Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Woman killed by pigs over small amount of Marijuana

The next time someone questions why many cops get killed and attacked during routine stops read this story and you have your answer.


Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Kansas Woman Left to Die In Jail Over Small Amount of Marijuana



Amanda Warren
Activist Post

Brenda Sewell and her sister Joy Biggs had recently purchased a motor home from a Colorado couple. The couple delivered it to them in Kansas City and the sisters drove the couple back to Colorado.

It was on their way home, just after crossing the Colorado-Kansas border, when a Kansas Highway Patrol officer pulled the women over for suspected speeding in Sherman County.

Biggs never could have guessed that in less than 72 hours she'd be helping a jail mate try to revive her dying sister who was foaming at the mouth.

While suspected speeding last Monday was the reason the officer pulled their car over, the discovery of a small amount of marijuana is why they were taken to a Goodland jail where they were both denied a phone call.

Sewell, age 58, was on legal prescriptions to treat long term problems with her thyroid, hepatitis C and fibromyalgia. She had purchased the marijuana from Colorado, where it was recently made legal, to manage nausea and lack of appetite.

Jailers would not allow her to take her prescriptions. She had them in a daily pill container instead of the original bottles. Since they couldn't identify the pills they denied them while she waited in jail.

Biggs reports that her sister was not feeling well on Monday in jail. After a morning of vomiting on Tuesday, jailers did not send her to the hospital until she was vomiting blood that evening. They immediately returned her to the jail after an hour of treatment.

On Wednesday morning Sewell began foaming at the mouth. Biggs pleaded with jailers while she and a cell mate performed CPR. She was finally taken to the hospital again, where this time, she was pronounced dead.

The family wants to find out what caused her death and believe jailers took too long to help.

Sewell was a recently widowed grandmother who was described as giving, loving and joyful. She contributed with charity work, and giving extra help to struggling students as a teacher's aide, donating items the classroom needed. Her memorial service is on Saturday, February 1.

Goodland Police Chief Cliff Couch says it could be days before an investigation is completed.

Sherman County Sheriff’s Office refuses to comment until then, but released a statement that said:
At this time as is typical in cases like this the investigation was immediately turned over to an outside agency. No further comments will be made pending the results of autopsy and outside investigation.
If only "cases like this" - where someone is pulled aside for a victimless crime, searched for possession of a victimless substance to help with symptoms from legal substances, jailed for something legal a few miles away, locked up with no communication to the outside world, denied legal addictive substances that come from the very place from which he/she is then denied treatment, only to end up dead there hours later - were not so typical in the so-called "war on drugs."
http://www.activistpost.com/2014/01/kansas-woman-left-to-die-in-jail-over.html#more

Honky pig bratton running NYC pigs again

This fucker needs only to look in the mirror and around him at the loss of freedoms people have to experience thanks largely in part because of him, this appointment is an incitement to violence against cops in NYC.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/nyregion/bratton-stands-before-police-force-with-a-mandate-for-change.html?_r=0 Bratton Takes Helm of Police Force He Pledged to Change By J. DAVID GOODMAN and JOSEPH GOLDSTEINJAN. 2, 2014 Minutes after the bagpipes faded and he took the oath of office on Thursday, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton signaled that he intended to shift the nation’s largest police department away from an aggressive style of patrolling New York City that had alienated many minority residents. In his first policy message to the city and the police force he now commands, Mr. Bratton said that the tremendous strides the department had made in reducing crime should long ago have given way to fewer confrontational encounters between the police and the public. “Crime is down to such extraordinarily low levels in this city versus where it was that there is an expectation — or there should be an expectation — that the intrusion of police into citizens’ lives should also diminish,” he told reporters after being sworn in. “But we had the reverse happening.” A day after he officially took over the department on Wednesday in a private ceremony, Mr. Bratton said it was unfortunate that relations between the police and the community were marked by “disconnect” and “alienation.” Mr. Bratton, with his wife, Rikki Klieman, held his new badge after he was sworn in on Thursday. Damon Winter/The New York Times Mr. Bratton’s remarks, often introspective in tone, differed markedly from those of his predecessor, Raymond W. Kelly, who often bristled at the suggestion that his strategies were sowing discord. “We will all work hard to identify why is it that so many in this city do not feel good about this department that has done so much to make them safe — what has it been about our activities that have made so many alienated?” Mr. Bratton said, speaking to a packed hall at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan. He pledged a new era of policing that would be “a collaboration unlike any that we have ever seen” in New York. “That’s why I came back,” he said. Mr. Bratton, the city’s 42nd police commissioner, must now deliver on the campaign promises of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who vowed to make changes to the stop-and-frisk tactics that were the dominant theme under Mr. Kelly. But with the Police Department coming under increasing criticism, substantial changes already began taking root toward the end of Mr. Kelly’s tenure, with street stops falling precipitously since early 2012. Mr. Bratton outlined in the most concrete terms to date how his crime-fighting strategies would differ from those of his predecessor. He singled out Operation Impact, Mr. Kelly’s signature program, which involved sending rookie officers to high-crime neighborhoods to seek out suspicious behavior and confront it. The program led to a soaring number of recorded street stops and angered some residents of neighborhoods such as Brownsville, Brooklyn, who complained of a dragnet approach, particularly in public housing. “The former commissioner, his opinion was that stop, question and frisk and Operation Impact were the way to go,” Mr. Bratton said. “It really is a difference of opinion.” While Mr. Kelly’s crime-fighting strategy involved relentless enforcement of even minor violations, Mr. Bratton, 66, suggested that approach was coming at too high cost. “I am quite comfortable that we can have less and achieve the same results,” Mr. Bratton said. Mr. Bratton returns to a department he ran from 1994 to 1996. During that period, he changed the posture of the Police Department from one focused on responding to crimes to one that sought to prevent them, in part through an intense focus on low-level, quality-of-life offenses. Since then, he has spent years consulting departments around the country. He was also the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. There he received wide praise as he led a police force that had been plagued by corruption and brutality out from under a federal consent decree in the 2000s. He reached out to the department’s critics early on, and won over most of them by the time he stepped down in 2009, despite a doubling in the number of stop-and-frisk encounters during his tenure. On Thursday, Mr. Bratton said he would also look to the nation’s other police departments for ideas and inspiration — a striking note of humility for the head of a department that had long seen itself to be the leader in innovation. Mr. Bratton said returning to Police Headquarters was like coming back to a familiar home that had been remodeled. He said a bottle of Champagne from Mr. Kelly was waiting for him with a note: “Happy New Year, Good Luck.” Mr. Kelly did not attend Thursday’s swearing-in. While drawing firm distinction with Mr. Kelly, he also offered kind words, saying that under his leadership the Police Department kept the city safe not only from crime but from a terrorist threat that registered far less during Mr. Bratton’s previous tenure. Mr. Bratton’s compliments were in stark contrast to speeches on the day Mr. de Blasio named him as commissioner; neither uttered Mr. Kelly’s name in their prepared remarks. Mr. Bratton also praised the department’s strategy to suppress violence associated with the informal youth gangs responsible for many of the city’s shootings. Mr. Bratton said he would seek to build on the successes of that program, known as Operation Crew Cut and begun in 2012. He said he would seek to expand it and involve more narcotics officers. A version of this article appears in print on January 3, 2014, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Bratton Vows to Steer Police Away From Aggressive Tactics. 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Honky pig arpaio plans AZ governor run

I'm amazed that nobody has whacked this honky pig yet, especially as his brutalization of prisoners continues.

http://minutemennews.com/2014/01/sheriff-joe-arpaio-mulls-run-arizona-governor/ Sheriff Joe Arpaio mulls run for Arizona governor By Cheryl K. Chumley The Washington Times Friday, January 24, 2014 Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the law enforcement local known nationwide for his tough treatment of inmates and illegals alike, said that he's mulling a run for governor of Arizona. The Elect Sheriff Joe Arpaio committee put out a press release this week, saying the six-term sheriff raised more than $3.5 million last year for his re-election to the local office at a time when his critics were pushing the hardest. "We continue to be blown away by the depth and breadth of support for Sheriff Joe," said Chad Willems, Mr. Arpaio's campaign manager, in the release reported by the Huffington Post. "These members tell the story that the sheriff and his policies are more popular than ever." Mr. Arpaio has served as sheriff since 1993, but now, he's thinking of move up the political ladder. "Every four years, my supporters encourage me to run for governor," Mr. Arpaio said, in the Huffington Post. "Based on these fundraising numbers and knowing I could be competitive. I will have to give it serious consideration." © Copyright 2014 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/24/sheriff-joe-arpaio-mulls-run-arizona-governor/#ixzz2rokK5hx3

Monday, January 27, 2014

Claudio Abbado dies

Truly sad. I have many of his recordings, including his 1991 Wiener Philharmoniker Neujarskonzerte recording. Interesting his obituary neglects to mention that his family had ruled Granada before Espana conquered it in 1492, and that he is a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed, which adds something to his music and the impact it had on the World.


 http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/us/artist/abbado/

CLAUDIO ABBADO
(26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014)

It is with deep regret that Deutsche Grammophon announces the passing of one of the greatest conductors of this and the last century. The label is proud to have accompanied Claudio Abbado on his musical journey over the last 46 years, and to have had the privilege of preserving his work in recordings.
Max Hole, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Universal Music Group International said: “Like all music lovers around the world, I am deeply saddened by Maestro Abbado’s death. Claudio Abbado’s contribution to musical life is inestimable, from the ensembles he created to his positions at La Scala, the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Lucerne Festival. It has been a privilege for everyone at Universal Music to work with him over so many years, he was truly one of the greats.”
Frank Briegmann, President Central Europe Universal Music and Deutsche Grammophon, commented: “Claudio Abbado has changed the world of music – with his body of work as well as with his personality. He consistently placed emphasis on dialogue and cooperation which made his music so alive. Moreover, he has made an impact as a patron for young talents. Much to my regret, our plans for the future will now be uncompleted. Nevertheless, it is comforting that Claudio Abbado’s spirit will stay alive after his death – in his recordings as much as in what he taught other artists.”
Claudio Abbado will be remembered not only for his capacity to reveal the secrets of music with unfailing clarity but also for his tireless work and communicative gifts in encouraging musicians, founding orchestras and establishing festivals.
In 2012, when Gramophone named Abbado as one of the “50 People Who Changed Classical Music”, Douglas Boyd wrote, “What makes Claudio a great artist is his humanity, his extraordinary ability to change the sounds of the orchestra with just a gesture … His performances can be life-changing.”
Abbado, who made his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon in 1967, and his last in 2013, leaves behind an extraordinary recorded legacy that bears witness to his personal development as a musician, his special affinities for Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Verdi, Mussorgsky, Mahler, Debussy and Ravel, his championing of contemporary works, and his achievements with institutions that he served as music director and which, in turn, shaped his career: the Teatro alla Scala in Milan (1968–86), the London Symphony Orchestra (1979–87), the Vienna Staatsoper (1986–91) and the Berliner Philharmoniker (1989–2002).
He devoted much time to nurturing young talent, and was founder and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra, which developed into the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 1981; with them he conducted recordings of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims and Schubert’s complete symphonies (Gramophone’s “Record of the Year” in 1986 and 1988, respectively). After leaving Berlin in 2002, he continued to work with the COE and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, before creating the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003 and the Orchestra Mozart in Bologna in 2004.
Major releases continued to appear: to mark Abbado’s 80th birthday in June 2013, Deutsche Grammophon issued a 41-CD edition covering the core works of the symphonic repertoire. In the same year the company released his recordings with Orchestra Mozart of Schumann’s Second Symphony and Mozart Piano Concertos with Maria João Pires, while a new recording with Martha Argerich of Mozart’s D minor and C major Piano Concertos, K 466 and K 503 respectively, is due to appear in February 2014.
The approach that Abbado summed up in the words “the term ‘great conductor’ has no meaning for me – it is the composer who is great” was no empty rhetoric. After meticulous preparation, involving consultation of original sources, he conducted everything from memory. Freed from the physical presence of the score, it was perhaps his ability truly to listen that made his performances unique. In an interview given to The Guardian in 2009, Abbado made the comment, “For me, listening is the most important thing: to listen to each other, to listen to what people say, to listen to music.”

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Sochi threats overplayed by america

Rossiya is more than capable of providing security for the Sochi Olympics, and foreign meddling in it's security would only cause more trouble.  The demands by many Caucasus rebels are based partly on pseudo-history, and many of their claims are backed by the american and saudi governments.
Also while the Sochi Olympics may be free from attack do not be surprised if these terrorists strike elsewhere. With all the attention focused on Sochi security many soft targets will be vulnerable.


http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/21-01-2014/126634-usa_russia_sochi-0/

USA outraged with Russia's unwillingness to ask for help

21.01.2014 16:05
USA outraged with Russia's unwillingness to ask for help. 51975.png

U.S. lawmakers - at least some of them - have questioned the competence of Russian special services. It goes about security at the Olympic Games. At the same time, they say that U.S. intelligence agencies are satisfied with cooperation with Russian colleagues. Meanwhile, Russian experts remind that Russia had warned America of Boston attacks staged by Tsarnaev brothers. But U.S. intelligence agencies ignored those messages.

The above-mentioned statements were made after Vladimir Putin, in an interview with several TV channels about the Olympics in Sochi, said that Russia was perfectly aware of threats to security at the Games. Russia knows how to stop them, Putin added.

"I hope that everything that we do, we do with understanding, with clear understanding of the operational situation that develops around Sochi and in the region in general, we have a perfect understanding of what it is, what kind of a threat it is and how to struggle against it," said the president.

In an interview with CNN, the head of the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Rogers, said that there was a rupture in cooperation "between security services."

According to him, Russian special services had not specified the type of possible threats. About 15,000 Americans are going to arrive for the Olympic Games in Sochi, and Russia, the congressman believes, should ensure total cooperation with the U.S.

At the same time, the chairman of the committee on national security, Republican Michael McCaul, said in an interview with ABC said that the U.S. intelligence agencies that cooperate with Russian ones, are satisfied with their work.

The Diplomatic Security Corps (of the U.S. State Department) said that cooperation was fine, McCaul said. It goes about the Diplomatic Security Service - the law-enforcement directorate of the State Department, which has the status of a separate federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The department, on behalf of all U.S. intelligence services, coordinates cooperation with Russian services to ensure everyone's safety at the Sochi Olympics.

McCaul also gave a negative assessment to the issue of security at the Games. According to him, cooperation with Russian special services could be better.

Another critic is former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell. In an interview with CBS, he said that the U.S. had always cooperated with all countries, where Olympic Games were held. With Russia, he added, there was no such level of cooperation reached.

According to Morrel, this is being done deliberately. Russian special services deliberately do not want to admit that they do not control the situation completely not to ask for help, the US official said.

Meanwhile, FBI Director James Comey said that employees of his department, including himself, "were personally in regular contact with law-enforcement organizations of Russia "to ensure that we co-ordinate our actions well."

"I think we can do it. We have improved the exchange of information in the fight against terrorism, and this is important," said Comey.

According to unofficial data, there are at least several hundred employees of U.S. intelligence services staying in Russia now. Several dozens of them are from the FBI, and not less than 350 come from the Diplomatic Security Service.

Interestingly, it is the people who are somehow connected with intelligence activities of U.S. special services, who express discontent with the level of cooperation. Those dealing with security are more diplomatic in their remarks.

FSB Retired Major-General Yevgeny Lobachyov said that the claims from American politicians were "nonsensical."

"The NSA monitors everyone everywhere and claims to know everything about everyone. And then they come to Russia with a request to provide some materials to them that would help them understand the level of terrorist threats. This is nonsense," he told Politonline.ru.

According to Lobachyov, "one should not have provided any materials on the subject."

"But on our part, all necessary materials have been provided, and nobody denies that. I believe that this is another political provocation from the United States," he said.

Former First Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Kolesnikov considers the claims from the Americans unfounded as well.

"When our intelligence agencies received information about Tsarnaev brothers, we immediately reported it to Americans. Unfortunately, they did not look into that after they received the information. As a result, many American citizens suffered," he told Politonline.ru.

"We are open, and we share any information that can help solve this evil immediately. Saying that we hide some information is biased, to put it mildly," said Vladimir Kolesnikov.

Politonline

Read the original in Russian
Дмитрий Судаков

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Iran mismanages Tonb Islands and Abu Musa

The Tonb Islands and Abu Musa are historic Iranian territory and Iran has no right to do this, especially as UAE would not exist, nor would Qabus be in power, if Iran had not assisted them in 1970's.  You can see more info on those islands at the link below
https://www.facebook.com/PeterIIKhaneMazendaran/posts/698587296830876?stream_ref=10
You can also see the composition of the UAE Naval forces below
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.188934704452300.49716.169376436408127&type=1
You can also see the composition of the Omani Naval forces below
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.188535514492219.49526.169376436408127&type=1
Clearly Iran has sufficient force to handle the UAE and Oman should they attack Iran, and to give up Tonb Islands would create an excellent place to launch any attack against Iran.



http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140115/DEFREG04/301150034/Source-UAE-Iran-Reach-Accord-Disputed-Hormuz-Islands
Source: UAE, Iran Reach Accord on Disputed Hormuz Islands
Jan. 15, 2014 - 03:45AM   |   By AWAD MUSTAFA  

ABU DHABI — The United Arab Emirates and Iran have reached an agreement on the three disputed islands near the Strait of Hormuz, according to a high level UAE source.

According to the source, UAE and Iranian officials have engaged in secretive talks with the help of the Omani government over the past six months.

“A deal has been reached and finalized on the Greater and Lesser Tunbs,” the source said. “For now, two of the three islands are to return to the UAE while the final agreement for Abu Musa is being ironed out.”

“Iran will retain the sea bed rights around the three islands while the UAE will hold sovereignty over the land,” he said. “Oman will grant Iran a strategic location on Ras Musandam mountain, which is a very strategic point overlooking the whole gulf region.

“In return for Ras Musandam, Oman will receive free gas and oil from Iran once a pipeline is constructed within the coming two years.”

The source added that Oman’s role will be important in the next chapter.

“Oman was given the green light from Iran and the US to reach deals that would decrease the threat levels in the region and offset the Saudi Arabian influence in the future by any means,” he said.

The agreement was finalized on Dec. 24, the source said, during the visit of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, with Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman.

The strategically located islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs are close to the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint. The islands were occupied by Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pehlavi less than 48 hours before the declaration in 1971 of the establishment of the United Arab Emirates.

The largest of the three Islands, Abu Musa, had been under joint administration of the emirate of Sharjah and Iran, while the Greater and Lesser Tunbs belonged to the emirate of Ras al Khaimah, according to official UAE records.

Last year, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command inaugurated a naval base on Abu Musa. The source stated that the Iranian military on Abu Musa has already started to stand down.

“They are in the process of destroying their bunkers on the island,” he said.

Furthermore, a senior US military official in December said that Iran has redeployed a squadron of Su-25 jet fighters off Abu Musa.

After the announcement of the P5+1 interim nuclear deal, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed visited Tehran to discuss the islands issue, the source said. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif came to Abu Dhabi the following week to meet with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan and other senior leaders to further cement an agreement, he said.

The source added that there is a fear of a violent backlash in Iran to the deal.

Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst for the International Crisis Group, said he is skeptical of the news.

“[Iranian] President [Hassan] Rouhani is in a fragile domestic situation as a result of hardline criticism of his conciliatory nuclear approach and outreach to the United States,” he said. “Under these circumstances, any move perceived as undermining the country’s sovereignty could turn into the last straw that breaks the Rouhani administration’s back.”

However, he said the Iranian government is genuinely seeking to improve its ties with its neighbors, and such a move has to be green-lighted by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Such foreign policy agenda requires the supreme leader’s blessing for its implementation,” Vaez said. “But neither the Rouhani administration nor Khamenei would accept to capitulate to the demands of their neighbors for the sake of having a better relationship with them.”

During Foreign Minister Zarif’s visit in December, an invitation was extended to UAE’s president Vice President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid to visit Tehran. Earlier this week during an interview on BBC, Bin Rashid stated that he is for the lifting of the US-imposed sanctions on Iran and was in favor of bridging the gap between the two countries.

Before sanctions were imposed in 2007, trade between the UAE and Iran was valued between 36.7 billion dirhams and 44.1 billion dirhams (US $10 billion to $12 billion), according to the Iranian Business Council in Dubai. US Secretary of State John Kerry in November said that after the introduction of tougher sanctions in 2012, trade has dropped to a record low of $4 billion. ■

Email: amustafa@defensenews.com.

Iran miscourted over UN Syria talks

While I question the UN inviting Iran to talks over Syria, the fact that the UN could cave in to american pressure on Iran is of greater concern.  This shows not only bias but that something clandestine is afoot in the region.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/world/middleeast/syria.html?hp&_r=0
Talks Over Syria Are Set to Begin, but Iran Is Not Invited

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ANNE BARNARDJAN. 20, 2014


WASHINGTON — American and other Western diplomats on Monday managed to salvage the long-awaited peace conference on Syria, which had seemed on the verge of unraveling before it even began when Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, issued an unexpected invitation to Iran to attend.

The possible presence of the Iranians infuriated Syrian opposition leaders, who said they would not attend the conference. But after a day of intensive consultations in which American officials made clear their unhappiness with Mr. Ban’s move, Iran was disinvited, and diplomats affirmed the conference will begin in Switzerland on Wednesday.

The 24-hour controversy, while a diversion from the main issues about Syria’s future that will be on the table there, seemed a fitting prelude for what even the most optimistic American diplomats say will be prolonged, grinding and uncertain negotiations in which the combatants in the Syrian civil war are scheduled to meet face to face for the first time.
Crisis in Syria

“I don’t think that anyone who’s dealt with Syrian officials has any false expectations of rapid progress,” a senior official at the State Department said on Monday, in one of the day’s more optimistic assessments. “This is the beginning of a process. It is not going to be fast.”

It is, in fact, hard to imagine a peace conference that has been convened under less propitious circumstances.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced during a trip to Moscow in May that the United States, along with Russia, wanted to convene the peace conference, an idea first discussed the year before in Geneva. But since that announcement, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has strengthened his military position, the fractious opposition has become more divided, and Russia and the United States have differed on how to interpret the mandate for the meeting.

The United States’ leverage over the Assad government, meanwhile, has declined. Mr. Kerry arrived at the State Department last year declaring his intention to change Mr. Assad’s “calculation” about his ability to hold on to power. But the Obama administration withdrew the threat of force in return last fall for an agreement that requires Syria to eliminate its chemical arsenal, while the American effort to train and equip Syrian rebels, by all accounts, remained very limited.

“For any political conference to succeed in trying to defuse, much less settle, an intense conflict, the ground has to be laid,” said Dennis B. Ross, a former Middle East envoy. “An agenda needs to be agreed, the parties have to want some minimal achievement, the convening co-sponsors have to share some basic goals, and there has to be sufficient leverage on those doing the fighting to permit some compromises to be made. Most of these conditions are lacking.”

Added a Western diplomat involved in preparations for the talks: “We don’t have a Plan B.”

Unlike the Middle East talks, in which Mr. Kerry set a nine-month goal for completing a peace treaty, there is no target date for completing the Syria peace talks or establishing a transitional administration that could take over if Mr. Assad agreed to relinquish power. In a closed-door meeting with the Syrian opposition last year, Mr. Kerry noted that Vietnam peace negotiations had gone on for years.

Despite the enormous obstacles, the State Department asserts that the talks are worth holding because the push to establish a transitional body to govern Syria, a main goal of the conference, might encourage defections among Mr. Assad’s traditional supporters, including the Alawite sect, of which he is a member.

“There are elements inside the regime itself, among its supporters, that are anxious to find a peaceful solution, and we’ve gotten plenty of messages from people inside; they want a way out,” the State Department official said.

“That’s the whole point of their going to Geneva,” the official added, referring to officials of the Syrian opposition. “To promote the alternative, the alternative vision.”

But if that is the goal, Mr. Assad has sought to redefine the purpose of the talks before they have even begun. In comments published on Monday by Agence France-Presse, Mr. Assad said that the purpose of the meeting should be to discuss ways to fight terrorism and that it was “totally unrealistic” to think that he would ever share power with the opposition that is living in exile.

At the same time, American officials say, Syrian forces have carried out a display of force by stepping up their attacks in Syria and have continued to bomb Aleppo, its largest city.

A recent announcement by the Syrian government that it was prepared to accept a cease-fire in the bitter battle for Aleppo, American officials report, contained an enormous catch: It requires rebel fighters to vacate the city, where many of their families reside, so it could be controlled by Syrian forces.

To get even this far required a day of intensive diplomacy after Mr. Ban announced on Sunday night that the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, had agreed to the mandate for the conference and that Iran would be invited to attend.

American officials said that Mr. Kerry had told Mr. Ban before his announcement that Iran needed to publicly endorse the 2012 communiqué that laid the basis for the conference, which stipulates that the goal of the meeting is the establishment of transitional administration by “mutual consent” of the Assad government and the Syrian opposition. Mr. Kerry was described by an American official as having been furious after Mr. Ban’s news conference.

For the Syrian opposition, the invitation to Iran was a major insult. Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force has been helping Syrian forces in their campaign in Aleppo, opposition officials said, and training Mr. Assad’s militias. Now a belligerent in the conflict would be attending a peace conference that the opposition already feared might be unproductive.

But after Iran declined to publicly endorse the communiqué on Monday, the United Nations withdrew the invitation, and the conference was back on track.

The controversy played out on the same day that the temporary agreement to constrain Iran’s nuclear program went into effect. But American officials say the United States has received no communications from Iran complaining about the withdrawal of the invitation or linking the Syria issue to the nuclear negotiations. As a general rule, Iran and the United States have compartmentalized the nuclear talks and have engaged in little discussion of regional issues, even in their back channel negotiations.

The Syria conference will begin on Wednesday with a round of addresses by Mr. Kerry and his counterparts in the Swiss town of Montreux. On Friday, the conference will shift to Geneva, where a delegation of Syrian opposition officials will sit down with a team sent to represent Mr. Assad.

Attending the meeting carries risks for both sides. For the government delegation, a hotel lobby teeming with foreign journalists, Western diplomats and Syrian opposition members is an opportunity to sell its message, but anyone suspected of talking about possible participation in a transitional body could face repercussions at home.

The opposition coalition, for its part, risks a further erosion of influence with fighters inside Syria for sitting down to talk with Mr. Assad’s delegation. The opposition has yet to release the names of its delegation and its several dozen advisers, but they are said to include only a small number of military commanders.

An immediate question is whether the talks will lead to the opening of aid corridors, prisoner exchanges or local cease-fires. The matter is important to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in which the Assad government has imposed blockades on the delivery of food, medicine and aid to try to drive its opponents into submission. But such measures would also be intended to create an environment for an eventual political accommodation.

Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, announced last week that the Syrian government was making a significant gesture by opening aid channels to two besieged towns, Al Ghezlaniya and Jdaidet al-Shibani. But the State Department official said the towns had long been under the control of the government and had not been blockaded.

A convoy was allowed on Saturday to deliver aid — a tiny fraction of what is needed — to the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees. But East Ghouta, a Damascus suburb of 160,000 people, remains cut off from food, medicine and other supplies.

A Western diplomat who follows Syria said he was exasperated with both the opposition and the government for placing new conditions and making aggressive statements at the last minute — possibly squandering a chance to ease the suffering of Syrian civilians.

“This proves that anybody pretending that he is representing the Syrian people is lying and misleading, and doing this either to preserve his power or to acquire power,” the diplomat said. “We’re headed this way: By the end of summer we’ll be talking about 150,000 to 200,000 dead.”

Michael R. Gordon reported from Washington, and Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon, and Geneva. Reporting was contributed by Somini Sengupta from the United Nations, Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul, Hwaida Saad from Beirut, and Alan Cowell from London.

A version of this article appears in print on January 21, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Talks Over Syria Are Set to Begin; Iran Not Invited. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe

Friday, January 17, 2014

Iran waffles over Tonb Islands

The Tonb Islands and Abu Musa are Iranian territory and the mullahs have no right to hand them over to Arabs
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140115/DEFREG04/301150034/Source-UAE-Iran-Reach-Accord-Disputed-Hormuz-Islands
Qabus and UAE would not be in power were it not for Mohammed HIM Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi - Shahanshah Aryamehr and this deal is a betrayal of Iran by people they had helped. Additionally this is an act of weakness when Iran is threatened, I am amazed Iran did not move more of it's forces to the Tonb Islands.



 
Source: UAE, Iran Reach Accord on Disputed Hormuz Islands
defensenews.com
 
ABU DHABI — The United Arab Emirates and Iran have reached an agreement on the three disputed islands near the Strait of Hormuz, according to a high level UAE source.
According to the source, UAE and Iranian officials have engaged in secretive talks with the help of the Omani government over the past six months.
“A deal has been reached and finalized on the Greater and Lesser Tunbs,” the source said. “For now, two of the three islands are to return to the UAE while the final agreement for Abu Musa is being ironed out.”
“Iran will retain the sea bed rights around the three islands while the UAE will hold sovereignty over the land,” he said. “Oman will grant Iran a strategic location on Ras Musandam mountain, which is a very strategic point overlooking the whole gulf region.
“In return for Ras Musandam, Oman will receive free gas and oil from Iran once a pipeline is constructed within the coming two years.”
The source added that Oman’s role will be important in the next chapter.
“Oman was given the green light from Iran and the US to reach deals that would decrease the threat levels in the region and offset the Saudi Arabian influence in the future by any means,” he said.
The agreement was finalized on Dec. 24, the source said, during the visit of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, with Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman.
The strategically located islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs are close to the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint. The islands were occupied by Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pehlavi less than 48 hours before the declaration in 1971 of the establishment of the United Arab Emirates.
The largest of the three Islands, Abu Musa, had been under joint administration of the emirate of Sharjah and Iran, while the Greater and Lesser Tunbs belonged to the emirate of Ras al Khaimah, according to official UAE records.
Last year, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command inaugurated a naval base on Abu Musa. The source stated that the Iranian military on Abu Musa has already started to stand down.
“They are in the process of destroying their bunkers on the island,” he said.
Furthermore, a senior US military official in December said that Iran has redeployed a squadron of Su-25 jet fighters off Abu Musa.
After the announcement of the P5+1 interim nuclear deal, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed visited Tehran to discuss the islands issue, the source said. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif came to Abu Dhabi the following week to meet with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan and other senior leaders to further cement an agreement, he said.
The source added that there is a fear of a violent backlash in Iran to the deal.
Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst for the International Crisis Group, said he is skeptical of the news.
“[Iranian] President [Hassan] Rouhani is in a fragile domestic situation as a result of hardline criticism of his conciliatory nuclear approach and outreach to the United States,” he said. “Under these circumstances, any move perceived as undermining the country’s sovereignty could turn into the last straw that breaks the Rouhani administration’s back.”
However, he said the Iranian government is genuinely seeking to improve its ties with its neighbors, and such a move has to be green-lighted by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Such foreign policy agenda requires the supreme leader’s blessing for its implementation,” Vaez said. “But neither the Rouhani administration nor Khamenei would accept to capitulate to the demands of their neighbors for the sake of having a better relationship with them.”
During Foreign Minister Zarif’s visit in December, an invitation was extended to UAE’s president Vice President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid to visit Tehran. Earlier this week during an interview on BBC, Bin Rashid stated that he is for the lifting of the US-imposed sanctions on Iran and was in favor of bridging the gap between the two countries.
Before sanctions were imposed in 2007, trade between the UAE and Iran was valued between 36.7 billion dirhams and 44.1 billion dirhams (US $10 billion to $12 billion), according to the Iranian Business Council in Dubai. US Secretary of State John Kerry in November said that after the introduction of tougher sanctions in 2012, trade has dropped to a record low of $4 billion. ■

Iran war bill proposed

This bill is nothing but a thinly veiled deceleration of war on Iran.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113%3As.1881:
No country has the right to tell another country how to manage it's affairs, let alone how it handles nuclear material. Those who sponsor this bill are enemies of Iran and shall be treated as such.

Monday, January 13, 2014

New Iran nuke deal

This deal is a clear violation of Iranian sovereignty and could be used as a pretext for invasion.  If Iran had responsible leadership from the 2013 elections this would NOT have occurred.


Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:30
World Powers Agree with Iran Installing New Generation Centrifuges for Research
TEHRAN (FNA)- The world powers have voiced consent to the installation of new generation centrifuges for research purposes by Iran before declaring their Sunday night agreement on the start of the implementation of the Geneva interim nuclear deal on January 20, senior Iranian parliamentary officials announced on Monday.
“The (use of) new generation of centrifuges for research purposes was the most important remaining issue in the talks between Iran and the G5+1 in recent months,” Chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said in an interview with the parliament’s news website on Monday.
“At last, the Group 5+1 accepted yesterday that Iran’s operating new generation of centrifuges for research does not run counter to the Geneva agreement,” he added.
On Sunday, Iran and the six world powers agreed to start implementing the Geneva interim nuclear deal on January 20 and fulfill their undertakings simultaneously and on a single day.
Senior negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi told the media on Sunday evening that "the (Geneva) deal will be put into effect on January 20”.
Araqchi said his negotiations with EU foreign policy deputy chief Helga Schmidt continued until a few hours ago. "Finally we finalized the agreement between us and the Group 5+1 on how to implement the first step of the Joint Plan of Action, and the two sides came to a single interpretation on how to put the agreement into effect."
He said a major part of the points pertaining to the implementation of the deal had been resolved during the experts meetings during the last several weeks, adding that he and Schmidt also worked out some solutions about the remaining points of difference.
Araqchi said the solutions were to be approved by the capitals of all the seven countries. "And today we were informed that the 6 states (party to the talks with Iran) have voiced their consent to these solutions and accepted them. In Iran the relevant bodies also studied, assessed and agreed with these solutions and this agreement was declared during the contact between Ms. Schmidt and me," he added.
Araqchi said according to the agreement, both Iran and the 6 world powers will fulfill their undertakings "on a single day" that would be January 20. "All the sanctions that are due to be suspended and have been mentioned in the (Geneva) agreement will be waived on January 20," he added.
"Also the moves that we have taken up to do with regard to the suspension of 20-percent enrichment and those measures that we have accepted not to do or halt their progress will stop on January 20," Araqchi continued.
Yet, he said there will remain two undertakings which would not be put completely into force on January 20, and explained that conversion of half of Iran's 20-percent-enriched uranium stockpile would be done in 6 stages, each of which might take around one month, and on the opposite side, the 5+1 will release USD4.2 billion of Iran's frozen assets in 8 stages with time intervals of less than a month.
Araqchi said once this first step starts on January 20, the seven countries would convene in less than a month to start working on the final step as mentioned in the Geneva interim deal towards a comprehensive settlement of the nuclear standoff.
In Washington, US President Barack Obama welcomed the news, saying "With today's agreement we have made concrete progress. I welcome this important step forward."
In a statement released by the White House, President Obama lashed out at the Senate for preparing a bill for new sanctions against Iran, and warned that "I will veto any legislation enacting new sanctions during the negotiation" with Iran.
"Imposing additional sanctions now will only risk derailing our efforts to resolve this issue peacefully," he explained.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also voiced her pleasure in a statement, and said, "The E3/EU+3 and Iran have now reached a common understanding on the implementation modalities for a first step of 6 months of initial measures as set out in the Geneva Joint Plan of Action of 24 November 2013."
"Thanks to this agreement on the implementation modalities, the foundations for a coherent, robust and smooth implementation of the Joint Plan of Action over the 6 months period have been laid," Ashton said.
"The E3/EU+3 and Iran will now start the implementation of the first step on 20 January 2014," she added.
On November 24, Iran and the Group 5+1 sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program.
In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides.
 
 
 
©2013 Fars News Agency. All rights reserved

Iranian president to attend wef davos

That rowhani could be invited to this shows that he is
1. A pawn of the global elite hosting this event.
2. That something is in the works regarding an invasion of Iran, or something to devastate Iran

Either way this is NOT good for Iran.



Iranian president to attend World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

By , Published: January 11

TEHRAN — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland later this month, Iranian news media reported Saturday, in an apparent attempt to boost diplomatic efforts that have stalled in recent weeks.
Rouhani will be the first Iranian president to attend the annual gathering of world leaders, business tycoons, journalists and academics in a decade.
Rouhani’s decision to attend the meeting comes as Iranian and world powers struggle to reach an agreement over Iran’s contested nuclear ambitions, and as his country continues its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in that country’s conflict. The two issues have contributed heavily to Iran’s international isolation.
The World Economic Forum, which is held in the Swiss resort town of Davos, coincides with a conference on Syria in Geneva. Iran is unlikely to be invited to that event.
Politicians in Tehran and Washington opposed to rapprochement between the long time foes are suggesting measures that could potentially sabotage future nuclear talks. But Rouhani played down the significance of those views, saying Tuesday that “we should not and do not fear the fuss made by a few people or a small percentage.”
“Attending Davos has become even more important amid hard-line posturing. It sends a signal of steadfastness in Rouhani’s commitment to constructive engagement with the world,” said Mohammad Ali Shabani, a political analyst based in Tehran.
Other Iranian officials have attended the meeting, including former president Mohammad Khatami, who met with Secretary of State John F. Kerry at the event in 2007.
After attending the U.N. General Assembly in September, Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif were hailed internationally for starting a new era of engagement between Iran and the rest of the world after the combative eight-year presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
At the end of the annual gathering of world leaders in New York, Rouhani spoke with President Obama by phone before his return flight to Tehran. It was the first-ever direct communication between the presidents of the two countries.
That was followed in November by an interim agreement between Iran and world powers over the country’s contested nuclear ambitions. The deal, once implemented, will limit Iran’s nuclear activities while offering economic relief from sanctions.
Lawmakers in Tehran and Washington, however, are skeptical of the deal and have threatened new action that could destroy it before it goes in effect.
Rouhani has said repeatedly that he has the full support of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the nuclear talks, and Khamenei affirmed that position Thursday during a meeting with clerics visiting from the influential seminary city of Qom.
But Khamenei also reiterated what he calls U.S. “enmity against Iran, Iranians, Islam and Muslims.” He said that on certain issues, “if we feel it is expedient, we would negotiate with the Satan [the United States] to deter its evil.”
© The Washington Post Company

Odd behavior from dershowitz

If dershowitz is such a staunch zionist why didn't he leave harvard sooner?  Interestingly the lawyer I had on the occupy providence case was one of dershowitz's students.




Dershowitz steps down from Harvard to spend more time with what he loves — Israel

(Photo: Sun Sentinel)
(Photo: Sun Sentinel)
Often times, when powerful and public figures – from government officials and politicians, community leaders, high-powered corporate CEOs, NFL coaches, and countless local TV news anchors -  leave their longtime positions, they say their decision was influenced by wanting “to spend more time” with their families and loved ones.
Such a stated reason is often a tried and true euphemism for either being forced to resign or trading an official post for a better paying lobbying gig.  Those employing the excuse are usually being disingenuous.
Well, after a half century at Harvard Law School, Alan Dershowitz has finally stepped down from his post (where he presumably teaches young, malleable law students how to defend celebrity murderers, justify war crimes, and advocate for torture and extrajudicial killings). So why is he doing it? He certainly wasn’t pushed out. And he already has the money.
According to an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Dershowitz genuinely wants to spend more time with that which he loves most of all: the State of Israel.
(Image: 92nd Street Y)
(Image: 92nd Street Y)
Unlike many similar high-profile retirements, however, the shameless self-promoter isn’t keen to leave the public eye. Rather than leaving academia to live a life of septuagenarian relaxation, Dershowitz is “reinventing myself” so that, in his words, “I can spend more time in Israel and fight against its delegitimization.”
Spending his first eight days after leaving Harvard in Israel, Dershowitz delivered propaganda speeches and met with government officials. He’s even “giving thought” to becoming an Israeli citizen.  Doing so, according to the Jerusalem Post, “would let him send the message to those boycotting Israel that ‘if you’re boycotting Israel, you’re boycotting me.’”
Never before has a clearer, more compelling rationale for supporting the human rights and international law based BDS movement been articulated.
While in Israel, Dershowitz’s “schedule varied from a speech to American Latinos on a trip to learn more about Israel; to tea with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara; to a hyped slot at the huge Globes conference of businesspeople; to meeting with virtually every major political party leader.”
The entire interview is full of Dershie gems, from insisting Iran is “moving ahead with nuclear weapons” to declaring that the International Criminal Court “should be Africa-centric… because that is where the genocides are. African countries don’t have the internal systems where citizens can seek remedies.” (Remember all those Palestinians successfully seeking remedies?)
On Yasser Arafat, Dershowitz lamented, “If only he had died earlier. I would not shake his hand, he was a mass murderer and a terrorist.”
Meanwhile, he said, “[Former President Jimmy] Carter is a bad person, he has gone to the dark side and is bought and paid for by Arab lobbies.” He further condemned Carter for , what he called, “loving Yasser Arafat and having contempt for every Israeli prime minister.”
Dershowitz had slightly kinder words to say about Judge Richard Goldstone, however, whom he said had “made a mistake and lacked the courage to stand up to the others appointed to look into the Gaza War,” but had “shown a willingness to reconsider his views.”
While Dershowitz may no longer spend his days warping the minds of college kids, he will now be able to make propagandizing and promoting war on behalf of his favorite occupying apartheid state his full time job.

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Wind River tribe gets Riverton, WY

Now when will this happen to the rest of america?




EPA overrides Congress, hands over town to Indian tribes

Posted By Michael Bastasch On 12:27 PM 01/08/2014 In | No Comments

Have you heard the story of the residents of Riverton, Wyo.? One day they were Wyomingans, the next they were members of the Wind River tribes — after the Environmental Protection Agency declared the town part of the Wind River Indian Reservation, undoing a 1905 law passed by Congress and angering state officials.

The surprise decision was made by officials of the EPA, the Department of Interior, and Department of Justice early last month, and has invoked the ire of Gov. Matt Mead, who has vowed not to honor the agency’s decision and is preparing to fight in court.

“My deep concern is about an administrative agency of the federal government altering a state’s boundary and going against over 100 years of history and law,” Mead said in a statement. “This should be a concern to all citizens because, if the EPA can unilaterally take land away from a state, where will it stop?”

The EPA declared that Riverton was part of the Wind River Indian Reservation after granting a “Treatment as a State” application from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes. The tribes submit such applications to get funding for air quality monitoring under the Clean Air Act. However, this seemingly innocuous application ended up undoing the tribal boundaries set by a 1905 congressional act.

The EPA granted the tribes’ claim that the Wind River reservation extended over one million acres of land beyond what the 1905 Congressional Act established. By doing this, the agency effectively overruled an act of Congress, state officials charge.

The worry by state officials is that turning Riverton, a town of over 10,000 people, over to the tribes will come with a slew of tax and law enforcement complications. Since Riverton is now part of the Wind River reservation, it is technically no longer eligible for state services and no longer falls under local law enforcement. Mead, however, has ordered that state agencies conduct “business as usual” in regards to Riverton, meaning state services, law enforcement and regulations will continue.

“This is an alarming action when you have a federal agency step in and start to undo congressional acts that has really been our history for 108 years … with the stroke of a pen without talking to the biggest groups impacted,” state Sen. Leland Christensen told The Daily Caller News Foundation, “and that would be the city of Riverton and the state of Wyoming.”

According to the Mead’s office, the EPA’s decision came as a surprise to him, and he only found about it from the media — not the EPA itself. This comes after Mead wrote to EPA administrator Gina McCarthy last August detailing his concerns about the implications of granting the tribes’ request to effectively override the 1905 act.

The tribes remain adamant that Riverton and the one million acres of land is theirs, arguing that state officials once supported such a conclusion. Tribal officials have criticized tthe governor’s office for changing its tune on Riverton and the reservation’s boundaries.

“Now that the [Interior Department] and EPA have issued their determinations, state officials have changed their tune, claiming to be outraged by the decision and suggesting that the federal government has no say in such matters,” the Northern Arapaho Business Council wrote in a letter to Mead, adding that the state’s shift in rhetoric could hurt tribe-state relations.

The dispute has received little national attention as of yet, but the Wyoming congressional delegation has written the EPA on the issue.

“The EPA’s decision has in effect overturned a law that has been governing land and relationships for more than 100 years,” wrote Wyoming Sens Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, along with Rep. Cynthia Lummis. “We are also very concerned about the political ramifications this decision could have for the tribes and the state of Wyoming.”

The boundary dispute between Wyoming and the tribes has been going on for some time now. It arose from a 2009 tax case that the state urged the courts not to drop because of the “implications of ruling on a boundary without the federal government and Eastern Shoshone being involved in the case,” reports the Casper Star-Tribune.

“We don’t have a fully binding decision,” Deputy Attorney General Marty Hardsocg in 2009. “We do in the state, but the state is then put in a position of having to rely on the federal government’s view for its direction.”

“At the end, of the day state lawyers acknowledge that this determination is a federal question and must be determined to a final point in the federal courts,” Mark Howell, the lobbyist for the Northern Arapaho tribe, told the Star-Tribune. “That’s what this EPA decision will allow all parties to do.”

State courts have heard at least two cases on the boundary in the last three decades — one 1980s Wyoming Supreme Court case found that Riverton was part of the reservation, and another state high court case in 2008, which found that the town was in Wyoming.

The only problem is that the state court decisions don’t set a solid precedent, since neither case involves both tribes living on the reservation, nor the state and the federal government all at once, Howell told the Star-Tribune.

The EPA did not immediately respond to TheDCNF’s request for comment.

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Kid killed by pig while restrained

Just as disgusting as this unprovoked killing is the fact the parents could have easily restrained the kid themselves without getting the pigs involved.
Peter Z


Cop On Paid Administrative Leave After Allegedly Executing Restrained, 90-pound, 5’3” Schizophrenic Teen

Posted By Mark Horne on Jan 7, 2014 | 360 Comments


From the Bearing Arms blog: “Southport, NC cop shoots tased and restrained 90-pound HS student after allegedly stating, ‘we don’t have time for this.’”

This is how the Star News describes the situation.

He said lawmen initially responded to the home after Vidal, who celebrated his birthday last month, picked up a screwdriver and refused to put it down.

Two responding officers were able to calm Vidal before another officer walked into the family’s home, Wilsey said.

It was when the third officer walked in that the 90-pound teen was stunned with a Tazer and fell to the floor. Vidal was then shot in the chest, Wilsey told reporters.

WECT is more specific:

Wilsey said his family called the police to help with his schizophrenic son Keith Vidal who had a small screwdriver in his hand. Officers used at Taser on Vidal and then shot him, according to Wilsey.

Wilsey said officers came into their home after they called for backup help when Vidal was having a schizophrenic incident.

Wilsey said officers had his son down on the ground after the teen was tased a few times and an officer said, “we don’t have time for this.” That’s when Wilsey says the officer shot in between the officers holding the teen down, killing his son.

Then there was this story submitted by a family friend on CNN’s iReport:

Vidal’s Father contacted the Boiling Springs Lakes Police Department around 1 pm Sunday to try to get help putting Vidal in the car, so he could be taken to a mental evaluation. Vidal was abrasive and did not want to go. and picked up a small electronics screwdriver.Two Officers responded to the scene and started negotiating with Vidal. After about 10 mins the situation started defusing itself with Vidal becoming more rational. At that very moment an Officer From another Town Entered the residence and instructed the officers to stop talking and tase Vidal. As Vidal tried to flee into the bathroom adjacent to where he was standing the two officers simultaneously shot him with their tasers. As Vidal Collapsed backwards on to the floor the two officers jumped on top of the 5ft 3 100 lb Vidal to restrain him.. As Vidal’s Father tried to step in and grab the screw driver The Southport Police Officer that had instructed the other officers to use their tasers, moved between the father and the pile of people on the floor and said “We don’t have time for this” And shot Vidal Once in the chest as the other two Officers held him on the floor. Vidal’s father then grabbed the officer as he was lining himself up for another shot.

Trial should be held next week (heck, you’ve got two police witnesses and family), sentencing in late January, execution before spring.

No need to drag things out in such a clear-cut case–after all, “we don’t have time for this.” I’m almost ornery enough to say ‘taze’ him first, to do the same as he did to the young man.

Beasts with badges… put ‘em down.

Seriously, my main frustration in cases like this is that while it doesn’t need to take more than two weeks, it will take ten years. You’ve got credible witnesses—many of them—and it should be over and done with before Winter ends.

Read more at http://politicaloutcast.com/2014/01/cop-paid-administrative-leave-allegedly-executing-restrained-90-pound-53-schizophrenic-teen/#iUjJrkmsXsbSAw0g.99

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Russia recieves saudi shakedown over Sochi

That Bandar bin Sultan can make such a statement shows that some terrorist plot is in the works for the Sochi Olympics.


Sat Jan 04, 2014 11:2
The Russian-Saudi Showdown at Sochi
TEHRAN (FNA)- Last summer, Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar reportedly offered Russian President Putin a deal, if Russia abandons Syria, Saudi Arabia would protect the Sochi Olympics from Islamic terrorists. Putin is said to have angrily rebuffed the offer. Now, with two terrorist attacks, it’s Putin’s move.

Monday’s terrorist bombings only 400 miles away from the site of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, have a geopolitical back story involving implied threats from Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan to Russian President Vladimir Putin last summer when Bandar was pressing Putin to withdraw his backing for the Syrian government.

According to a diplomatic leak detailing the Bandar-Putin meeting in Moscow on July 31, Bandar suggested that Putin’s agreement to abandon the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad would lead Saudi Arabia to restrain its Chechen terrorist clients who have been attacking Russia targets for years. Putin reportedly grew furious, interpreting Bandar’s offer as a warning that the Sochi games would be threatened by terrorism if Putin didn’t comply.

At the time, I was even told that Putin warned Saudi Arabia of potentially severe consequences – suggesting military retaliation – if Bandar’s implied warning was followed up by actual terrorist attacks like the ones in Volvograd on Monday, killing more than 30 people.

Of course, it is always hard to trace specific terrorist acts back to their origins and many terrorist cells operate with much autonomy. But Putin has staked much of his prestige on a successful Olympics in Sochi, and he also would risk losing face if it were perceived that Bandar had executed a terrorist plan to disrupt the Winter Olympics and that Putin was powerless to stop it.

According to the leaked diplomatic account of last summer’s meeting, Bandar sought Russia’s cooperation on several Mideast concerns, including Syria, and told Putin, “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”

Putin reportedly responded, “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We are interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and strong principles.”

Besides safety for the Sochi Olympics, Bandar raised the potential of Saudi cooperation with Russia on oil and other investment matters, saying, “Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets,” according to the diplomatic account.

I was told by a source close to the Russian government that this mix of overt inducements and implied threats infuriated Putin who barely kept his anger in check through the end of the meeting with Bandar. Putin viewed Bandar’s offer to protect the Sochi Olympics as something akin to a Mafia don shaking down a shopkeeper for protection money by saying, “nice little business you got here, I’d hate to see anything happen to it.”

Putin then redoubled his support for the Syrian government in response to Bandar’s blend of bribes and warnings. The source said Russia also issued its own thinly veiled threats against the Saudis. The Saudis may have substantial “soft power” – with their oil and money – but Russia has its own formidable “hard power,” including a huge military, the source said.

Bandar and Terrorism

Over the years, Bandar has often treated the issue of “terrorism” as a situational ethic, an ambivalence well-honed since the days when Saudi Arabia and the Reagan administration teamed up to pour billions of dollars into the Afghan mujahedeen and their Arab jihadist allies fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s.

The anti-Soviet effort in Afghanistan brought to prominence Saudi national Osama bin Laden and the terrorists who later consolidated themselves under the global brand, al-Qaeda. In the 1980s, these roving jihadists were hailed as brave defenders of Islam and even “freedom fighters,” but – in the 1990s – they began targeting the United States with terrorist attacks, leading up to 9/11 in 2001.

At the time of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, Bandar was the Saudi ambassador to the United States and was so close to the Bush family that he was nicknamed “Bandar Bush.” Bandar was also very close to the bin Laden family. After the attacks, Bandar even acknowledged having met Osama bin Laden in the context of bin Laden thanking Bandar for his help financing the Afghan jihad project.

“I was not impressed, to be honest with you,” Bandar told CNN’s Larry King about bin Laden. “I thought he was simple and very quiet guy.”

However, immediately after 9/11, Bandar undermined the FBI’s opportunity to learn more about the connections between Osama bin Laden’s relatives and the perpetrators of 9/11 when Bandar arranged for members of the bin Laden family to flee the United States on some of the first planes allowed back into the air – after only cursory interviews with FBI investigators. The only segment of the 9/11 Commission’s report to be blacked out was the part dealing with alleged Saudi financing for al-Qaeda.

Now, as chief of Saudi intelligence, Bandar appears to be back in the game of coercive geopolitics, arranging weapons for some of the most brutal Syrian rebels and Arab mercenaries operating inside Syria, while offering carrots-and-sticks to foreign leaders who are seen are malleable toward Saudi regional interests. The technique may have failed with Putin but had greater success in lining up the French behind Saudi opposition to a negotiated agreement with Iran on its nuclear program.

As a repressive monarchy that preaches the ultra-conservative Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam, Saudi Arabia is bitterly opposed to the democratic reforms of the Arab Spring and the growing influence of Shiite Islam, which now stretches from Iran through Iraq and Syria to the Hezbollah enclaves of Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia backed the military coup in Egypt that ousted the elected Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi. The Saudis also have stepped up assistance to Sunni-dominated rebels in Syria seeking to overthrow the Assad dynasty that is based in the Alawite religion, a branch of Shiite Islam.

The commonality of interests between Saudi Arabia and Israel has given rise to a de facto alliance between the Saudi monarchy and the Jewish government of Israel. Though historically enemies, Israel and Saudi Arabia are now on the same page in backing Egypt’s military regime, in viewing Iran as their principal adversary, and in wanting a rebel victory in Syria.

The shifting sands of Middle East interests also have pushed the United States and Russia closer together, with the former Cold War rivals sharing an interest in tamping down disorder across the region. President Putin and President Barack Obama cooperated in reaching a tentative nuclear deal with Iran and in convincing Syria’s Assad to surrender his chemical weapons. Putin and Obama are pressing for Syrian peace talks, too.

Now, however, a new complication has been introduced: Islamist terrorist attacks aimed at undermining the Sochi Olympics. If Putin concludes that the Saudis are behind these bombings – that the attacks are the equivalent of a Mafia don having a store torched after the owner rebuffed an offer of “protection” – then the issue of Russian retaliation could suddenly be on the table.

By Robert Parry

This article has originally appeared on Consortiumnews website.

[NOTE: Alawites are not a Shiite branch. In fact, the two Islamic sects are different in form and content. Alawites are as much different from Shiites as they are from the Sunnis and this can even be observed in the form of daily prayers.]




©2013 Fars News Agency. All rights reserved

Monday, January 06, 2014

Two traitors to Iran

Here is an excellent example of two Iranian traitors. The author mehrangiz kar is a follower of the mujhadeen-e-khlaq, despite her connections to reza pahlavi who I called out as a provacetur at MIT, and shahriar mandanipour another pawn of elitists who want to invade Iran and who defames Iran with his words, and who I now regret helping get established when we were at the watson institute.
Notice these events which they appeared at. Here is one they did in 2011
http://brown.edu/academics/literary-arts/here-i-am-crying-far-and-loud-6-december-2011
Here is one they did in 2013
http://news.brown.edu/events/detail/2013/03/13/ppoetics-without-borders-communicating-sensibility-times-changep
Each time these events were held I was imprisoned, the 2001 one for occupy providence, the 2013 one for my smashing up providence city hall. Since my release kar and mandanipour are no loner at brown. If you want to give kar a piece of your mind you can see her at 2 Peabody Terrace Cambridge, MA, hopefully mandanipour is in hell, if not I'll be happy to send him there personally. You can even see him in the pictures of me premiering Iran; The Lion of War at the watson institute on this page.

Catching zobian's punkpals making trouble

Here is a link to a picture of some people who have been causing a menace in the artistic and Armenian/Asian community.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151918181129332&set=a.10151918181044332.1073741839.32496444331&type=1&theater
The punk in the black is keith magnetik, who gallery z owner berge zobian has paid to threaten and harass people he dislikes.  This November keith spiked the drinks at Royal Gallery and Chabot Fine arts during providence gallery night that month.  Recent tests by my doctors have confirmed that the drinks I consumed at those events were spiked.  People not to trust whatsoever.