These are the facts of the case:
1. It's now admitted (June 2013) that there was a police bomb training at the EXACT time and location where the "bombs" when off
2. The captured brother was videotaped carrying a WHITE, not a black one
3. An eye witness reported that the killed brother was hit by a police car and then shot - he was not run over by his fleeing brother
4. The captured brother was photographed functional and non-bloody when he surrendered. He went to the hospital on a gurney, covered in blood with a wound to his throat so serious he was put in intensive care
5. One of the friends of the accused - who was unarmed and on crutches - was shot by an FBI agent SEVEN times during an interview and this murder is still unexplained. The original report said he attached the agent with a samurai sword. A lie.
If you still think Boston was real, watch this: The story of the Boston "hero"
9 Feb 2014
The "War on Terror" is a Fraud: Boston Bombing Hoax Explained In 6 Minutes
Iranian Poet and Activist Hashem Shaabani Executed
Hashem Shaabani, was executed on January 27th by the order of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. From Radio Free Europe: An Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal reportedly had sentenced the poet to death, along with 14 others, last July on charges that included “waging war on God.”
Press reports said Shaabani was hanged after his sentence was approved by President Hassan Rohani. In a statement on February 5, Freedom House said Shaabani was subjected to severe torture and interrogation during his three years in prison.
Human Rights Voices also reports on the execution, writing: To those who knew him, Hashem Shaabani was a man of peace and understanding struggling to extend spaces of individual freedom within the despotic Khomeinist system…In one of his letters from prison, made available to use through his family, Shaabani says he could not have remained silent against ‘hideous crimes against Ahvazis perpetrated by the Iranian authorities, particularly arbitrary and unjust executions.’ He adds “I have tried to defend the legitimate right that every people in this world should have which is the right to live freely with full civil rights. With all these miseries and tragedies, I have never used a weapon to fight these atrocious crimes except the pen.’”
8 Feb 2014
Paracas elongated skull are from a new human-like creature
Paracas is a desert peninsula located within the Pisco Province in the Ica Region, on the south coast of Peru. It is here were Peruvian archaeologist, Julio Tello, made an amazing discovery in 1928 – a massive and elaborate graveyard containing tombs filled with the remains of individuals with the largest elongated skulls found anywhere in the world. These have come to be known as the ‘Paracas skulls’. In total, Tello found more than 300 of these elongated skulls, which are believed to date back around 3,000 years. A DNA analysis has now been conducted on one of the skulls and expert Brien Foerster has released preliminary information regarding these enigmatic skulls.
The results of a DNA analysis of one of the skulls are now back, and Brien Foerster, author of more than ten books and an authority on the ancient elongated headed people of South America, has just revealed the preliminary results of the analysis. He reports on the geneticist's findings: It had mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) with mutations unknown in any human, primate, or animal known so far. But a few fragments I was able to sequence from this sample indicate that if these mutations will hold we are dealing with a new human-like creature, very distant from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans. The implications are of cause huge. “I am not sure it will even fit into the known evolutionary tree,” the geneticist wrote. He added that if the Paracas individuals were so biologically different, they would not have been able to interbreed with humans.
7 Feb 2014
Gay Dutch snowboarder is first to protest at Olympics
A Dutch snowboarder is the first athlete to protest against Russia’s anti-gay laws, at an Olympic event in Sochi yesterday. Cheryl Maas, one of just six openly gay athletes at the Games, made the protest at the Ladies’ Slopestyle event.
After finishing her run, she approached the camera and showed off her rainbow-and-unicorn decorated gloves, before walking off defiantly.
Female Saudi Student Dies When Staff Block Male Paramedics
Thousands of Saudis vented their anger online over a report Thursday that staff at a Riyadh university had barred male paramedics from entering a women's-only campus to assist a student who had suffered a heart attack and later died.
The Okaz newspaper said administrators at the King Saud University impeded efforts by the paramedics to save the student's life because of rules banning men from being onsite. According to the paper, the incident took place on Wednesday and the university staff took an hour before allowing the paramedics in.
Amna Bawazeer suffered a heart attack and collapsed suddenly on the campus on Wednesday. Her death sparked a debate on Twitter by Saudis who created a hashtag to talk about the incident. In the debate, many Saudis said the kingdom's strictly enforced rules governing the segregation of the sexes were to blame for the delay in helping Bawazeer. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam. Sexes are segregated in schools and almost all Saudi universities. Women also have separate seating areas and often separate entrances in "family" sections of restaurants and cafes where single males are not allowed. The kingdom's top cleric has warned against the mixing of the genders, saying it poses a threat to female chastity and society.
Channel 4 Goes Rainbow For The Day To Wish Good Luck To Everyone At Sochi Winter Olympics
British TV station Channel 4 has made a proud statement in time for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, beginning today.
With the world debating the rights and wrongs of the Olympics taking place in a country where a law banning gay education was recently passed, and activists opposing the ban are treated harshly by the state, the UK television station has made its feelings known.
In addition, they've produced this striking new trailer - 'Gay Mountain' - to wish good luck to ALL athletes competing at the Games – gay or straight – with the message “good luck to everyone out in Sochi”. Bravo!
6 Feb 2014
Iraq illegally detains, tortures and rapes thousands of women
Iraqi authorities are detaining thousands of women illegally and subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Thursday.
Many women were detained for months or even years without charge before seeing a judge, HRW said, and security forces often questioned them about their male relatives' activities rather than crimes in which they themselves were implicated.
In custody, women described being kicked, slapped, hung upside-down and beaten on the soles of their feet, given electric shocks, threatened with sexual assault by security forces during interrogation, and even raped in front of their relatives and children.
"The abuses of women we documented are in many ways at the heart of the current crisis in Iraq," said HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa director Joe Stork in a statement accompanying the report, titled: "'No One Is Safe': Abuses of Women in Iraq's Criminal Justice System."
"These abuses have caused a deep-seated anger and lack of trust between Iraq's diverse communities and security forces, and all Iraqis are paying the price."
Turkey Approves Harsh New Internet Law
Turkey's Parliament approved a law on Thursday that would grant sweeping new powers to the government to censor and monitor the Internet traffic of citizens.
The law, which still requires final approval by the country's president, would permit the government to quickly shutter a website deemed inappropriate, and orders Internet companies to store traffic and other data for two years.
The user data storage provisions of the bill are reminiscent of plans discussed by the Obama administration to require cellular phone companies to store the "metadata" of citizens for a set period of time. That data could later be ordered to be turned over to investigating government agencies, and could be used to track or otherwise monitor phone users. In the U.S., those discussions came in the aftermath of the revelations leaked by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
In Turkey, the new law comes amid a difficult period for the country's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has faced challenges to his rule from a popular protest movement, as well as a murky powerbroker with ties to the security state. The government has increasingly responded to attacks on its authority with crackdowns, especially on free speech and the press.
Soldiers in Central African Republic lynch suspected rebel moments after official ceremony
A military ceremony in the Central African Republic ended in violence Wednesday after soldiers lynched a man to death who they suspected of being a former rebel, according to AFP journalists. Minutes after the departure of officials from the ceremony in the capital Bangui, including interim President Catherine Samba Panza, the soldiers attacked a young man in civilian clothes, hitting, stabbing and throwing stones at him.
His body was then dragged though the streets as African Union troops looked on. Pictures showed a soldier stamping on the bloodied head of the man while another prepared to stab him in the side. The lynching was carried out under the noses of soldiers from the African Union-led MISCA mission, which was providing security at the event.
At Sochi, Igor Kharchenko Becomes Second Activist Jailed In 3 Days
An activist who has been monitoring environmental fallout from the Sochi Olympics has been jailed for five days for resisting police, apparently part of a continuing harassment campaign against local activists.
Igor Kharchenko was grabbed on the street in the regional capital of Krasnodar late Tuesday afternoon as he left his house and found his car smashed, an associate, Olga Soldatova, said Wednesday. Police charged him with resisting police orders. Soldatova, who was with him at the police station, said Kharchenko was given a blank sheet of paper instead of a protocol sanctioning his detention.
Kharchenko was put on trial behind closed doors Wednesday and sentenced to five days in jail for disobeying police orders. "They were leading Kharchenko out, and he told us he got 5 days, without a proper trial, lawyer or witnesses," said Soldatova, who was at the courthouse.
5 Feb 2014
UN Report Denounces Vatican For Sex Abuse And Stands On Contraception, Abortion And Homosexuality
A U.N. human rights committee denounced the Vatican on Wednesday for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on the pedophiles and the churchmen who concealed their crimes.
In a devastating report, the U.N. committee also severely criticized the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should review its policies to ensure children's rights and their access to health care are guaranteed.
On sex abuse, "the committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators," the report said.
It called for the sex abuse commission that Pope Francis announced in December to conduct an independent investigation of all cases of priestly abuse and the way the Catholic hierarchy has responded over time, and urged the Holy See establish clear rules for the mandatory reporting of abuse to police.
New Afghanistan law to silence victims of violence against women
A new Afghan law will allow men to attack their wives, children and sisters without fear of judicial punishment, undoing years of slow progress in tackling violence in a country blighted by so-called "honour" killings, forced marriage and vicious domestic abuse.
The small but significant change to Afghanistan's criminal prosecution code bans relatives of an accused person from testifying against them. Most violence against women in Afghanistan is within the family, so the law – passed by parliament but awaiting the signature of the president, Hamid Karzai – will effectively silence victims as well as most potential witnesses to their suffering.
"It is a travesty this is happening," said Manizha Naderi, director of the charity and campaign group Women for Afghan Women. "It will make it impossible to prosecute cases of violence against women … The most vulnerable people won't get justice now."
4 Feb 2014
Anyone Who Demands Reform Or Exposes Corruption Is A Terrorist in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia put into effect a sweeping new counterterrorism law Sunday that human rights activists say allows the kingdom to prosecute as a terrorist anyone who demands reform, exposes corruption or otherwise engages in dissent.
The law states that any act that "undermines" the state or society, including calls for regime change in Saudi Arabia, can be tried as an act of terrorism. It also grants security services broad powers to raid homes and track phone calls and Internet activity.
Human rights activists were alarmed by the law and said it is clearly aimed at keeping the kingdom's ruling Al Saud family firmly in control amid the demands for democratic reform that have grown louder since the Arab Spring protests that shook the region in 2011 and toppled longtime autocrats.
Saudi activist Abdulaziz al-Shubaily described the law as a "catastrophe." And Human Rights Watch researcher Adam Coogle warned: "The new law is draconian in spirit and letter, and there is every reason to fear that the authorities will easily and eagerly use it against peaceful dissidents." The measure was approved by the Cabinet on Dec. 16 and ratified by King Abdullah. It was published in its entirety for the first time on Friday in the government's official gazette Um Al-Qura.
3 Feb 2014
Environmental Activist Jailed During Olympics
An activist who has reported on the environmental fallout from construction for the Sochi Olympics was found guilty Monday of swearing in public and ordered jailed for 15 days, his lawyer said. Yevgeny Vitishko, who is serving a three-year, suspended sentence for spray-painting a fence, had planned on traveling to Sochi to present an environmental report.
Alexander Popkov, a lawyer for Vitishko in Sochi, told The Associated Press that his client was arrested as he was about to leave the town of Tuapse, 72 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Sochi along the Black Sea coast, after formally filing for permission to travel to the Olympic city. He was found guilty of swearing at a bus stop, a hooliganism charge.
Vitishko and another activist, Suren Gazaryan, were found guilty in 2012 of "deliberate destruction of property" for spray-painting the fence of what they said was a local governor's property in a national forest where construction is forbidden. Both men received a suspended sentence, but Gazaryan was later threatened with more charges and fled Russia. He was granted political asylum in Estonia. Vitishko is a member of the Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus, a group that has been key in shedding light on environmental damage in the Sochi area. The organization is expected to present a new report on Sochi later this month.
Valery Khachaturyan, another activist who was present at Vitishko's trial, told the AP that the court session lasted barely four minutes. The judge refused Vitishko's motion to summon witnesses who said he was swearing in public. Vitishko told the court he was visiting authorities of the penitentiary at the time when the unidentified witness claimed he was swearing at a bus station, Khachaturyan said.
The 15-day sentence means that Vitishko won't be in the Sochi area for most of the Olympics, as well as the torch relay through Tuapse. Although Russians swear abundantly in public, it is considered a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine or up to 15 days in jail. It is an offense that is rarely enforced.
2 Feb 2014
Cops
Cops is a 1922 comedy short silent film about a young man (Buster Keaton) who accidentally gets on the bad side of the entire Los Angeles Police Department during a parade, and is chased all over town. It was written and directed by Edward F. Cline and Keaton.
This very Kafka-esque film is Keaton's response to the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. Even though the central character's intentions are good, he cannot win, no matter how inventively he tries. He gets into various scraps with police officers throughout the film. Eventually, he unwittingly throws a bomb into a police parade and ends up being chased by a horde of cops. At the end of the film, Keaton's character locks up the cops in the police station. However, the girl he is trying to woo disapproves of his behavior and gives him the cold shoulder. Therefore, he unlocks the police station and is immediately pulled in by the cops. The film ends with the title "The End" written on a tombstone with Keaton's pork pie hat propped on it.
One of Keaton's most iconic and brilliantly-constructed short films, Cops was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry in 1997.
First explicit pictures of massive barrel bomb dropped on rebel zones in Syria
Media activists in Daraya, southern Damascus, have been posting dramatic videos of massive barrel bombs being dropped from helicopters on the rebel-held city over the past few weeks. The massive improvised armaments are well documented and are made from barrels packed with explosives. This video is described as showing a strike on January 31, and captures the ordnance being dropped from a helicopter.
1 Feb 2014
'Obama is an enemy combatant and should be executed'
Voters in Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine’s Oklahoma district may look meek and mild, maybe even sweet, but their opinions of President Obama reveal nothing but a battleground “take-no-prisoners” attitude.
One lady, for example, said there needs to be changes in the Senate so “we can impeach the S-O-B.” Said another: “He’s not president as far as I’m concerned. … Should be executed. He’s an enemy combatant.” She complained that Congress is doing nothing, and that “allows this moron to make decisions.” “He has no authority. None.”
The video was uploaded just this week, but it’s unclear when the meeting was held, and the congressman’s office was unable to provide details immediately. At one point the congressman references “back in April 2013,” and it appears to be winter, so likely it was recorded in the past few months. The congressman had been documenting Obama’s “lawlessness.”
“He picks and chooses which laws to enforce or not enforce. He does it by decree. … He uses foreign bodies. He uses the United Nations,” Bridenstine said.
Checkpoint
"Checkpoint" is based on the oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his recent trip to Palestine and Israel.