/9/13The Guardian

Russia is sending a reconnaissance ship to the eastern Mediterranean as the US prepares for a possible military strike in Syria, it was reported on Monday.

The Priazovye left Russia’s naval base in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol late on Sunday on a mission “to gather current information in the area of the escalating conflict”, said an unidentified military source quoted by the Interfax news agency. The defence ministry declined to comment.   Continue reading “Russia sends spy ship as US prepares for possible Syria strike”

New York Times – by DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

MOSCOW — Countries often issue travel advisories warning citizens of danger abroad: war, for instance, or a terrorist threat or an outbreak of disease. The Russian Foreign Ministry posted advice of a somewhat different nature on Monday, cautioning people wanted by the United States not to visit nations that have an extradition treaty with it.

“Warning for Russian citizens traveling internationally,” the Foreign Ministry bulletin said. “Recently, detentions of Russian citizens in various countries, at the request of American law enforcement, have become more frequent — with the goal of extradition and legal prosecution in the United States.”   Continue reading “Russia Issues Travel Warning to Its Citizens About United States and Extradition”

Russia's President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Russian Parliament speakers at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Sept. 2, 2013. Voice of America

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he supports the idea of sending a delegation from the country’s parliament to Washington to urge members of the U.S. Congress not to support military intervention in Syria.

Valentina Matviyenko, who chairs the Federation Council, the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, outlined the proposal to send a parliamentary delegation to the U.S. on Monday during a meeting with Putin. The meeting also was attended by Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of the State Duma, the lower parliamentary house.   Continue reading “Russia Wants to Talk to US Congress About Syria”

Calling It TreasonMilitia News – by Jeffrey T. Brown

We stand on the brink of an illegal exercise of military power in a part of the world we have no need to be in, except that we have a president who purposefully keeps us there by suppressing our own development of energy resources and embroiling us in their internecine warfare. We could have walked away from the Middle East already and left them to their own savagery, but the president insists that we remain inextricably tied to their historical need to kill each other so that we can overpay for oil, both monetarily and with American lives. Thus, as technology enables us to break free of dependence upon Middle East oil, our president bends over backwards to ensure that never happens. What sort of leader purposefully compels his country and its people to participate in practices and policies that are detrimental to their safety and survival?   Continue reading “Calling It Treason”

Freedom Outpost – by John Risselada

Sometimes it can be difficult to put thought to paper, especially when you know your piece is going to be posted alongside some of the same authors that inspired you in the first place. What makes it easy in these moments is the fact that there is absolutely nothing occurring in our country that makes any sense. We just keep drifting further and further into the liberal abyss. Of course, people must come to realize that is the very purpose driving the efforts of those hiding behind the word liberalism. Continue reading “Beware the Alinsky Method: Discrediting America for the Purpose of Installing Communist Change Read”

All Gov – by Ken Broder

The Southern California city of Rialto (population: 99,000) has become the poster child of police videotaping after being cited by a federal judge in his decision (pdf) two weeks ago striking down New York City’s stop-and-frisk law as an unconstitutional use of racial profiling.

U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin quoted a New York Times story attesting to the usefulness of body-worn cameras by police during an experimental period that began in February 2012 and ended last month.    Continue reading “Tiny Headcams Lead to Drop in Police Use of Force and Public Complaints”

Common Dreams – by Jon Queally

In the latest revelation made possible by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, theWashington Post on Thursday published an investigative analysis and interactive map of America’s so-called “Black Budget” which details the $52.6 billion allotment of taxpayer money that funds the government’s “intelligence-gathering colossus” that has previously remained insulated from the eyes of the American public.   Continue reading “‘Black Budget’ Revealed: A Detailed Look at US ‘Espionage Empire’”

Breitbart – by MATTHEW BOYLE

SPARTANBURG — South Carolina Tea Party groups have drafted a resolution containing a 29-point case to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) with a Senator who is more conservative, Breitbart News has learned.

Local Tea Party leaders provided the document, a resolution that can be passed by local and state GOP committees, to Breitbart News. It argues that Graham’s activities in the U.S. Senate are a violation of the principles of the South Carolina Republican Party platform. Graham is up for reelection next year.    Continue reading “South Carolina Tea Partiers Draft Resolution to Replace Lindsey Graham”

Corp Watch – by Pratap Chatterjee

Glimmerglass, a northern California company that sells optical fiber technology, offers government agencies a software product called “CyberSweep” to intercept signals on undersea cables. The company says their technology can analyze Gmail and Yahoo! Mail as well as social media like Facebook and Twitter to discover “actionable intelligence.”

Could this be the technology that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is using to tap global communications? The company says it counts several intelligence agencies among its customers but refuses to divulge details. One thing is certain – it is not the only company to offer such capabilities – so if such data mining is not already taking place, that day is not far off.   Continue reading “Glimmerglass Intercepts Undersea Cable Traffic for Spy Agencies”

Aletho News

“The objectives should be … to ensure that Assad’s chemical weapons no longer threaten … our allies in the region”

The names of the “experts” seeking a “decisive response” against Syria:   Continue reading “America’s Israel Lobby Demands “Direct Military Strikes” Against Syria”

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, right, reacts as he arrives at the French Prime Minister in Paris, Monday Sept. 2, 2013. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will meet with the leaders of Parliament's defense and foreign affairs committees. The prime minister's office said Ayrault will give the lawmakers an update on Syria and show them a declassified report on Syria's chemical weapons to back up France's claim that the Assad regime was responsible for the attack. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)Yahoo News – AP

PARIS (AP) — A French intelligence report on Monday alleged that the Syrian regime launched an attack on Aug. 21 that involved a “massive use of chemical agents” and could carry out similar strikes in the future.

The government, on its Web site, published a 9-page intelligence synopsis about Syria’s chemical weapons program that found that at least 281 deaths could be attributed to the attack in rebel-held areas outside Damascus. The analysis based that count in part on dozens of videos culled by French intelligence services.   Continue reading “French intel: Syrian regime led chemical attack”

Obama, in a surprising, or maybe not so surprising development, has backed away from his absolutism in his posing as a dictator, saying he will now seek congressional approval for the proposed illegal attack on Syria.  Of course the mainstream propagandists are putting forth the notion that the reason Obama backed off was because of a few “good guys” in the US House and Senate and concern for his legacy.

Obama backed off because the American people once again got right up in his face and let him know that we, as the only true power in this sovereign country, do not give him the authority to act unilaterally as the dictator he would like to be.    Continue reading “Does Obama Fear for his Legacy or his Neck?”

Zero Hedge -by Tyler Durden

Following President Obama’s decision to pass the blame buck to Congress (and its oh-so-great track record of making decisions), the Syrian Electronic Army has struck again. This time right at the heart of the matter – defacing the “Marines.com” website. As The Independent reports, the US Marines received a message calling for support from their “brothers, the Syrian army soldiers” – in the form of a web attack changing the homepage of the official Marines recruitment site to a page entitled ““Hacked by SEA.” The message also stated,“Obama is a traitor who wants to put your lives in danger to rescue al-Qaida insurgents,” which seems to fit with many of their perspectives as we have noted previously. Full text and screenshot below…   Continue reading “Syrian Electronic Army Hacks “Marines.com”; Calls Them “Brothers” In Arms”

A Free Syrian Army fighter runs for cover during clashes with forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad beside the Canadian Hospital in Aleppo, August 31, 2013. REUTERS/Molhem BarakatReuters – by Oliver Holmes

Syria has asked the United Nations to prevent “any aggression” against Syria following a call over the weekend by U.S. President Barack Obama for punitive strikes against the Syrian military for last month’s chemical weapons attack.

Washington says more than 1,400 people, many of them children, were killed in the world’s worst use of chemical arms since Iraq’s Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in 1988.   Continue reading “Syria asks the United Nations to stop U.S. strike”

TransCanada wins Texas court battle over Keystone XL pipelineLauren Krugel, Canadian Press I will continue to proudly stand up for my own personal rights, the property rights of my family, and those of other Texans fighting to protect their landCALGARY — A Texas judge has ruled against a landowner who wants to prevent TransCanada Corp. from building an oil pipeline across her land.Julia Trigg Crawford was trying to challenge TransCanada’s status as a common carrier — a label that would give the Calgary-based pipeline company the right to eminent domain, enabling it to seize private property for the project.In a decision late Wednesday, Lamar County Court-at-law judge Bill Harris ruled that TransCanada is a common carrier.In a statement, Crawford vowed to keep fighting.“I will continue to proudly stand up for my own personal rights, the property rights of my family, and those of other Texans fighting to protect their land,” she said.The company welcomed the ruling.RelatedTransCanada gets permit for Keystone pipeline’s southern leg as profit fallsWarren Buffett backs Keystone XL pipeline“This ruling reaffirms that TransCanada has — and continues — to follow all state and federal laws and regulations as we move forward with the construction of the Gulf Coast Project,” company spokesman James Millar said in an email.Jane Kleeb of the group Bold Nebraska, which has been fighting TransCanada’s pipeline plans, calls the ruling an “affront to landowners’ liberties.”“TransCanada has used its financial and legal resources to bully landowners like Julia Trigg Crawford in order to clear the way for their multibillion-dollar tar sands pipeline,” Kleeb said in a release.“Throughout the process, landowners have been cast aside and their concerns about land and water ignored.”The US$2.3-billion pipeline between Oklahoma and refineries on the Texas Coast had been part of TransCanada’s Keystone XL proposal to ship Alberta oilsands crude to the Gulf Coast.But the company decided earlier this year to break that project into two parts after the Obama administration rejected it in its entirety — not based on the merits of the pipeline itself, but because Republican manoeuvring to speed up the process would not have allowed sufficient time to address ecological concerns in Nebraska.TransCanada aims to have the Gulf Coast Project, which does not need a federal permit to proceed as it doesn’t cross an international border, up and running by mid- to late-2013. It has all the approvals it needs from the Army Corps of Engineers.Meanwhile, it has submitted a new application for permit to build the northern portion of the pipeline, which would run from the Canada-U.S. border in Montana to Nebraska. TransCanada expects that segment to be in service in late 2014 or early 2015.The OGM – by Lauren Krugel, Canadian Press

CALGARY — A Texas judge has ruled against a landowner who wants to prevent TransCanada Corp. from building an oil pipeline across her land.

Julia Trigg Crawford was trying to challenge TransCanada’s status as a common carrier — a label that would give the Calgary-based pipeline company the right to eminent domain, enabling it to seize private property for the project.   Continue reading “TransCanada wins Texas court battle over Keystone XL pipeline”

TransCanada worker welds section of Keystone XL pipeline near Winnsboro.Texas Observer – Priscila Mosqueda

On a Wednesday in late June, Evan Vokes packed his only pair of shorts in a suitcase and boarded a plane to Dallas, happy to trade the chill of Calgary, Canada, for a Texas summer. Over the next four days, he’d travel by car and a low-flying Cessna from Paris south to Beaumont, following the route of the Keystone XL pipeline, slated to bring oil from the Canadian tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of arcane pipeline regulations, Vokes came to check out claims from landowners that his former employer—Canadian company TransCanada—was botching the job on the pipeline.   Continue reading “Whistleblower, Landowners: TransCanada is Botching the Job on Keystone XL Pipeline”