From the Trenches World Report

A Public Defender

If you see something, say something. Edward Snowden did and now apparently the country’s atwitter about whether Big Brother is so in the Orwellian sense or in the run of the mill older brother who knows better and looks out for you so the other kids don’t pick on you sense.

Many of you – a full 37% according to one survey – are quite okay with Uncle Sam having a complete record of your lives. Some of you even go beyond that; so far as to say that you’d be okay with giving your Government your DNA.   Continue reading “J’Accuse, or: why you really shouldn’t trust the government”

The Guardian – by Glenn Greenwald

I haven’t been able to write this week here because I’ve been participating in the debate over the fallout from last week’s NSA stories, and because we are very busy working on and writing the next series of stories that will begin appearing very shortly. I did, though, want to note a few points, and particularly highlight what Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez said after Congress on Wednesday was given a classified briefing by NSA officials on the agency’s previously secret surveillance activities:   Continue reading “On PRISM, partisanship and propaganda”

The New American – by Bob Adelmann

Breitbart – by Kerry Picket

The Obama administration is considering resettling thousands of refugees who left Syria during the country’s ongoing civil war to multiple towns and cities across the United States, the L.A. Times reports.

A resettlement plan under discussion in Washington and other capitals is aimed at relieving pressure on Middle Eastern countries straining to support 1.6 million refugees, as well as assisting hard-hit Syrian families.   Continue reading “Obama Admin Considers Resettling Thousands of Syrian Refugees in U.S.”

The only way to find out their schedule is to sign up on their site. 😉

The Progressive Pulse

From the good folks at Mayors Against illegal Guns:   Continue reading “Propaganda Alert: “No more names” campaign launched to commemorate six-month anniversary of Sandy Hook”

RT News

Russia is not convinced by the evidence which the US provided alleging that the government of Syria’s President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against rebel forces.

“The Americans tried to present us with information on the use of chemical weapons by the regime, but frankly we thought that it was not convincing,” said presidential aide Yury Ushakov on Friday.    Continue reading “Moscow unconvinced by US evidence of Syrian chemical weapons use”

RT News

After over 40 years of secrecy, the real cause of death of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, has been made public. Prominent Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov reveals the truth behind the events of that tragic day.

For over 20 years Aleksey Leonov, the first man to conduct a spacewalk in 1965, has been struggling to gain permission to disclose details of what happened to the legendary Yuri Gagarin in March 1968.     Continue reading “Death of Yuri Gagarin demystified 40 years on”

RT News

Brooklyn prosecutors are examining 50 homicide convictions involving a retired police detective who may have intimidated suspects into confessing to crimes they never committed – with words he chose.

Louis Scarcella was a celebrated member of the Brooklyn North Homicide squad through the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, when he gained a reputation for his unusual ability to draw out confessions. He investigated about 175 murders alone and helped with almost 200 more, but questions have been raised on whether Scarcella coerced, or even entirely fabricated, the admissions of guilt.    Continue reading “Dozens of convictions in question as NYPD detective said to have falsified murder confessions”

Reuters – by Parisa Hafezi and Matt Spetalnick

The United States is considering imposing a no-fly zone in Syria, its first direct military intervention of the two-year-old civil war, Western diplomats said on Friday, after the White House saidSyria had crossed a “red line” by using nerve gas.

After months of equivocating, President Barack Obama’s administration said on Thursday it would now arm rebels, having obtained proof the Syrian government used chemical weapons against fighters trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.   Continue reading “U.S. considering no-fly zone after Syria crosses nerve gas “red line””

Washington Post – by Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura

Update: The White House has cancelled the safari for this trip.

When President Obama makes his first extended trip to sub-Saharan Africa this month, the federal agencies charged with keeping him safe won’t be taking any chances.

Continue reading “Document: Major resources needed for Obama Africa trip”

Silver Doctors

Former Department of Justice prosecutor Larry Klayman has filed a $3 billion class-action lawsuit in US District Court for the District of Columbia against President Obama, Eric Holder, Director of the NSA Keith Alexander, the CEO of Verizon, the NSA, Verizon Communications, the Department of Justice, and the judge of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Robert Vinson who rubber-stamped the illegal NSA spying program for violating Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, Plaintiffs’ reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, and due process rights. Continue reading “Former DOJ Prosecutor Files $3 Billion Suit against Obama, Holder, NSA, Verizon over Prismgate”

Nunez Report

MOSCOW, June 12 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian parliamentary committee approved for review a new controversial anti-piracy law dubbed “the Russian SOPA” by critics after a similar US bill.

The bill will undergo on Friday the first of three required readings in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, and may be passed by mid-July, lawmaker Robert Shlegel said Tuesday, Vedomosti daily reported Tuesday.  Continue reading “Russia to Fast-Track New Online Censorship Bill”

Sun Sentinel – by Paula McMahon

One South Florida man accused in a series of bank robbery attempts is hoping the recent revelation that the federal government is secretly keeping millions of U.S. phone records could help his defense.

Terrance Brown, 40, is one of five men on trial in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on charges they conspired to hold up armored trucks making cash deliveries to banks in Miramar and Lighthouse Point in 2010. They have all pleaded not guilty.   Continue reading “Bank robbery suspect wants NSA phone records for his defense”

Steve Quayle Alerts

China can and will “disconnect” from the US economy–from a letter to a high-level friend, July 18, 2006 :

Many have stated that China is too dependent upon trade with the United States to do anything drastic to “upset the apple cart”. But those who state/believe that don’t know the Chinese (or they do and are purposefully misleading others).   Continue reading “How’s this for someone who got it about China 7 years ago -Thank You Loren”

Natural News – by Jonathan Benson

The recent passage of Amendment 64 in Colorado, which legalizes the cultivation and recreational use of marijuana throughout the state, is having a major impact on the state’s agricultural sector. But the biggest potential for economic growth may actually come from marijuana’s non-psychoactive cousin hemp, which is right now being planted on U.S. soil for the first time in 60 years, thanks to the initiative’s passage.   Continue reading “Industrial hemp returns to America: Colorado to plant first new major crop on US soil in 60 years”