Links - News 4

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Revision as of 02:42, 23 January 2015

1 Behavior
- 1.1 Protest
- 1.2 Religion
2 Crime
3 War
4 Torture
5 Spying
6 Border
- 6.1 Smuggling
7 ref

Behavior

Protest

Pussy Riot releases new video in support of Moscow protest. http://www.avclub.com/article/pussy-riot-releases-new-video-support-moscow-prote-213372

San Diego City Council Staffer Suspended Without Pay After Shooting Comment. A staffer for Councilwoman Lorie Zapf referred to police brutality protesters as “fucking idiots” and said “I wanted to shoot them” http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/dec/12/city-council-staffer-calls-inauguration-protesters/

Religion

Glenn Beck Praises Woman Who Tore Down Satanist Display: 'I'm Glad At Least Somebody Is Standing Up' - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-praises-woman-who-tore-down-satanist-display-im-glad-least-somebody-standing

It occurs to me that my history of taking on religion might led to my murder. Oh, well. It’s worth it. http://rall.com/2015/01/14/will-i-be-killed-by-religious-fanatics

January 16 http://religiousfreedomday.com

After Paris shooting, Irish say it’s time to finally ditch their blasphemy law. In 2009, a new defamation law was adopted that included a definition of blasphemy and said it could be punished with a fine of up to 25,000 euros (almost $30,000). Blasphemy was hence defined as “publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defenses permitted." The new law and definition had been criticized by atheists and free speech advocates before they even went into force. Shortly before it passed, Michael Nugent, chairman of Atheist Ireland, argued that it "incentivizes outrage," while Eoin O'Dell, a senior lecturer in law at Trinity College Dublin, later told The Post that it was "literally medieval." "Under this proposed law," Nugent wrote in 2009, "if a person expresses one belief about gods, and other people think that this insults a different belief about gods, then these people can become outraged, and this outrage can make it illegal for the first person to express his or her beliefs." http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/13/after-paris-shooting-irish-say-its-time-to-finally-ditch-their-blasphemy-law/

Watchdog: Do tax breaks for churches favor believers over nonbelievers? Religious organizations in America are largely exempt from income, sales, property and other taxes – perks worth at least $71 billion a year in the U.S., according to a recent study that was quite conservative in its methodology. That translates into a break of some $7 billion a year for religious institutions in California, and some $700 million a year for those in Orange County. The totals are likely higher, as real estate (and nearly everything else) in California is more expensive than almost anywhere in the nation. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/tax-647039-churches-church.html

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A woman wearing a "Catholic Warrior" T-shirt was arrested on accusations of damaging the Satanic Temple's holiday display in the Florida Capitol, police said. Authorities said Susan Hemeryck, 54, a Tea Party activist, told a pair of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Capitol Police officers she was "sorry and had to take down the Satanic display" about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday because it was "not right." Police said the officers told Hemeryck not to remove the Satanic Temple's "Happy Holidays" display, and she responded by saying she "could not take it anymore" and started ripping the display apart. Read more: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/12/24/Police-Catholic-Warrior-damaged-satanic-display/2601419432415/#ixzz3ONienoMq

Photos: Township orders zombie Nativity scene removed. http://www.wlwt.com/news/30369258

Crime

Gun Violence

The Myth Behind Defensive Gun Ownership. Guns are more likely to do harm than good. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/defensive-gun-ownership-myth-114262.html

ARLINGTON A woman accused of shooting her husband and his adult daughter called a friend Wednesday and told him she did it, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained Thursday by the Star-Telegram. Veronica Dunnachie, 35, was arrested Wednesday in the deaths of Russ Dunnachie, 50, and Kimberly Dunnachie, 20. They were found in Russ Dunnachie’s home in the 2500 block of Edinburgh Street in Arlington by patrol officers who were making a welfare check, according to the affidavit. The suspect has been involved in area open-carry activities and has this quotation on her Facebook page: “Sometimes removing some people out of your life makes room for better people.” Her profile photo shows her aiming a gun. Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article4428614.html#storylink=cpy

Rethinking Gun Control. Surprising findings from a comprehensive report on gun violence. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2013/06/handguns_suicides_mass_shootings_deaths_and_self_defense_findings_from_a.html

Cop Crime

Washington Cop Attempts to Incite Photographer by Invading Personal Space. One tactic we occasionally see is when a cop stands directly in your personal space, close enough where he can kiss you, claiming he has the right to stand where he pleases – when you know if you would do the same to him, he would fear for his life and kill you. What they’re really doing is hoping the citizen pushes the cop off or punches him in the face, which you will see is very tempting in this video where a smug Tacoma cop named Barry Paris does his best to incite photographer Scott Shimek, not only standing in his personal space, but brushing up against him for no reason. Paris is a veteran cop who shot an innocent man in 1996, resulting in a $538,000 settlement for the victim with no disciplinary action against him, so he learned early on he can get away with anything. The latest incident took place Tuesday as Shimek aka Rogue Reflections was photographing a union protest in front of a hospital. As he was photographing the protest, he noticed undercover Tacoma cops following and video recording him, so he turned his camera on them. After 45 minutes, he crossed the street and was issued a jaywalking citation, even though several cops and protesters were also crossing the street in the same area. http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/11/tacoma-cop-incite-photographer-barry-paris/

Cops, CIA Share a Culture of Lawlessness. From Ferguson to Staten Island to Langley, we need to get our security forces under control. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/12/cops-cia-share-a-culture-of-lawlessness.html

San Diego

Trolley Cops Mostly Swarm These Two Areas. http://voiceofsandiego.org/2015/01/13/trolley-cops-mostly-swarm-these-two-areas/

War

Cyber War

The FBI told their story about North Korea attacking Sony. Before we retaliate, read what they didn’t tell you. http://fabiusmaximus.com/2014/12/20/rebuttal-holes-fbi-north-korea-sony-attack-74873/

Terror

CIA sometimes overlooks Islamic extremists, Vegas intelligence expert says http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/military/cia-sometimes-overlooks-islamic-extremists-vegas-intelligence-expert-says

Iraq IS Daesh

Hagel dismisses usefulness of body counts in Islamic State fight. http://www.stripes.com/hagel-dismisses-usefulness-of-body-counts-in-islamic-state-fight-1.325289

Don’t believe the U.S. military when it says it doesn’t keep body counts. http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/01/22/dont-believe-the-u-s-military-when-it-says-it-doesnt-keep-body-counts/

Secretary of State John Kerry is a distinguished diplomat with impeccable manners -- but that doesn't mean he's above lobbing a well-placed insult when it comes to enemies of the United States. Kerry made clear earlier this week that he is committed to referring to the Islamic State as "Daesh," a name that the group considers so degrading that it has threatened to kill anyone under Islamic State rule who uses it. The Islamic State's opponents in the Muslim world have already embraced the name. "Daesh" is an acronym for the Arabic phrase meaning the "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria" (though the last word can also be translated as "Damascus" or "Levant"), and it is thought to offend the extremist group because it sounds similar to an Arabic word for crushing something underfoot. Daesh in Arabic "sounds like something monstrous. ... It's a way of stigmatizing [the Islamic State], making it something ugly," Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/kerry-daesh-isil_n_6309664.html

Ukraine

Threat of new Russian incursion as violence flares in Ukraine. http://www.stripes.com/news/threat-of-new-russian-incursion-as-violence-flares-in-ukraine-1.325166

Troops and Veterans

Muslim sailor sues for right to reenlist and wear beard. Berts, an African American and native of San Francisco, served on the dock landing ship Fort McHenry at Whidbey Island, Wash., and with a beachmaster unit in Coronado before being assigned as a military history and physical education instructor at the Navy training site at Great Lakes, Ill. At Great Lakes, he was allegedly subjected to a “barrage of derogatory terms, anti-Islamic slurs, and inappropriate lines of questions about his religious beliefs and loyalty to the United States,” according to the lawsuit. Among other things, a senior noncommissioned officer repeatedly used slurs involving race and religion when addressing Berts, the lawsuit contends. Backed by Navy chaplains, Berts was seeking permission to wear a beard, which was permitted under Navy rules. The rules give commanders discretion to grant such permission. Berts’ request and appeal were denied, according to the lawsuit. After his “religious accommodation” appeal was denied, he was “removed from his teaching duties…and stationed in an abandoned roach-infested building” guarding obsolete office equipment, the lawsuit contends. He became depressed and had difficulty sleeping, the lawsuit adds. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-muslim-sailor-beard-20150110-story.html

The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero? Chris Kyle, a US navy Seal from Texas, was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and claimed to have killed more than 255 people during his six-year military career. In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as “fun”, something he “loved”; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a “bad guy”. “I hate the damn savages,” he wrote. “I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.” He bragged about murdering looters during Hurricane Katrina, though that was never substantiated. He was murdered in 2013 at a Texas gun range by a 25-year-old veteran reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/06/real-american-sniper-hate-filled-killer-why-patriots-calling-hero-chris-kyle

A worsening morale crisis AFTER 13 YEARS OF WAR, TROOPS FEEL BURNED OUT AND WITHOUT A SENSE OF MISSION. MORE DOUBT THEIR LEADERS AND THEIR JOB SECURITY. http://www.militarytimes.com/longform/military/2014/12/07/americas-military-a-force-adrift/18596571/

Crime and Corruption

The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors have recommended bringing felony charges against retired Gen. David H. Petraeus for providing classified information to his former mistress while he was director of the C.I.A., officials said, leaving Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to decide whether to seek an indictment that could send the pre-eminent military officer of his generation to prison. The Justice Department investigation stems from an affair Mr. Petraeus had with Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer who was writing his biography, and focuses on whether he gave her access to his C.I.A. email account and other highly classified information. F.B.I. agents discovered classified documents on her computer after Mr. Petraeus resigned from the C.I.A. in 2012 when the affair became public. Mr. Petraeus, a retired four-star general who served as commander of American forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has said he never provided classified information to Ms. Broadwell, and has indicated to the Justice Department that he has no interest in a plea deal that would spare him an embarrassing trial. A lawyer for Mr. Petraeus, Robert B. Barnett, said Friday he had no comment. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/10/us/politics/prosecutors-said-to-recommend-charges-against-former-gen-david-petraeus.html

Navy Commander Pleads Guilty In Massive Bribery Case. Jose Luis Sanchez entered the plea at a Tuesday hearing in San Diego federal court. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced March 27. A judge agreed to let Sanchez remove a GPS monitor while free on bond. Sanchez was accused of accepting bribes, including prostitutes and travel, for steering Navy ships to Leonard Glenn Francis, chief executive of a Singapore-based company that provided services to vessels at ports. Francis has pleaded not guilty. http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/jan/06/navy-commander-pleads-guilty-massive-bribery-case/

Torture

MEET ALFREDA BIKOWSKY, THE SENIOR OFFICER AT THE CENTER OF THE CIA’S TORTURE SCANDALS https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/19/senior-cia-officer-center-torture-scandals-alfreda-bikowsky/

They Said ‘No’ to Torture: The Real Heroes of the Bush Years. The opposition to torture within the CIA was so strong, Mayer reports, that the CIA Inspector General, John Helgerson, “conducted a serious and influential internal investigation.” That led the Justice Department to “ask the CIA to suspend the torture program”—at least “until it could be reconciled with the law.” The heroes in the torture report include Ali Soufan, former FBI agent and interrogator of terrorists who, according to Lawrence Wright in The Looming Tower, came closer than anyone to preventing the 9/11 attacks. Soufan has argued publicly against torture and in favor of “rapport-building” as the best technique to get information from suspects. The CIA heavily censored his memoir The Black Banners in what Wright called an effort “to punish a critic and to obscure history.” He was featured in a Frontline documentary made by Martin Smith and James Gilmore. Another hero: Alberto Mora. As general counsel of the Navy in 2004, Jane Mayer reported, he tried to stop the torture program. He told his superiors at the Pentagon that the Bush torture policy violated the Geneva Conventions’ prohibition of torture and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.” He described the Bush program as “unlawful” and “dangerous,” and warned that the torturers could face criminal prosecution. He was featured in the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side by Alex Gibney (which won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2007). Some of the heroes were ordinary soldiers, like Sgt. Joe Darby, who first revealed the Abu Ghraib abuses. As a result,” Luban points out, he “had to live under armed protection for six months.” Others were high officials, like Philip Zelikow, an adviser to Condoleezza Rice, who, Luban reports, wrote an “anti-torture memo” that the White House “attempted to destroy.” And there was Ian Fishback, an army captain who reported that his own unit was abusing Iraqi prisoners. Eventually he wrote an open letter to Senator John McCain, asking, “Do we sacrifice our ideals in order to preserve security?” His answer: “I would rather die fighting than give up even the smallest part of the idea that is ‘America.’ ” http://www.thenation.com/blog/192873/they-said-no-torture-real-heroes-bush-years#

Imprisoned Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Speaks About Torture, Prison, and the Future. A jailhouse interview with the man whose disclosures prompted this week’s damning torture report. http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/national-security/imprisoned-former-cia-agent-john-kiriakou-speaks-about-torture-prison-and-the-future.php

CIA morale 'deeply hurt' following Senate report. The US Senate report on the CIA's interrogation methods has unleashed a fierce debate about America's intelligence services. CIA director John Brennan has defended his agency's program, in contrast to President Obama. With a reference to history, Ullman said he expects little to change in the future. "We had the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro by two administrations. We had Jack Kennedy working with the Mafia. I mean, it's absurd. But the fact of the matter is this is unfortunately the way governments operate." Bamford called it outrageous that there will apparently not be any legal consequences for the perpetrators of the murder and torture. Ullman, however, sees things differently. "They had the findings of the president, the authorization of the president, and the findings of the attorney general that this was legal," he said. "If anybody is to be prosecuted, it seems to me it should be the president." http://www.dw.de/cia-morale-deeply-hurt-following-senate-report/a-18124389

Those still searching for their moral compass after being confronted by the repulsive facts in the Senate’s report on torture should take a cue from the one man in Washington who actually knows what it is like to be beaten, humiliated, starved, and isolated — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). When the controversial report was released Tuesday, McCain broke with his own party and spoke passionately on the Senate floor in favor of the release of the report. McCain said that the use of torture, “did much harm and little practical good,” adding that it “stained our national honor.” http://news.usni.org/2014/12/12/opinion-john-mccain-senate-torture-report-revolutionary-war

FLOOR STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE REPORT ON CIA INTERROGATION METHODS http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=1a15e343-66b0-473f-b0c1-a58f984db996 http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2014/1210/Torture-John-McCain-s-unique-brutal-perspective-video

Americans are deeply divided about torture. http://theconversation.com/americans-are-deeply-divided-about-torture-35350

Who would Jesus torture? If it was conclusively proven that torture is not effective in intelligence gathering would you still torture?

Competing claims of torture effectiveness http://bigstory.ap.org/article/67fea22c39e84ce5b210347a676fa499/competing-claims-torture-effectiveness

Dianne Feinstein leaving intelligence job amid clash on tactics report. http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-feinstein-intel-20141207-story.html#page=1

Spying

Petraeus must be prosecuted. The Broadwell affair capped an ignoble history of betraying those he was sworn to serve. http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/1/david-petraeus-felonychargespaulabroadwell.html

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, STRONG ADVOCATE OF LEAK PROSECUTIONS, DEMANDS IMMUNITY FOR DAVID PETRAEUS https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/12/dianne-feinstein-advocate-whistleblower-prosecutions-demands-immunity-david-petraeus/

Border

Smuggling

Drone Carrying Meth Crashes Near San Ysidro Port of Entry. Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Drone-Carrying-Meth-Crashes-Near-San-Ysidro-Port-of-Entry-289353601.html

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