In this episode of Truth in Media, Ben Swann explores the origin of ISIS that has already been long forgotten by American media. Swann takes on the central issue of whether or not ISIS was created by “inaction” by the United States government or by “direct” action.
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Iraq: ISIS “Made in USA”; “Geopolitical Arsonists” Seek to Burn Region
Ron Paul: February 22, 2015
It was one year ago last weekend that a violent coup overthrew the legally elected government of Ukraine. That coup was not only supported by US and EU governments — much of it was actually planned by them. Looking back at the events that led to the overthrow it is clear that without foreign intervention Ukraine would not be in its current, seemingly hopeless situation.
By the end of 2013, Ukraine’s economy was in ruins. The government was desperate for an economic bailout and then-president Yanukovych first looked west to the US and EU before deciding to accept an offer of help from Russia. Residents of south and east Ukraine, who largely speak Russian and trade extensively with Russia were pleased with the decision. West Ukrainians who identify with Poland and Europe began to protest. Ukraine is a deeply divided country and the president came from the eastern region.
At this point the conflict was just another chapter in Ukraine’s difficult post-Soviet history. There was bound to be some discontent over the decision, but if there had been no foreign intervention in support of the protests you would likely not be reading this column today. The problem may well have solved itself in due time rather than escalated into a full-out civil war. But the interventionists in the US and EU won out again, and their interventionist project has been a disaster.
The protests at the end of 2013 grew more dramatic and violent and soon a steady stream of US and EU politicians were openly participating, as protesters called for the overthrow of the Ukrainian government. Senator John McCain made several visits to Kiev and even addressed the crowd to encourage them.
Imagine if a foreign leader like Putin or Assad came to Washington to encourage protesters to overthrow the Obama Administration!
As we soon found out from a leaked telephone call, the US ambassador in Kiev and Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, were making detailed plans for a new government in Kiev after the legal government was overthrown with their assistance.
The protests continued to grow but finally on February 20th of last year a European delegation brokered a compromise that included early elections and several other concessions from Yanukovych. It appeared disaster had been averted, but suddenly that night some of the most violent groups, which had been close to the US, carried out the coup and Yanukovych fled the country.
When the east refused to recognize the new government as legitimate and held a referendum to secede from the west, Kiev sent in tanks to force them to submit. Rather than accept the will of those seeking independence from what they viewed as an illegitimate government put in place by foreigners, the Obama administration decided to blame it all on the Russians and began imposing sanctions!
That war launched by Kiev has lasted until the present, with a ceasefire this month brokered by the Germans and French finally offering some hope for an end to the killing. More than 5,000 have been killed and many of those were civilians bombed in their cities by Kiev.
What if John McCain had stayed home and worried about his constituents in Arizona instead of non-constituents 6,000 miles away? What if the other US and EU politicians had done the same? What if Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt had focused on actual diplomacy instead of regime change?
If they had done so, there is a good chance many if not all of those who have been killed in the violence would still be alive today.
Interventionism kills.
(source: Ron Paul Institute)
Palestinians were evacuated from their homes after Israeli authorities opened a number of dams flooding the Gaza Valley.
Al Jazeera : February 22, 2015
At least 80 Palestinian homes have been flooded after water levels in the Gaza Valley (Wadi Gaza) rose to almost three meters, forcing families to evacuate after Israeli authorities opened several dams.
The Gaza Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Sunday that civil defence services had worked alongside teams from the Minsitry of Public Works to evacuate families to shelters in al-Bureij refugee camp and in al-Zahra neighbourhood sponsored by UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency.
Brigadier Gerneral Said Al-Saudi, chief of the civil defence agency in Gaza, told Al Jazeera: “Israel opened water dams, without warning, last night, causing serious damage to Gazan villages near the border. More than 40 homes were flooded and 80 families are currently in shelters as a result.”
He added that the dam opening would adversely affect local agriculture as the flooded area included Israel poultry and animal farms.
“We are appealing to human rights organisations and international rights organisations to intervene to prevent further such action.”
(read the full article at Al Jazeera)
RT: February 22, 2015
Another radioactive water leak in the sea has been detected at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, the facility’s operator TEPCO announced. Contamination levels in the gutter reportedly spiked up 70 times over regular readings.
The sensors are connected to the gutter that pours rain and ground water from the plant to a bay adjacent to the facility.
The levels of contamination were between 50 and 70 times higher than Fukushima’s already elevated radioactive status, and were detected at about 10 am local time (1.00 am GMT), AFP reported.
After the discovery, the gutter was blocked to prevent leaks to the Pacific Ocean.
Throughout Sunday, contamination levels fell, but still measured 10 to 20 times more than prior to the leak.
“We are currently monitoring the sensors at the gutter and seeing the trend,” a company spokesman said.
He did not specify the cause of the leak.
It has proved difficult for TEPCO to deal with plant decommissioning. Postponed deadlines and alarming incidents occur regularly at the facility.
(read the full article at RT)
Elisa Hategan
Incognito Press: February 19, 2015
My name is Elisa Hategan and I’m a Canadian writer and freelance journalist. Twenty years ago, I was a teenage member of an Ontario-based domestic terrorist group called the Heritage Front. They were a radical white supremacist, neo-Nazi lobby group with ties to organizations that connected into parliamentary politics. After turning against them, collecting information and testifying against group leaders in court, the Toronto Sun broke the story that one of the group’s leaders was a CSIS agent, Grant Bristow. For a period of approx. 4 years, the Heritage Front had been founded and funded in large part by Canada’s own intelligence service, CSIS (Canadian Intelligence Security Service) – the Canadian equivalent of the CIA. They called it Operation Governor.
After the official inquiry resulted in a whitewashed report that was slammed by both left-wing activists and Preston Manning, then-leader of the Reform Party which was essentially destroyed by revelations that Heritage Front members had infiltrated its ranks, I went into hiding and tried to forget what had happened. Over the years, however, I realized it was a story I had to tell. So in 2010 I wrote a memoir titled Race Traitor and entered into negotiations with Penguin Canada over the acquisition rights, but after a month and no solid offer I walked away from the negotiation table. I should add that no other publishers, big or small press, were interested in publishing it. “The issue of white supremacy has had its day” Douglas & McIntyre. “ I can’t see a broad market for the book.” – Random House. Last year I ended up self-publishing it: Race Traitor: The True Story of Canadian Intelligence’s Greatest Cover-Up
In the month after the book came out, I was interviewed by a senior journalist at the Globe & Mail, Colin Freeze, as well as the Director of Programming at the CBC here in Toronto. They both expressed great interest in covering the story, but afterwards came back at me with excuses that senior editors were reluctant to go to print (or, as in the case of CBC, to air) with it – mainly because it was an old, irrelevant story since it happened 20 years ago. Also, there was the pesky issue that in today’s political climate, and according to Minister of Justice Peter MacKay’s own admission, only religion-based violence can be considered terrorism, i.e. only Muslims can be terrorists. In other words – when a Christian massacres almost 100 defenceless youth on Utoya Island in Norway, murders innocents outside a Kansas City synagogue (on the heels of Holocaust-denier David Irving’s talk two weeks earlier), plots a Halifax Valentine’s Day massacre or shoots 3 innocent Muslims in Chapel Hill execution-style, they are not terrorists but misguided, lone misfits.
Just this past month, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper (who in the 1980s was a member of the extreme right-wing Northern Foundation, which had Heritage Front and Reform Party members, along with skinheads, anti-abortionists, Holocaust-deniers and Conrad Black) has announced a new bill that essentially duplicates the NSA laws of arrest without warrant, anybody can be detained for a week under the pretext of “terrorism”, etc. Bill C-51 is extremely troubling, considering that they will be giving CSIS far greater powers than ever before, turning it into what many have called a “Secret Police” with far-reaching powers.
Given the context of Bill C-51, it didn’t surprise either myself or the numerous activists, anti-racists and aboriginal protesters I’ve communicated with, that we cannot get any mainstream press coverage in Canadian media. Telling the story of how Canada’s own intelligence agency formed a domestic terrorist group that stalked, harassed and assaulted several left-wing activists in the 1990s would be in direct conflict with what Stephen Harper’s government is attempting to pass into law – a law whose definition is so broad, so undefined, that anyone in direct opposition to our government’s interests (such as Aboriginal protesters and the Idle No More movement) would fall into the category of “terrorist.”
Under Bill C-51, CSIS will have the power to: 1) detain people without charges for up to 7 days; 2) interfere with bank transactions and seize bank accounts if they are “suspected” of potential terror activity; 3) order the seizure of “terrorist propaganda” or order it deleted from an online source; 4) stop any passengers “suspected” of travelling overseas to commit a terror offence to be removed from a flight; 5) seal court proceedings; 6) make it illegal to “promote” or “counsel” terrorist activity – the definition of what this constitutes is, of course, left up to CSIS’ interpretation. Using “disruption warrants,” Canada’s spies will do just about anything: “enter any place or open or obtain access to any thing,” to copy or obtain any document, “to install, maintain, or remove any thing,” and, most importantly, “to do any other thing that is reasonably necessary to take those measures.”
Bill C-51 MUST be stopped, or at the very least re-examined. The repeated violations and more violations on the part of the former intelligence unit of the RCMP, which became CSIS, which evolved into CSEC, cannot be overlooked. Neither is Harper’s ongoing use of CSIS as his personal domain pet whenever he wants to keep tabs on anti-fracking protesters, Green Party members, or whoever is opposed to the Conservative Party’s mandate. Such collusion between government and intelligence agencies is insidious at best, and will be used politically to defeat (or even imprison) political opponents.
History has already showed us what can happen when agents run amok: Grant Bristow’s handlers had been inherited from the same RCMP department which preceded CSIS’s inception. Back in the 1970s they were burning barns in Quebec while blaming it on the FLQ. After that scandal ensued and RCMP intelligence was disbanded, they moved over to the newly-minted CSIS and taught neo-Nazis and violent skinheads (some of whom were part of the now-disbanded Airborne Regiment) intelligence techniques, thus contributing to assaults, stalking, harassment and worse. Since they got away with all of the above, I cannot imagine what will happen when they gain autonomy.
(view the full article, documentation & pictures at Incognito Press)
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Derek Broze
Ben Swann : February 20, 2015
New documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British GCHQ hacked into a SIM card manufacturer in the Netherlands and now has access to encryption keys that allow monitoring of voice calls and metadata.
The Intercept released the new documents which detail the existence of the Mobile Handset Exploitation Team (MHET), a team formed in April 2010 to study and target cellphones and hack computer networks of manufacturers of SIM cards. The team specifically targeted Gemalto, a SIM card manufacturer based in the Netherlands that produces SIM cards for 450 wireless companies, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Gemalto has operations in 85 countries around the world.
Internal slides from the NSA and GCHQ show that the team was after encryption keys that “live in” the SIM cards. By possessing these keys the spy agencies are able to access wireless networks without leaving any clues and without the need for a warrant. Beyond simply accessing current communications, accessing “authentication servers” allows the agencies to unlock past encrypted communications they may not have had the ability to decrypt. One agent wrote on a slide that he was “very happy with the data so far and [was] working through the vast quantity of product.”
The 2010 document refers to this as “PCS Harvesting at Scale,” or harvesting large amounts of encryption keys as the data passed between the wireless providers and the “SIM card personalisation centres,” such as Gemalto. The NSA boasted at having the ability to process 12 to 22 million keys per second. The spy agency was aiming to process more than 50 million per second. These keys are processed and made available for use against surveillance targets.
Indeed, the GCHQ specifically targeted individuals in key positions within Gemalto and began accessing their emails in hopes of following their trail into the SIM card manufacturers servers. The team of spies even wrote a script which allowed them to access private communications of employees for telecommunication and SIM “personalization” companies in search of technical terms that might be used in assigning encryption keys to cellphone customers.
Paul Beverly, a Gemalto executive vice president, told The Intercept he believed,“The most important thing for me is to understand exactly how this was done, so we can take every measure to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, and also to make sure that there’s no impact on the telecom operators that we have served in a very trusted manner for many years.”
More than likely the NSA and the GCHQ violated international law every time they covertly accessed the emails of employees in foreign nations. Dutch officials are already calling for an investigation into who knew the American and British agencies were conducting such a program, and if so, under what doctrine is such a policy allowed.
(read the full article at Ben Swann)
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Alternative Free Press
And they will say that this was Rex Murphy’s finest hour.
The CBC freelancer just issued the nation its ultimate call to arms, challenging Canadians to fight Stephen Harper’s new anti-terrorism bill clause by clause, and word by word — and to refuse to cede an inch of freedom beyond what is needed.
“Every clause should be fought over,” Murphy said on CBC’s The National Thursday night. “Every potential advance on the liberty of the citizen should be examined as to its ultimate necessity.”
Murphy added: “The powers and agencies to be granted license to monitor and investigate outside or beyond the protections normally in place must be put to the fullest Parliamentary, media and democratic testing…. We should not abridge our liberties or set up mechanisms to abridge them without the fullest and most strenuous scrutiny and opposition we are capable of.”
Canadians of all political persuasions and all points of view should all find common cause in challenging the Conservatives as they attempt to cut off debate on Harper’s new terror bill.
“That’s not the way we do things” in this country.
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Jean Chrétien, Joe Clark, Paul Martin and John Turner
The Globe and Mail : February 19, 2015
The four of us most certainly know the enormity of the responsibility of keeping Canada safe, something always front of mind for a prime minister. We have come together with 18 other Canadians who have served as Supreme Court of Canada justices, ministers of justice and of public safety, solicitors-general, members of the Security and Intelligence Review Committee and commissioners responsible for overseeing the RCMP and upholding privacy laws.
Among us, we have served in our various public office roles from 1968 to 2014. Over that time we were faced with, and responded to, a range of pressing security concerns. We all agree that protecting public safety is one of government’s most important functions and that Canada’s national security agencies play a vital role in meeting that responsibility.
Yet we all also share the view that the lack of a robust and integrated accountability regime for Canada’s national security agencies makes it difficult to meaningfully assess the efficacy and legality of Canada’s national security activities. This poses serious problems for public safety and for human rights.
A detailed blueprint for the creation of an integrated review system was set out almost a decade ago by Justice Dennis O’Connor in his recommendations from the Maher Arar inquiry, which looked into the role that Canada’s national security agencies played in the rendition and torture of a Canadian citizen. Justice O’Connor’s recommendations, however, have not been implemented; nor have repeated calls from review bodies for expanded authority to conduct cross-agency reviews.
Meanwhile, efforts to enhance parliamentary oversight of national security agencies have also been unsuccessful. For example, in October 2004, a report calling for parliamentary oversight over national security activities was presented to the minister of public safety; this report contained an oversight structure that was agreed upon by representatives of all parties in both the House of Commons and the Senate. Legislation was introduced at the time, but not adopted before the next election.
Canada needs independent oversight and effective review mechanisms more than ever, as national security agencies continue to become increasingly integrated, international information sharing remains commonplace and as the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies continue to expand with new legislation.
Protecting human rights and protecting public safety are complementary objectives, but experience has shown that serious human rights abuses can occur in the name of maintaining national security. Given the secrecy around national security activities, abuses can go undetected and without remedy. This results not only in devastating personal consequences for the individuals, but a profoundly negative impact on Canada’s reputation as a rights-respecting nation. A strong and robust accountability regime mitigates the risk of abuse, stops abuse when it is detected, and provides a mechanism for remedying abuses that have taken place. In the years since the Arar inquiry, international human rights experts – including the UN Committee against Torture – have called on Canada to improve oversight of its national security agencies.
Canada’s national security policies and practices must be effective in order to protect public safety. Independent oversight and effective review mechanisms help ensure that resources devoted to national security activities are being utilized effectively and efficiently. The confidential nature of national security activities means that it is more difficult to rely on the usual public checks on government performance, such as scrutiny from Parliament, civil society, media and the general public. Security-cleared review bodies play crucial roles in catching and correcting operational and structural problems before they become full-blown national security failures, leading to better security for Canadians.
National security agencies, like all government institutions, must be accountable to the public. Accountability engenders public confidence and trust in activities undertaken by the government, particularly where those activities might be cloaked in secrecy. Independent checks and balances ensure that national security activities are protecting the public, and not just the government in power. Oversight and review mechanisms are necessary to make sure that powers are being exercised lawfully, and that government officials are not called upon to undertake activities that might expose them or Canada to legal liability either at home or abroad.
The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada (1993-2003), Minister of Justice (1980-82);
The Right Honourable Joe Clark, Prime Minister of Canada (1979-80), Minister of Justice (1988-89);
The Right Honourable Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada (2003-06);
The Right Honourable John Turner, Prime Minister of Canada (1984), Minister of Justice (1968-72);
The Honourable Louise Arbour, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1999-2004);
The Honourable Michel Bastarache, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1997-2008);
The Honourable Ian Binnie, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1998-2011);
The Honourable Claire L’Heureux Dubé, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1987-2002);
The Honourable John Major, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1992-2005);
The Honourable Irwin Cotler, Minister of Justice (2003-06);
The Honourable Marc Lalonde, Minister of Justice (1978-79);
The Honourable Anne McLellan, Minister of Justice (1997-2002), Minister of Public Safety (2003-06);
The Honourable Warren Allmand, Solicitor General of Canada (1972-76);
The Honourable Jean-Jacques Blais, Solicitor General of Canada (1978-79);
The Honourable Wayne Easter, Solicitor General of Canada (2002-03);
The Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Solicitor General of Canada (1998-2002);
The Honourable Frances Lankin, Member, Security Intelligence Review Committee (2009-14);
The Honourable Bob Rae, Member, Security Intelligence Review Committee (1998-2003);
The Honourable Roy Romanow, Member, Security Intelligence Review Committee (2003-08);
Chantal Bernier, Acting Privacy Commissioner of Canada (2013-2014);
Shirley Heafey, Chairperson, Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP (1997-2005);
Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada (2003-2013)
(originally posted at The Globe and Mail)
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AlternativeFreePress.com
Winnipeg has announced a corporate welfare scheme for transit, a bus lane, which is the largest municipal infrastructure project in the city’s history. The project is eligible to receive up to $587.3 million from Ottawa, the province of Manitoba, and the City of Winnipeg.
The city will be going into further debt to cover it’s portion, suggesting the loan payments could be generated by raising transit fares, property taxes or both. Obviously since the feds and province are already in obscene amounts of debt, they will also be using debt to finance the project. The money will be borrowed from private banks, given to a private company for maintenance, and the interest owing will compound.
The Harper con-government supports the project and is clear that corporate welfare transit projects should be a top priority.
Winnipeg will pay a private company to maintain the corridor until 2049. This redistribution of public dollars to private corporate interests is similar to the corporate welfare schemes used by the city for the Chief Peguis Trail extension & Disraeli Bridges Project, but is the first time such a scheme has been used for transit in Canada
Written by Alternative Free Press
Winnipeg Outlines Historic Corporate Welfare Plan by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Source: Winnipeg Free Press
We are grade 12 students currently enrolled in Social Studies 30-1 at Morinville Community High School in Morinville, Alberta. Our studies so far have led us to examine basic economic principles and theories. During a class discussion the topic of Temporary Foreign Workers was raised. Most of us have already entered the workforce and some of us have worked alongside TFWs, so we believe that our observations and concerns regarding the TFW program are valid and should be acknowledged.
Every student in the class who has worked with TFWs empathizes with their situation and agrees that the TFWs have a very strong work ethic. There is concern too; that certain employers could take advantage of a labour force that is desperate to earn the money that is being sent “back home” and this makes for workers who will accept whatever conditions to keep their jobs. We strongly believe that TFWs should be paid the same as their Canadian counterparts. If there is such a demand for fast-food workers then why haven’t wages risen to meet the demand? Why, in fact have profits risen with the major franchises while wages have remained stagnant? Do we really need restaurants and stores to be open 24/7? Nowadays graveyard shifts are manned with TFWs because companies “couldn’t hire local”. It’s as if these jobs are created specifically for TFWs.
We students recognize that TFWs fill the “mundane” jobs that some Canadians regard as beneath them. However, as teenagers, we need these entry-level jobs to gain experience. We do not view this as “entitlement”. Priority should be given to Canadian workers because we live here our entire lives and have, and will, continually contribute to society. The money we earn from part-time jobs goes straight back to our local economy. We worry about losing not just these “starter” jobs but also jobs for which we have to earn a university degree or obtain a ticket such as in the trades. Who will speak up for the loss of jobs for middle-class Canadians?
A few of us have already had negative experiences with the TFW program. At [a St. Albert business] one of our classmates had his hours cut back drastically when TFWs were hired. It reached a point when it was no longer feasible to work for a few paltry hours and so he quit. Another student works for a St. Albert restaurant where five TFWs were brought in and he had to train them. Today he is the only Canadian left in the kitchen and one of the TFWs he trained is the kitchen manager while he remains in the same position.
We believe that the TFW program has become a quick fix to hiring cheap labour and that it has not been monitored for abuses. How many Canadians have lost their jobs to TFWs or have had their work outsourced? What will be left for ordinary Canadians? Now we are advised by Stephen Poloz, the Bank of Canada Governor, to make ourselves more marketable when we graduate from post-secondary studies by interning for free. If there is such a labour shortage then why are so many Canadians unable to find work? How much advertising is actually done by companies to hire Canadians before they apply for TFWs or consider shipping the work out of Canada?
Canadian corporations are reaping respectable profits. It is time they invested in the labour force of the country that has enabled them to build their businesses in a stable and democratic environment.
Our studies have now moved on to democratic institutions and citizen participation. We may or may not be anarchists, socialists, conservatives, liberals, or even reactionaries but we are all fiercely loyal to Canada and its democratic institutions. That is why it is so vital that our voices, and the voices of all Canadians, be raised in unison.
Feel free to share your story or comment on the concerns we’ve expressed.
(originally printed in Morinville News)
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