Junk Journalism: The "Assad" E-mails

Source: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

Guardian skewers own credibility with hamfisted Wikileaks knock-off aimed at Syria.

"It is impossible to rule out the possibility of fakes in the email cache, but..." "The Assad E-Mails," London Guardian, March 14, 2012.

This sentence right here should have immediately halted the publication of anything revolving around an alleged cache of e-mails provided to the Guardian by the obviously compromised "Syrian opposition." The source is clearly biased, politically motivated, and their information unconfirmed. Yet the Guardian decided to run with the story anyway, casting doubt on their own objectivity, journalistic integrity, and their true motivation, which now is clearly not "journalism."

The Guardian, in their explanation as to why they decided to publish unconfirmed information included the following statement, "we believe the more detailed picture of the workings of Assad's inner circle that emerges from the mails, and the extent to which he and his wife have managed to sustain their luxurious lifestyle, are also of public interest." A "more detailed picture" that is in fact unverified and most likely a politically motivated fabrication is indeed of "public interest" if you are trying to sell a particular narrative regardless of the actual facts.

The job of a journalist is to report the facts impartially to help inform the public and enable them to make accurate decisions in regards to a vast array of issues that affect their daily lives as well as the collective well-being of their communities and nations. A journalist is not to irresponsibly publish anything that comes across their desk, applying sensational headlines while making incredible innuendos only to post disclaimers halfway down the page that the information they are attempting to foist upon the public as fact and "truth," "may not be verified or true."

Neuroscience Could Mean Soldiers Controlling Weapons with Their Minds

Source: The Guardian

Neuroscience breakthroughs could be harnessed by military and law enforcers, says Royal Society report

Soldiers could have their minds plugged directly into weapons systems, undergo brain scans during recruitment and take courses of neural stimulation to boost their learning, if the armed forces embrace the latest developments in neuroscience to hone the performance of their troops.

These scenarios are described in a report into the military and law enforcement uses of neuroscience, published on Tuesday, which also highlights a raft of legal and ethical concerns that innovations in the field may bring.

The report by the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, says that while the rapid advance of neuroscience is expected to benefit society and improve treatments for brain disease and mental illness, it also has substantial security applications that should be carefully analysed.

The report's authors also anticipate new designer drugs that boost performance, make captives more talkative and make enemy troops fall asleep.

"Neuroscience will have more of an impact in the future," said Rod Flower, chair of the report's working group.

Military Given Go-Ahead To Detain US Terrorist Suspects Without Trial

Source: The Guardian
Chris McGreal

Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.

Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of "a war that appears to have no end".

The law, contained in the defense authorisation bill that funds the US military, effectively extends the battlefield in the "war on terror" to the US and applies the established principle that combatants in any war are subject to military detention.

The legislation's supporters in Congress say it simply codifies existing practice, such as the indefinite detention of alleged terrorists at Guantánamo Bay. But the law's critics describe it as a draconian piece of legislation that extends the reach of detention without trial to include US citizens arrested in their own country.

"It's something so radical that it would have been considered crazy had it been pushed by the Bush administration," said Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. "It establishes precisely the kind of system that the United States has consistently urged other countries not to adopt. At a time when the United States is urging Egypt, for example, to scrap its emergency law and military courts, this is not consistent."

There was heated debate in both houses of Congress on the legislation, requiring that suspects with links to Islamist foreign terrorist organisations arrested in the US, who were previously held by the FBI or other civilian law enforcement agencies, now be handed to the military and held indefinitely without trial.

Egyptians return to Tahrir Square to Protest Against Military Junta

Source: The Guardian
Jack Shenker

Tens of thousands of Egyptians have returned to Tahrir Square to protest against the military junta, in one of the biggest protests seen in the country since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak.

Although there have been scattered demonstrations against the ruling generals in recent months, Friday's rally was the largest and most explicit display of public opposition to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) since it took power in February this year.

Is the Israeli Mossad Conducting a Covert Assault on Iran?

Source: End The Lie

Madison Ruppert

The blast in Iran that killed 17 people and injured another 15, including a leading Iranian missile researcher, at the Bid Ganeh base is now being linked to the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.

This comes after the Israeli intelligence site, arguably a pure disinformation source, DEBKAfile claimed that the explosion was caused by a failed attempt at affixing a nuclear warhead to a Shahab intermediate range ballistic missile.

It now appears that this wasn’t the case, at least according to a Western intelligence official cited by Time and the former director of an Iranian state-run organization closely linked to the Iranian regime, also anonymous, quoted by the British Guardian.

The former Iranian official told the Guardian, “I believe that Saturday’s explosion was part of the covert war against Iran, led by Israel.”

The Israeli press seems to be echoing this sentiment, regardless of the fact that Iranian officials say that it was a purely accidental event that occurred when Revolutionary Guard troops were transporting munitions.

The anonymous Western intelligence official quoted by Time also rejects the Iranian’s explanation that it was an accident.

“Don’t believe the Iranians that it was an accident,” he told Time, while also claiming that other acts of sabotage are being planned in an attempt to slow the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program.

If Mossad agents were indeed behind the blast, one could say that it was quite a successful operation.

Among the 17 killed in the blast was Major General Hassan Moqqadam, an individual that the Iranian state media has characterized as a pioneering researcher in Iranian missile development along with Mostafa Izadi, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander who was in charge of “ensuring self-sufficiency” in Iranian armaments.

Losing both of these individuals might be a considerable setback for the Iranian missile and weapons programs, especially given the international sanctions leveled against them which are likely to become increasingly harsh as time goes on.

It is worth noting that Moqqadam, also spelled Moghaddam, was allegedly trained in ballistic science in China and North Korea, according to the Guardian which would implicate both countries in the alleged Iranian nuclear missile program.

Germany and France Begin Talks to Break Up Eurozone

Source: The Guardian
Larry Elliott, Heather Stewart and John Hooper

Fears that Europe's sovereign debt crisis was spiralling out of control have intensified as political chaos in Athens and Rome, and looming recession, created panic on world markets.

Reports emerging from Brussels said that Germany and France had begun preliminary talks on a break-up of the eurozone, amid fears that Italy would be too big to rescue.

Despite Silvio Berlusconi's announcement that he would step down as prime minister once austerity measures were pushed through parliament, a collapse of investor confidence in the eurozone's third-biggest economy sent interest rates in Italy to the levels that triggered bailouts in Portugal, Greece and Ireland.

Greek Government on Brink of Collapse Over Debt Crisis

Source: The Guardian
David Gow and Helena Smith

The Greek government stands on the point of collapse, with the country set for a general election over membership of the euro rather than the referendum planned for early December.

Calls for a national unity government embracing the opposition also intensified as EU political leaders and financial markets demanded an end to the regional uncertainty unleashed by a small country on the periphery of the eurozone and called for measures to prevent a slide into Europe-wide slump.

US Pulls Unesco Funding After Palestine is Granted Full Membership

Source: The Guardian
Harriet Sherwood

The United States has cut off funds to Unesco as a punitive action after the Palestinian Authority was accepted into the UN agency as a full member in defiance of American, Israeli and European pressure.

The overwhelming backing for the Palestinians' bid to join the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation was a huge boost for their campaign for international recognition of an independent state, and a blow to Israel and the US, who had opposed the move.

Members voted by 107 votes to 14 to accept Palestine as a full member state to loud cheers from delegates in Paris. Fifty-two countries, including the UK, abstained.

Within hours, the US announced it would withhold its huge contribution to Unesco's budget as a result of the vote. State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US had no choice due to a 21-year-old law prohibiting the payment of funds to any UN body accepting the Palestinians as full members.

A $60m (£38m) transfer that was due later this month would be halted in a move that will have serious consequences for Unesco activities. The US contributes 22% of the agency's annual budget.