02.21.14

Police and Army: Not Protecting and Not Serving Ordinary People

Posted in News Roundup at 10:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Domestic and foreign abuses of power; examples from recent weeks for police and from the past 24 hours for the army/secret agencies

Police

• No bond for elderly Sebring woman who repeatedly fed bears

  Neighbors say Mary Musselman has been feeding backyard animals as long as they can remember.

  “She fed the squirrels, the birds, strays and that was in the community. She’s just always been that kind of soul,” says neighbor Patty Palmer.

• Stop Resisting Execution: Cold-Blooded Arizona Cops Assassinate Suspect with His Hands in the Air

  For absolutely no reason other than “because they could”, cops in Pinal County, Arizona executed a suspect who was standing there, not near any of the officers, with his hands in the air, offering no threat whatsoever. Without trial, judge, or jury, they simply assassinated the man, as his family looked on in horror. Warning: There is some graphic violence in the video below.

• Woman Collapses in Courthouse, Dies, Attorney Says She Was Stressed By Commando-Style Raid on Her Home, Husband’s Arrest

  Stacey Feigel’s husband, Sheldon, is facing multiple felony counts related to an alleged scam involving filing fraudulently for adverse possession on abandoned homes. While arriving in court for a hearing, Stacey collapsed from a “cardiac event” (according to the coroner) and died. Attorney Mark Coleman suggested stress from the raid and arrest could have led to her death.

Panic

• Noam Chomsky: Why Americans Are Paranoid About Everything (Including Zombies)

  I’ve never seen a real study, but my guess is that it’s a reflection of fear and desperation. It’s a very frightened country. The United States is an unusually frightened country. And in such circumstances, people concoct either for escape or maybe out of relief, fears that terrible things happen.

• Former CIA operative: Shoe bomb technology getting better

• US Officials Warn of Airline Shoe Bomb Threat

Foreign Policy

• New Jet-Powered Drone Can Kill 1,800 Miles From Home Base

  The U.S. may be forced to withdraw troops completely from Afghanistan by the end of the year. That’s bad news if you’re the CIA and your lethal drone flights over neighboring Pakistan rely on the close proximity of Afghan airstrips.

  Not surprisingly, the defense industry has already produced a solution: a new jet-powered drone that can range 1,800 miles from the nearest base.

• Drone attacks

  As Spencer Ackerman, National security reporter, said “it’s just so little transparency and so much opacity when it comes to Drones, belonged to CIA; if it were military then you could at least get the insight as how it works and debate about whether it should run this way”. With his comment on Drones dilemma, CIA is not required to give any information on any drone operations. They do not officially discuss drone programme, as Spencer Ackerman mentioned.

• Why a Pakistani reporter is suing the CIA for murder

  Kareem Khan’s son and brother died in a US drone strike. His lawsuit has made waves in Pakistan and overseas, and he was recently detained for nine days.

• Valley View: Drone strikes have psychological and moral impact

  A year ago, 8-year-old Nabeela ventured outside while her 68-year-old grandmother picked vegetables in their family garden. Moments later, the grandmother was blasted to pieces by two U.S. drone missiles. Nabeela and other nearby grandchildren were injured when the exploding missile lodged shrapnel in their bodies.

  No one is alleging the grandmother did anything wrong. Her fatal “mistake” was living in North Waziristan, a region in Pakistan pummeled by U.S. drone strikes (Amnesty International, Nov. 13).

• Report: U.S. drone strike may have killed up to a dozen civilians in Yemen

  A U.S. military drone strike in Yemen in December may have killed up to a dozen civilians on their way to a wedding and injured others, including the bride, a human rights group says. U.S. officials say only members of al-Qaida were killed, but they have refused to make public the details of two U.S. investigations into the incident.

• The American on Obama’s ‘Kill List’ Doesn’t Pose An Imminent Threat

  Last week I wrote about the news that the Obama administration is considering whether to assassinate another American citizen in a drone strike. The Associated Press reported the target is an American citizen and member of al-Qaeda, “and the Obama administration is wrestling with whether to kill him with a drone strike and how to do so legally under its new stricter targeting policy issued last year.”

• The Men We Kill, and the Men We Don’t

  The story told by the report is one of disputed identity. Anonymous US officials have said all of the twelve men killed were militants traveling with Shawqi Ali Ahmad al-Badani, allegedly a member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the primary target of the strike. Officials say al-Badani was wounded, and escaped. Relatives of the dead say they didn’t know him.

• Jon Stewart Calls Obama the ‘Barry Bombs of Drone Strikes’

• Jon Stewart: President Obama Is Like ‘Barry Bombs’ of Drone Strikes

• Jon Stewart Compares Obama’s Drone Program With Bush’s Torture Policy

• Lithuania opens probe into CIA ‘black site’ allegations

  Lithuanian prosecutors said on Thursday they have opened an investigation into claims that a Saudi terror suspect was held in an alleged secret CIA jail in the Baltic state, reports LETA/AFP.

• Lithuania prosecutors to reopen probe into alleged CIA rendition of Saudi terror suspect

• Kevin Costner’s ’3 Days to Kill’: CIA hitman as sitcom dad

  Sitcom and sadism mix uncomfortably in Luc Besson’s “3 Days to Kill,” starring Kevin Costner as a CIA hitman and absentee father.

• Why Amazon’s Collaboration with the CIA Is So Ominous — and Vulnerable

  As the world’s biggest online retailer, Amazon wants a benevolent image to encourage trust from customers. Obtaining vast quantities of their personal information has been central to the firm’s business model. But Amazon is diversifying — and a few months ago the company signed a $600 million contract with the Central Intelligence Agency to provide “cloud computing” services.

  Amazon now has the means, motive and opportunity to provide huge amounts of customer information to its new business partner. An official statement from Amazon headquarters last fall declared: “We look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA.”

  The Central Intelligence Agency has plenty of money to throw around. Thanks to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, we know that the CIA’s annual budget is $14.7 billion; the NSA’s is $10.8 billion.

  The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is bullish on the company’s prospects for building on its initial contract with the CIA. As you might expect from a gung-ho capitalist with about $25 billion in personal wealth, Bezos figures he’s just getting started.

• Former CIA official accused of misleading lawmakers on Benghazi

• Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden Criticize the “Decline” of US Democracy

• Chelsea Manning rewarded for integrity in intelligence

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