Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs, clicking in the votes?

With hindsight, perhaps it should have looked fishy from the start that the ­British public had decided to take sides with the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Campaigners for a "Robin Hood tax" watched with alarm as thousands of votes poured into their website, rejecting their proposal for a levy on City wheeler-dealing, to raise money to fight poverty and climate change.

After a bit more investigation, though, the unlikely backlash against the rob-the-rich plan – almost 5,000 no votes against the Robin Hood tax within 20 minutes – turned out to emanate from just two computer servers, one of which was registered to the investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Supporters of a "Tobin tax", including churches, trade unions and charities, projected a giant slogan on the side of the Bank of England in Threadneedle Street earlier this week, urging the public to join the campaign for a small tax on every trade in financial markets, from share deals to foreign exchange transactions. They say this could raise tens of billions of pounds to tackle poverty and climate change abroad, and prevent savage public spending cuts at home as the government struggles to pay for the bank bailouts.

The Guardian - Link to video

Australia's Aboriginal Children: A New Inquiry Begins

In Australia, Deborah Melville's case has been widely covered in all major news outlets since 2008. But while the nation may have made been aware of the horrific neglect that Deborah Melville suffered, a largely unpublicized audit claims that her death was only scratching the surface of a much greater problem. According to a 2007 report leaked to the Australian on Feb. 6 and written by psychologist Howard Bath, then the director of a non-profit organization that specializes in support for child, youth and family services, the Northern Territory child-protection system is near collapse. Today, just over two years after Australia apologized for six decades of a policy that forcibly removed Aboriginal children from their homes, a new inquiry into that system is being launched.

Melville's great-aunt and aunt both lived at the home at the time of her death. Both women were charged with manslaughter in the case, but eventually acquitted in 2008 on the grounds that they couldn't have known just how sick she was. Not everyone however, was let off the hook: In an inquiry, completed on Jan. 19, the national Department of Families and Child Services (FACS), the authority that was supposed to be protecting Deborah, was found largely responsible for her death, having ignored the many red flags raised throughout her six years in foster care.

More on TIME

The kidnapping of Haiti

The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured “formal approval” from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to “secure” roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power rules in an American naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.

The airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is now an American military base and relief flights have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic. All flights stopped for three hours for the arrival of Hillary Clinton. Critically injured Haitians waited unaided as 800 American residents in Haiti were fed, watered and evacuated. Six days passed before the US Air Force dropped bottled water to people suffering thirst and dehydration.
The first TV reports played a critical role, giving the impression of widespread criminal mayhem. Matt Frei, the BBC reporter dispatched from Washington, seemed on the point of hyperventilation as he brayed about the “violence” and need for “security”.

In spite of the demonstrable dignity of the earthquake victims, and evidence of citizens’ groups toiling unaided to rescue people, and even an American general’s assessment that the violence in Haiti was considerably less than before the earthquake, Frei claimed that “looting is the only industry” and “the dignity of Haiti’s past is long forgotten.” Thus, a history of unerring US violence and exploitation in Haiti was consigned to the victims. “There’s no doubt,” reported Frei in the aftermath of America’s bloody invasion of Iraq in 2003, “that the desire to bring good, to bring American values to the rest of the world, and especially now to the Middle East... is now increasingly tied up with military power.”

More on the John Pilger website (column for the New Statesman)

It's just a ride, and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice.

turbolupo youtube-channel

Appeal by China dissident Liu Xiaobo rejected

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has had his appeal against an 11-year prison sentence rejected by a court in Beijing, his lawyer has said.

Mr Liu has been in jail since 2008, after being arrested for writing a petition known as Charter 08. It called for greater freedoms and democratic reforms in China, including an end to one-party rule. The former university professor is a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests.

More than 300 international writers, including Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco and Margaret Atwood, have called for his release.

Mr Liu is the only person to have been arrested for organising the Charter 08 appeal, but others who signed it have reportedly been harassed.

BBC News – On the Defence

Dark side of Jordan's orphanages

In Jordan, numerous employees of government-run orphanages have been accused by orphans of committing physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

The National Centre for Human Rights says it has received 16 complaints of alleged abuse with a total of 25 children involved. But only four of the complaints have been passed on to courts because of a lack of evidence.

For its part, the social development ministry assures that every confirmed case will be taken to court.

More on Al Jazeera

French accuse Tony Blair of ‘Soviet-style' propaganda in run-up to Iraq war

Tony Blair was accused by the French government of “Soviet-style” black propaganda in the run-up to the Iraq war, secret memos obtained by the Iraq inquiry have found.

The Chilcot committee has obtained confidential phone records showing that then foreign secretary Jack Straw was told days before the crunch eve-of-war Commons vote not to misrepresent the French position on the need for UN approval.

The row began after Mr Blair seized on remarks by French president Jacques Chirac on 10 March 2003, that he would not back a second UN resolution authorising war in Iraq “whatever the circumstances”.

Mr Blair said the French were making clear they would use their Security Council veto “no matter what”. His claim was crucial in persuading wavering Labour backbenchers that the UN route was no longer possible and that the war had to go ahead.

London Evening Standard

Live pigs blasted in UK terror attack experiments

Live pigs are being blown up with explosives at Porton Down, the government’s secret military research laboratory, to simulate the effect of terrorist attacks on civilian targets.

In a series of tests at the biological and chemical research centre in Wiltshire, 18 large pigs were wrapped in protective blankets before bombs were detonated a few feet away. The scientists allowed the pigs to bleed until almost a third of their blood was gone to see how long they could be kept alive.

MPs and animal welfare groups have questioned the use of live animals in the explosions, even though the pigs were anaesthetised throughout. None survived the experiments.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said: “These are revolting and unnecessary experiments. Sadly, we are too familiar with the effects of terrorism. It is perfectly possible to find out things we don’t know without blowing up pigs to find out.”

More on Times Online

Scottish Student to be freed after terror conviction quashed

A student accused of being a "wannabe suicide bomber" will be freed early from prison after prosecutors in Scotland decided not to seek his retrial for plotting terrorist attacks.

Mohammed Atif Siddique, 24, from Alva near Stirling, is expected to be released today after the crown office said it would not oppose an appeal court's ruling that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice after being wrongly convicted of preparing to commit or instigate Islamist terror attacks.

The shopkeeper's son was jailed for eight years in October 2007 for a string of terrorism offences after he was found guilty of downloading Islamist documents on weaponry, explosives and beheadings and then circulating them again on the internet.

He was also convicted for causing a breach of the peace at Glasgow Metropolitan college by threatening to become a suicide bomber and claiming to be an al-Qaida member, and showing images of suicide bombers and beheadings.

But last month, the appeal court judge Lord Osborne said he had been wrongly convicted of the most serious charge that there was a "reasonable suspicion" these documents were being held for the "commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism".

Guardian.co.uk

Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways

The Yemeni archipelago of Socotra in the Indian Ocean is located some 80 kilometres off the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometres South of the Yemeni coastline. The islands of Socotra are a wildlife reserve recognized by (UNESCO), as a World Natural Heritage Site.

Socotra is at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (See map below). It is of crucial importance to the US military.

View Larger Map

Among Washington's strategic objectives is the militarization of major sea ways. This strategic waterway links the Mediterranean to South Asia and the Far East, through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
It is a major transit route for oil tankers. A large share of China's industrial exports to Western Europe transits through this strategic waterway. Maritime trade from East and Southern Africa to Western Europe also transits within proximity of Socotra (Suqutra), through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. (see map below). A military base in Socotra could be used to oversee the movement of vessels including war ships in an out of the Gulf of Aden.
"The [Indian] Ocean is a major sea lane connecting the Middle East, East Asia and Africa with Europe and the Americas. It has four crucial access waterways facilitating international maritime trade, that is the Suez Canal in Egypt, Bab-el-Mandeb (bordering Djibouti and Yemen), Straits of Hormuz (bordering Iran and Oman), and Straits of Malacca (bordering Indonesia and Malaysia). These ‘chokepoints’ are critical to world oil trade as huge amounts of oil pass through them." (Amjed Jaaved, A new hot-spot of rivalry, Pakistan Observer, July 1, 2009)

Globalresearch.ca

China quake activist jailed for inciting subversion

A Chinese activist who sought to document shoddy construction that contributed to deaths in China's devastating 2008 earthquake has been sentenced to five years in prison for subversion, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Tan Zuoren was formally accused of inciting subversion of state power in emailed comments about the bloody crackdown on June 4, 1989, on pro-democracy demonstrators around Tiananmen Square.

But Tan's supporters and Amnesty International say he was detained because he planned to issue an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake, in which more than 80,000 people died.

Reuters

Only in the USA: South Carolina now requires ’subversives’ to register

Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions -- or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.

The state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act," passed last year and now officially on the books, states that "every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State."

There's even a $5 filing fee.

By "subversive organization," the law means "every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State."

More on Raw Story

Sri Lanka arrests General Fonseka

General Sarath Fonseka, the defeated candidate in Sri Lanka's presidential election, has been arrested at his office in Colombo on charges of plotting to overthrow the country's government, defence officials have said.

General Prasad Samarasinghe, a military spokesman, said the arrest related to "military offences" from Fonseka's time in the army, which ended in November when he quit and entered the presidential race. 

"General Fonseka has been arrested on charges of committing military offences," Samarasinghe said in an official statement on Monday.

The former army chief "was dragged away in a very disgraceful manner in front of our own eyes", Rauff Hakeem, Sri Lanka's Muslim Congress leader, told the Reuters news agency. More on Al Jazeera

US missionaries in Haiti charged with kidnapping

Ten Americans accused of trying to take 33 children out of Haiti illegally in the aftermath of last month's earthquake, have been charged with child kidnapping and criminal association.

Jean Ferge Joseph, a Haitian deputy prosecutor, announced the charges on Thursday and told the five men and five women that their case was being sent to an investigative judge.

"That judge can free you but he can also continue to hold you for further proceedings," he told them at a hearing.

The Americans, most of whom belong to an Idaho-based church, appeared stunned and some shook their heads.

Al Jazeera

US Police want backdoor to Web users' private data

Anyone with an e-mail account likely knows that police can peek inside it if they have a paper search warrant.

But cybercrime investigators are frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing companies these documents. They're pushing for the creation of a national Web interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers so requests can be sent and received electronically.

A controversial element is probably the private Web interface, which raises novel security and privacy concerns, especially in the wake of a recent inspector general's report (PDF) from the Justice Department. The 289-page report detailed how the FBI obtained Americans' telephone records by citing nonexistent emergencies and simply asking for the data or writing phone numbers on a sticky note rather than following procedures required by law.

Some companies already have police-only Web interfaces. Sprint Nextel operates what it calls the L-Site, also known as the "legal compliance secure Web portal." The company even has offered a course that "will teach you how to create and track legal demands through L-site. Learn to navigate and securely download requested records." Cox Communications makes its price list for complying with police requests public; a 30-day wiretap is $3,500.

More on CNET News and Surveillance Can't Make Us Secure – The Nation

Obama's Doublethink Doubletalk

George Orwell defined doublethink as "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them”. When it comes to war, spending, and more, President Barack Obama's 2010 State of the Union address showed that doublethink is alive and well in Washington, D.C.

reason.tv

Video shows fighter jets shooting down US missionaries

An extraordinary video has emerged showing a bungled CIA operation that led to the shooting down of a light plane carrying American missionaries in Peru. (Nine years ago!) 

The dramatic footage taken from a CIA surveillance plane, which has been shown on America's ABC News, shows Peruvian fighter jets opening fire on the missionaries' seaplane even as its pilot screamed for help.

Although the Peruvian pilots issued a warning first, the pilot of the missionaries' plane was on a different frequency and could not hear it.

The Peruvian jets shot down the missionaries despite CIA officers expressing serious doubts that the people they were shadowing were drug dealers.

More on Times Online

Also see: Statement from the CIA on the 2001 Peru Shootdown – ABC News

Bomb in Pakistan kills 3 U.S. soldiers & 3 children

Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb on Wednesday that killed three U.S. Special Operations soldiers near a girls' school in northwest Pakistan and threatened more attacks on Americans.

In scenes that have become familiar in the struggle between Taliban insurgents and the state, a young girl trapped below the stones of a collapsed wall cried out for help after the blast.

Three children and a Pakistani soldier were also killed and 45 people, including 40 schoolgirls, were wounded in the attack near Swat Valley, where the government mounted a crackdown nearly a year ago that it said had cleared out Taliban militants. More on Reuters

CREEPY ALIEN MERMAIDS OF JAPAN

For the last few years rumors of enormous, humanoid sea creatures floating around Antarctic waters have been bubbling up in Japan. The creatures are known as Nigen and they look a lot like someone dressed up in a last minute ghost costume made of rubber. The Nigen reports hold more weight than your average Bigfoot sighting largely because they’re coming from the government’s infamous “whale research” vessels. More via eLLUMINATI BLOG

The astrobiological case for our cosmic ancestry

With steadily mounting evidence that points to a cosmic origin of terrestrial life, a cultural barrier prevails against admitting that such a connection exists. Astronomy continues to reveal the presence of organic molecules and organic dust on a huge cosmic scale, amounting to a third of interstellar carbon tied up in this form.

Just as the overwhelming bulk of organics on Earth stored over geological timescales are derived from the degradation of living cells, so it seems likely that interstellar organics in large measure also derive from biology. As we enter a new decade – the year 2010 – a clear pronouncement of our likely alien ancestry and of the existence of extraterrestrial life on a cosmic scale would seem to be overdue.

Professor Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe - Cambridge University Press

Also see Cosmic ancestry on Wikipedia and panspermia.org

Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri

Dr Pachauri has established an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC’s policy recommendations.

These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in ‘carbon trading’ and ‘sustainable technologies’, which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year.

Today, in addition to his role as chairman of the IPCC, Dr Pachauri occupies more than a score of such posts, acting as director or adviser to many of the bodies which play a leading role in what has become known as the international ‘climate industry’.

It is remarkable how only very recently has the staggering scale of Dr Pachauri’s links to so many of these concerns come to light, inevitably raising questions as to how the world’s leading ‘climate official’ can also be personally involved in so many organisations which stand to benefit from the IPCC’s recommendations.

More on the Telegraph

Consciousness is the Key

MK-Ultra Victim Claims Tortured by Mengele

Mengele was brought over to the U.S., according to Freedom of Information Act documents, as part of the CIA's Operation Paperclip after WWII, (in which Nazi scientists and Nazi war criminals were brought over to win the technology war against the former Soviet Union.)
The price of Nazi scientists cooperation was the freedom of thousands of Nazi war criminals like Mengele. They sold their services to both sides and incited, even fabricated parts of the Cold War to suit their own ends.

The Nazis co-opted 5000 year old bloodlines in generational occult families seeking to breed persons with abnormally high fertility and supernatural abilities. They also made use of persons in the occult committing the most horrible crimes against children for the stated purpose of creating persons with DID --more commonly known as Multiple Personality Disorder.

These practices are still ongoing. The stated purpose of these crimes both in the former USSR and here in the US was to create the perfect soldier, the perfect spy, and the perfect assassin, persons who with a key word or phrase could be made to do the bidding of their handlers unquestioningly and not remember it later nor be able to disclose classified information even if they wanted to.
They were also interested in remote viewing, divination, and the military applications of a multitude of extrasensory abilities including "red fire" or psychic killing. See Carol Rutz' book "A Nation Betrayed." Programmed messengers and programmed sex slaves were also created for the demented pleasures of the rich and famous.

This program was called MK-ULTRA and involved confiscating super bright children and naturally occurring high order multiples---especially identicals---from their natural parents and putting the children with persons who would allow abuse and experimentation. The program is still ongoing and now uses and manipulates the Child Protection system to facilitate these activities.

More on savethemales.ca

Also see Criminals of War and Mengele.dk

Tony Blair lied and misled parliament in build-up to Iraq war

Clare Short, the former international development secretary, today accused Tony Blair of lying to her and misleading parliament in the build-up to the Iraq invasion.

Short, giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the war, also said that the 2003 conflict had put the world in greater danger of international terrorism.

Declassified letters between Short and Blair released today show she believed that invading Iraq without a second UN resolution would be illegal and there was a significant risk of a humanitarian catastrophe.

She told the inquiry that she had a conversation with Blair in 2002. He told her that he was not planning for war against Iraq and that the evidence has since revealed that he was not telling the truth at that point, she said.

She also said she was "stunned" when she read the 337-word legal advice on the war written by the then-attorney general Lord Goldsmith during a cabinet meeting on 17 March 2003, three days before the war began. She was forbidden by Blair from discussing it during the meeting.

More on the Guardian.co.uk

Tangoing with the Taliban

Despite the US military 'surge', Afghanistan is proving more challenging than Iraq.

Unlike the general Iraqi distaste and hostility for al-Qaeda's methods and objectives, Osama bin Laden's network remains the Taliban's most potent strategic partner in its fight against the central government and its US patron.

Al Jazeera has learnt that in the last several months, al-Qaeda has spearheaded certain Taliban offensives and tried to bridge and coordinate between the various Talibans, notably the Afghan and Pakistani groups.

It has been mission impossible for the US thus far to sift the Taliban into so-called moderate vs radicals and hardcore vs pragmatists silos. Separating the Taliban from al-Qaeda has also failed.

In the process, the Taliban have reportedly opened new fronts in the northern regions after they consolidated their grip on the southern and eastern regions. They introduce their version of security and justice to these regions, like a parallel government.

More on Al Jazeera Blogs