"It's shocking to me that in this day and age, after what this world has been through, that there can be any argument that what the United States plans to do is legal. For the United States to go in there, you need two sets of laws to be complied with. One is international law, UN law, and the other is our own domestic Constitution of the United States. Since the Second World War, there's only two ways that you can make war on another nation. One is in self-defense. So if you're being attacked by a missile or a rocket from that country, etc., you can use self-defense against that country to try and stop it. And the second one was under the authority of United Nations, the Security Council."—Michael Ratner
It has come to my attention that some of the VIDEO digests don't show some of the videos in the mailings. These are accessible on the website. The Video-related content I send out will have a link to the website so you can view the videos, instead of seeing just a list:http://www.dustcircle.com
Rand Paul says "No" to Obama's desire to kill US citizens without charge or trial
Mother Theresa - "Hell's Angel"
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Donald Rumsfeld Must be Indicted over Iraq Militias
Ron Finley: A Guerrilla Gardener in South Central LA
New Funding Group Calls for 100 More WikiLeaks to Offset Unprecedented Gov't Secrecy
Wealth Inequality in America: Seeing Reality
Attack of the Killer Corn! Farming in America
Hugo Chavez: What the Mainstream is Hiding?
Luke Rudkowski Attempts to Ask Janet Napolitano About DHS’s Armored Truck Purchases
Hugo Chávez Dead: Transformed Venezuela and Survived U.S.-Backed Coup, Now Leaves Uncertainty Behind
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Hello friends, supporters and newcomers!
This is Steve, dustcircle.com's editor. Don't forget to subscribe to our updates on the website! Also, it has come to my attention that some of the VIDEO digests don't show some of the videos in the mailings. These are accessible on the website. The next VIDEOS emails I send out, I'll provide a link to the website so you can view the videos, instead of seeing just a list. I maintain the website mostly on my own, usually putting in a couple of hours per day on the digests, reading and sorting through websites and websites of news, picking and choosing the best and most relevant headlines for you all. If you've appreciated and have benefited from these mailings, use the WEPAY button on the website to donate any amount to the upkeep of the website, and to help offset the hours I put into this project. I'd thank you immensely. We have two relatively new sections to the website: REVIEWS and EBOOK. I am personally writing a book, of which I have a Facebook fan page for. LIKE the page, and I'll drop exclusive leaks on the book (Yes, free chapters). Also, if you yourself have written a book, I'd like to review it! See the above links for more information on these two matters. Again, thank you much for reading and participating in this website. I do it not for me, but for you. - Steve
A Culture That Condones The Killing Of Children And Teaches Children To Kill
The Sandy Hook massacre isn’t just about the need for gun control laws, it is about a culture that condones the killing of children and teaches children that killing is okay.
Our son Galen, who was 18, and a teacher were killed on Dec. 14, 1992, by a deranged student who went on a shooting rampage at Simon’s Rock College in western Massachusetts. Galen was a gifted kid, and Simon’s Rock seemed like the perfect place for him. He’d never been happier. The killer had a vastly different reaction to this environment. After run-ins with college officials, he vowed to “bring the college to its knees.” He bought an SKS at a gun shop down the road, and obtained oversize clips and ammunition through the mail.
Expiring Warrantless Spy Bill to Be Reauthorized by Year’s End
U.S. spies can rest easy knowing that the nation’s warrantless wiretapping program — secretly employed by the President George W. Bush administration in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks — won’t expire at year’s end. That’s because Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said Wednesday he would lift his procedural hold that bars the Senate from voting on the FISA Amendments Act, which the President Barack Obama administration maintains is its top national-security priority. The only real issue is for how many years the spy bill will be extended for and, according to Wyden, whether any transparency or privacy protections will be written into the spy program that Congress codified in 2008. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/12/fisa-act-reauthorization
After a contentious closed-door vote, the Senate intelligence committee approved a long-awaited report Thursday concluding that harsh interrogation measures used by the CIA did not produce significant intelligence breakthroughs, officials said.
U.S.: Dismiss Lawsuit Over Americans Citizens Murdered By Drones The U.S. Government on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit over the killing of three American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen earlier this year: alleged Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Anwar Al-Awlaki, his son Abdulrahman, and alleged AQAP magazine editor Samir Khan. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33329.htm
The Torture of Bradley Manning
After more than 900 days of detainment in United States military jails for allegedly disclosing state secrets, the haunting imprisonment of accused WikiLeaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning was discussed in court for the first time at the latest round of pretrial motion hearings that began on Nov. 27 in Fort Meade, MD. Below is an account of those court proceedings. The case will continue intermittently into 2013.
Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime.
The Corporate Media's Shameful Exploitation of Bradley Manning
Keep an American soldier locked up naked in a cage and driven half mad while deprived of all basic rights, and you will be instantly condemned as a barbaric terrorist. Unless the jailer is an authorized agent of the U.S. government, in which case even treatment approaching torture will go largely unnoticed. Certainly if a likable constitutional law professor happens to be president, all such assaults on human dignity will easily pass muster.
Israel violates Gaza ceasefire deal by threatening fishermen, farmers
Oxfam says the five-year blockade by Israel has “devastated Gaza’s farming and fishingindustries,” leading to the closure of nearly 60 percent of Gaza’s businesses, according to a new briefing paper published this month (“Beyond Ceasefire,” 6 December 2012).
Demand That Congress Actually Debate FISA Amendments Act
Techdirt has joined a number of organizations, including EFF, Free Press, the ACLU, the American Library Association and many, many more in asking the Senate to actually debatethe issue. The folks at EFF have set up a tool to help anyone reach out to their own Senators on the subject as well.
The FISA Amendments Act Is Clearly Unconstitutional; And Congress Doesn't Care
Andrew Napolitano, a former judge, has penned an interesting column laying out many of the reasons why the whole thing is completely unconstitutional. First, he notes that the establishment of FISA itself is likely a violation of the 4th Amendment:
The U.S. And Israel Have Made A Joke Of The Security Council I had the opportunity to talk to Glenn Greenwald for an exclusive interview which was originally appeared in Persian on Tasnim News Agency. What follows is the full text of my interview with Glenn Greenwald in which we discussed a variety of topics pertaining to the international political and military developments. http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari161212.htm
The War Game is a fictional, worst-case-scenario docu-drama aboutnuclear war and its aftermath in and around a typical English city. It was carefully researched and based on actual events which occurred in World War II during and after the mass allied raids on Germany and the atomic bombings of Japan.
It caused dismay within the BBC and in government and was withdrawn from television transmission. The effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting. It remained unshown in full on British television until 1985.
Part interviews and quotations, part acting, this film simulates the aftermath of a large-scale nuclear attack near a rural area of England. It argues that citizens and Civil Defense authorities are poorly prepared for this eventuality, and describes possible physical, psychological and social damage in graphic detail.
More than 30 top U.S. officials, including presidents G.W. Bush and Obama, are guilty of war crimes or crimes against peace and humanity “legally akin to those perpetrated by the former Nazi regime in Germany,” the distinguished American international law authority Francis Boyle charges.
According to the American website “If Americans Knew,” the number of Israeli homes demolished by Palestinians since 1967 is zero, whereas the number of Palestinian homes demolished by Israelis within the same period is 24,813. This is equivalent to 82% of the homes in Westerville, Ohio, where I live, being wiped out. http://rebel-institute.org/opinion/mena/260420-stop-israeli-home-demolishing-boycott-israel
Habeas corpus has been abandoned for the outcasts of the new order in both the US and the UK, secret courts have been created to hear secret evidence, guilt has been inferred by association, torture and rendition nakedly justified (in the UK our government's lawyers continue to argue positively for the right to use the product of both) and vital international conventions consolidated in the aftermath of the Second World War - the Geneva Convention, the Refugee Convention, the Torture Convention - have been deliberately avoided or ignored.
Reich on Why Right-to-Work Legislation is Anti-Labor: ‘As Labor Unions Have Declined, Wages Have Declined in Tandem’
This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Thousands of protestors braved the frigid temperatures and took to the streets today in Michigan over the Republican plan to -- yet again -- weaken unions, trample workers rights and further subjugate the middle class. Despite this significant public opposition, Michigan lawmakers passed the "right to work" law that will make their corporate masters happy. http://www.opednews.com/articles/This-Is-What-Democracy-Loo-by-Kathy-Malloy-121211-381.html
Mindless American Support For Israel May Be Cracking
The legacy of the Zionist revolutionaries who once enraptured the parlors of Europe and America with talk of a Jewish homeland as a moral beacon in a benighted region has instead bequeathed to the Jewish world and the West a highly militarized dependency -- a state that has achieved great feats of cultural and economic development but has failed to build strong enough institutions to balance its military zeitgeist with imaginative or engaging diplomacy. - Patrick Tyler, from Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country -- and Why They Can't Make Peace
National Security Bosses Still Claiming It Would Violate National Security To Tell You If They Violate Your Privacy
Via Julian Sanchez we learn that Senator Ron Wyden has released some updated responsesfrom our national intelligence bosses concerning the questions that Wyden (and a few other Senators) have been asking for years. It's been pretty clear that a "secret" interpretation under the FISA Amendments Act (related to the Patriot Act) has meant that the NSA is scooping up tons of American communications, even as its mandate is that it only cover foreign intelligence—and Wyden has been pushing for more information.
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Hurricane Sandy Pushing Obama, Romney to Break Climate Silence
While the candidates haven't spoken to climate change directly since Sandy has made landfall, the storm itself may have already injected itself into the national dialogue--breaking the so-called "climate silence"--whether the campaigns like it or not.
Yes, Global Warming Systemically Caused Hurricane Sandy
Systemic causation is familiar. Smoking is a systemic cause of lung cancer. HIV is a systemic cause of AIDS. Working in coal mines is a systemic cause of black lung disease. Driving while drunk is a systemic cause of auto accidents. Sex without contraception is a systemic cause of unwanted pregnancies.
Has Sandy Abruptly Put Climate Change on the Election Agenda?
Last week, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney stressed their commitment to developing oil and gas to improve energy security. Climate change was not mentioned. This position is senseless. The U.S. Midwest has just experienced the worst drought in60 years, one which has seen economic growth depressed by 0.4 percent GDP as a result and higher food prices resulting from a 13 percent drop in corn production. As the East Coast slowly emerges from the deluge and debris of the past 24 hours, the job of counting the cost has only just begun.
Name Storms After Oil Companies (The Ones Most Responsible for Climate Change)
As gutsy New Yorkers begin the task of drying out the city, here’s one thought that occurred to me last night watching the horrifying pictures from a distance. It’s obviously not crucial right now — but in the long run it might make a difference. Why don’t we stop naming these storms for people, and start naming them after oil companies?
Bank of England Executive: Occupy Movement Was 'Right'
A senior executive at the Bank of England on Monday said the Occupy London Stock Exchange was "loud and persuasive" and helped prompt a "reformation of finance."
SCOTUS reveal little on leanings in surveillance case
More than a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Supreme Court heard its first case Monday challenging the federal government’s terrorist-surveillance programs, but the justices gave no clear signal about whether they plan to allow a group of defense lawyers, journalists and human rights activists to go ahead with their attack on the wiretapping effort.
Obama’s detention policies are worse than Guantanamo
During the 2008 campaign, President Obama promised he would close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within a year of his inauguration. Four years later, Guantanamo remains open and will remain open for the foreseeable future. President Obama blames Congress for this failure and says he has reformed the military detention system and bolstered America’s image throughout the world.
FBI RELEASES REDACTED INFORMANT MANUALS IN RESPONSE TO FOIA
Documents obtained by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue reveal new details about the FBI's rules of conduct for informants. The FBI released 147 pages of heavily redacted manuals and policies related to the use of informants, in response to a FOIA request by Trentadue, who is engaged in a years-long lawsuit with the FBI over documents related to the Oklahoma City bombing. Read the documents here
Globalization Is The Number One Health Risk Facing Humanity
In today's world - globalization is the number one health risk facing humanity. A new study released this week by the Blacksmith Institute reveals, for the first time ever, the impact of industrial pollutants on communities across the planet.
Corrupt Capitalism -- The Denial Of Equality Of Opportunity
Those who have been successful in society anywhere in the world either in business, the professions, academia or political achievements fall into two categories: either they consider themselves fortunate, or attribute their achievements solely to their hard work and relentless drive.
Regardless of whether Obama or Romney wins, America's relations with the Arab World will change
After last week's Obama-Romney love-fest for Israel, the Arabs have been slowly deciding which of the two men would be best for the Middle East. It looks like Barack Obama is their man; but the problem – as always – is the sad, pathetic and outrageously obvious fact that it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.
Mitt Romney Is Just Not That Into Federal Disaster Relief
Who would have thought that a late-season hurricane would sweep up the East Coast of the United States on the eve of one of the closest election contests in the country's history?
A Hostile Takeover of our Country -- Treasonous, Noxious, Thieving, Tyrannical
American democracy is under assault.
In one super-PAC alone, Karl Rove and the Enron grifter Ed Gillespie, have assembled $200 million from big polluters and Wall Street moguls to buy the 2012 election.
Helpful Dictionary For Republicans: Communism, Socialism, Privatization And More!
I’m sure you have noticed that Republicans use a different dictionary than everyone else does.Their grasp of certain terms is shaky at best, and they like throwing around words they do not understand. These words often get people who are even more low-information (read: not very bright) all agitated and red-faced, and they get their crayons out to make angry, misspelled signs with, er, creative punctuation. It’s particularly entertaining when they combine two or more terms which mean mutually exclusive things together in one big rant.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/15325489-facebook-reveals-government-request-for-user-data-in-new-report
http://machineslikeus.com/news/poverty-reduces-brainpower
The War Game is a fictional, worst-case-scenario docu-drama about
