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]
Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
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.
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.
-- 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."
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.
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, WikiLeaksbegan 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 Ruddsaid ''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 assaultagainst 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.
"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.
"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."
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.
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.
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Here's an example of a Saudi Arabia flogging, from DailyMail:
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976
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
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).
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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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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".
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.
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.
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.
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.