TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  
Showing posts with label Death Penalty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death Penalty. Show all posts

January 07, 2016

Article - 'The Haiti Cables – WikiLeaks – part 2' | Sealed US Grand Jury Indictment & Australian PM Gillard, FM Rudd & Stratfor

WIKILEAKS
HAITI CABLES

The Stringer

The Haiti Cables – WikiLeaks – part 2

by Gerry Georgatos
  
January 5th, 2016

The moral force of WikiLeaks is the bent for the truth and that truth is in the interest of the common good. According to both Plato and Aristotle the common good can only be delivered and sustained as a result of truth. Not since Socrates challenged Athenians has anyone driven as passionately for the truth as has Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder drove an unprecedented contemporaneous calling to challenge the citadels of the powerful that forever degenerate to oppressor and oppressed dichotomies. WikiLeaks gave not only voice to the powerless but also to the sense of hope. In taking on the powerful, WikiLeaks took on the rulers of the world and the influence and control they have over institutions throughout our world.

The majority would say that no-one can defeat corruption, that corruption is an immutable constant, that exploitation is an immutable constant. Many would say there are millions of injustices each day under the sun on this earth, so why bother my brother? But there are some who think contrary, that the pursuit of truth should be met fearlessly. That truth does matter. WikiLeaks took on the rulers of the world – they who in effect control the fate of the world.
[ ... CONTINUES ... ]

The presumptions of innocence and of whistleblowing in the public interest were hijacked by the then Prime Minister’s statement that WikiLeaks had acted ‘illegally’. Gillard and her government portrayed WikiLeaks as if a criminally bent organisation. The American administration was depicting WikiLeaks as a terrorist organisation. What led a highly skilled lawyer such as Gillard to abrogate the presumption of innocence, to dismiss the right of WikiLeaks as whistleblowers, as investigative journalists, as acting in the public interest? Prime Minister Gillard fell into line with the contrived rage from the American government and its clandestine institutions – a nation of which a majority of its conservatives and excessive self interest groups were calling for the smashing of WikiLeaks and for Assange’s blood. Psychosocially this was displaced anger – it was about guilt and being exposed. Censorship protects the guilty. This type of anger and the subsequent malice and vindictiveness have been a tragic constant in the human narrative; where moral forces shine the light on the immoral or amoral and are then punished for doing so.

President Barack Obama’s administration has prosecuted and jailed more whistleblowers than any previous American administration.

The David and Goliath like tussle between the oppressed and the oppressor continues.
Haiti is one of the world’s poorest nations. It is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. More than 80 per cent of Haiti’s predominately rural population lives in poverty. During the past decade the poverty has degraded further, becoming more extreme and dire. The life expectancy of a Haitian is 57 years of age. Less than half the Haitian population is literate and only one child in five attends secondary schooling. Less than 25 per cent of the population have access to safe water. The Haitian population continues to grow at about 200,000 per year.

In November 2010, WikiLeaks released 1,918 documents from 2003 to 2010 – ending six weeks after the January 12, 2010 earthquake which further devastated Haitian life. The documents were among the most disturbing I have read of the files published by WikiLeaks, in how America was controlling Haitian policy-making but to the detriment of the Haitian people.

It is not news that America meddles, bullies, wars with nations who do not abide. But it is darkly disturbing to read these documents and to see one of the world’s powerless nations downtrodden further by the world’s most powerful superpower. The Haitian cables wreak an air of hopelessness. One cannot not be moved by the Haiti cables.
[ ... CONTINUES ... ]

SOURCE
http://thestringer.com.au/the-haiti-cables-wikileaks-part-2-11479

*Apologies to The Stringer ... I keep adding just 'one more paragraph', and I've included a bit more text in this extract than I first intended.


26 January 2011

Stratfor 
Private US Intelligence Contractor
confirms via e-mail that they have sealed indictment on Assange.

WikiLeaks | GI Files

ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3157403.htm?show=transcript

Monday 14 March, 2011

Julia Gillard Meets The People


EXTRACT - TRANSCRIPT
TONY JONES: Okay. You're watching Q&A. Remember you can send web or video questions to our website. The address is on the screen to find out how to do that. Well, the next question is a video question and it comes from Julian Assange, who is under house arrest in England.

JULIAN ASSANGE: Prime Minister, you just got back from Washington but what Australian citizens want to know is which country do you represent? Do you represent Australians and will you fight for Australian interests because it's not the first time that you or a member of your cabinet has been into a US government building and exchanged information. In fact, we have intelligence that your government has been exchanging information with foreign powers about Australian citizens working for Wikileaks. So Prime Minister, my question to you is this: when will you come clean about precisely what information you have supplied the foreign powers about Australian citizens working or affiliated with Wikileaks and if you cannot give a full and frank answer to that question, should perhaps the Australian people consider charging you with treason?

TONY JONES: Take the treason part first, if you like.

[ ... CONTINUED ... ]


TONY JONES: What about espionage which, of course, is the charge the United States would like to lay at the feet of Julian Assange?

JULIA GILLARD: Well, Mr Assange hasn't been charged with anything relating to Wikileaks. He's got some legal issues relating to personal conduct questions - alleged personal conduct questions in Sweden - and no one in the United States raised with me Mr Assange. No one.
[ ... CONTINUED ... ]
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3157403.htm?show=transcript


Definitions

Indictment

-- formal accusation of felony
-- issued by grand jury
-- based on proposed charge, witness testimony & other
-- presented by public prosecutor (District Attorney)
-- grand jury vote that there is enough 'evidence'
-- of 'probability' that a 'crime' was committed
-- & that accused should be tried
-- District Attorneys do not present full case

Grand Juries
-- used in federal charges
-- due to Fifth Amendment to US Constitution
-- capital crime (or otherwise
infamous crime) presentation to Grand Jury required
-- states use 'preliminary hearing' in place of grand jury

Sealed Indictment
 
-- indictment (formal accusation)
-- sealed so it stays non-public until unsealed

Federal court ruling re sealed indictments example:
"The magistrate judge to whom an indictment is returned may direct that the indictment be kept secret until the defendant is in custody or has been released pending trial. The clerk must then seal the indictment, and no person may disclose the indictment’s existence except as necessary to issue or execute a warrant or summons."

---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

CAPITAL CRIME

Death sentence punishment, known as 'capital punishment'.

"US federal government lists 41 capital offenses which are punishable by death."

8.     18 U.S.C. 794     Espionage

http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=4942

http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004927


---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

Anyone else wonder why the then Prime Minister of Australia was not informed by her American counterparts (and strategic, defence and trade allies), that an American Grand Jury had issued a sealed indictment for the head of Australian journalist-publisher, Julian Assange, about 6 weeks prior to the Prime Minister's appearance on national Australian television? 
Likewise, in the case of Australian Foreign Minister Rudd (aka deposed-by-Gillard former Labor Prime Minister) ... over a year down the track.
Yes, I realise it is a 'sealed' indictment, but if US private intelligence contractor, Stratfor, knew about the issue of a sealed indictment against Assange in January of 2011 (as per their leaked communications), the US government knew also, of course.

SMH
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/revealed-us-plans-to-charge-assange-20120228-1u14o.html


Revealed: US plans to charge Assange

Date   |  February 29, 2012

Philip Dorling



UNITED STATES prosecutors have drawn up secret charges against the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, according to a confidential email obtained from the private US intelligence company Stratfor.

In an internal email to Stratfor analysts on January 26 last year, the vice-president of intelligence, Fred Burton, responded to a media report concerning US investigations targeting WikiLeaks with the comment: ''We have a sealed indictment on Assange.''

He underlined the sensitivity of the information - apparently obtained from a US government source - with warnings to ''Pls [please] protect'' and ''Not for pub[lication]''.

Mr Burton is well known as an expert on security and counterterrorism with close ties to the US intelligence and law enforcement agencies. He is the former deputy chief of the counter-terrorism division of the US State Department's diplomatic security service.

Stratfor, whose headquarters are in Austin, Texas, provides intelligence and analysis to corporate and government subscribers.

On Monday, WikiLeaks began releasing more than 5 million Stratfor emails which it said showed ''how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients''.

The Herald has secured access to the emails through an investigative partnership with WikiLeaks.

The news that US prosecutors drew up a secret indictment against Mr Assange more than 12 months ago comes as the Australian awaits a British Supreme Court decision on his appeal against extradition to Sweden to be questioned in relation to sexual assault allegations.

Mr Assange, who has not been charged with any offence in Sweden, fears extradition to Stockholm will open the way for his extradition to the US on possible espionage or conspiracy charges in retaliation for WikiLeaks's publication of thousands of leaked US classified military and diplomatic reports.

[ ... ]

The Australian embassy in Washington reported in December 2010 that the Justice Department was pursuing an ''active and vigorous inquiry into whether Julian Assange can be charged under US law, most likely the 1917 Espionage Act''.

In recent answers to written parliamentary questions from the Greens senator Scott Ludlam, the former foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd indicated Australia had sought confirmation that a secret grand jury inquiry directed against Mr Assange was under way.

Mr Rudd said ''no formal advice'' had been received from US authorities but acknowledged the existence of a ''temporary surrender'' mechanism that could allow Mr Assange to be extradited from Sweden to the US. He added that Swedish officials had said Mr Assange's case would be afforded ''due process''.

The US government has repeatedly declined to confirm or deny any reported details of the WikiLeaks inquiry, beyond the fact that an investigation is being pursued.

The Stratfor emails show that the WikiLeaks publication of hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables triggered intense discussion within the ''global intelligence'' company.

In the emails, an Australian Stratfor ''senior watch officer'', Chris Farnham, advocated revoking Mr Assange's Australian citizenship, adding: ''I don't care about the other leaks but the ones he has made that potentially damage Australian interests upset me. If I thought I could switch this dickhead off without getting done I don't think I'd have too much of a problem.''

But Mr Farnham also referred to a conversation with a close family friend who he said knew one of the Swedish women who had made allegations of sexual assault against Mr Assange, and added: ''There is absolutely nothing behind it other than prosecutors that are looking to make a name for themselves.''

While some Stratfor analysts decried what they saw as Mr Assange's ''clear anti-Americanism'', others welcomed the leaks and debated WikiLeaks's longer-term impact on secret diplomacy and intelligence.

Stratfor's director of analysis, Reva Bhalla, observed: ''WikiLeaks itself may struggle to survive but the idea that's put out there, that anyone with the bandwidth and servers to support such a system can act as a prime outlet of leaks. [People] are obsessed with this kind of stuff. The idea behind it won't die.''

Stratfor says it will not comment on the emails obtained by WikiLeaks. The US embassy has also declined to comment.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/revealed-us-plans-to-charge-assange-20120228-1u14o.html
 



Stratfor
US Private Intel Contractor

Assange (Video)

DIY TRANSCRIPT
[for quotation purposes, confirm audio]

Julian Assange
circa:  28 February 2012

"Together with 25 other media partners from around the world, we have been investigating the activities of this company for some months, and what we have discovered is a company that is a private intelligence Enron.

On the surface, it presents as if it's a media organisation, providing a private subscription intelligence newsletter, but underneath it is running paid informants networks, laundering those payments through the Bahamas, and through Switzerland, through private credit cards.  It is monitoring Bhopal activists for Dow Chemicals.  It is monitoring PETA activists for Coca Cola.

So, it is engaged in a seedy business, and not ready to be content with merely monitoring activist for big corporations or providing private intelligence to the US military.

It has now started its own internal strategic private investment fund, where it is using this information from insiders -- paid information from insiders -- in order to invest in what it calls a wide variety of geopolitical financial instruments, such as stocks, bonds, and currencies, and this makes News of the World look like kindergarten.

I think it is an important exposure for us.

It is part of a long continuation that we have had in exposing the activities of secret organisations.

Late last year, we worked on the spy files release, showing some 176 organisations involved in providing surveillance agreements and, in some cases, bulk surveillance agreements to monitor whole countries, and so this is a private intelligence organisation.

The activities of intelligence organisations increasingly are privatised and, once privatised, they're taken out of the realm of the Freedom of Information Act, of US military law, and so they are are often used by governments who want to conceal a particular activity.

But Statfor is simply out of control.  I mean, even as a private intelligence organisation, it has been completely hopeless in protecting the identity of its informants, or even providing accurate information.  It has engaged in internal deals with its captive financial investment firms that it is setting up.  So it really is some type of Enron, where there is not even proper corporate control within the organisation."
-- end audio --


Daily Mail UK

'Shadow CIA' buys state secrets for cash via Swiss bank accounts, claims WikiLeaks as it releases 'stolen' files

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 07:43 EST, 28 February 2012 
Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks today started to publish more than five million confidential emails from the global intelligence company Stratfor.

The emails, dated from July 2004 to late December 2011, are said to reveal the 'inner workings' of US-based firm known as the 'Shadow CIA'.

[ ... ]
WikiLeaks accused Stratfor of 'routine use of secret cash bribes to get information from insiders', and claims an email from chief executive George Friedman in August 2011 suggested his concern over its legality.

In it, he wrote: 'We are retaining a law firm to create a policy for Stratfor on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

'I don't plan to do the perp walk and I don't want anyone here doing it either.'

The group said: 'Like WikiLeaks' diplomatic cables, much of the significance of the emails will be revealed over the coming weeks, as our coalition and the public search through them and discover connections.'

It said Stratfor did secret deals with dozens of media organisations and journalists - from Reuters to the Kiev Post.

'While it is acceptable for journalists to swap information or be paid by other media organisations, because Stratfor is a private intelligence organisation that services governments and private clients these relationships are corrupt or corrupting.'

The group said it has also obtained Stratfor's list of informants and, in many cases, records of its pay-offs.


Once More:
"Assange, who has not been charged with any offence in Sweden, fears extradition to Stockholm will open the way for his extradition to the US on possible espionage or conspiracy charges in retaliation for WikiLeaks's publication of thousands of leaked US classified military and diplomatic reports."

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd - 2012
" ... acknowledged the existence of a ''temporary surrender'' mechanism that could allow Mr Assange to be extradited from Sweden to the US."
Source (as above)


Australian Journalist Prisoner of the
Current World Order
---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------


Julian Assange
Editor, WikiLeaks


BOOK:  The WikiLeaks Files (2015)
Link | here



January 25, 2015

HYPOCRISY - WESTERN ELITES, OIL & CONTROL OF MIDDLE EAST

HYPOCRISY - WESTERN ELITES, OIL
& CONTROL OF MIDDLE EAST

Britain

British Heir to Throne, Prince Charles
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976


Whitehall’s King Abdullah half-mast flag tribute criticised by MPs

Decision to mark Saudi royal’s death at parliament and Westminster Abbey called ‘extraordinary misjudgment’
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/23/king-abdullah-half-mast-flag-tribute-mps

Most fawning quotes about King Abdullah 
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/the-most-fawning-quotes-about-king-abdullah--ekPWXs_Hoe
 

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976
https://twitter.com/HansdeBoer18/status/559013408939704320/photo/1

 

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976


Australia


Tweet containing photo of a lashed female back (as per topmost of the UK trio directly above, reportedly of a lashed rape victim in Saudi Arabia).  

Tweet expressed disapproval that the Australian flag had been lowered:


That tweet appears to have been blocked: 

Tweet https://twitter.com/Ms_Mosman/status/558837274050183168/photo/1pic.twitter.com/QHuqfW2zxQ 
re #SaudiArabia flogging & Aussie flag half mast 
appears BLOCKED by @twitter 
#TonyAbbott complain? #auspol
 ..............................
Australian rationale for flag lowering:


Liberals following British protocol 
http://www.smh.com.au/national/flags-at-halfmast-to-mark-death-of-saudi-arabias-king-abdullah-20150124-12xg8o.html
 ..............................
Checked internet to find out more about that flogged woman photo:

Saudi Arabia: Moroccan Woman Flagellated Over Prostitution Charges

Rabat -A Moroccan woman has been sentenced to flogging and imprisonment after she has allegedly been caught by Saudi Arabian police while offering sex services for money.

http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2014/08/137434/saudi-arabia-moroccan-woman-flagellated-over-prostitution-charges/
From the Moroccan newspaper article, that photo on Twitter  isn't what it purports to be, which is very annoying (and which probably explains why the tweet/post may have been blocked or deleted).

However, the flogging and imprisonment of individuals who offer sexual services isn't exactly a humane act and religious (or moral) police isn't really a democratic ideal.
 ..............................
Here's an example of a Saudi Arabia flogging, from DailyMail:

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976
Source:  Daily Mail

Blogger sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes set to be publicly flogged in Saudi Arabia for 'insulting 'Islam'

A Saudi blogger will be publicly flogged tomorrow as part of his 10-year jail term for 'ridiculing Islamic religious figures'.

Raif Badawi, who co-founded the Free Saudi Liberals website, was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 1,000 lashes and a decade in prison for insulting Islam on his online forum. 

His corporal punishment will be carried out after Friday prayers, outside the Al-Juffali mosque in Jiddah, which has earned the grisly nickname 'Chop Chop Square' as the site of executions.

 ..............................

There's also a photo of a recent public beheading of a woman in Saudi Arabia currently doing the rounds. 

The leaked video was removed from YouTube, which I think is wrong. 

Removing that type of content is taking part in whitewashing what is really taking place, and I think that's wrong & what becomes public should remain public and should be available to those that wish to witness it (however appalling the content).  

Below is an article on the subject published in Daily Mail:


Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976

Step-mother screams her innocence before being beheaded for murdering and sexually abusing six-year-old daughter in leaked footage that has outraged Saudi Arabia

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2916583/Step-mother-screams-innocence-beheaded-murdering-sexually-abusing-six-year-old-daughter-leaked-footage-outraged-Saudi-Arabia.html

To an outsider who has encountered some of these beheading photos online, it looks as if the authorities just take people out to car parks or beaches or other public places and lop their heads off with swords.

Find this really disturbing, so I haven't looked closely at the beheadings (which are quite a common occurrence).

 ..............................
 

More on beheadings in Saudi Arabia:

Saudi Arabia steps up beheadings; some see political message

Saudi Arabia beheaded 26 people in August, more than in the first seven months of the year combined. The total for the year now stands at 59, compared to 69 for all of last year, according to Human Rights Watch.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/20/us-saudi-execution-idUSKCN0I91G220141020

The figures referred to in the Reuters article (above) are figures for 2014, to publishing date:  20 October 2014.  Think the grand total for 2014 is in the high 80s. 
Yep.  Saudi Arabia "executed 87 people in 2014" (Breitbart News-17 Jan 2015)



OTHER

[via @beyndfunds]

All the garbage about #KingAbddullah being a reformer should read about what he did to his own daughters

[via @lhbroch]
The ‘jailed’ princesses of #SaudiArabia: The late King Abdullah allegedly kept four of his daughters in captivity.  
 ..............................
'They are hanging to life' - Saudi king's ex-wife speaks out
Exclusive: in her first television interview, the former wife of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia claims her four daughters have suffered years trapped in the royal compound in Jeddah.
http://www.channel4.com/news/saudi-arabia-king-abdullah-alanoud-al-fayez-daughters-jeddah
  ..............................
#FreeThe4 Protest for Imprisoned Saudi Princesses

to be Staged at Saudi Embassy in London
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/freethe4-protest-imprisoned-saudi-princesses-be-staged-saudi-embassy-london-1461520
  ..............................
King Abdullah, a feminist? Don’t make me laugh
Christine Lagarde has praised the Saudi despot’s contribution to women’s rights. But his record was dismal and the more we shout about it, the better 



Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the IMF, has paid tribute to the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He was a strong advocate of women, she said.
This is almost certainly not what she thinks. She even hedged her remarks about with qualifiers like “discreet” and “appropriate”.  [ . . . ]  Abdullah led a country that abuses women’s rights, and indeed all human rights, in a way that places it beyond normal diplomacy.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/23/king-abdullah-feminist-christine-lagarde-saudi-arabia-women
 ..............................
State Department reveals Hillary Clinton received $500K worth of jewelry from Saudi king
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was given a half-million bucks worth of diamond and ruby jewelry by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and received $58,000 worth of bling from Brunei.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/state-department-reveals-political-swag-article-1.1441301
  ..............................

Hillary Clinton
Photo:  Associated Press, Source:  DailyMail
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976

Foreign leaders gave lavish gifts to a number of U.S. officials last year, including the Saudi Arabian king, who gave Hillary Clinton diamond-and-ruby-encrusted jewels worth half a million dollars.
Clinton's gifts from King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz - which included a necklace, bracelet, earrings and a ring - were by far the most expensive items among the hundreds of gifts given to U.S. officials in 2012.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2406099/The-lavish-gifts-given-President-Obama-Hillary-Clinton-foreign-dignitaries.html

COMMENT

The West has some disturbing social issues of its own:

Death Penalty - USA

 According to a Sputnik article on the cruelty of lethal injections and US Supreme Court case on whether execution by lethal injection violates the US Constitution:
The death penalty is authorized in a total of 38 US States.
The death penalty is barbaric, whether carried out in America or in Saudi Arabia.

 ..............................

Ireland's lack of action on blasphemy law disappoints atheists and secularists

Irish atheists and secularists have accused their government of breaking a promise to call a referendum over the Republic’s controversial blasphemy laws in the lifetime of the current coalition.

For a civilised and presumably secular Western nation to retain a medieval blasphemy law is ridiculous beyond belief.

 ..............................

Last ditch bid to ban creationism in Scottish classrooms

Last year, the Scottish Secularist Society (SSS) petitioned MSPs to urge the Scottish Government to bar the "presentation" of young earth doctrines as viable alternatives to the established science of evolution in the classroom.

The SSS believes schools are being subjected to what they describe as an "attack" on established scientific theories from imported US doctrines known as creation science and intelligent design.
However, School Leaders' Scotland (SLS), which represents secondary headteachers, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country's largest teaching union, and the Scottish Government all wrote to the committee outlining their objections.

These organisations backed the long-standing principle that protection from extremist views in Scottish education relies on the professionalism of teaching staff and the regulatory role of bodies such as local authorities, the General Teaching Council for Scotland and the schools inspectorate.
However, in a new submission to the public petitions committee the SSS said sufficient safeguards were not in place and creationism was "institutionalised".
EXTRACT ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE 

 ..............................

School chaplaincy program funding revised following High Court decision 

The Federal Government has announced changes to its school chaplaincy program to get around a recent adverse High Court decision.

In June, the court upheld a challenge to the National School Chaplaincy Program, saying providing funding directly to chaplaincy organisations was constitutionally invalid.

The main question examined in the case was whether the executive government had the power to fund such programs directly through local organisations.

As a result, the Government has now decided to ask state and territory governments to administer the program using Commonwealth funds.

If they agree, the $250 million program - to run over four years - will remain open to chaplains of any faith as long as they do not attempt to convert students.

EXTRACT ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-27/chaplaincy-program-revised-after-high-court-ruling/5701390
 ..............................
And religion is to be promoted in secular Australian schools, why?
Being of the view that religion and the State (including services of the State, such as education etc) should be completely separated (and, in an ideal world, religiosity of any kind would be actively discouraged by government), the swing towards forcing religion in Western schools is disturbing.
 ..............................
Stop the Government paying for religion with your taxes! End the National Schools Chaplaincy Program now!

That the Liberal government in Australia has bypassed the High Court and the Australian Constitution to sneak in religious mumbo jumbo while cutting funding for secular services should be a real cause for concern.

This program should be opposed as direct government funding of religion bad public policy. Taxpayers' money spent in education should employ the best people available to help students, not just the religious.The preferencing of the religious, over the non-religious, for no reason other than their religiousness, is unacceptable in Government policy, particularly at a Commonwealth level. At the very least all schools should to given the choice employ non-religious counsellors or welfare workers under this program, not just those that cannot find a chaplain.

The NSCP breaches the spirit of the Australian Constitution. It undermines the separation of church and state.

EXTRACT ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE - http://www.stopthenscp.org/
 ..............................
Going through the above articles, one comes to the conclusion that Western ruling elites exhibit hypocrisy and a disregard for national symbols, which they cynically exploit without regard for public opinion or sentiment, to further corporate-imperialist and strategic aims in the Middle East, and it's a win-win for corporations and politicians in a corporate-political alliance that sees both players profiting handsomely.

Meanwhile, if left to the devices of politicians, what freedoms we have in the West will be eroded by unscrupulous politicians, passing legislation to further the agendas of whoever has propped them up in politics.

That the Liberal party in Australia has sidestepped a High Court ruling, and that it is willing to disregard the Australian Constitution by finding a by-pass that enables them to pursue the Liberal (and backer) agenda, should be of grave concern to the Australian public.

There's probably a whole lot more that could be said, but I'm not much of a thinker or a blogger. This is just my overall opinion on current events, given my particular focus.
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PS   Canada's Blasphemy Law - post.


July 24, 2014

ARIZONA EXECUTION - Joseph Rudolph Wood

AP reporter's account of Arizona execution

By ASTRID GALVAN
— Jul. 23, 2014 11:38 PM EDT

FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — Joseph Rudolph Wood looked around the death chamber and glanced at the doctors as they made preparations for his execution, locating the proper veins and inserting two lines into his arms.

[...]

Officials administered the lethal drugs at 1:52 p.m. Wood's eyes closed.

About 10 minutes later, the gasping began.

Wood's jaw dropped, his chest expanded, and he let out a gasp. The gasps repeated every five to 12 seconds. They went on and on, hundreds of times. An administrator checked on him a half-dozen times. He could be heard snoring loudly when an administrator turned on a microphone to inform the gallery that Wood was still sedated, despite the audible sounds.

As the episode dragged on, Wood's lawyers frantically drew up an emergency legal appeal, asking federal and state courts to step in and stop the execution.

"He has been gasping for more than an hour," the lawyers pleaded in their filings. "He is still alive."

The Arizona Supreme Court convened an impromptu telephone hearing with a defense lawyer and attorney for the state to decide what to do.

Wood took his last breath at 3:37 p.m. Twelve minutes later, Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles L. Ryan declared Wood dead. The state court was informed of the death while its hearing was underway.

It took one hour and 57 minutes for the execution to be completed, and Wood was gasping for more than an hour and a half of that time.

The execution quickly re-ignited the death penalty debate as critics denounced it as cruel and unusual punishment and said it raised grave questions about the two-drug combination Arizona uses for lethal injections. Wood had waged an intense, last-minute legal battle that challenged the state over key information about who supplies the drugs and how they are administered.
[...] 

... Full article ... @...
Source - AP Big Story - here.

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I don't support government execution of its citizens.

However, if you're going to have a barbaric death penalty state, how about using a bullet to the back of the head instead of watching the condemned die gasping for almost 2 hours?

I also don't see how the US can play at presenting itself as some righteous, humanitarian saviour of the world, when this is how they treat their own citizens.