Evidence Obtained During Bin Laden Raid Can Be Used In Manning Trial

Digital files obtained during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden can be used to determine whether Wikileaks’ leaker Army Pfc. Bradley Manning “aided” Al Qaeda, a judge ruled during a pre-trial hearing Wednesday. Manning pled guilty to leaking classified information, but denied aiding the enemy, the most serious charge leveled against him.

As Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola reported from Fort Meade, Judge Denise Lind rejected a motion from Manning’s defense to disallow files obtained from Bin Laden’s compound on the basis that “evidence of circumstances surrounding receipt is relevant to whether he did give it to the enemy.”

According to court documents Tweeted by independent journalist Alexa O’Brien, the defense argued that such files are “not relevant” and serve “unfair prejudices” and “confusion of the issues.” Part of their argument rests on the question of “receipt.” As Gosztola notes, whether Bin Laden accessed files leaked by Manning does not prove the soldier personally passed them along to Al Qaeda: No evidence has been presented yet to indicate that Manning gave information to WikiLeaks and then someone within WikiLeaks turned around and passed that information to an Al Qaeda member. The government is making its entire argument on the fact that it was published to the Internet and accessible to the “enemy” and, therefore, Manning “aided the enemy.”

Full story on Alternet

I Got Skills

Mozes And The Firstborn

Greece Says Germany Owes It €162 Billion In War Reparations

Greece is considering slapping a €162 billion invoice on Germany as compensation for the Second World War. Athens has compiled a top-secret report that says the cash - enough to solve the Greeks' debt crisis - is owed in war reparations, Der Spiegel reported.

But the Greeks are said to be reluctant to take on mighty Germany over the debt, for fear of antagonising its Eurozone paymaster. The Greek media is said to be more bullish, with the To Vima newspaper headlined: "What Germany Owes Us". It set out a number of possible ways that Germany could repay the cash, after a panel of experts spent months preparing the 80-page classified report.

Huffington Post

Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins Kill god

Two of the most clever and entertaining non-believers, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, dismantle assorted religious Kooks and their man-made texts with the finesse of Olympic Samurais, dicing religious dogma into microscopic particles too small to be retrieved by even the sharpest religiously-minded creature, e.g. those with IQ's between 0 and 36 (beneath Moron Level). As religiosity increases, intelligence drops, like a grand piano off a cliff.

YouTube

Guantanamo Detainees Brutally Force Fed During Hunger Strike

Up to 130 of the 166 detainees left in Guantanamo are reported to be taking part in a hunger strike with at least 11 being force fed (see also this piece by Chris Hayes at MSNBC). What is not widely reported is the brutal way that detainees have been force fed by the Guantanamo medical staff, a protocol that appears to be in use now.

As detainee lawyer Ramzi Kassen explains in Doctors of the Dark Side, detainees are strapped in a 5-point restraint chair–dubbed by some detainees the “torture” chair–and large tubes that may be left in for days are jammed down their noses without anesthesia or lubricants. When detainees resist the brutal procedure, they are forcibly extracted from their cells by soldiers in full riot gear at the direction of the medical staff.

Lawyers for the despairing detainees, of whom 86 were approved for release over two years ago, are very worried that their clients will die or be permanently injured in the hunger strike.

More on Disinformation

Racist Catholic

Public Library of US Diplomacy: Kissinger Cables

WikiLeaks strikes again. The whistleblowing website has released 1.7 million cables dating from 1973-1976 that shine a bright light on U.S. foreign policy.

WikiLeaks says the documents were obtained from Freedom of Information requests and the State Department’s “systematic declassification review.” WikiLeaks is calling it the Public Library of US Diplomacy. The organization has now published the cables on their website in a searchable format, saying it is “the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications.”

Many of the files deal with U.S. foreign policy under the helm of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He wrote some of the cables published on the WikiLeaks website. The files also expose diplomatic documents on American dealings with authoritarian regimes and the 1973 war between Israel and Arab states.

“The collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on Earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published,” said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a statement.

More on  Alternet  - Wikileaks

Thatcher's Cabinet

Spitting Image

Wikileaks Investigation & Icelandic Revolution

Abby Martin talks to Icelandic MP, and former Wikileaks member, Birgitta Jonsdottir, on the 3rd anniversary of the Wikileaks' release of the collateral murder video, about, justice for Bradley Manning, Julian Assange's Case, and the Icelandic Revolution.

Kill Them All

This BBC Documentary reveals atrocities committed by the U.S. in Korea during the war.

DNA study links indigenous Brazilians to Polynesians

Indigenous people that lived in southeastern Brazil in the late 1800s shared some genetic sequences with Polynesians, an analysis of their remains shows. The finding offers some support for the possibility that Pacific islanders traded with South America thousands of years ago, but researchers say that the distinctive DNA sequences, or haplogroups, may have entered the genomes of the native Brazilians through the slave trade during the nineteenth century.

Most scientists agree that humans arrived in the Americas between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago, probably via the Bering land bridge linking northeastern Asia with what is now Alaska. But the precise timing and the number of ‘migration waves’ is unclear, owing largely to variations in early Americans’ physical features, says Sérgio Pena, a molecular geneticist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

One broad group of these Palaeoamericans — the Botocudo people, who lived in inland regions of southeastern Brazil — stands out, having skull shapes that were intermediate between those of other Palaeoamericans and a presumed ancestral population in eastern Asia.

More on Nature.com

Who Really Discovered America?

Two more babies stricken with herpes after ritual oral blood sucking circumcision in New York City

Two more infants have been infected with a deadly herpes virus in the last three months after undergoing a controversial religious oral circumcision in New York City.

The latest cases bring the count to 13 infants since 2000, two of which suffered brain damage and two died from the virus which can rapidly spread throughout its body.

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish practice of metzitzah b'peh requires a practitioner to orally suck the baby's penis to 'cleanse' the open wound following its circumcision, making them susceptible to the virus.

More on Mail Online

Seven Nation Army

Golden Oldies

North Korea: latest war mongering

Western nations, including Britain, are deciding whether to pull diplomats out of North Korea after being told that their safety  cannot be guaranteed beyond Wednesday. Whitehall has been told it should consider evacuating its embassy in Pyongyang.

The Foreign Office last night said it had ‘no immediate plans to withdraw’ Britain’s embassy in Pyongyang and condemned ‘provocations’ by the North Korean regime. The US does not have an embassy in Pyongyang. Russia said yesterday that it was considering airlifting its workers out of the country and had been in discussions with China – North Korea’s closest ally.

The warning came just a day after David Cameron claimed that Kim Jong-un’s military have weapons which could threaten the UK. Mr Cameron said: ‘North Korea does now have missile technology that is able to reach, as they put it, the whole of the United States. ‘If they are able to reach the whole of the United States they can reach Europe too, they can reach us too. That is a real concern.’

Mail Online

Mystery Of 1938 'Time Traveler' With Cell Phone

The mystery surrounding a video that appears to show a young woman talking on a cell phone in 1938 may be solved. The explanation, if true, is sure to disappoint many conspiracy theorists.The black-and-white footage shows a group of young people, possibly factory workers, walking out of a building. A brunette in a light-colored dress smiles into the camera, her hand pressed to her ear. She is holding what looks to be a large portable phone.

The Daily Mail reports that the clip surfaced online about a year ago and kicked off speculation about a time traveler caught on camera. Recently, a YouTube commenter who goes by the handle Planetcheck claimed to know the woman in the footage. Though the version of the YouTube clip with Planetcheck's original comments has been removed, the Daily Mail and Yahoo! News blog The Sideshow copied some of Planetcheck's claims before the video disappeared.

According to the posts, Planetcheck professes to be the grandchild of the cell phone woman. Her name is Gertrude Jones, Planetcheck writes, and she was not a time traveler. "She was 17 years old," Planetcheck writes. "I asked her about this video and she remembers it quite clearly. She says Dupont [the company that reportedly owns the factory in the video] had a telephone communications section in the factory. They were experimenting with wireless telephones. Gertrude and five other women were given these wireless phones to test out for a week. Gertrude is talking to one of the scientists holding another wireless phone who is off to her right as she walks by."

More on Huffington Post

Brazil acquits suspect in activist murders

Jose Rodrigues Moreira, a Brazilian man accused of conspiring to kill two environmental activists, has been acquitted, as two other men were found guilty. The jury set Moreira free on Thursday due to insufficient evidence, disappointing family members of the murdered married couple who claim he was the alleged mastermind of the attack and has enjoyed impunity.

Jose Claudio da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo, had for years campaigned against loggers and ranchers who force slave labour to clear-cut large swaths of the Amazon. They had reported illegal loggers to police and federal prosecutors, and were killed in a May 2011 ambush near the Amazonian town of Maraba.

Two men, Lindonjonson Silva Rocha and Alberto Lopes do Nascimento, were found guilty of killing the couple and sentenced to more than 40 years in prison each. "This is a clear defeat for the families of the victims," said Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the court. "This was the person they really wanted to see go to jail.

"There are about 100 people outside the court; family members, friends, acquaintances. They're all chanting 'justice' and 'crime'." Prosecutors vowed to appeal the acquittal of Moreira.

Video and more on Al Jazeera English

Topless Jihad Day: 'Our Tits Are Deadlier Than Your Stones'

Femen activists have declared 4 April “topless jihad day” as a gesture of support for a Tunisian woman who was threatened with death by stoning for baring her breasts online.

Amina Tyler ignited a storm when she posted images of herself with the words “Fuck your morals” written across her chest to the Femen-Tunisia Facebook page. Another image showing her smoking a cigarette with: "My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone's honour", written in Arabic script across her bare chest, was also posted. As a preacher called for her death over fears “her act could bring about an epidemic”, Femen has responded with fury, calling for a “topless jihad day”.

Meanwhile the whereabouts of the 19-year-old are unclear. Some say she is in a psychiatric hospital. Some have expressed fears for her life. Attorney Bochra Bel Haj Hmida insists she has spoken to Amina and that she is home with her family and well. Yet last month Femen leader Inna Shevchenko told the Huffington Post UK that since abruptly losing contact with the young activist, she continues to fear for Amina’s safety. She said: “We still didn't hear [the] voice of Amina and didn't see her face. Until the moment we hear word of Amina about her safety we are searching for her and continuing our international bare breasts support.”

More on Huff. Post

Ethos

Presented by twice Oscar nominated actor & activist Woody Harrelson

From criminal conflicts of interest in politics, to unregulated corporate power, to a news media in the hands of multi-national conglomerates, to a military industrial complex that effectively owns the US government. Ethos looks at the systemic issues that work against democracy, the environment, democracy, justice and our own personal liberty.

Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore

Millions of internal records have leaked from Britain's offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of concealing assets from his ex-wife.

The leak of 2m emails and other documents, mainly from the offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), has the potential to cause a seismic shock worldwide to the booming offshore trade, with a former chief economist at McKinsey estimating that wealthy individuals may have as much as $32tn (£21tn) stashed in overseas havens.

In France, Jean-Jacques Augier, President François Hollande's campaign co-treasurer and close friend, has been forced to publicly identify his Chinese business partner. It emerges as Hollande is mired in financial scandal because his former budget minister concealed a Swiss bank account for 20 years and repeatedly lied about it.

In Mongolia, the country's former finance minister and deputy speaker of its parliament says he may have to resign from politics as a result of this investigation.

But the two can now be named for the first time because of their use of companies in offshore havens, particularly in the British Virgin Islands, where owners' identities normally remain secret.

The names have been unearthed in a novel project by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [ICIJ], in collaboration with the Guardian and other international media, who are jointly publishing their research results this week.

Names and facts in The Guardian

Should the British Queen be given £5m more?

Queen Elizabeth II is to receive a £5m boost from the taxpayer to carry out her official duties. The sovereign grant, which covers the running costs of the Queen's household, has been set at £36.1m for 2013-14, a rise of 16.5% on the previous year. In a period of economic austerity should the monarchy receive such extra funding?

Vote on The Guardian

Unknown Skeleton of Sea Creature Found in Qingdao China

Censored by TED: The War on Consciousness

Comments from YouTube:
This is my first encounter with Rupert Sheldrake, but I have read a number of Graham Hancock's books. I don't agree with everything Graham Hancock writes and he is often inflammatory and controversial, but I find his work interesting and thought-provoking. TED seems to have forgotten the part about the talks being "designed to inspire conversation, exchange and immediate action around ideas worth spreading -- all in a creative and casual setting."
I think the attempt by TED to censor Mr. Sheldrake's and Mr. Hancock's presentations is reprehensible and completely against the spirit of their tagline ("Ideas Worth Sharing") and their stated mission ("Spreading ideas"). They conveniently left out some bits. Apparently, the tagline is actually "Ideas TED Thinks Are Worth Sharing" and the real mission is "Spreading only the ideas TED approves of."
They have arrogated the right to judge the value of thoughts and ideas. They have arrogated the right to choose what we hear and learn. They have arrogated the right to think for us.

Brasscheck tv

Lego 'Withdraws' Star Wars Model After Anti-Muslim Complaints

Lego has reportedly agreed to withdraw a model from its Star Wars range after complaints it was anti-Muslim. The Jabba's Palace model will be withdrawn from 2014 onwards, the Independent reported.

The dome-topped structure, housing the slobbering Star Wars villain Jabba the Hut, sparked a row in January when a Turkish community in Austria raised concerns that it looked like Istanbul's Hagia Sofia mosque.

See the Huff. Post

The anti-drone hoodie that helps you beat Big Brother's spy in the sky

I am wearing a silver hoodie that stops just below the nipples. Or, if you prefer, a baggy crop-top with a hood. The piece – this is fashion, so it has to be a "piece" – is one of a kind, a prototype. It has wide square shoulders and an overzealous zip that does up right to the tip of my nose.

It does not, it's fair to say, make its wearer look especially cool. But that's not really what this hoodie is about. It has been designed to hide me from the thermal imaging systems of unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles – drones. And, as far as I can tell, it's working well.

"It's what I call anti-drone," explains designer Adam Harvey. "That's the sentiment. The material in the anti-drone clothing is made of silver, which is reflective to heat and makes the wearer invisible to thermal imaging."

The "anti-drone hoodie" was the central attraction of Harvey's Stealth Wear exhibition, which opened in central London in January, billed as a showcase for "counter-surveillance fashions". It is a field Harvey has been pioneering for three years now, making headlines in the tech community along the way.

The Guardian (what day is it?)