Feinstein is a complete handmaiden to the defense industry. It’s made her a very wealthy woman:
Big Brother’s Loyal Sister: How Dianne Feinstein Is Betraying Civil Liberties (via LA Progressive)
Ever since the first big revelations about the National Security Agency five months ago, Dianne Feinstein has been in overdrive to defend the surveillance state. As chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she generates an abundance of fog, weasel…
Does it never even occur to the U.S. that other countries are just tired of our shit?
Venezuela slams new US spying claims (via AFP)
Venezuela Monday denounced a new report that the United States made Caracas a spying priority, and warned that bilateral ties would remain frozen. “It is unacceptable that they’re spying on us,” Foreign Minister Elias Jaua told a news conference in…
This is a VERY interesting story. Oh, and here’s the “official” story that appeared in the Washington Post last year.
Most members of Congress didn’t bother to show up for this briefing last week:
Despite being heralded as the first time in history that U.S. lawmakers would hear directly from the survivors of a U.S. drone strike, only five elected officials chose to attend the congressional briefing that took place Tuesday.
Nabila Rehman, 9, holds up a picture she drew depicting the US drone strike on her Pakistan village which killed her grandmother. (Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters)
Pakistani schoolteacher Rafiq ur Rehman and his two children—9 year-old daughter Nabila and 13 year-old son Zubair—came to Washington, DC to give their account of a U.S. drone attack that killed Rafiq’s mother, Momina Bibi, and injured the two children in the remote tribal region of North Waziristan last October.According to journalist Anjali Kamat, who was present and tweeting live during the hearing, the only lawmakers to attend the briefing organized by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), were Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.).
Before the handful of reporters and scant lawmakers, however, Rafiq and his children gave dramatic testimony which reportedly caused the translator to break down into tears.
In her testimony, Nabila shared that she was picking okra with her grandmother when the U.S. missile struck and both children described how they used to play outside but are now too afraid.
“I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer grey skies. Drones don’t fly when sky is grey,” said Zubair, whose leg was injured by shrapnel during the strike.
“My grandmother was nobody’s enemy,” he added.
“Nobody has ever told me why my mother was targeted that day,” Rafiq wrote in an open letter to President Barack Obama last week. “The media reported that the attack was on a car, but there is no road alongside my mother’s house. Several reported the attack was on a house. But the missiles hit a nearby field, not a house. All reported that five militants were killed. Only one person was killed – a 65-year-old grandmother of nine.”
“But the United States and its citizens probably do not know this,” Rafiq continued. “No one ever asked us who was killed or injured that day. Not the United States or my own government. Nobody has come to investigate nor has anyone been held accountable.”
He concluded, “Quite simply, nobody seems to care.”
I find this hard to believe:
Former Pakistan PM, security officials deny US drone collusion (via AFP)
Pakistani security officials and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Thursday denied a report that they had approved US drone strikes on the country’s soil. The Washington Post on Wednesday quoted leaked secret documents as saying Pakistan had…
I’d heard rumors that the two bombers were drug dealers for the Russian mob, and if true (that’s always such a big “if” these days, isn’t it?), this seems to confirm it:
Federal prosecutors have disclosed publicly for the first time that they have information indicating deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev “participated” in a September 2011 unsolved triple homicide.
The revelation comes in a court document filed in the case against surviving bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Tamerlan’s younger brother. In the document, prosecutors note that they told Dzhokhar his dead brother was implicated in the triple murder by a friend, Ibragim Todashev.
Todashev was shot dead in his Florida apartment in May during an interview with the FBI and Massachusetts State Police. Sources with direct knowledge of the incident told ABC News shortly after the shooting that Todashev suddenly attacked the officers before he was “about to sign a statement” admitting to his own role in the triple murder.
According to the new court filing, before his death Todashev told investigators Tamerlan “participated” in the triple homicide in Waltham, Mass., in which three bodies were discovered naked with marijuana strewn across them on the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The new court document did not elaborate on Tamerlan’s alleged involvement.
Law enforcement officials told ABC News days before Todashev’s death that there was “mounting evidence,” bolstered by “forensic hits,” that pointed to the possible involvement of both Tamerlan and Dzhokhar in the triple murder. One of the young men killed, Brendan Mess, had once been a roommate and martial arts colleague of Tamerlan’s, officials said then. At the time, the officials cautioned that DNA testing was not complete and it was too early to bring an indictment against Dhzokhar.
Amnesty urges US to end drone attack secrecy (via Repost Video News)
The United States should end the secrecy surrounding its drone campaign in Pakistan and bring those responsible for illegal strikes to justice, Amnesty International says. Duration: 01:00
In response to a letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley, the FBI says the FBI wasn’t surveilling the Tsarnaevs.
It’s a very odd statement to make, and it seems to leave a lot of wiggle room for other agencies, doesn’t it?
I’ve seen this floating around the intertubes for a few days, but I only read it just this morning: “Why I will never, ever go back to the United States.”
Wow. So this is how they keep us safe.
