Tehran Pushes to Ditch the US Dollar

Source: Casey Research
Marin Katusa - Chief Energy Investment Strategist
Casey Research

Report: India and Iran are hammering out a deal to trade oil for gold 

Rumors are swirling that India and Iran are at the negotiating table right now, hammering out a deal to trade oil for gold. Why does that matter, you ask? Only because it strikes at the heart of both the value of the US dollar and today's high-tension standoff with Iran.

The official line from the United States and the European Union is that Tehran must be punished for continuing its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. The punishment: sanctions on Iran's oil exports, which are meant to isolate Iran and depress the value of its currency to such a point that the country crumbles.

But that line doesn't make sense, and the sanctions will not achieve their goals. Iran is far from isolated and its friends – like India – will stand by the oil-producing nation until the US either backs down or acknowledges the real matter at hand. That matter is the American dollar and its role as the global reserve currency.

The short version of the story is that a 1970s deal cemented the US dollar as the only currency to buy and sell crude oil, and from that monopoly on the all-important oil trade the US dollar slowly but surely became the reserve currency for global trades in most commodities and goods. Massive demand for US dollars ensued, pushing the dollar's value up, up, and away. In addition, countries stored their excess US dollars savings in US Treasuries, giving the US government a vast pool of credit from which to draw.

We know where that situation led – to a US government suffocating in debt while its citizens face stubbornly high unemployment (due in part to the high value of the dollar); a failed real estate market; record personal-debt burdens; a bloated banking system; and a teetering economy. That is not the picture of a world superpower worthy of the privileges gained from having its currency back global trade. Other countries are starting to see that and are slowly but surely moving away from US dollars in their transactions, starting with oil.

If the US dollar loses its position as the global reserve currency, the consequences for America are dire. A major portion of the dollar's valuation stems from its lock on the oil industry – if that monopoly fades, so too will the value of the dollar. Such a major transition in global fiat currency relationships will bode well for some currencies and not so well for others, and the outcomes will be challenging to predict. But there is one outcome that we foresee with certainty: Gold will rise. Uncertainty around paper money always bodes well for gold, and these are uncertain days indeed.

Google Announces Privacy Changes Across Products; Users Can’t Opt Out

Source: Washington Post
Cecilia Kang

Google will soon know far more about who you are and what you do on the Web.

The Web giant announced Tuesday that it plans to follow the activities of users across nearly all of its ubiquitous sites, including YouTube, Gmail and its leading search engine.

Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.

Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1. And experts say the policy shift will invite greater scrutiny from federal regulators of the company’s privacy and competitive practices.

FAQ: What exactly will Google be able to collect and integrate? How does this affect me?

The move will help Google better tailor its ads to people’s tastes. If someone watches an NBA clip online and lives in Washington, the firm could advertise Washington Wizards tickets in that person’s Gmail account.

Consumers could also benefit, the company said. When someone is searching for the word “jaguar,” Google would have a better idea of whether the person was interested in the animal or the car. Or the firm might suggest e-mailing contacts in New York when it learns you are planning a trip there.

But consumer advocates say the new policy might upset people who never expected their information would be shared across so many different Web sites.

A user signing up for Gmail, for instance, might never have imagined that the content of his or her messages could affect the experience on seemingly unrelated Web sites such as YouTube. 

“Google’s new privacy announcement is frustrating and a little frightening,” said Common Sense Media chief executive James Steyer. “Even if the company believes that tracking users across all platforms improves their services, consumers should still have the option to opt out — especially the kids and teens who are avid users of YouTube, Gmail and Google Search.”

Soros Mouthpiece Calls On Google To Police "Conspiracy Theories"

Source: Prison Planet
Paul Joseph Watson

Former fellow of George Soros’ Open Society and current Stanford University scholar Evgeny Morozov has called on Google and other search engines to become thought crime enforcers, by providing warnings about websites that contain “conspiracy theories” such as the belief, held by a majority of Americans, that global warming is not primarily man-made.

Morozov, whose biography confirms him as a well-connected insider, decries in a Slate piece how the Internet is a useful tool for “People who deny global warming” as well as “the anti-vaccination movement,” calling on Google to provide a “socially responsible curated treatment” that would marginalize such beliefs by amending search results.

His solution is to, “Nudge search engines to take more responsibility for their index and exercise a heavier curatorial control in presenting search results for issues like “global warming” or “vaccination.” Google already has a list of search queries that send most traffic to sites that trade in pseudoscience and conspiracy theories; why not treat them differently than normal queries? Thus, whenever users are presented with search results that are likely to send them to sites run by pseudoscientists or conspiracy theorists, Google may simply display a huge red banner asking users to exercise caution and check a previously generated list of authoritative resources before making up their minds.”

Morozov describes the potential that such a move will be judged as Google “shilling for Big Pharma or for Al Gore” as “a risk worth taking”.

This represents a similar argument to Cass Sunstein’s “cognitive infiltration,” an effort by Obama’s information czar to slap government warnings on controversial websites (including those claiming that exposure to sunlight is healthy). In a widely derided white paper, Sunstein called for political blogs to be forced to include pop ups that show “a quick argument for a competing view”. He also demanded that taxes be levied on dissenting opinions and even suggested that outright bans on certain thoughts should be enforced.

Giving companies like Google, which has grown to virtually become the gatekeeper of the entire Internet itself and is already engaging in SOPA-like acts of censorship, the power to denote which political and scientific positions are acceptable and which are fringe “conspiracy theories” is an insult to free thinking and smacks of Chinese-style thought control.

SUPERPOWER: Behind The Scenes of America's National Security Apparatus

Source: Global Research

"The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know."
-Harry S. Truman

SUPERPOWER: A documentary film by Barbara-Anne Steegmuller
Available to order from Global Research:
https://store.globalresearch.ca/store/superpower-dvd/

SUPERPOWER is a comprehensive film that asks tough questions and goes behind the scenes of America's national security apparatus and military actions. Far from a conspiracy film about the dangers of government secrets and regime change, this well-balanced film straddles the philosophical divide and allows viewers to understand the US quest for global dominance through economic and military strategy that is exposed through review of historical events, personal interviews, and analysis of US foreign policy.

Featuring interviews with Michel Chossudovsky, Bill Blum, Chalmers Johnson and Noam Chomsky, among many others.

SUPERPOWER has won a number of awards, including the 5th Annual Hollywood F.A.M.E. Award for Documentary of the Year 2011 as well as the 2011 32nd Annual People's Choice Bronze Telly Award.

For more information, visit:
http://superpowerthemovie.com

Available to order from Global Research:
https://store.globalresearch.ca/store/superpower-dvd/

Resisting the Police State: Answers and Solutions

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
James Corbett

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES:

With TSA abuses back in the headlines, continued concern over the NDAA and other legislation codifying martial law, President Obama’s unchallenged use of his self-proclaimed authority to assassinate American citizens without trial, and an increasingly bewildering array of tracking, tracing and pain-compliance technology being used against law-abiding citizens, more and more people are becoming aware of the police state that currently exists in the US, and indeed throughout much of the so-called “free world.”

With this understanding comes a certain amount of apprehension: after all, the enemies of liberty are organized and persistent, and they inhabit positions of authority. The defenders of liberty, meanwhile, seem few and far between, and more time seems spent convincing others that the police state even exists than in working to dismantle these systems of control.

Ron Paul Ignored In Mainstream GOP Debate Once Again

Source: Prison Planet
Steve Watson

During Last night’s NBC hosted GOP debate in Florida, Ron Paul was once again roundly ignored and dismissed as a potential candidate.

Paul spoke for less than 6 minutes out of the hour long debate. He was skipped over completely on three questions when everyone else got to speak, and was not offered the chance to respond to several attacks on his policies from the other candidates.

In comparison, Romney and Gingrich were afforded close to 35 minutes of speaking time, not even taking into account the now ubiquitous bickering between the two that viewers had to once again endure.

When Paul did want to speak he had to raise his hand and wave at the moderators like he was a troublesome fourth grader at the back of the classroom.

Debate moderator Brian Williams took around 15 minutes before finally asking Ron paul a question. The line of questioning from there on in essentially amounted to ‘You are unelectable so when are you going to drop out of the race?’

SOPA and PIPA Fully Alive - And a New Bill Joins Them

Source: Activist Post
Heather Callaghan

Many of us breathed a sigh of relief when an overwhelming amount of Americans banned together and voiced their opposition to Congress over both the Stop Online Piracy Act, and Protect Intellectual Property Act.

Sites that dimmed the screen for a day or two have gone back to normal -- Facebook users have swapped their anti-SOPA images for their previous profile pictures.

We may have even believed that the postponement of the vote originally scheduled for January 24th was some sort of white flag of capitulation. But that is certainly not the MO of most lawmakers.

While the outcry did get the attention of Congress, they are simply returning unflinchingly back to the drawing board to wait out our attention spans. Articles whirled that SOPA was dead and the bill was pulled when the bill's sponsor Lamar Smith said in a statement that there would be no further action “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

Lamar isn't really listening. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Actually, SOPA is set to be reformulated in February. PIPA will be revisited with possible amendments in the coming weeks. Case in point, all is still open and possible -- nothing is dead, pulled, or cancelled. If that wasn't enough to keep us on our toes, a new, similar bill has surfaced.

Déjà Vu in the form of OPEN -- The New Anti-Piracy Bill

As an alternative to SOPA-PIPA, Representative Darrell Issa (CA-R), and 24 co-sponsors introduced the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) H.R. 3782 on Wednesday, during the Internet blackout.

EU to Embargo Iranian Oil

Source: RT

EU nations have formally adopted an unprecedented set of sanctions against Tehran - which include a bloc-wide embargo on Iranian oil. The move targets Iran's nuclear program which, the Islamic Republic insists, is for purely peaceful purposes. To discuss the implications of fresh sanctions against Iran, RT talks to James Corbett - editor of independent news website - 'The Corbett Report' which is based in Japan.

CONFRONTATION BETWEEN MILITARY BLOCS: The Eurasian "Triple Alliance." The Strategic Importance of Iran for Russia and China

Source: Strategic Culture Foundation
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

Despite areas of difference and rivalries between Moscow and Tehran, ties between the two countries, based on common interests, have developed significantly.

Both Russia and Iran are both major energy exporters, they have deeply seated interests in the South Caucasus. They are both firmly opposed to NATO's missile shield, with a view to preventing the U.S. and E.U. from controlling the energy corridors around the Caspian Sea Basin.

Moscow and Tehran's bilateral ties are also part of a broader and overlapping alliance involving Armenia, Tajikistan, Belarus, Syria, and Venezuela. Yet, above all things, both republics are also two of Washington’s main geo-strategic targets.

The Eurasian Triple Alliance: The Strategic Importance of Iran for Russia and China 

China, the Russian Federation, and Iran are widely considered to be allies and partners. Together the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran form a strategic barrier directed against U.S. expansionism. The three countries form a "triple alliance," which constitutes the core of a Eurasian coalition directed against U.S. encroachment into Eurasia and its quest for global hegemony.

While China confronts U.S. encroachment in East Asia and the Pacific, Iran and Russia respectively confront the U.S. led coalition in Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. All three countries are threatened in Central Asia and are wary of the U.S. and NATO military presence in Afghanistan.

Iran can be characterized as a geo-strategic pivot. The geo-political equation in Eurasia very much hinges on the structure of Iran's political alliances. Were Iran to become an ally of the United States, this would seriously hamper or even destabilize Russia and China. This also pertains to Iran's ethno-cultural, linguistic, economic, religious, and geo-political links to the Caucasus and Central Asia.

India Fingerprinting, Iris Scanning Over One Billion People

Source: Global Research and Corbett Report
James Corbett

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES:

The Indian government is ramping up efforts to fingerprint and iris scan the entirety of its 1.2 billion citizens in an ambitious scheme to issue national ID cards with biometric details. The plan has so far already enrolled 110 million people and issued 60 million numbers, with the aim of enrolling 200 million by this March and 600 million by 2014.

The project stems from two separate, overlapping schemes, the Unique Identifcation program (UID), aimed at providing India’s 200 million poorest citizens with failsafe access to the country’s welfare system, and the National Population Register (NPR), aimed at providing a national ID card to help identify and deport undocumented immigrants.

The Age of Transitions

Source: The Age of Transitions

http://www.theageoftransitions.com
please visit the website to learn more, get books and DVDs, and support the filmmaker.

US Resumes Drone Attacks in Pakistan

Source: FARS News Agency

TEHRAN (FNA)- More people were killed in the US drone attacks in Pakistan after security officials confirmed that at least five people were killed in two strikes carried out by a US drone in the Pakistani North Waziristan tribal region. 

Security officials said on Monday that the American drone targeted a vehicle and a house with two missiles, killing five people at Degan village near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan on the Afghan border.

The death toll is expected to rise, and the rescue operation is underway in the area.

The US has resumed its drone operations after it halted the CIA-operated strikes in November 26, 2011, when 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in NATO attacks on two Pakistani military border checkpoints in Mohmand agency.

The use of unmanned armed aircraft over Pakistan has been a sore point with the public and Pakistani politicians, who describe them as violations of sovereignty that produce unacceptable civilian casualties.

Sixty-four US missile strikes were reported in Pakistan's tribal belt last year, down from 101 reported in 2010.

The US refuses to discuss drone strikes publicly, but the program has dramatically increased during the Obama administration.

But the missile strikes fuel widespread anti-American resentment, especially high since the deadly US air strikes on November 26.

Islamabad is now reviewing its entire alliance with the US and has kept its Afghan border closed to NATO supply convoys for two months. 

VOTER FRAUD: Dead People Cast Over 950 Ballots In South Carolina

Source: Prison Planet

Several more strange eyewitness stories emerge indicating potential widespread vote deception

Yet more evidence of voter fraud has emerged, this time in the wake of Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, where it was reported that at least 953 votes had been cast by people who were listed as dead.

The Associated Press reports that South Carolina’s attorney general, Alan Wilson, has notified the U.S. Justice Department of potential voter fraud in the Palmetto State this weekend.

“In a letter dated Thursday, Wilson says the analysis found 953 ballots cast by voters listed as dead. In 71 percent of those cases, ballots were cast between two months and 76 months after the people died. That means they ‘voted’ up to 6 1/3 years after their death.”

Wilson has asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate the situation.

In addition to stories that have emerged from both Iowa and New Hampshire in the past few days, the revelations once again suggest that voter fraud has become a common occurrence throughout the country.

The same situation occurred last week in New Hampshire, where the State attorney general also raised questions over possible voter fraud.

The Union Leader reported that activists obtained ballots as dead people because they weren’t ID’ed.

One activist posted video of himself walking into New Hampshire Polling locations during the Presidential Primaries, and asking for the ballots of deceased residents. The man had obtained the names from local obituaries.

“The names of the deceased were both Registered Republican and Democrats And in almost every case, saying a dead person’s name, we were handed a ballot to cast a vote.” wrote the activist on his Youtube channel.

None of the allegedly fraudulently obtained ballots were actually cast.

Watch the video:

Associate Attorney General Richard Head confirmed his office had learned about the possible fraud on election day and immediately began investigating. “That investigation is ongoing,” he said. “Based on the information received on Election Day and the information on the video, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of voting procedures with the Secretary of State,” the report states.

In Iowa, the results of the January 3rd Caucus have been completely glossed over, despite major questions arising from the vote.

Following the declaration of Mitt Romney as the winner, GOP officials in Iowa recounted the votes and changed the decision, naming Rick Santorum as the victor. However, votes from at least two precincts were lost in the process, and the tallying wasn’t even properly certified.

Both Mitt Romney’s and Rick Santorum’s vote tallies were altered, but no mention was made whatsoever of Ron Paul’s total, despite the fact that he finished a close third, in what was essentially a three way tie.

Ron Paul: Preserve the Internet, Down with SOPA

Source: Ron Paul

The Congressman addresses the ongoing war over freedom of the internet.

Fukushima Cover Up Unravels: "The Government Can No Longer Pull the Wool Over the Public's Eyes"

Source: Washington's Blog

Too Much Radiation to Cover Up..

As I’ve pointed out since day one, the Japanese government and Tepco have covered up the extent of the radiation released by Fukushima and its health effects on the Japanese and others. See this and this.

The New York Times notes:

The government inspectors declared Onami’s rice safe for consumption after testing just two of its 154 rice farms.

Then … more than a dozen [farmers] found unsafe levels of cesium. An ensuing panic forced the Japanese government to intervene, with promises to test more than 25,000 rice farms in eastern Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is located.

***

The repeated failures have done more than raise concerns that some Japanese may have been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation in their food, as regrettable as that is. They have also had a corrosive effect on public confidence in the food-monitoring efforts, with a growing segment of the public and even many experts coming to believe that officials have understated or even covered up the true extent of the public health risk in order to limit both the economic damage and the size of potential compensation payments.

Critics say … the government can no longer pull the wool over the public’s eyes, as they contend it has done routinely in the past.

“Since the accident, the government has tried to continue its business-as-usual approach of understating the severity of the accident and insisting that it knows best,” said Mitsuhiro Fukao, an economics professor at Keio University in Tokyo who has written about the loss of trust in government. “But the people are learning from the blogs, Twitter and Facebook that the government’s food-monitoring system is simply not credible.”

Stefan Molyneux: Perspectives on Health Care, Gun Control, and Peaceful Freedom

Source: Freedomain Radio
Stefan Molyneux

Some free-market perspectives on health care to the poor, and the role of guns in social violence.

Stefan Molyneux is the host of Freedomain Radio, the largest and most popular philosophy show on the web - http://www.freedomainradio.com 

Corbett Report - Episode 215: History Repeating

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

From My Lai to Abu Ghraib to Afghanistan, we have seen the all-too-familiar pattern: denials followed by excuses followed by faux apologies and offical handwringing. What is never examined is how each event fits into the bigger picture of the dehumanization of war. Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we go in search of the thread that connects our own time to the history that helps to explain it.

 

Documentation

Bogus Tales of Iran's Nukes Used to Feed US Militarism

Source: Global Research
Ben Schreiner

With seemingly each passing day, the tensions between the US and Iran over the latter’s nascent nuclear program mount.  And with the voices clamoring for conflict growing ever louder, the clouds of war darken.  

As Mark Helprin warns in a January 18 Wall Street Journal op-ed, the Iranian nuclear program poses “a mortal threat” to the US.  As he explains, “we cannot dismiss the possibility of Iranian nuclear charges of 500 pounds or less ending up in Manhattan or Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Jamie Fly and Gary Schmitt, meanwhile, argue in a January 17 Foreign Affairs piece for outright regime change.  As they state: “After all, Iran’s nuclear program is a symptom of a larger illness—the revolutionary fundamentalist regime in Tehran.”  (An anonymous US official was quoted in the Washington Post on January 10 to hold regime change aspirations as well, before the paper later "clarified" the official’s remarks.)

Such frenzied and war hungry rhetoric, however, has not been limited to the standard purveyors of neoconservative drivel.  In fact, dramatically escalating the tensions and sense of fear amongst the American public has been the nation’s mainstream press corps, which has readily abandoned any and all pretensions of journalistic integrity in the service of propaganda.  

Indicative of this is the fact that it is now a common occurrence to have dire warnings of an Iranian nuclear weapons program splashed across the pages of the nation’s preeminent newspapers.  This endless chorus, though, comes despite the fact that an Iranian nuclear weapons program—as does its purported desire to even develop such a program—currently exists only in one’s imagination.  This much we know from the latest US National Intelligence Estimate.  

Nonetheless, the sheer and utter invention of an Iranian nuclear weapons program has increasingly come to be held by the American press as fact.  For as Joseph Goebbels would have it: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Illustrative of this dark axiom at work, we read in a January 12 Los Angeles Times editorial that: “Iran’s development of nuclear weapons [emphasis added] poses a grave threat to world stability and possibly an existential threat to this country’s Middle Eastern ally, Israel.”  In a January 10 Washington Post editorial we read that, “Iran may be feeling some economic pain, and it may be isolated.  But its drive for nuclear weapons continues [emphasis added].”  And in a January 4 New York Times piece we learn that, “The threats from Iran, aimed both at the West and at Israel, combined with a recent assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran's nuclear program has a military objective [emphasis added], is becoming an important issue in the American presidential campaign.”

Of course, the hysteria over a hypothetical Iranian nuclear weapons program has by no means been limited to US print media.  The cable broadcast network CNN (i.e., “the most trusted name in news”) has also reported the fictitious claim that Iran's nuclear program has a military objective as fact. 

Creating American Terrorists

Source: Council of the National Interest
Philip Giraldi

Defenders of the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, which declares the entire world to be a “battlefield” against terrorism and authorizes the U.S. military to detain indefinitely anyone suspected of being a terrorism supporter, have claimed that the White House will only use its new power carefully and with due process. Opponents note that the White House has never hesitated to use any new authority, no matter how outrageous, and that the trend of law enforcement and security agencies is to expand on powers granted, not to rein them in or limit them.

The track record of the Obama administration on civil liberties is particularly bad, as it has broadened its definition of war powers, reneged on its promise to close Guantanamo Prison, and supported numerous dubious terrorism prosecutions. It has also become adept at silencing critics through the repeated exploitation of the state-secrets privilege, which effectively dismisses any case accusing the government of abuse or malfeasance.

So let us accept that the government now has the power to send a team of military police to anyone’s home in any state in the Union and can demand that that person surrender without any recourse to a lawyer or judicial due process. The military can then detain the individual incommunicado for any length of time and can presumably send him to Guantanamo for special confinement, claiming that the reason for the detention is support of terrorism, which can be almost anything, including a letter to the editor of the local paper complaining about the goonery of the Transportation Security Administration. Once in detention, the suspect only has such options as are granted to him by the military. He cannot see a lawyer, cannot invoke habeas corpus or other constitutional privileges, cannot confront any witnesses against him, and cannot challenge any information prejudicial to him even if it is hearsay or fabricated. In other words, the accused can be arrested for no reason and held indefinitely without any protections that enable him to push back against being detained. Most people would consider a criminal justice system that permits such detention ipso facto a police state.

There's Something Very Odd about GOP Primary Pre-polling and Vote

Source: Activist Post
Eric Blair

Okay.  It's time somebody says it. Something seems very strange about the GOP primary pre-polling and vote thus far.

As a Ron Paul fan, I didn't want to seem like a sore loser after the odd Iowa result where the failed no-name Senator, Rick Santorum, was catapulted to victory with very little tangible support.

But now, how on earth could Newt Gingrich win the South Carolina primary when the day before the vote he had to cancel a major campaign stop because of lack of attendance?

The Associated Press reported:

Newt Gingrich has cancelled a campaign appearance in South Carolina because of poor attendance. 

The Republican presidential candidate was scheduled to speak to the Southern Republican Leadership on Friday. But a campaign spokesman told reporters that he would no longer be appearing due to poor attendance. 

There were just a few dozen people in the audience at the College of Charleston's arena, where the event was taking place.

Meanwhile, on the same day Ron Paul boasted over 1000 attendees at his campaign event in Charleston:

2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul attracted more than 1,000 supporters in Charleston today, demonstrating his strong support among younger voters and his overall popularity. 

The crowd gathered expressly for the 12-term Congressman from Texas as he participated in “The Bully Pulpit Series” at 11:00 a.m. EST at the College of Charleston, located at 7 College Way, Charleston. The candidate had been in Washington the day prior for a key House vote against President Obama raising the debt ceiling, but upon his return there was apparently no loss of enthusiasm.

Corbett Report Radio - Deconstructing the Panopticon

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

The Panopticon is the perfect prison — an architectural idea that embodies the rule of the many by the few. But it has a secret weakness, one that the system doesn’t want you to know about: it only works if you fear it. Tonight on Corbett Report Radio we dig a tunnel out of the panopticon prison by exposing the truth and dispelling the fear.

 

Works Cited:

Corbett Report Podcast Episode 035 – The Panopticon
India enrolling over 1 billion people in world’s largest biometric database
Welcome to the Panopticon
The Last Word on CCTV
Charles Farrier on No CCTV (UK)

NEO-NAZISM: United Nations Anti-Nazi Resolution and Falsification of History

Source: Global Research
Carla Stea

Iran, Israel, Syria, Russia United in UN General Assembly Vote against Neo-Nazism

On December 19, 2011, in an extraordinary vote, Iran, Israel and Syria united in support of United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/66/460 on “Inadmissibility of Certain Practices That Contribute to Fuelling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.” The resolution was adopted by a majority vote of 134, with 24 opposed and 31 abstentions. Among the 32 co-sponsors of the Resolution were, notably, Iran, Syria, Belarus, the Russian Federation, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Venezuela, Viet Nam. The resolution states:

4. “Expresses deep concern about the glorification of the Nazi movement and former members of the Waffen SS organization, including by erecting monuments and memorials and holding public demonstrations in the name of the glorification of the Nazi past, the Nazi movement and neo-Nazism, as well as by declaring or attempting to declare such members and those who fought against the anti-Hitler Coalition and collaborated with the Nazi movement participants in national liberation movements.

5. “Expresses concern at recurring attempts to desecrate or demolish monuments erected in remembrance of those who fought against Nazism during the Second World War, as well as to unlawfully exhume or remove the remains of such persons, and in this regard urges States to fully comply with their relevant obligations, inter alia, under Article 34 of Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

8. Stresses that the practices described above do injustice to the memory of the countless victims of crimes against humanity committed in the Second World War, in particular those committed by the SS organizations and those who fought against the anti-Hitler coalition and collaborated with the Nazi movement, and poison the minds of young people, and that failure by States to effectively address such practices is incompatible with the obligation of States members of the United Nations under its Charter and is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Organization.”

In 1945 George Braziller published Michael Sayers and Albert E. Kahn’s “The Plot Against the Peace,” which documents, in chapter 6, the nazi doctrine’s explicitly defined policy of xenophobia and racial genocide against the Slavic peoples and the Jews:

“Immediately after Hitler came to power, the Nazi government launched a systematic campaign aimed at the ultimate extermination of the Jewish population of the Third Reich…” But “It was against the Slav peoples, the traditional enemy of Pan-Germanism, that the policy of genocide was most extensively applied…’It will be one of the chief tasks of German statesmanship,’ Hitler told Hermann Rauschning, ‘for all time to prevent, by every means in our power, the further increase of the Slav races.’” (From “The Plot Against the Peace,” by Sayers and Kahn, 1945).

By the end of World War II, in addition to the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis, approximately 30 million Soviet citizens had been exterminated, only one third of whom had been soldiers. 

Russia and BRICS Nations Warn West to Back Off Iran and Syria

Source: The Hindu

Russia warned the West against military intervention in Iran and Syria and rejected unilateral sanctions against the two nations.

Military action against Iran would have “catastrophic consequences,” Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

Mr. Lavrov told an annual press conference that Moscow is seriously concerned about the threat of a military operation against Iran and is “doing its best to prevent it.” He said the war would provoke an exodus of refugees from Iran to Azerbaijan and Russia, would pour fuel into the simmering Shia-Sunni conflict and trigger a chain reaction.

The press conference was devoted to Russia's foreign policy in 2011, but Mr. Lavrov's tough language suggested that Moscow was bracing up for hardnosed confrontation with the West in 2012.

Mr. Lavrov said the West's unilateral sanctions against Iran, such as the proposed oil embargo, were “aimed at suffocating the Iranian economy” and “inciting popular discontent.”

He said Iran was ready for a resumption of talks with international mediators and hinted that Europe and the United States were imposing new sanctions at this juncture with the specific purpose of torpedoing further negotiations.

The Russian Foreign Minister said Moscow would block any Western attempts to obtain United Nations mandate for military interference in Syria. A draft resolution submitted by Russia states that all Security Council members refrain from interference and use of force in Syria. Mr. Lavrov said it was self-revealing that Western powers were trying hard to remove from the Russian draft the part stating that “nothing in the present resolution can be interpreted as allowing the use of force against Syria by any party.”

At the same time, China and the other members of the BRICS group have thrown their support behind the Russian draft, Mr. Lavrov said. 

Media Monarchy - Episode 247

Source: Media Monarchy
James Evan Pilato

 

"all aboard, the sinking ship is leaving" for an epic episode247 from media monarchy w/ synching ships, titanic memes, truth music & the catch 2012 hand jive - memorial martin, copywrong quotes & a classical newspurge - pure energy & strange sounds in cyber/space\war - holy rollers & ritual america on holy hexes - kraft work & home king on food world order + max sounds from sloan, johnny otis, information society, moon mullican, nrbq, idlewild & tons more...

COMPLETE CONTENTS OF EPISODE247

Iran's Press TV loses UK licence

Source: BBC

Iranian news network Press TV has had its licence revoked by the media regulator Ofcom and will no longer be allowed to broadcast in the UK. 

Ofcom said the state broadcaster's English language outlet had breached several broadcasting licence rules over editorial control of the channel. 

Press TV has also failed to pay a £100,000 fine imposed last year.

The channel called the decision "a clear example of censorship". It will be removed from Sky on 20 January. 

The £100,000 fine was imposed last year after the network broadcast an interview with imprisoned Newsweek and Channel 4 journalist Maziar Bahari, which the Ofcom said had been conducted under duress.

Ofcom said Press TV had "indicated it is unwilling and unable to pay".

It was during the investigation into the Bahari interview that the media regulator formed the impression that editorial decisions on the channel were being controlled by the offices in Tehran, instead of the UK. 

Press TV was given the opportunity to respond and make the relevant amendments needed to comply with the broadcasting code, but "failed to make the necessary application", Ofcom said. 

In a statement issued to the BBC, Press TV's newsroom director Mr Hamid Emadi said: "We asked Ofcom if Press TV Limited did not have control over the broadcast, why was it getting fined, if it did have control, why would the licence be revoked? 

"Ofcom contradictions are nothing new for Press TV. The British government's tool to control the media has, on several occasions, changed its decisions regarding Press TV in its two-year campaign against the alternative news channel."

The statement also claimed that Ofcom, which it called "the media arm of the Royal family", had failed to respond to a letter sent by its Chief Executive earlier this month.

Press TV channel launched in 2007 to break what Iran's state broadcaster called a Western "stranglehold" over the world's media.

Target Iran: Dystopian, Morally Challenged World Where Nuclear Scientists Are Killed

Source: RIR
Rakesh Krishnan Simha

Target Iran: The morality of killing nuclear scientists

The serial murder of Iranian nuclear scientists is a pointer to the West’s moral compass. It is also a sign of desperation and double standards.

“Physics is an unhealthy line of work in today’s Iran,” begins an editorial in the Australian newspaper “The Age”. The jibe follows the murder of an Iranian nuclear scientist by a motorcycle riding assassin. “I shall not shed any tears whenever one of these scientists encounters the unforgiving men on motorbikes, men who live in the real world rather than a laboratory or philosophy seminar,” the morally challenged writer continues.

What kind of dystopian world is the writer living in? When did scientists become legitimate targets and hired killers turn heroic? For several decades now Australia, in lockstep with its Western allies, has parroted the drivel that terrorism in all forms must be condemned. But because the dead scientists all worked for Iran, it’s okay to gloat.

Five strikes

Five Iranian nuclear scientists have been attacked in the past two years. In the latest job on January 11, a magnetic bomb was attached to the door of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan’s car during morning rush-hour in the capital, Tehran. His driver was also killed and two others seriously injured.

Last year among the four scientists attacked, the most spectacular – and tragic – incident was on July 23 when Darioush Rezaeinejad was shot through the throat outside his daughter’s kindergarten.

The official, and expected, response to these murders is the “we condemn” line from Western governments. However, the unofficial statements are a stark pointer to the West’s moral compass.

“On occasion,” gloated Republican presidential hopeful and gay-bashing, Christian fundamentalist Rick Santorum, “scientists working on the nuclear programme in Iran turn up dead. I think that’s a wonderful thing, candidly.”

And smiling for the cameras in a televised press conference Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief Benny Gantz spoke about “unnatural events” that were delaying Iran’s nuclear push.

The gloating didn’t end there. “I don’t know who settled the score with the Iranian scientist, but I certainly am not shedding a tear,” the IDF’s Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai said on Facebook.

U.S. NATO Actions Make Russia-China Alliance More Urgent

Source: Global Times
US actions make China-Russia alliance appealing

As US aircraft carrier groups gather in the Arabian Sea, a showdown between Iran and the West is rumbling on. If a war erupts, this will be another upshot of the US pursuit of absolute national security. 

Mainstream forces in Washington are trying to sell a ludicrous standpoint to the American people: that it is worthwhile bearing financial costs and even losing some lives to confront lurking dangers to US security in the Middle East.

This is not a rational analysis, but rather a pious belief in US politics. With an appetite for national security causes, the US becomes increasingly meticulous in eliminating potential challenges.

The US has somewhat defused two powder kegs in the Middle East: Iraq and Afghanistan. It also helped bring about the fall of Slobodan Milosevic and Yugoslavia. Now it is preparing for a potential confrontation with Iran, and appears confident of another successful air strike.

Such a demonstration of armed might makes powers like Russia and China increasingly nervous. 

By stirring up other powers’ sense of insecurity, the US is actually undermining its own interests. Its security paranoia instills many uncertainties into global dynamics and into the US itself. 

If the West slides into a war with Iran, the damages will not be any lower than the potential threat of Iran’s nuclear power.

Perhaps the US is used to resorting to war to solve geopolitical problems. But many worry that such a mentality will sooner or later lead to a US clash with Russia and China. So far Moscow and Beijing are relatively restrained, though NATO seeks to expand its strategic presence in East Europe and US strengthening its military alliances in Asia. But the two cannot fall back forever.

Corbett Report Radio - MegaUpload Down and Food World Order

Source: Corbett Report and Food World Order

James Corbett and James Evan Pilato

In the wake of the SopaStrike the DOJ moves to take down Megaupload. Now Anonymous is on a rampage to strike back. Is this the revolution or all a part of the psy-op? Join us tonight on Corbett Report Radio as we break it all down and talk to James Evan Pilato about all the latest in the Food World Order.

Works Cited:

DOJ Gives Its Opinion On SOPA By Unilaterally Shutting Down ‘Foreign Rogue Site’ Megaupload… Without SOPA/PIPA
If SOPA’s Main Target Is The Pirate Bay, It’s Worth Pointing Out That ThePirateBay.org Is Immune From SOPA
Anonymous Goes on Megaupload Revenge Spree: DoJ, RIAA, MPAA, and Universal Music All Offline
Anonymous goes nuclear; everybody loses?
Five key senators abandon online piracy bills amid Web protests
As If You Needed Another Reason to Hate F*cking GoDaddy
What is a DDOS attack? (xkcd)
A Gut Check for Many Ailments
BASF to Stop Selling Genetically Modified Products in Europe
1/19 binge & purge: fakes, fads & gmo omg!

Escalating Cyber War Spells Trouble for Internet Freedom

Source: Activist Post
Eric Blair

The cyber war escalated to a whole new level yesterday. The U.S. government shut down the popular website MegaUpload at the behest of corporate interests. The Feds accused MegaUpload of stealing $500 million in potential lost revenue from copyright holders.

Almost immediately, the hacktivist group Anonymous retaliated by launching massive DDoS attacks on several websites including the US Copyright Office, Department of Justice, FBI.gov, Universal Music Group, Music Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America. The attack called “Operation MegaUpload” is also said to be targeting Whitehouse.gov.

Many Internet freedom and privacy activists are cheering Anonymous’ assault against the U.S. Government and the corporate interests that control it. But I’m getting the eerie feeling that Anonymous is playing right into the hands of those who wish to control and censor the Internet.

First, I must state unequivocally that the U.S. government and the copyright holders are clearly the aggressors in this war. Their actions violate current copyright laws where the content providers must prove damages in the court of law before they can sabotage and ransack a business they accuse of stealing. Even though a grand jury supposedly indicted MegaUpload, it’s nearly impossible for them to prove “potential lost revenue” since those engaged in file sharing cannot automatically be considered lost customers.  

Because of this conundrum, copyright holders instead lobbied the government to change the laws to legalize this form of censorship through blunt force and without due process. It seems that since the sought-after legislation, SOPA, has been recently shelved due to universal protest, the State was compelled to act above the law to destroy those sharing information on the Web.

Even more suspicious is that some of the chief copyright holders pushing for these new guilty-until-proven-innocent laws were the ones who developed, promoted, and profited from file sharing in the first place. Again, it’s all beginning to feel like a set-up designed to justify Internet censorship, which is clearly the end game for the powers that be.

Thus the cyber war seems to be heading in the same direction as all literal and figurative wars do. Let’s remember that the public never wins in war. War always justifies atrocities against freedom and proves devastating for infrastructure. Fighting fire with fire very rarely results in anything but destruction. And it’s far easier to destroy something than to create a solution.

Iran Suspects UN Had a Role in Nuke Scientist Murder

Source: RT

Iran is suspicious that UN agencies may have given away information which aided the murder of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan on January 11. 

Iranian deputy UN ambassador Eshagh Al Habib told the UN Security Council on Thursday that there was “high suspicion” that, in order to prepare the murder, terrorist circles used intelligence obtained from UN bodies. According to him, this included interviews with Iranian nuclear scientists carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the sanction list of the Security Council, Reuters news agency reports.

Officials observed that prior to the murder, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan had talked to IAEA inspectors, a fact which “indicates that these UN agencies may have played a role in leaking information on Iran's nuclear facilities and scientists."

Although the UN Security Council’s list of sanctioned individuals does not include Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, it does bear the name of Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani, who was wounded in a Tehran car bomb attack in November, 2010.

Eshagh Al Habib accused the United Nations of failing to guarantee the confidentiality of the information it obtains about the Iranian nuclear program and nuclear scientists. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky says he is currently investigating the claims. 

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, who was overseeing Iran’s uranium enrichment program, is one of five Iranian nuclear specialists killed in the last two years. He was murdered by one or more motorbike hit men who allegedly planted a magnetic bomb on his car or, alternatively, dropped a bomb inside the car during the morning rush hour.  Iran accused American and Israeli intelligence of carrying out the murder – a charge both countries deny.

The Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear activities. Western countries believe Iran’s nuclear program has military dimensions.  However Tehran maintains it is peaceful, and the IAEA has failed to produce any evidence of concrete plans to develop a nuclear arsenal.

Empire, Power, and People with Andrew Gavin Marshall - Episode 2

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
Andrew Gavin Marshall

Power, Propaganda, and Purpose in American Democracy

This podcast examines a concept of power that emerged in the early 20th century United States, born of social unrest and elite fears of revolution, this new conception sought to redefine democracy for the 20th century. That new definition was based upon using propaganda in order to “engineer consent” of the masses – “the bewildered herd” – as they were referred to, with the purpose of allowing the modern industrial democratic society to be run by an intellectual elite in service to the financial wealth of the nation. Democracy, then, came to be: of the few, by the few, for the few, and with the ‘consent’ of the many.

SOPA Backout, SCOTUS Copywrong, Abuse Archives - New World Next Week

Source: Corbett Report and Media Monarchy

Welcome to New World Next Week — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:

Story #1: SOPA Is Back As Websites Go Black
http://ur1.ca/7kay8
Update: Five Key Senators Abandon Online Piracy Bills Amid Web Protests
http://ur1.ca/7kayc
Related: Corbett Report Radio 052 – Solutions: People Power
http://ur1.ca/7kdyh

Story #2: SCOTUS Says Congress May ‘Re-Copyright’ Public Domain Works
http://ur1.ca/7kayf
Flashback: White House Wants New Copyright Law Crackdown
http://ur1.ca/7kaym

Story #3: Lawyer Challenges Catholics to Open Secret Archives for Abuse Truth
http://ur1.ca/7kays
Related: Belgian Officials Search Bishops’ Offices in Abuse Inquiry
http://ur1.ca/7kayw

Rick Santorum Defends SOPA

Source: YouTube

"Every freedom must be regulated" - Rick Santorum, the champion of tyranny.

Does Might Make Right? The US Now Threatens Countries Who Buy Iranian Oil

Source: PressTV

Trying to flex its muscles again, the United States want the world to go along with its demands. And this time it wants the world to boycott Iranian oil or be punished by Washington.

According to Chinese authorities, Washington wants the world to listen to them based on their own domestic law, and that is simply not right.