2012 - Afghanistan - "Amnesty's Shilling for US-NATO Wars" - And NATO-CIA Propaganda

ꕤ Article SOURCE http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/amnestys-shilling-for-usn_b_1607361.html 2012 Article Relates to Amnesty International USA. Former USA Executive Director 2012-2013: Suzanne Nossel Suzanne Nossel: currently executive director of PEN American Centre largest of the 144 centres that form a loose federation that comprise PEN International Current USA Executive Director appointment: Steven W. Hawkins Steven W. Hawkins: American social justice leader & litigator http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/amnestys-shilling-for-usn_b_1607361.html Huffington Post - 2012 Coleen Rowley Former FBI Special Agent Amnesty's Shilling for US-NATO Wars Posted: 20/06/2012 00:50 AEST Updated: 18/08/2012 19:12 AEST By Ann Wright and Coleen Rowley The new Executive Director of Amnesty International USA -- Suzanne Nossel -- is a recent U.S. government insider. So it's a safe bet that AI's decision to seize upon a topic that dovetailed with American foreign policy interests, "women's rights in Afghanistan," at the NATO Conference last month in Chicago came directly from her. Nossel was hired by AI in January 2012. In her early career, Nossel worked for Ambassador Richard Holbrooke under the Clinton Administration at the United Nations. Most recently, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organizations at the U.S. Department of State, where she was responsible for multilateral human rights, humanitarian affairs, women's issues, public diplomacy, press and congressional relations. She also played a leading role in U.S. engagement at the U.N. Human Rights Council (where her views about the original Goldstone Report on behalf of Palestinian women did not quite rise to the same level of concerns for the women in countries that U.S.-NATO has attacked militarily). Nossel would have worked for and with Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Samantha Power and Susan Rice, and undoubtedly helped them successfully implement their "Right to Protect (R2P)" -- otherwise known as "humanitarian intervention" -- as well as the newly created "Atrocity Prevention Board." This cornerstone of President Barack Obama's foreign policy (which has served mainly to rationalize the launching of war on Libya) is now being hauled out to call for U.S.-NATO military intervention in Syria. "Smart Power" = smart wars? In fact, Nossel is herself credited as having coined the term "Smart Power," which embraces the United States' use of military power as well as other forms of "soft power," an approach which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced at her confirmation as the new basis of State Department policy. An excerpt from Nossel's 2004 paper on "Smart Power," published in the Council on Foreign Relations' Foreign Affairs magazine, sounds a lot like Samantha Power's (and also traces back to Madeleine Albright's) theories: To advance from a nuanced dissent to a compelling vision, progressive policymakers should turn to the great mainstay of twentieth-century U.S. foreign policy: liberal internationalism, which posits that a global system of stable liberal democracies would be less prone to war. Washington, the theory goes, should thus offer assertive leadership -- diplomatic, economic, and not least, military [our emphasis] -- to advance a broad array of goals: self-determination, human rights, free trade, the rule of law, economic development, and the quarantine and elimination of dictators and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Following the CIA Red Cell Perhaps the AI's hiring of a State Department shill as executive director of its U.S. affiliate was merely coincidental to how/why its "NATO Shadow Summit" so closely mimicked the CIA's latest suggested propaganda device, but.... The "CIA Red Cell," a group of analysts assigned to think "outside the box" to anticipate emerging challenges, was right to worry in March 2010 when the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) found that 80 percent of French and German citizens were opposed to continued deployment of their countries' militaries in the U.S.-NATO war in Afghanistan. Even though public apathy had, up to that point, enabled French and German politicians to "ignore their voters" and steadily increase their governments' troop contributions to Afghanistan, the CIA's newly-created think tank was concerned that a forecasted increase in NATO casualties in the upcoming "bloody summer ... could become a tipping point in converting passive opposition into active calls for immediate withdrawal." In a confidential memo, the "Red Cell" wrote: The Afghanistan mission's low public salience has allowed French and German leaders to disregard popular opposition and steadily increase their troop contributions to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Berlin and Paris currently maintain the third and fourth highest ISAF troop levels, despite the opposition of 80 percent of German and French respondents to increased ISAF deployments, according to INR polling in fall 2009. Public Apathy Enables Leaders To Ignore Voters ... Only a fraction (0.1-1.3 percent) of French and German respondents identified 'Afghanistan' as the most urgent issue facing their nation in an open-ended question, according to the same polling. These publics ranked 'stabilizing Afghanistan' as among the lowest priorities for US and European leaders, according to polls by the German Marshall Fund (GMF) over the past two years. According to INR polling in the fall of 2009, the view that the Afghanistan mission is a waste of resources and 'not our problem' was cited as the most common reason for opposing ISAF by German respondents and was the second most common reason by French respondents. But the 'not our problem' sentiment also suggests that, so for, sending troops to Afghanistan is not yet on most voters' radar. But Casualties Could Precipitate Backlash If some forecasts of a bloody summer in Afghanistan come to pass, passive French and German dislike of their troop presence could turn into active and politically potent hostility. The tone of previous debate suggests that a spike in French or German casualties or in Afghan civilian casualties could become a tipping point in converting passive opposition into active calls for immediate withdrawal. The CIA "Special Memorandum" went a step further, inviting "a CIA expert on strategic communication and analysts following public opinion" to suggest "information campaigns" that State Department polls showed likely to sway Western Europeans. The "Red Cell" memo was quickly leaked, however, furnishing a remarkable window into how U.S. government propaganda is designed to work upon NATO citizenry to maintain public support for the euphemistically titled "International Security Assistance Force" (ISAF) waging war on Afghans. Here are some of the CIA propaganda expert's suggestions: ...messaging that dramatizes the potential adverse consequences of an ISAF defeat for Afghan civilians could leverage French (and other European) guilt for abandoning them. The prospect of the Taliban rolling back hard-won progress on girls' education could provoke French indignation, become a rallying point for France 's largely secular public, and give voters a reason to support a good and necessary cause despite casualties... Outreach initiatives that create media opportunities for Afghan women to share their stories with French, German, and other European women could help to overcome pervasive skepticism among women in Western Europe toward the ISAF mission...Media events that feature testimonials by Afghan women would probably be most effective if broadcast on programs that have large and disproportionately female audiences. Amnesty International struck similar themes in announcements posted online as well as billboard advertisements on Chicago bus stops (like the one above). Telling "NATO: Keep the Progress Going!", the ads beckoned us to find out more on Sunday, May 20, 2012, the day thousands of activists marched in Chicago in protest of NATO's wars. The billboard seemed to answer a recent Huffington Post blog post, "Afghanistan: The First Feminist War?" The feminist victory may be complete in America, but on the international stage it's not doing so well with three quarters of the world's women still under often-severe male domination. Afghanistan is an extreme case in point in what might be termed the first feminist war ... a war that now may not be won even if Hillary Clinton dons a flack jacket and shoulders an M16 on the front lines. Still, since the Bush Administration to the present America 's top foreign policy office has been held by women ... women who have promised not to desert their Afghan sisters. Our curiosity was further piqued because we consider ourselves to be women's rights and human rights proponents and also due to our own prior federal careers in intelligence and military. (Colonel Wright is retired from the State Department/US military and Rowley is from the FBI.) So along with a few other anti-war activists, we packed into a taxi to head to the Chicago hotel where Amnesty International's "Shadow Summit" featuring former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other female foreign relations officials was being held. We happened to carry our "NATO bombs are not humanitarian"; "NATO Kills Girls" and anti-drone bombing posters that we had with us for the march later that day. As we arrived, an official-looking black car dropped off Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, who was to be a main speaker (on the first panel, along with former Secretary Albright; U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois; and Afifa Azim, General Director and Co-Founder, Afghan Women's Network; along with Moderator Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Deputy Director of the Council on Foreign Relations' Women and Foreign Policy Program). Verveer cast a cold glance at us and would not answer Ann Wright's questions as she scurried into the hotel with her aides surrounding her and us following behind. At first the hotel security guards tried to turn us away but we reminded the registration desk the Summit was advertised as "Free Admissions" and that some of us were members of Amnesty International. So they let us register and attend as long as we promised to leave our signs outside and not disrupt the speakers. The hotel conference room was about half full. We stayed long enough to hear the opening remarks and the moderator's first questions of Albright and the other speakers on the first panel. All generally linked the protection and participation of Afghan women in government as well as the progress made in educating Afghan women to the eventual peace and security of the country as envisioned by the new strategic "partnership" agreement that Obama had just signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Ms. Verveer said Afghan women do not want to be seen as "victims" but are now rightfully nervous about their future. When we saw that audience participation was going to be limited to questions selected from the small note cards being collected, we departed, missing the second panel as well as kite-flying for women's rights. We noted, even in that short time, however, how easy it was for these U.S. government officials to use the "good and necessary cause" of women's rights to get the audience into the palm of their collective hand -- just as the CIA's "strategic communication" expert predicted! But Why Ms. Albright? Not everyone was hoodwinked however. Even before the "Summit" was held, Amnesty realized it had a PR problem as a result of its billboard advertisement touting progress in Afghanistan. An Amnesty official tried to put forth a rather lame defense blaming an accidental poor choice of wording. But many readers (and AI members) posted critical comments and questions, including concerns about Albright's involvement given her infamous defense of Iraqi sanctions in the 1990s, which were estimated to have caused the deaths of a half million Iraqi children, with the comment "we think the price is worth it." Under the blogger's explanation: "We Get It / Human Rights Now," there were comments like these: ...Could someone from AI please explain why Madeleine Albright was invited to participate in this event? We (and especially those of us who are familiar with AI) should all be able to understand that the wording on the poster was a genuine, albeit damaging, mistake. But why Ms. Albright? The posters are pro-NATO and play into prevailing tropes about so called "humanitarian intervention" via "think of the women & children" imagery. The posters & the forum that includes Albright are neither slight slips nor without context. AI is coping heat because they have miss-stepped dramatically. There is NOTHING subtle about either the imagery nor the message! It is not a case of "oh sorry we didn't realize it it could be interpreted that way! They used pro Nato imagery & slogans ahead of & during a controversial summit that has thousands protesting in the streets. Tell me again how that is not taking sides? They asked a notorious apologist for mass murder of children to speak on the right of women and children...tell me again: how is that not taking sides. So it is absolutely reasonable for past supporters (and board members like myself) to be asking how it is that Amnesty USA so lost its bearings they could make a critical SERIES of errors like this? Of course the defensive AI blog author never answered the numerous questions asking why Amnesty had chosen Madeleine Albright as their main speaker. So we will venture an answer that probably lies in the fact that all of the powerful feminist-war hawks who have risen to become Secretary of State (or are waiting in the wings) are now taking their lead from the ruthless Grand Dame who paved the way for them, Madeleine Albright -- (see Coleen Rowley's recent blogs: "Obama's New 'Atrocity Prevention Board': Reasons for Skepticism" and "Militarization of the Mothers: You've Come a Long Way, Baby, from Mother's Day for Peace"). It's also possible the highest ranks of the feminist wing of military interventionism (i.e. Madeleine Albright, Condi Rice, Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, et al.) are so passionate and hubristic about the nobility of their goal and "Amercan exceptionalism" that some have simply succumbed to a kind of almost religious (blind faith) type fervor. The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions Nossel's and Albright's theories are flawed in many ways but suffice it to say that democracies are actually not less prone to war. A long list of "democracies" -- including Nazi Germany, the Roman Empire, the United Kingdom, France and the United States itself -- disprove this assertion. In any event, the U.S. has been terribly hypocritical in its support of "democracies" in foreign countries, often toppling or attempting to topple them (i.e. Iran's Mossadeqh, Guatemala's Arbenz, Chile's Allende) in order to gain easier control of a foreign country through an allied dictatorship. No one is going to argue that the goals of humanitarianism, preventing atrocities and furthering women's rights around the world are not "good and necessary" (in the words of the CIA strategic communications expert). We would go so far as to say these ARE truly noble causes! Testimonials about human rights' abuse are often true and fundamentalist regimes' treatment of women seems to vary only in degrees of horrible. But while it's true that many women lack rights in Afghanistan, some would argue that it's conveniently true. And that the best lies are always based on a certain amount of truth. The devil, however, lies in the details of promoting equality and accomplishing humanitarianism. Most importantly the ends, even noble ends, never justify wrongful means. In fact, when people such as Samantha Power decide to bomb the village (Libya) to save it, it will backfire on a pragmatic level. It must be realized that it is the nobility of the U.S.-NATO's motivation that -- as CIA propaganda department has advised -- should be relied upon to convince otherwise good-hearted people (especially women) to support (or at least tolerate) war and military occupation (now known to encompass the worst of war crimes, massacres of women and children, torture, cutting off body parts of those killed, as well as increasing mental illness, self-destructive behavior and suicides among U.S. soldiers and the corresponding cover-ups of all such horrible means). In the decades after Vietnam, a number of military scholars identified declining American public support for that war as the main factor responsible for the U.S. "losing" Vietnam. One lesson learned and quickly implemented was to get rid of the military draft and put the wars on a credit card so fewer citizens would pay attention. Some control also had to be gained over the type of free media (that led to trusted TV anchor Walter Cronkite broadcasting his public souring on the Vietnam War). A whole series of war propaganda systems, from planting retired generals as "talking heads" on TV to the assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld deciding to "embed the media," have worked pretty well to maintain the necessary level of war momentum in mainstream media and amongst public opinion. But now, with American polls approaching the same problematic levels as those in Europe cited by the "CIA Red Cell," we suddenly see major human rights organizations like Amnesty International (as well as others) applauding Obama's (and the feminist war-hawks') "Atrocity Prevention Board." Such sleight of hand seems to work even better amongst political partisans. By the way, it should be noted that Congress may allow these Pentagon propagandists to target American citizens through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013. Should we connect the dots? There are some clear lines where the laudable need to further human rights should not be twisted into justifying harsh economic sanctions that kill hundreds of thousands of children or, even worse, "shock and awe" aerial bombing that takes the lives of the women and children the "humanitarian" propagandists say they want to help. Madeleine Albright's response about the deaths of a half million children on 60 Minutes, that "the price was worth it," illustrates the quintessential falsity of what ethicists call "act utilitarianism" or concocting fictional happy outcomes to justify the terrible wrongful means. It also seems that a human rights NGO, in this case Amnesty International, which had gained a solid reputation and hence the trust of those it has helped through the years, will be jeopardized in aligning itself with the U.S. Secretary of State and NATO. This is exactly how the Nobel Peace Prize got corrupted, aligning itself with the U.S. Secretary of State and NATO, which is why Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire withdrew from the Nobel Peace forum held in Chicago during NATO. Good NGOS and non-profits that want to maintain the trust in their humanitarian work tend to be very careful to maintain their independence from any government, let alone any war-making government. When NGOs, even good ones, become entwined with the U.S./NATO war machine, don't they risk losing their independent credibility? Ann Wright is a 29-year U.S. Army/Army Reserve Colonel and a 16-year U.S. diplomat who served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. She returned to Afghanistan in 2007 and 2010 on fact-finding missions. Coleen Rowley, a FBI special agent for almost 24 years, was legal counsel to the FBI Field Office in Minneapolis from 1990 to 2003. She wrote a "whistleblower" memo in May 2002 and testified to the Senate Judiciary on some of the FBI's pre-9/11 failures. She retired at the end of 2004, and now writes and speaks on ethical decision-making and balancing civil liberties with the need for effective investigation. (Originally posted on Consortiumnews.com) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/amnestys-shilling-for-usn_b_1607361.html RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING (POSTS) CIA Propaganda - Selling War in Afghanistan LINK | here 'CIA’s Hidden Hand in ‘Democracy’ Groups' | Robert Parry LINK | here Mainstream Media - Concentrated - Big-6 Corporate Control - Lies & Indoctrination LINK | here Modern Art As CIA Weapon LINK | here Other Interesting: British Broadcasting Corporation Syria: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) - Fraud LINK | here Summary US-NATO War Machine Humanitarian NGOs Shilling for US-NATO Wars Entwined with US/NATO War Machine Title: "Amnesty's Shilling for US-NATO Wars" Link | Post US-NATO / CIA PROPAGANDA SELLING AFGHANISTAN WAR USA UNSIGNING ROME STATUTE USA THREATENING MILITARY ACTION RE BRINGING USA BEFORE ICC CIA PROPAGANDA & MEDIA CONTROL - GENERAL Page | Link ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Feel like I've maybe read and posted this before. It's a pain tracking anything on this blog, so I've not looked to see if I've covered this. Memory's shocking, so it's all like new to me.   lol Anyway, I really enjoyed this article.  Even though it dates back to 2012, everything is applicable today in terms of how government, military, foreign policy, NGOs, humanitarian organisations etc operate. ꕤ

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SUMMARY USA #USA>"US, student loan debt now totals roughly $1.2 trillion, surpassing the amount owed through credit card debt" >> http://on.rt.com/xbssud #USA "grim consequences of allowing higher education 2 be used as a vehicle for private profit" StrikeDebt Press Rel/ http://strikedebt.org/debtbuy4/ ----------------------------------------- EGYPT #Surveillance #Egypt - Deep Packet Inspection surveillance system/ 'See Egypt' affiliate to US-based cyber-security firm Blue Coat involved. Unprecedented access soc. media - penetrate WhatsApp, Viber, Skype + more - http://goo.gl/zSWiYx  - al arabiya article >> "Blue Coat detected in Iran, Sudan" + Syria / - http://goo.gl/TQUDS2  - Washington Post article #Egypt monitoring homosexual ppl's content on social media - al arabiya article (France 24 witness reference) ----------------------------------------- UKRAINE   US puppet Yatsy >1 million civil servants>new PURGE LAW - incl/ whole cabinet mins., interior min., intell services, prosecutor's office !!  [BBC] ----------------------------------------- KOSOVO  /  ALBANIA   #Albania #Kosovo CRIME CENTRAL - heroin trade / organ harvesting! - http://goo.gl/ZnER1w - ex-KLA criminal activity role / PM Hashim Thaçi >> Stand by for REPORT from Dick Marty - Paris on Thursday - wiki on Marty = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Marty >> PM Hashim Thaçi - aka 'The Snake' - wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashim_Tha%C3%A7i … - Nice photo w George W Bush .. thanks USA! --- West's "voice of reason" within the KLA" -- !! This is remarkably like all other West meddling! ----------------------------------------- AUSTRALIA   #Auspol >>> Kinky Liberal's - 150 shades of Grey - Is this the WORST Aussie govt in history? >>> http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/george-brandis-new-antiterror-law-allows-asio-to-torture-20140917-10i9hv.html … Basically, the govt’s proposed legislation enables lawful torture! #Auspol -- Is Abbott justifying M/E military action by exploiting blanket media coverage 'terrorist threat' raids? http://goo.gl/3J1ic8 “..danger of terrorism will be shamelessly invoked to divert from ..social inequality & halt opposition 2 US-AU militarism " >>>> Preventative detention powers -- to be expanded? Re:  article above / Australian raid – (https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/09/18/raid-s18.html) ----------------------------------------- COMMENT The amount of higher education debt in the US shocked me.   As it indicates, it's more than credit card debt!  The Strike Debt article is well worth a read for those in the US. Ukraine's a complete mess.  Amazed IMF advanced any money.  Amazed the US has sunk $5 billion. But I guess they're hoping to get a return in due course. Kosovo & Albania appear to be lawless.  The region's beyond me.  No understanding of what goes on.  However, there is a report due out on Thursday on the human rights abuse allegations, so that should be interesting. The goings on in Australia are shocking.  Crazy budget and crazy proposed laws. The Liberal government sounds incompetent. Massive raid on 'domestic terrorists' or something like that.  Huge operation. Sounds like a media stunt and case of fanning domestic fear to justify sending troops to the Middle East (and maybe distract from the crap budget and whatever else may be going on).   Also worthwhile noting is the issue of mass surveillance, data retention, NSA Five Eye spying on the Australian public, secret court order suppression, laws seeking to extend the of powers to those that appear to have already abused those powers, likely incursions on civil liberties given various new laws (the usual national security angle governments use), the hacking program used by NSW (ie state) police ... on and on it goes. I'm not big on anything that infringes liberties, so moves to grant intelligence organisations even more powers sounds super creepy and undesirable. Not impressed that some guy that got raided and arrested was also subjected to police brutality.   The arresting authorities aren't there to judge anyone or mete out punishment; they're there to perform a function.  In this case, it was to arrest suspects.  So what are they doing belting people? Oh, and there's more:  Australia's drafting laws where it's legal to TORTURE people! What kind of crazy is that? The government will probably get away with pushing through all these crazy laws because nobody cares.  The average person is apathetic, I'd say. The world's gone mad and I want to get off this ride.

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Summary Election in Sweden. Polling stations attacked by neo-nazis. Election of some kind in Russia, as well.  Pic of Medvedev casting a vote. New Zealand also has its forthcoming election. Kim Dotcom - Internet Mana Party -- is going to drop a bombshell on Monday. The Key government is denying mass surveillance. Warg trial in Denmark write up in TorrentFreak article + check of Wikipedia: More on trial Gottfrid Svartholm Warg - http://goo.gl/WNTBQ0  - TorrentFreak article - summary of proceedings - #hacker #Sweden #Denmark Re Warg>alleged NSA CIA co. >> Computer Sciences Corp >US multinational / IT services & assoc. HQ Virginia. >> 80,000 emp'ees / 70+ countries >> Coy. accused of "breaching human rights >arranging several illegal rendition flights for CIA b/w 2003 & 2006" [wiki] >> subsidiary = CSR ... joint venture w/ Raytheon - a US defence contractor ... Uh-oh. This is getting creepy. In court, it was alleged the company -- CSC -- was owned by the CIA.  Had to look it up again because I get CIA and NCA mixed up. Anyway, it's the biggest trial of this sort in Denmark. The company's spread across 70 countries.  That's massive.  But it's no ordinary company.  It's linked with a US defence contractor -- and allegedly a CIA company. Find it extremely creepy and scary.  So much so that I decided I'd rather not look up anything else. What else is happening?    Hollande in France is up against more disunity in the government, by the sound of things.  Tuesday is the day of reckoning in relation to a no confidence vote scenario. The teenager who was killed in Jerusalem was shot by a foam tipped bullet in the head, according to Palestinian doctors who performed the autopsy. Syria is still maintaining that bombing on their territory without consent would be a breach of international law.  US is refusing to cooperate with Syria in relation to actions against ISIS. There's a 10-state Arab coalition against ISIS.   Turkey's refusing to allow the US to use their airbases for strikes. Turkey's accused of being involved in supporting al-Nusra Front. According to reports US had CIA training 5,000 Syrian rebels in Jordan and, I think Saudi Arabia was somehow involved.   An Israel newspaper reported that Israel intelligence considers invasion of Jordan by Islamic State imminent, that Jordan has asked for help and that they are prepared to attack if this eventuates. Iran is reporting that the efforts against ISIS are about protecting Israel: US bid 2 build global support 4 fight w/ #ISIL/#ISIS >> a “political game” whose objective is to safeguard #Israel >> http://goo.gl/mBhhIj Australia has committed resources and soldiers to combat ISIS. Ceasefire in Ukraine is holding. Discovered Chechnya: #Chechnya>Fed. Rep.Russia>cap. Grozny> Chechen-Ichkeria + Ingushetia>consolid. Chechnya Rep /Sunni/Sufi / Ramzan Kadyrov head of Rep. That place also sounds scary. The guy in government expelled Danish humanitarian workers from the country over a cartoon and banned the Danish (which was later overturned).   The creepy part is that he said those responsible for the cartoon should be buried alive. Thailand has a HUGE problem with cybercrime and other crime, and there's international gangs from all over the place robbing Thailand blind by the sound of it.  Hackers and well as house breakers and more.   Never imagined Thailand as a Mecca for crime. That's just some of the stuff I looked at today. Too tired to recall the rest.

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Summary   Today I discovered 'Iron Felix' - monument to  Felix Dzerzhinsky -- and the location of FSB: #Russia Communists staged a flash mob on Thu 2 return statue of founder Soviet secret police - "Iron Felix" - to Lubyanka Square, o/side FSB [GP] as well as the KGB HQ in Minsk, Belarus: Looks rather forbidding.  Can imagine the terror of being hauled off to the bowels of the building. The Estonian that's been arrested for spying in Russia has lawyered up: Pussy Riot lawyer -- Mark Feygin -- defending Estonian spy arrested in #Russia -- http://goo.gl/zkktC6  The EU is demanding his release.   Yahoo fought off the NSA: #NSA - threat 2 fine Yahoo $250,000 a day if no release info>Yahoo fought @ won>papers unsealed http://goo.gl/OFzV6H  #PRISM prog #Snowden Germany's suppressing Islamic State: #Germany bans Islamic State symbols, propaganda >>http://goo.gl/4Vdk15  As for Islamic State: Arab coalition against #ISIS>> SaudiArabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar & UAE, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan & Lebanon - rappler/com  RT "John Kerry arrives in Ankara for talks aimed at building a coalition against Islamic State jihadists" - AFP RT >>> Petraeus: Don't overestimate ISIS in Iraq [NBC] .... wow, does that say OVERestimate? What's going on in US? So who do you believe? EU #EU - Hey, it's High Rep hottie Frederica Mogherini .... and Yasser Arafat   #EU pulled swifty Günther Oettinger, Eu Comm for Digital Economy .. but he's a DIGITAL DUMMY ... http://goo.gl/uQPhPp  - What's going on? #Germany @ odds w/ Juncker re Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership? http://goo.gl/iaFZfB  - therefore Oettinger shunted 2 digital "Bildt slams Juncker over absence of enlargement portfolio" [euractiv/com] ... Of course, he does #Iceland - changed its plans and no longer seeks to join the Union. [euractiv/com] ... Wow, how did that happen? Eurozone finance ministers gather Fri & Sat - since ECB stimulus, 3 -pillared strategy plan - http://goo.gl/pQmj6N  - bank 1st pillar only -- other two rest on government actions. NZ  "Dotcom's other concern is the participation of the country in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed regional trade agreement." "The TPP is only the latest attempt by the intellectual property industry in America to criminalize legitimate business activities such as file sharing, to destroy privacy and free speech, and to extend the American legal empire to the Pacific." the Internet Party founder wrote." "Dotcom also accused the New Zealand government under the leadership of Prime Minister John Key of surveillance powers abuse and leaking confidential information to politically aligned publishers." Source: http://goo.gl/dFs21a Israel #USA NGO funded by Sears Roebuck heiress: 'Will The New European Commission Be Less Biased Against Israel?' - http://goo.gl/ZGnGYN  #German Social-Democrat Martin Schulz as speaker #EU parliament .. upset Israeli Knesset re #Palestine water restrictions [gatestoneinst] #Netherlands went from pro Israel aft. Rosenthal replaced as for/min by Frans Timmermans ..pro-Palestinian Social-Democrat - gatestoneinst #czechrepublic , #Bulgaria & #Romania tend to be pro-Israel. - [gatestoneinst] Jean Asselborn, #Luxemburg minister of Foreign Affairs allegedly pro-Palestinian sentiments (a Juncker man) ... gatestoneinst   Nth Eu countries ... extremely critical of Israel .. most vociferous is #Ireland. .. background of IRA & PLO might explain ..Uri Rosenthal #POLAND - Jerusalem is pleased with appointment of Polish PM Donald Tusk as new president of the European Council" [GatestoneInst] ...LOL    Sweden #Sweden "unemployment among people aged 15 to 24 has been oscillating between 20 and 25 percent over the past years" thelocal.se #Sweden - election Sunday - "Reinfeldt, reflecting on the tax cuts that have defined his eight-year rule" http://goo.gl/6LVP7q  "Many Swedes say they no longer recognize the country once considered the quintessential welfare state — an (cont) http://tl.gd/n_1s9omn7  Novorossiya Ukraine's Yatsy is also known as 'the Rabbit'.   __________ oOo  _________   The above is just some random stuff that caught my attention during my travels. Easier to post a tweet than to try to recall. Assange: Check out the frothing at the mouth about 'high tech terrorism' & calls to 'shoot the son of a bitch' >> It's creepy how the government labels anyone it disagrees with as a 'terrorist'.   It's a way of isolating targets, I think.  Let's face it, not many people are going to be supportive of someone deemed 'terrorist'. Anyway, that's some of my travels today.