World News

The US Establishment Wants the American People Under Surveillance

June 16, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Let this moment be a educational one so let’s have the Debate that the President calls for

By Frank Gormlie

What a dastardly crazy last week and half it’s been.

Beginning Thursday, June 6th, with the Washington Post and the Guardian in London both running with the explosive news about the National Security Agency surveillance programs, we’ve been hit with daily revelations – that are still continuing every news cycle – that have created quiet a long list of whistle blower-delivered disclosures about what the government and the NSA are and have been doing to us – the American people.

Also on June 6th, the director of national intelligence confirmed the existence of a secret program in which the government has tapped into the central servers of 9 leading internet companies to search for data linked to terrorism, espionage or nuclear proliferation.

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Former CIA Employee, Snowden, Blows Whistle on NSA’s Dragnet Surveillance

June 12, 2013 by Source
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By Marjorie Cohn / truthout

Just as Bradley Manning’s court-martial was getting underway, another brave whistleblower dropped a bombshell into the media: The Obama administration is collecting data on every telephone call we make. Nearly 64 years to the day after George Orwell published his prescient book 1984, we have learned that the “Thought Police” are indeed watching every one of us. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” Edward Snowden told the Washington Post.

A former undercover CIA employee who has worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) for four years, Snowden provided a secret order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to the Guardian. The order requires Verizon on an “ongoing daily basis” to provide the NSA information about all phone calls in its system both in the United States and other countries.

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NSA Phone Tap ‘Scandal’: Can We Finally Talk About What the Government is Doing to ‘Keep Us Safe’?

June 7, 2013 by Doug Porter
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By Doug Porter / June 6 and June 7, 2013

It’s a one topic day for this news roundup.

The Guardian newspaper has a major scoop on its hands. Reporter Glen Greenwald Tuesday published a leaked copy of a Patriot Act Section 215 order. The order itself is the scoop, since Section 215 orders are secretly authorized by a secret court to tell individuals to take actions in secret.

Revealing the existence of one of these secret orders is against the law. So we can expect a Federal investigation with its own set of secret court orders into who leaked this document.

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Heroes and Villains: Does US Foreign Policy Understand the Difference?

May 22, 2013 by Source

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By Joseph Howard Crews / San Diego Free Press

For 60 years the most celebrated and revered African in history was listed as a terrorist threat to the people of the United States. Who decided this? Why did Americans allow this, and what does it say about what we are?

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It’s a Sad Day in America When the Navy Launches a San Diego-Built Drone off a Carrier

May 17, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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It’s a sad day in America. The US Navy launched the first carrier-based drone off its deck the other day, off the coast of Virginia. It’s an even sadder day for us in San Diego, as the drone was manufactured – in part, at least – by plants and engineers right here in our own city.

The launching of the drone off that deck demonstrates clearly that as drones become more and more integrated into becoming the armament of the nation’s military, they are becoming more and more accepted – here domestically, back in the good ol’ US of A.

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A Real Scandal: Activists in San Diego and Around the World to Protest Monsanto May 25th

May 16, 2013 by Doug Porter

Balboa Park March & Rally, Mission Bay Overpass Light Brigade Events Expected to Draw Thousands

By Doug Porter/ San Diego Free Press

While the oldstream media is obsessing on the current crop of Washington’s politi-dramas, an international protest movement is gathering steam. Activists in on six continents, in 36 countries, and in 47 U.S. states — totaling events in over 250 cities — are coordinating demonstrations to occur simultaneously at 11am Pacific time on Saturday May 25th under the general theme “March Against Monsanto”.

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Why Bomb the Boston Marathon?

April 25, 2013 by Source

Islamic Totalitarians, the Apocalypse, and Terrorism

By Chip Berlet / Talk to Action

E 43.tifWalk a mile in the shoes of those who claim to honor God and yet cheer the bombing of the Boston Marathon. They represent only a tiny fraction of the Muslims on our planet, yet they see themselves as carrying out the will of God. Fanatics such as these can be found in many of the World’s religions. They shoot abortion providers in the United States; blast apart buses in Israel; and murder Muslims in India (and vice versa).

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West Coast Babies Suffer Thyroid Problems After Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown

April 8, 2013 by Source
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Children born in Pacific coastal states in 2011 may be at greatest risk.

By Anne Hurley / msn Healthy Living / April 4, 2013

It’s already well known how devastating the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown was for Japan — dramatic spikes in radiation-related illnesses, an increase in likely cancer deaths over the next several years, and pollution which may never truly be cleaned up.

A new study suggests what many worldwide have feared — that the devastation from the traveling radiation has in fact sickened infants in other countries, including babies born shortly after the incident in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California.

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OB Rag Poll on the Use of Drones: 82% Oppose Drones in the U.S.

April 8, 2013 by Frank Gormlie

Recently, the OB Rag ran a readers’ poll on the use of drones by the US government either in America and/or abroad. The results of the week-long poll are in: 82% of respondents oppose the use of drones in the United States.

36% of the respondents replied that they are okay with the use of the unmanned flying vessels in other countries by our government. 17% indicated that they are okay with their use in America.

45% of the 108 readers who responded specifically feel that the use of drones in America is unconstitutional or that they should not be used in our country. Another 37% replied that they specifically opposed their use overseas as well.

26% said that their use in America is “absolutely unconstitutional”. Another 19% were okay with their use in hunting down terrorists abroad, but opposed their deployment here in this country.

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San Diego’s “Anti-Drone Days of Action” Kick Off Nation-Wide Protests April 4 – 7

April 3, 2013 by Source
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San Diego Has Become “National Capital” of Military Drone Production

From San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice /April 3, 2013

“National Anti-Drone Days of Action” from April 4 through 7 in San Diego start a month of protests across the United States against the policy and practice of drone warfare and secret surveillance.

Local and national organizations are coordinating a series of events to increase the attention to why drone killings and surveillance are bad practice and policy for the United States.

San Diego’s “Anti-Drone Days” is not one, but a series of events (see listing).

San Diego is where these protests will start based on the region’s role as the “national capital” of military drone production. Killer and surveillance drones pour out of San Diego at increasing rates, matched by the rise in deaths and dismemberment from US strikes across the globe.

Most of this production is tied to two corporate contracting giants — Northrop Grumman and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which is headquartered in San Diego.

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Did Richard Nixon Commit Treason By Sabotaging Vietnam Peace Talks?

March 20, 2013 by Source
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Newly-released tapes record LBJ saying Nixon committed treason.

By Eric Brown / International Business Times / March 17 2013

Newly released tapes recorded during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency have confirmed long-held rumors that in 1968, then-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon worked to sabotage Vietnam War peace talks.

The LBJ tapes were recently declassified and released by the Johnson library in Austin, Texas. According to the BBC’s summary of the tapes, not only did Nixon possibly commit treason, but LBJ knew about it and decided not to expose him in the closing days of an election that Nixon barely won.

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A War of Aggression

March 19, 2013 by Source
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From “Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law”

By Marjorie Cohn, 2007

According to sources inside the administration, George W. Bush was planning to invade Iraq and remove its government well before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Such an invasion violates the UN Charter, which the United States signed in 1945 after the bloodiest conflict in history. The Charter permits countries to use military force against another country only in self-defense or with Security Council permission. But the evidence indicates that the U.S.-led invasion satisfied neither condition and is therefore a war of aggression, which constitutes a Crime Against Peace – exactly the kind of war the Charter was meant to prevent.

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2012 Was the Warmest Year Ever For United States

January 16, 2013 by Source

weather5By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

The average temperature for 2012 was 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.2 degrees above normal and a full degree higher than the previous warmest year recorded — 1998 — NOAA said in a recent report. All 48 states in the contiguous U.S. had above-average annual temperatures last year, including 19 that broke annual records, from Connecticut through Utah.

It was also a historic year for “extreme” weather, scientists with the federal agency said.

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A Cultural Comparison Between Gun Violence in America and Europe – a Three Part Series

January 10, 2013 by Source
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biblegunsEditor: John Lawrence, a regular writer for San Diego Free Press, has teamed up with Frank Thomas, a nationally-known progressive researcher, to lay out a Cultural Comparison between gun violence in America and Europe, in a three part series, all reposted below.

By John Lawrence and Frank Thomas

Introduction

While US gun crime and all crime levels are slowly but almost imperceptibly declining, they still remain relatively astronomically high compared with Europe. In this article, we compare US and European levels of gun violence and gun control to see if we can make any sense of the gun debate in the wake of the increasing frequency of mass murders as well as the almost mundane everyday killings in urban areas like Chicago and Detroit. Frank is an ex-pat who has lived in Europe for over 30 years. John has lived in San Diego for over 40 years.

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The Holiday Celebrations Continue: Three Wise Men and a Rosca, Orthodox Christmas and Rusyns

January 7, 2013 by Anna Daniels

This was a wonderful year for Christmas lights in my City Heights neighborhood. They cheerfully, often exuberantly, illuminated the night from the day after Thanksgiving until the day after New Year’s. It is sad to see them extinguished, put away, for yet another year, although ours stay up in the house year round. You can never have enough illumination in the darkness…

But that is not to say the seasonal celebrations are over- far from it. Sunday January 6th is the Three Kings Day celebration in Mexico and other Spanish speaking cultures; it is also Orthodox Christmas Eve for those religious traditions based upon the Julian calendar, as opposed to our Gregorian calendar. What that boils down to is that I have to order my rosca de reyes so that I can take it to our Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner.

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Romney’s Bain Capital To Send Nearly 200 High-Tech Jobs to China the Day Before the Election

October 24, 2012 by Staff

By Joshua Holland /Alternet

On the day before an election that’s supposed to hinge on jobs, taxes and the middle class, Bain Capital, the company Mitt Romney founded, will close the doors of a factory in Freeport, Illinois, and ship 170 good, high-tech jobs to China.

The employees of Sensata Technologies were forced to train their Chinese replacements, and the American flag that long flew over the factory was reportedly removed while the Chinese engineers were visiting the site. A group of workers have set up camp across from the factory — calling it “Bainport” — and some supporters have tried to block the trucks hauling equipment out of the plant. According to Dave Johnson, there have been several arrests.

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Killings by Border Patrol to Be Reviewed After Congress Reacts to Rojas Death at San Ysidro

October 19, 2012 by Frank Gormlie
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Bob Filner Among 16 Congressional Members Urging Review of Deadly Force Use by Border Patrol Agents

Since 2010, at least 16 civilians have been killed by Border Patrol agents along the US-Mexico border. Many of those killed were involved in throwing rocks at agents during confrontations with border smugglers.

Yet, since September, there have been three persons killed by agents – including the young mother of 5 who was a US citizen right here in Chula Vista. The three also include 16-year-old suspected rock thrower from Nogales.

But it was the 2010 taser-linked death of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas here at San Ysidro that pushed members of Congress to urge a review of how border patrol agents use deathly force. After a video surfaced showing a customs officer in San Diego using a Taser on Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, who later died of a heart attack, some Congressional members were moved to act and send their letter to the Inspector General.

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Bain Owned Plant Removed US Flag as American Workers Forced to Train Chinese Replacements

October 16, 2012 by Doug Porter
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Editor: The following is from Doug Porter’s column at San Diego Free Press, The Starting Line, published Oct. 15th.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney loves to berate the Chinese on the campaign trail. He portrays himself as the candidate that will stop Beijing from “cheating” that will stem the flow of jobs being exported to Asia from the United States. Yet an Illinois company that he has large investments in is forcing soon to be laid off workers to train their Chinese replacements even as Romney continues to claim that his programs will revive the economy and create jobs.

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The Maimed – On Eleven Years of War In Afghanistan

October 8, 2012 by Source
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Chris Hedges gave this talk Sunday night – October 7th – in New York City at a protest denouncing the 11th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. The event, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, was led by Veterans for Peace.

By Chris Hedges

Many of us who are here carry within us death. The smell of decayed and bloated corpses. The cries of the wounded. The shrieks of children. The sound of gunfire. The deafening blasts. The fear. The stench of cordite. The humiliation that comes when you surrender to terror and beg for life. The loss of comrades and friends. And then the aftermath. The long alienation. The numbness. The nightmares. The lack of sleep. The inability to connect to all living things, even to those we love the most. The regret. The repugnant lies mouthed around us about honor and heroism and glory. The absurdity. The waste. The futility.

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Prop 35: Human Trafficking, a Progressive Dilemma

October 4, 2012 by Frank Gormlie
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By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing

It is a no-brainer to predict that the anti-human trafficking ballot initiative in California, Proposition 35, will pass by a landslide in November. The measure’s increased prison sentences and fines for labor and sex traffickers are popular responses to crime.

Even Maxine Doogan, spokesperson for the measure’s primary opposition, said Prop 35 is going to pass: “Everyone is against human trafficking. Of course we need to throw the book at human traffickers.”

But Doogan, the founder of Erotic Service Provider Legal, Educational and Research Project, a sex worker advocacy group, is not at all pleased with the measure’s inevitable success.

Neither are civil libertarians, if the ACLU’s opposition is any indication.

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‘Occupy’ Anniversary Protests in New York, San Diego & Around the World

September 17, 2012 by Doug Porter
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Go to San Diego Free Press for updates.

Welcome to September 17th. Today is the 225th Anniversary of the Constitution of the United States. It’s also the first year anniversary of the start of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests/movement.

Over the weekend people streamed into New York from around the nation for a three day event remembering the protests last year. Although OWS events are scheduled for 30 cities around the world, most in the mainstream media are running with the meme that the Occupy movement is dead. There will be events in San Diego today. (See Below)

The Huffington Post, that so-called bastion of liberal news, ran an Associated Press report

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NY Times: New Research Shows Bush White House Downplayed CIA Warnings About “Immiment” al Qaeda Strikes

September 11, 2012 by Source

The Deafness Before the Storm

By Kurt Eichenwald / New York Times/ September 10, 2012

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

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American Meteorological Society: Unequivocal Evidence that Earth is Warming, Sea Levels Rising, Snow, Glaciers and Artic Ice Shrinking due to Human Activities

August 30, 2012 by Source
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How is climate changing?

Warming of the climate system now is unequivocal, according to many different kinds of evidence. Observations show increases in globally averaged air and ocean temperatures, as well as widespread melting of snow and ice and rising globally averaged sea level. Surface temperature data for Earth as a whole, including readings over both land and ocean, show an increase of about 0.8°C (1.4°F) over the period 1901-2010 and about 0.5°C (0.9°F) over the period 1979–2010 (the era for which satellite-based temperature data are routinely available).

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Michael Moore and Oliver Stone Speak Out on WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and Free Speech

August 21, 2012 by Source
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By Michael Moore and Oliver Stone / New York Times / August 20, 2012

WE have spent our careers as filmmakers making the case that the news media in the United States often fail to inform Americans about the uglier actions of our own government. We therefore have been deeply grateful for the accomplishments of WikiLeaks, and applaud Ecuador’s decision to grant diplomatic asylum to its founder, Julian Assange, who is now living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

Ecuador has acted in accordance with important principles of international human rights.

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Hiroshima / Nagasaki Remembered by Veterans for Peace

August 6, 2012 by Source

By Barry Ladendorf
In many parts of the world, people will pause to commemorate what happened 67 years ago on August 6, 1945, when the United States unleashed the most diabolical weapon in the history of mankind on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later on August 9th, the same hellish fire consumed the city of Nagasaki. It is estimated that 250,000 people died as a result of the bombs.

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Telling It Like It Is – a Common Sense Commentary – Part 2

July 23, 2012 by Source
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Editor: This is the second in a two-part series by Jim Bell, one of OB’s itinerant globalists. Here is Part One.

By Jim Bell

Part Two

On the most fundamental level, answering this question comes down to consciousness. If each of us and the human family as a whole, become conscious enough, it will be easy to resolve human differences without violence or its threat and develop economies and ways of life that are beneficial to everyone and are completely life-support sustaining.

It’s true that some people have done and are doing despicable things to other people and to our common life-support system, but on the whole, we are becoming more conscious. The expansion of women’s rights, the general rejection of racism and the fact that governments no longer sanction slavery — are just a few examples of our increasing consciousness and empathy.

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