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Monday June 17, 2013
News Articles

'Dirty Wars' Is Our Responsibility
HP | Dawn V. Woollen | 06/14/13

... Since 9/11 we have largely trusted the government to keep us "safe" with actions in plain sight, including invading Iraq and airport body scanners. But mostly we have trusted the government with actions we don't know about, actions that exist in the shadowy no-man's-land of "Top Secret" and "National Security." We have been largely content with this arrangement as long as we are kept safe from the "bad guys."   But at what cost to us, to the people targeted and to our shared humanity? Who exactly determines who the bad guys are? And is there such a thing as a "clean" war, as President Obama claims?

These are some of the questions I left the movie theater asking myself after seeing Dirty Wars, the incredible documentary by Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley. Dirty Wars is a detective story that unfolds in countries we know in name only, places we hear about but will likely never visit, and from the people who populate these faraway lands from which we are so disconnected. In the movie we discover what our government is doing covertly, without our knowledge, while glimpsing the impact on those affected... and on our future. ... Read more

'Dirty Wars' uncloaks U.S. forces
SF Examiner | Anita Katz | 06/14/13

In "Dirty Wars," journalist Jeremy Scahill examines the ascent and actions of the Special Joint Operations Command, the super-secret military force that performs drone strikes, targeted assassinations and other lethal operations in its function as a paramilitary arm of the U.S. president.

It begins in Gardez, Afghanistan. A night raid has killed a police commander and two pregnant women.   Interviews with the family, plus some sleuthing, reveal that American fighters performed the attack and the victims were not terrorists. Scahill discovers that the then-unknown SJOC conducted the raid. The attack was one of about 1,700 such incidents.

A picture emerges of SJOC as a deadly force that acts with approval from the U.S. government and NATO without accountability or congressional oversight. It operates in 75 countries, including many where no war exists. ... Read more

Atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches 400 parts per million concentration milestone
WashingtonPost | Jason Samenow | 05/10/13

For the first time in human history, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million (ppm). The arrival at this threshold represents a powerful symbol of the growing human influence on the Earth’s climate.

Manmade emissions of carbon dioxide have increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from around 270 to 280 ppm in the late 1700s to today’s record high level of 400 ppm. Measurements of CO2 trapped in air bubbles from ice cores in Antarctica indicate today’s levels are unsurpassed in at least 800,000 years. Read more
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How Spy Agency Contractors Have Already Abused Their Power
TheNation | Lee Fang | 06/11/13/span>

I reread this article again yesterday... it is really reveling on how contractors are misusing the information they are gathering

Read more

Colorado Is Burning Even Worse Than Last Year
MotherJones | James West | 06/13/13

The Black Forest fire is the most destructive fire in the state's history, and has completely destroyed at least 379 homes, according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. At least two people have been killed.

... Is climate change making wildfires worse? Big wildfires like Colorado's thrive in dry air, low humidity, and high winds; climate change is going to make those conditions more frequent over the next century. We know because it's already happening: A University of Arizona report from 2006 found that large forest fires have occurred more often in the western United States since the mid-1980s as spring temperatures increased, snow melted earlier, and summers got hotter, leaving more and drier fuels for fires to devour. ... Read more

US spy operation that manipulates social media
TheGuardian | Nick Fielding | older 03/17/11

Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.   A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, June 17 [14:15]
*DN | As World Awaits U.S. Reaction to NSA Leaks, Movement Emerges to Support Edward Snowden in Hong Kong (06/17/13) [19:20]
DN | Long Before Helping Expose NSA Spying, Journalist Laura Poitras Faced Harassment from U.S. Agents (06/17/13) [6:56]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm New Developments in the Middle East (06/17/13) [1hr]
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Jeremy Scahill investigates the disastrous American War in Yemen (03/15/12) [25:01]
Aljazeera | 101 East - The Pacifist War (06/14/13) [25:16]
In the waters of the East China Sea, a daily show of aggression is displayed around the uninhibited Senakaku/Diaoyutai Islands. Coast guards from China and Japan play a dangerous game of cat and mouse as both sides try to lay claim to the disputed resource-rich territory. The concern is - that the two powers are riding towards war.
*Aljazeera | People & Power - America's War Games (04/25/13) [25:01]
The United States' military expenditures today account for about 40 percent of the world total. In 2012, the US spent some $682bn on its military - an amount more than what was spent by the next 13 countries combined.
Aljazeera | People & Power - Attack of the Drones (07/18/12) [24:50]
The US government's growing reliance on aerial drones to pursue its war on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere is proving controversial. As governments are increasingly relying on drones, what are the consequences for civil liberties and the future of war?
Aljazeera | Fault Lines - Robot wars (12/26/12) [24:50]
TYT News
TYT | Is Climate Change Action Doomed? (06/09/13) [5:10]
Business of War
*Vice | The Business of War: SOFEX (07/05/12) [20:10]
SOFEX is where the world's leading generals come to buy everything from handguns to laser-guided missile systems. It stands for "Special Operations Forces Exhibition Conference" and it's essentially a trade-show where just about anyone with enough money can buy the most powerful weapons in the world.
MSNBC | Weekend Programs
MSNBC | Why don't Repubicams vote down the $955 Billion Farm Bill? (06/16/13) [16:08]
*MSNBC | Bamfort: NSA chief has temendous power (06/16/13) [5:12]
MSNBC | Recent leaks raise suspicion within security agencies (06/16/13) [3:57]
MSNBC | Do private contractors pose a danger to government security? (06/16/13) [8:46]
MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | Obamacare victory in Arizona (06/14/13) [10:52]
Chris Hayes | Not so fast on Syrian intervention (06/14/13) [6:42]
Chris Hayes | Why you should know Art Pope (06/14/13) [8:04]
MSNBC | Rachel Maddow
*Rachel Maddow | Leaks, unofficial news leave world guessing at US plans for Syria (06/14/13) [12:44]
MSNBC | Meet the Press
There are 18 videos for this Sunday's Meet the Press show on MSNBC's website. Thus I decide t point to the site and let you choose the videos you want to view.
Meet the Press | Linsy Graham speaks on Syria and immegration (06/14/13) [10:52]
*JSOC - Joint Special Operations Command

'Top Secret America': A look at the military's Joint Special Operations Command
WashingtonPost | Dana Priest | 09/02/11

The CIA's armed drones and paramilitary forces have killed dozens of al-Qaeda leaders and thousands of its foot soldiers. But there is another mysterious organization that has killed even more of America's enemies in the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

CIA operatives have imprisoned and interrogated nearly 100 suspected terrorists in their former secret prisons around the world, but troops from this other secret organization (JSOC) have imprisoned and interrogated 10 times as many, holding them in jails that it alone controls in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 9/11, this secretive group of men (and a few women) has grown tenfold while sustaining a level of obscurity that not even the CIA has managed. "We're the dark matter. We're the force that orders the universe but can't be seen," a strapping Navy SEAL, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said in describing his unit. ... Read more



Rank and Name Start End
LTG Stanley McChrystal September 2003 June 2008
VADM William H. McRaven June 2008 June 2011
LTG Joseph Votel June 2011 Present

JSOC from Wikipedia
JSOC is a component command of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and is charged to study special operations requirements and techniques to ensure interoperability and equipment standardization, plan and conduct special operations exercises and training, and develop Joint Special Operations Tactics. It was established in 1980 on recommendation of Col. Charlie Beckwith, in the aftermath of the failure of Operation Eagle Claw.[1] It is located at Pope Army Air Field and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, USA.

Jeremy Scahill about Obama's JSOC (05/04/13) [8:22]
CNN | JSOC - Americas Assassination Division (03/31/09) [7:54]
Global Journalist: 'Dirty Wars' tells the story of covert US operations (02/28/13) [29:49]
ReasonTV | Jeremy Scahill's "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield" (06/13/13) [41:31]
Aljazeera | Jeremy Scahill: The Stream - Uncovering America's 'dirty wars' (04/29/13) [36:10]
DN | Jeremy Scahill: WikiLeaks Docs Helped Me Expose the U.S. "Dirty Wars" (04/24/13) [1:52]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Jeremy Scahill
Thom Hartmann | America's "Dirty Wars" Part 1 (04/29/13) [8:57], Part 2 [3:59], Part 3 [7:03], Part 4 [11:26]
Congressman Jack Kingston, Rob Greenwald, and Jeremy Scahill during the Defense Appropriations sub-committee (05/10/07) [1:05:47]
BBC | Dirty War (movie set in London)
BBC | HBO: Dirty War (11/05/12) [1:30:08]
Stanley A. McChrystal
CFR | HBO History Makers Series with Stanley A. McChrystal (10/07/11) [1:00:34]
Stanley A. McChrystal, former commander of the United States and International Security Assistance Forces Afghanistan and Joint Special Operations Command's premier military counterterrorism force, discusses his experiences in Afghanistan.
McRaven

Collateral Murder
Collateral Murder in Iraq by Wikileaks (06/06/10) [17:47]
RT | Surviving "Collateral Murder": Solder relives infamous WikiLeaks video (04/05/13) [5:19]
Iraq The Dirty War
*BBC | The Iraq War Regime Change BBC full documentary 2013 Historical ,political and factual (10/14/09) [59:26]
The people at the top of the CIA and Saddam's foreign minister describe just how the US and Britain got it so wrong about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction before the invasion.   Tony Blair recounts how he flew to President Bush's private retreat at Camp David to go head to head with Vice President Dick Cheney. Colin Powell explains how he came to make his disastrous presentation to the United Nations. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw describes how he - and even President Bush himself - tried to persuade Tony Blair that to join in the invasion was political suicide.
Vice | In Saddam's Shadow: Baghdad 10 Years After the Invasion (03/22/13) [27:39]
Chechnya The Dirty War
*Chechnya The Dirty War 2005 (10/14/09) [48:15]
JSOC Definition
Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is officially described as a "joint headquarters designed to study special operations requirements and techniques; ensure interoperability and equipment standardization; plan and conduct joint special operations exercises and training; and develop joint special operations tactics" but this description is economical with the truth. Joint Special Operations Command serves as a standing Joint Special Operations Task Force responsible for unique special missions: execution, planning, training, tactics, and equipment development.

Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) was established in 1980 and is located at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina and at nearby Fort Bragg, NC. JSOC is a joint headquarters designed to study special operations requirements and techniques; ensure interoperability and equipment standardization; plan and conduct joint special operations exercises and training; and develop joint special operations tactics.

Although JSOC's stated purpose is to provide a unified command structure for conducting joint special operations and exercises, it is widely reported that JSOC is actually the command responsible for conducting US counter-terrorism (CT) operations. JSOC is reported to command the US military's Special Missions Units (SMUs). These SMUs are tasked with conducting CT operations, strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas, and special intelligence missions.

The full text of PDD-25 is reported to exempt the Joint Special Operations Command from the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 18USC Sec.1385, PL86-70, Sec. 17[d]. which makes it illegal for military and law enforcement to exercise jointly.


Other Videos
Yemen
Socotra Island - Yemen - Land of Dreams (06/13/12) [15:13], Part 2 [4:46]
Afghanistan
Camp Victory Afghanistan - U.S/ANA () [1:25:01]
Vice | This Is What Winning Looks Like (05/27/13) [1:29:11]
Fraud Scam/Stealing - peanuts to Wall Street
Vice | How to Get Away with Stealing (07/31/12) [25:29]
If the fraud industry were its own country, it would have the fifth strongest economy in the world, just ahead of the UK. Come and meet the fraudsters who're making a killing from the fastest growing crime on Earth.
Nuke Black Market
Vice | How to Buy Nukes on the Black Market (07/06/12) [8:49]
Shane Smith and Eddy Moretti shop for dirty bombs in the Bulgarian black market. After you see the relative ease with which they were able to meet a real, in the flesh, black market arms dealer, you'll be stocking up on gas masks and radiation sickness pills. We know we are.
Militias - Michigan
Vice | One of America's Most Notorious Militias (11/02/12) [22:21]

06.17.2013. 11:56



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning
AI - Artificial Intelligence

AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.

The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
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Quantum mechanics | AI - Artificial Intelligence
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.  It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.
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Economy, Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".

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Nukes
Nukes

Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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911
911

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)

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Trump's Speeches | Rallys |Interviews
Trump's Speeches | Rallys

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.

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