Israeli soldiers attacking, throwing stones at Press photographers

Two photojournalists are attacked by IDF soldiers in the West Bank Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh, April 24, 2015. Video by Miki Kratsman/Activestills.org.

Sham and Shame: Saudi-US Slaughter in Yemen Shows Truth of Terror War

Chris Floyd
Empire Burlesque

Last week, the United States sent an armada to Yemen, to help enforce a blockade of the poverty-ridden country as it groans under the mass slaughter of Saudi Arabia’s American-backed war of aggression. Now the Saudis, employing the bombs they procured from U.S. war profiteers, have shut down aid shipments by air with a bombing raid on the capital, Sana’a. The result will be more hunger, suffering and death in one of the world’s poorest countries. — But hey, wasn’t Obama so funny at that media dinner thing!

While aiding the Islamic extremists of Saudi Arabia to help al Qaeda in Yemen — who have made great gains while their mortal enemies, the Houthis, are being pounded by the Saudis — Obama and the American military machine has also been busy joining hands with al Qaeda in Syria, helping them make huge advances and capture key cities. It now looks increasingly likely that the Syrian government will not be able to withstand the onslaught of Islamic extremists (oh, and the “moderate” rebels, which also include al Qaeda elements). The fall of the secular Syrian state will open up an abyss of chaos which will be filled by the extremists armed and bankrolled by the United States and Saudi Arabia — just as the American destruction of the secular government in Iraq has led to murderous nightmare for millions of people.

What’s more, Israel has also joined the fight with al Qaeda, launching airstrikes on positions in Syria to clear the way for Islamic extremists to keep up their offensive. 

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US-backed Azov battalion crucifies and burns man alive in Ukraine

Comment: Warning: Graphic content. 

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Harrison Koehli
Sott.net

The pro-Kiev, ultra-Nazi Azov battalion in Ukraine has allegedly sent a snuff film depicting the brutal execution of a Ukrainian 'separatist' to militia fighters and hackers from the hacktivist collective known as Cyber Berkut. The video, shown below, is graphic, so be warned. It shows a group of armed men holding down a gagged man on a cross, tying him to it with duct tape. Nails are then hammered through the palms of his hands, the man's screams audible through the gag. While the actual nailing is not shown, the camera then moves in to show the nails in his hands. Then the cross is lifted, set in the ground, and the base is lit. The video cuts out as the fast-rising flames meet the crucified man's feet.

According to Cyber Berkut, the video had an accompanying message, stating the the footage was filmed near the village of Shirokino and warning that all separatists - 'traitors' to Ukraine - would face the same fate.

Cyber Berkut has been releasing leaked documents, audio, and video for the past year or so. They're the ones who released the phone call between EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton and Foreign Minister of Estonia Urmas Paet, in which they discuss the Maidan snipers. (You can see a list of some of their leaks on Wikipedia.) The video was then publicized by LifeNews in Russia, who confirmed its authenticity. LifeNews tends to be rather sensationalistic, but that does not necessarily imply the video is a fake.

That said, the authenticity of the video has not been confirmed. The DPR has so far refused to comment, and pro-Kiev websites are denouncing it as a Kremlin-produced hoax. Colonel Cassad is still on the fence. Azov is no stranger to torture. They're the ones who branded a swastika onto this Donbass resident. 

And that's their flag in the center of this infamous shot:

J. Hawk of Fort Russ summed up Colonel Cassad's position here.

On the one hand, Rozhin [Col. Cassad] points out that it's not as if there have been no cases of torture by the various neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine's official service (see photo above for an example--more at the link). Moreover, given the reputation of Cyber-Berkut, it seems unlikely that the organization would engage in spreading of false information. On the other hand, Rozhin acknowledges it's possible Cyber-Berkut got trolled by a pro-Kiev organization, which deliberately posted a fake clip so as to discredit CB.

The final possibility is that the clip is genuine, and the trolling claim is intended to depict the real video as a fake spread as misinformation. Keep in mind, however, that Novorossia media have fallen for fakes spread by the UAF before. The most notable was the story of a Novorossia nurse by the name of Sasha Serova being brutally murdered by the UAF, accompanied by a photo of...US porn star Sasha Grey (which is what the name Serova can mean). Therefore one has to approach such stories with particular care.

That makes more sense than the predictable "Kremlin propaganda" nonsense.

Real or not, people need to realize something: Azov, being the psychopaths they are, are perfectly capable of doing such a thing. As shown above, Azov has engaged in the most despicable acts of torture and murder possible. But many will deny the authenticity of this video not based on any evidence, but simply because they can't believe such a thing is possible. "They wouldn't do that, therefore they didn't. Only fanatical nutjobs like ISIS are that brutal."

Sorry, but that's just wrong. It doesn't matter what country you're from, what nationality you are, what religion you follow -- psychopaths are just as brutal, remorseless and monstrous. It just doesn't suit the West's geopolitical interests to admit that Azov -- who fights on the side of "our" guy, Poroshenko -- is the Ukrainian psychological equivalent of ISIS. It is. It's the same sickness: psychopathy.

 Actually, the connection is even clearer than that. Azov are "our guys". They're the ones effecting the U.S.'s will in Ukraine. As it just so happens, that is exactly what ISIS is doing in Syria and Iraq and Yemen, where they are being used to fight against the Houthi rebels that ousted the US-backed puppet president Hadi.

Israel's lies go unchallenged on BBC's flagship current affairs show

Amena Saleem
The Electronic Intifida

BBC's airwaves are always available for Israel's propaganda chief Mark Regev to spin his lies unchallenged.

 

In March, the BBC's flagship news program Today broadcast an interview with Moshe Yaalon, Israel's defense minister.

Yaalon was given free rein to disseminate lies and propaganda with not a single interruption or challenge from Today presenter, Sarah Montague.

In response, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and many individuals complained to the BBC about the substandard level of interviewing. The replies received from the BBC have revealed the extent to which the organization is prepared to make a fool of itself in order to justify and protect its soft interviews with Israeli spokespeople.

Many had complained that Yaalon was allowed to deny the occupation and the siege on Gaza, and had falsely claimed the Palestinians have "political independence" with Israel not wanting to "govern them whatsoever" — and had done so without any challenging interventions from Montague.

In fact, as Yaalon told lie after lie, there was absolute silence from Montague as the minutes ticked on, with not a sound to indicate she was still present.

The BBC complaints department sent this collective response to those who contacted it about the broadcast: "Please note that it's always going to be difficult in a live environment against time constraints to challenge each and every comment made, given the amount of other questions and points to cover."

A quick look at some of Today's interviews with Palestinian spokespeople is enough to demonstrate just how ludicrous this statement from the BBC is.
And a comparison with Today's interviews with Israelis during the same time period is sufficient to reveal the unswerving nature of the BBC's pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian bias. 

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Epidemic depression as a wake up call to humanity

Neil Maves
Sott.net

Depression has been described as a modern epidemic. An army of highly trained theoreticians have postulated all sorts of approaches and created a vast enterprise pushing pills to cure this disease of our modern, so-called 'civilized', society. This is not going to be a discussion of psychology and trite self-help materials from ignorant people whimsically pontificating from their ivory towers.

Today, we're going to go down into the trenches to cut through all of the BS and investigate the incidence and role of depression from an existential, non-materialist perspective. In doing so, we might just discover the 'meaning of life'.

Some depression has a clear cause and effect relationship, an abusive family, job loss etc. This type of depression forces us to look at issues in our own lives that should be relatively straight forward if we can step out of ourselves for a moment and consider rational solutions to the stressors. It should, therefore, not be long lived, and should pass as soon as the immediate problem is solved. This is not the type of depression that we're concerned with here, however.

The depression that I'm interested in is the kind that drags on and on, the kind that costs the victim much couch time at the therapist's office and puts them on a medical treadmill, often for life. The kind of depression I'm talking about is the type that drives people to suicide, often multiple times over long periods of their lives. It sucks the soul out of you because it convinces you that the world is a completely nihilistic place. There is no purpose, no hope, no future, and no one understands. There is only a cold unfeeling world whose culture is at best superficial, and at worst outright psychopathic. There is a nothingness inside of you that grows and grows and grows.

How and why do relatively well-adjusted people with normal lives come to carry this monster inside of them, this feeling of a shattered soul that refuses to be cured with drugs or the latest counseling theories? I think the answer to that question is that the being of such people has, at some level of awareness, been forced to realize that the world "out there" is not right in some fundamental way; that it has in fact become a playground for nihilistic personalities who have no plan whatsoever other than to gorge on their own thirst for darkness and destruction.

There is, in fact, no hope for a world run in this way, because the logical result of a world run by an 'elite' who possess nothing but a hunger for darkness is complete entropy. This runs counter to any and all reason why people should be alive and what the meaning of human life might actually be. You would have to be truly twisted to believe that the goal of the universe and all of its creative diversity around you is nothingness; that the reason for everything is nothing. Normal people do not have brains that are wired this way, and when faced with the reality that the self-proclaimed 'reality creators' are creating, normal people react with sheer terror. However, the people who can actually stare down the beast and attempt to do something about this state of affairs are relatively rare, and most of those attempt to sweep the painful truth under the rug and just get on with their lives.

Most of humanity is rather fickle and will go along with the program as long as they can continue to get a piece of the pie and find someone else to deal with their problems and someone else to blame. Those with more feeling natures get the distinct impression that it is wrong to feel, since nobody else cares, and the media keeps parading the desirability of happiness obtained from the most superficial and vapid of things; conflating 'happiness' with true fulfillment. Since feeling is 'wrong', they become disillusioned and fold into themselves because they can't see any purpose in a world that is so antithetical to their inner nature. I think disillusionment is a more appropriate term for this deep depression.

So what is to be done? Why are so many people subjected to this horrible emotional state? Before we answer that question, let us take a detour for a moment and explore some scientific principles which will provide us with some context. 

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Saudi Arabia’s Alleged Involvement in the 9/11 Attacks. “Red-Herring”, Propaganda Ploy

Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research

BBC live report of the collapse of WTC building 7, more than minutes before the collapse took place. Building Seven in the background is still intact.

The 9/11 narrative in the mainstream media has taken on a new slant. The FBI is now accused of whitewashing Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks. 

The alleged Saudi involvement in supporting Osama bin Laden, not to mention the classified 28 pages of the 9/11 joint Congressional inquiry pertaining to the insidious role of Saudi Arabia in supporting the hijackers is  part of a propaganda ploy. 

When the report of Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 was released in December 2002, it was met with considerable skepticism. That skepticism grew for a period of time but then was reduced to speculation about what was contained in the 28 pages that had been redacted by the Bush White House.
Various U.S. government leaders have since suggested that the missing 28 pages point to Saudi Arabia’s complicity in the 9/11 crimes. However such musings fail to discuss other important issues, like the links between the Saudi regime and the Western deep state, or the fact that, from the start, even the Saudis were calling for the 28 pages to be released. Discussion of the missing 28 pages also omits mention of the highly suspicious nature of the Inquiry’s investigation and its leaders. (Kevin Ryan, The 9/11 Joint Congressional Inquiry and the 28 Missing Pages, Global Research, March 14, 2014

The report of the FBI 9/11 Review Commission (25 March 2015) has revealed circumstances which allegedly were withheld by the FBI from both the 9/11 Commission headed by former Jersey Governor Thomas Kean as well from the joint Senate House inquiry committee chaired by former Senator Bob Graham. Graham. [...]

And now agencies of the US government including the FBI are being accused of protecting the Saudis.  This alleged Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks has served to precipitate segments of the 9/11 Truth movement into an erroneous and contradictory discourse. On the part of the US government and its intelligence apparatus, the objective is to ultimately to build a narrative which will weaken the 9/11 Truth movement.

The purpose of this new propaganda ploy is ultimately to sustain the legend that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks and that Saudi Arabia relentlessly supported Al Qaeda, namely that Saudi Arabia acted as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.

In this regard, the media reports intimate that if the Saudi connection is confirmed by the 28 classified pages, this “would make 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war by a foreign government.”

There is, however, an obvious hiccup in this reasoning: if  the Saudis were indeed the State sponsors of 9/11, why on earth did the US and the Atlantic Alliance (under the doctrine of collective security) choose to wage a “Just War” of retribution against Afghanistan. Did they get there countries mixed up?

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50 years of DNA research turned upside down as scientists discover second programming language within genetic code

Stephanie Seiler
UW Today (via Sott.net)


Scientists have discovered a second code hiding within DNA. This second code contains information that changes how scientists read the instructions contained in DNA and interpret mutations to make sense of health and disease.A research team led by Dr. John Stamatoyannopoulos, University of Washington associate professor of genome sciences and of medicine, made the discovery. The findings are reported in the Dec. 13 issue of Science.

Read the research paper. Also see commentary in Science, "The Hidden Codes that Shape Protein Evolution."

The work is part of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements Project, also known as ENCODE. The National Human Genome Research Institute funded the multi-year, international effort. ENCODE aims to discover where and how the directions for biological functions are stored in the human genome.

Since the genetic code was deciphered in the 1960s, scientists have assumed that it was used exclusively to write information about proteins. UW scientists were stunned to discover that genomes use the genetic code to write two separate languages. One describes how proteins are made, and the other instructs the cell on how genes are controlled. One language is written on top of the other, which is why the second language remained hidden for so long.

"For over 40 years we have assumed that DNA changes affecting the genetic code solely impact how proteins are made," said Stamatoyannopoulos. "Now we know that this basic assumption about reading the human genome missed half of the picture. These new findings highlight that DNA is an incredibly powerful information storage device, which nature has fully exploited in unexpected ways."

The genetic code uses a 64-letter alphabet called codons. The UW team discovered that some codons, which they called duons, can have two meanings, one related to protein sequence, and one related to gene control. These two meanings seem to have evolved in concert with each other. The gene control instructions appear to help stabilize certain beneficial features of proteins and how they are made.

The discovery of duons has major implications for how scientists and physicians interpret a patient's genome and will open new doors to the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

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Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush: two sociopaths competing to be the next US president

Matt Carr
Stop the War Coalition 

The two frontrunners for next year's US presidential election are both committed to the same war policies that have been so disastrous for America and the world.

If you take seriously the premise that US military power is a force for international stability and global good,  then a number of events over the last two weeks ought to give pause for thought.  

In Kosovo, nearly 16 years after NATO bombed Yugoslavia, UNCHR reported that 10,000 people had filed for asylum in Hungary in a single month, and as many as 20,000 Kosovars are leaving the country each month to escape poverty, corruption and unemployment.

In Libya, the executions of Coptic Christians carried out by ISIL raise the prospect of the disintegration of Libya into a ‘Somalia on the Mediterranean’.  

In Afghanistan the United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMA) announced that civilian casualties last year reached a new record.  That’s on top of the still ongoing implosion of Iraq, and Syria, and Ukraine, where the US has pursued less visible ‘regime change’ policies with no less catastrophic results.

In a sane and healthy democracy this legacy of civil war, state collapse, chaos and violence ought at the very least to raise an urgent debate about the strategic viability of militarism as a foreign policy instrument.

But there is little evidence of any such criticism and self-analysis in the two frontrunners for next year’s presidential elections.   Astonishingly – and depressingly – America is facing the prospect of a contest between members of the two families that governed America from 1989 to 2009, and which also presided over some of the disasters we are now witnessing.

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Central Bankers Gather privately In Washington to Discuss "gold, the renminbi, and the multicurrency system"

Gatae

Attention, mainstream financial journalists! Here’s something else important for you to ignore this week, thanks to the diligent eye of gold researcher and GATA consultant Ronan Manly.

It’s a breakfast meeting to be held Friday in Washington for “a select group of central banks and other official-sector institutions,” sponsored by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum and the World Gold Council, to discuss “gold, the renminbi, and the multicurrency system,” convened in conjunction with the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group, a United Nations agency:

http://www.omfif.org/meetings/briefings/

“Discussions,” the discreet announcement from OMFIF says, “are under Chatham House Rules,” whereby information may be used but never attributed:

http://www.chathamhouse.org/about/chatham-house-rule

While many nations with central banks purport to be representative democracies and while the World Gold Council purports to be the representative of the gold industry, some of whose participants actually have to get their hands dirty every day —

http://www.gold.org/about-us

— attendance at Friday’s meeting will be by invitation only. So for the record GATA has requested one.

But if you don’t get an invitation, you can fairly assume that the valuation of all capital, labor, goods, and services in the world is none of your business. This is after all the central bankers’ world. The rest of us are lucky that they let us even pass through it from time to time, though the impertinent among us might wonder why central bankers should need to talk in secret about something supposedly as irrelevant and retrograde as gold.

Good thing for them that mainstream financial journalists have neither curiosity nor backbone.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Presenting an agenda for Europe at AMBROSETTI (Lake Como, 14th March 2015)

www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/

An (underground) road to Damascus: Isis could tunnel into the heart of Syria's capital to take fight to gates of Assad's palace, warn experts

Comment: So, here it is at last - the whole reason for the Western Intelligence's creation and funding of ISIL. The second attempt to topple Assad after the failed chemical weapons fabrication.

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The Independent

Isis is close enough to the Syrian President’s seat of power that it could circumvent the Syrian regime’s security belts and enter central Damascus via tunnels, a Middle East expert has warned. 

Isis is now just five kilometres away from President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Presidential Palace after militants invaded the sprawling Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, which has over 18,000 refugees living within its walls.

Omar Ashour, an Associate Fellow for the Chatham House think tank and a Senior Lecturer in Security Studies at the University of Exeter, said the situation in Damascus is now “critical” and could explode into a prolonged war within Yarmouk, depending upon the next steps taken by the extremist group and President Assad’s regime.

In an unusual alliance, the Syrian government has offered military support to Palestinian fighters battling Isis in order to flush the group out of the camp. The Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad met with a delegation from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) this week. “Syria and the PLO are determined to fight terrorism, which has reached Palestinian camps in Syria, notably Yarmouk," he said after delegates met. This offer is one that has reportedly been accepted by Palestinian factions. 

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This world is a dystopian freak show, by any standards

Harrison Koehli & Joe Quinn
Sott.net

The world is so messed up that calling it a 'freak show' doesn't quite do it justice. We need a new word to capture just how backwards, upside down, screwed up, and utterly freakish our world really is. Thankfully, we may have found one, thanks to our friends in Russia and an odious little troll known to inhabit the U.S. State Department until approximately 1 week ago. The whole world is psaki. We may also have found a word to describe the only proper response to seeing just how psaki the world is, thanks to Jen Psaki's equally cringe-worthy, 'ex-CIA' deputy, Marie. There's only one thing to do when you're confronted by such a scale of lies: to harf.

What makes the world so psaki? Why does it make us want to harf? Well, let's start with the people who inspire the words. What can we say about Jen Psaki and Marie Harf? They're both perfect poster children for the banal psychopathology upon which the USA, and by extension the rest of the world, is built. They're oh, so 'normal' with their cute smiles, propensity to humor and the ease with which they handle difficult situations. They're not just living the American dream, they are the American dream. But closely study these people, what they say and the way they say it, and you realise that those charming traits are used to mask a cold-blooded and ruthless ability to tell bare-faced lies to the world. And not just any old lies, but lies that obscure the fact that the US government is responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians on a daily basis. When you realise that, the smile and lighthearted manner isn't so 'cute' any more. Then again, they are the official State Deptartment media liaisons, and therefore are tasked with white-washing the crimes of the massive planetary boil that is the US government and all of its institutions.  

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Gay orgies and 'murder' scandals engulf Vatican

The Independent 

The Vatican has been embroiled in two separate, highly embarrassing, scandals.

In one, a north Italian priest has been removed from office after allegations emerged that he had been surfing the internet to find gay lovers and had been involved in gay orgies.

The other, which has generated – if possible – even more lurid press coverage in Italy, alleges a priest in the south of the country is under investigation on suspicion of murdering one of his parishioners.

Father Gratien Alabi, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is under investigation for murder following the discovery of female bones under the flagstones of an ancient mountain chapel.

The bones are anticipated to belong to Guerrina Piscaglia, 50, who disappeared from nearby Arezzo in Tuscany last year, The Times reported.

The case has generated intense media interest, with some papers claiming that Father Alabi had engaged in an affair with the woman, a parishioner of his and another priest’s church, and fathered a child with her.

Father Alabi has denied all claims, protesting his innocence.

Meanwhile, to the north of the country, the local Curia is scrambling to address the allegations made by a 32-year-old man from Rovigo, midway between Bologna and Venice.

The unidentified man apparently approached the media after church authorities failed to take action following his official complaint to the Ecclesiastical Court of the Puglia region against the unidentified 50-year-old priest.

The younger man claimed he met the priest through Facebook, forming a close friendship with the clerical figure who then confessed his homosexuality to his online correspondent.

In his complaint, according to Italian newspaper Corriere del Mezzogiorno, the man included a record of his conversations with the priest.

In these online interactions, the priest admitted to sexual relationships with other religious figures – as well as members of the Vatican’s elite Swiss Guard – using the internet to find new partners and engage in sexual encounters online.

Following the involvement of Archbishop of Taranto Filippo Santoro, the individual involved was immediately removed from office, once the “reliability of the facts” had been established.

He added that the allegations included behaviour that was “absolutely incompatible with the priestly ministry”.

“Needless to say, the feelings of the archbishop and the Curia are those of the regret and dismay,” a Vatican spokesperson told the Italian newspaper.

Setting the story straight about RT: Facts vs Fiction

Comment: RT takes to task its detractors with a good, solid rebuttal.

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RT

RT vs Newsweek: facts about RT's MH17 coverage

FICTION: The magazine cites Ofcom criticism of RT's coverage of the Ukraine crisis, and adds that "last year RT suggested that Ukraine was to blame for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, prompting one of its London correspondents to resign."

FACT: Newsweek avoids all mention of the fact that RT was cleared of bias charges in coverage of the MH17 tragedy. Ofcom (the UK broadcasting regulator) reviewed more than 30 hours of RT's reporting on the event, and has not found any problems that merited investigation, nor any breach of standards. Furthermore, RT was practically the only major media outlet to explore multiple possible scenarios of the event, while the mainstream media confidently assigned blame hours after it happened. Evidently Newsweek finds a mere "suggestion" of an alternative theory of the crash problematic, despite the fact that no conclusions as to the causes of the crash have yet been reached.

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Was child abuse investigative report Martin Burns killed because he was getting to close to the root?

The Millennium Report

TMR Editor’s Note

All the evidence indicates that award-winning Fox journalist Martin Burns was killed because of how aggressively he was pursuing various institutional child abuse claims. Martin was working with powerful people in government and Hollywood to bring to light a very serious and ongoing problem which has curiously avoided exposure … over decades of rampant child abuse.

There is no question that Martin Burn’s last project promised to be a HUGE turning point. He had fastidiously put all the pieces in place so that unprecedented revelations would be made in a highly authoritative fashion. The real enablers within and outside of the Child Protective Services system were under threat like no other time. Likewise, the true reasons behind this multi-decade institutional crime spree were finally coming out thanks to his persistence and courage.

The Martin Burns saga has certainly not ended with his death.  Just like the pedophilia scandal within the Roman Catholic Church, once this genie has been let out of the bottle, there’s no putting it back in. Martin Burns, perhaps as no other champion journalist, was dedicated to breaking this story so that it could no longer avoid the attention of ALL of key players … CPS supervisors and case workers, family court judges, law enforcement, social workers, etc.

In short Martin Burns let the genie out of the bottle once and for all.

The Washington Times Removes Legacy Article On Fox News Investigative Reporter Martin Burns

Award-Winning Journalist Martin Burns Was A Champion Against Child Abuse

“His death has been added to a growing list of prominent child justice campaigners who all died just ahead of a planned release of either, a documentary containing highly sensitive information, or a bid for new legislation to contain child trafficking and abuse.”[1]

State of the Nation

Martin Burns was a courageous advocate journalist who campaigned mightily for the protection of vulnerable children, especially those caught within the system.  His brand of investigative journalism was known for its fearlessness and ferocity.  He left no stone unturned in his quest to know what was really happening to children who wound up in the custody of Child Protective Services.

The quote above comes from The Washington Times (TWT) article written about the Martin Burns’ story that was published on Friday, October 18, 2013 under the title Fight against child abuse loses another prominent voice.  What is particularly suspicious is that every single post of this particular report on the internet has been scrubbed except the two versions that are found at State of the Nation.
The link below from the internet archive service known as Wayback Machine captured the front page of The Washington Times on October 18th, 2013.  It is clear that all references to the original article by author Clare O’Toole under the subtitle Disrobing Blind Justice have likewise been removed from The Washington Times home page.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131018011332/http://www.washingtontimes.com/

Therefore, the question remains: Why would The Washington Times take the extraordinary initiative to remove every reference to and post of their article that lauded a recognized champion of child abuse investigative reporting?

The issue of institutionalized child abuse has literally exploded in Los Angeles, California over the past few years.  The Orange County Child Protective Services (CPS) has come under fire for numerous and serious violations where children were dismally failed by the system.  Therefore, it was much appreciated by many that an MSM outlet like the TWT published stories which shed light on this very unfortunate and ongoing predicament.

What follows is the original TWT article published on 10/18/13 for the reader’s consideration.  There is no question that the content of this article is rarely found on any Mainstream Media website.  It contains information that is highly revelatory about the underbelly of the “system”; in this particular case, the system of child protective services that routinely permits children to be victimized, kidnapped, sexually abused and illegally removed from the country.

Perhaps that is why the article was removed from The Washington Times website.  It contains naked truth about a clandestine operation that has been functioning throughout the USA with impunity for many decades.

Let’s face it, if the 1oth Earl of Sandwich can be called out for similar illicit and unseemly behavior, just who might be next in the pantheon of political heavyweights.  So many have been exposed lately in both the U.K. and the U.S. that it is now clear that this endemic problem is begging for unprecedented revelation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fight against child abuse loses another prominent voice

The Washington Times

Friday, October 18, 2013 – Disrobing Blind Justice by Clare O’Toole

WASHINGTON, October 18, 2013 — The death in late summer of Fox News investigative reporter and producer Martin Burns, came as a heavy blow to the many child advocates and suffering parents who looked to Burns’ award winning TV segments “Lost in the System,” to champion their fight for justice for child victims of abuse and trafficking.

His death has been added to a growing list of prominent child justice campaigners who all died just ahead of a planned release of either, a documentary containing highly sensitive information, or a bid for new legislation to contain child trafficking and abuse.

Burns died on August 25 while out hiking in the Angeles National Forest. The official autopsy report has been deferred for toxicology results. Early media statements attributed cause of death to a fall caused by a possible heart attack.

At time of writing, the LA County Homicide Department deemed it unnecessary to investigate. Some parents and child advocates fear the police are unaware of links between Burns’ death and those of others who worked in a similar arena.

The LA County Coroner allegedly visited Burns’ house on the day his body was discovered and reportedly told an inquisitive neighbor Burns had probably suffered a “catastrophic accident” but had only minor abrasions on his body from a fall.

According to a spokesman from the coroner’s office, Burns’ body was recovered from a location 30’ east of the east edge of the Castle Canyon trail en route for Inspiration Point. Hikers familiar with the trail have commented they consider it unlikely Burns would have died from the fall alone and they suspect other factors were involved.

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SEE RELATED: Dozier School For Boys grave exhumations for White House Boys begin

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Blogs and social media comments by individuals who seek clarity on the circumstances of Burns’ death draw specific attention to links with the deaths of three former Georgia state senators, Nancy Schaefer (R), Bobby Franklin (R) and Robert Brown (D) and documentary maker, Bill Bowen.
Although coming from a broad political spectrum, the three politicians were in agreement on child safety matters.

Schaefer was the most prominent investigator and supporter of issues affecting children’s rights but also expressed reservations about rights for gays and lesbians that drew criticism. Shortly before her death, Schaefer agreed to an interview with “infowars.com” conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones. Franklin was greatly derided for an extremist anti-abortion stance and for promoting legislation to criminalize miscarriages.

While some individual, extremist values stirred controversy, the sincerity of the three Georgia politicians’ fight to combat child abuse has not been questioned.

All three were involved in exposing corruption and calling for legislation to control Child Protective Services (CPS) and remove unnecessary threats to child safety. The research, undertaken primarily by Schaefer, into the shortcomings of CPS when handling matters related to child abuse is widely considered valid.

All died within a two year period. Franklin was said to have died from heart disease while Brown, according to the coroner, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. Schaeffer died in an alleged murder/suicide incident said to have been perpetrated by her husband on March 26 2010. Many who knew the couple believe this highly unlikely and suggest an outside party was involved.
The deaths have been variously interpreted and details disputed. There have been many calls for further investigation to establish irrefutable cause of death in each case.

A few days before Schaefer’s death, she announced the completion of a four-year documentary project she had personally funded to expose names and crimes against children. Following her death, the documentary failed to surface. Its whereabouts is still unknown.

Schaeffer was known to be friends with Bill Bowen, a former firefighter and federal law enforcement officer who released a 30 minute short documentary, “Innocence Destroyed.” Although a low-budget production, the film was greatly praised for overall professionalism and integrity toward subject matter. There was no question of political taint influencing Bowen’s judgment. Bowen told a very credible story about systemic failings behind the prevalence of child abuse and trafficking.

“Innocence Destroyed” was intended as a precursor to a more probing, feature-length film. Some online chatter identifies Bowen’s and Schaefer’s documentaries as the same project. Washington Times Communities has so far been unable to confirm this theory. It is possible the full documentary was never finished since Bowen was discovered dead on a golf course mid-September 2010, six months after Schaefer’s death, having allegedly gone there to meet someone interested in his work. 

He was found alone. Cause of death was said to have been a heart attack.

At the time, Bowen’s sister Beverly responded to online speculation, writing;

“While his death is untimely and because of his work, suspicious, it looks right now to be natural causes. I’m not saying that something would not have happened to him or that it wasn’t possible. I’m just saying life intervened and got there first.”

As with Bill Bowen, Martin Burns was known to tackle the difficult subjects described by his colleague and Fox news anchor Araksya Karapetyan as; “investigative pieces on prescription drug fraud, welfare fraud, child care scams, illegal birthing centers, just to name a few.” His interests lead him to investigate drug cartels and individuals said to engage in child trafficking. He investigated alleged corruption in CPS and Family Courts.

Friends close to Burns have said he was aware he was investigating some dangerous people but it was typical of his personality to show a degree of nonchalance toward possible risk from anyone who might wish to harm him.

Karapetyan described working with Burns as, “ incredibly fulfilling – it’s what being a journalist is all about- going out there, digging, researching, doing something for the community by uncovering abuses in the system and giving the voiceless a voice.”

Karapetyan’s praise was echoed by a chorus of Fox 11 News personnel, whose comments on a special tribute page set up to remember Martin Burns, clearly showed he was respected, loved and valued and considered an inspiration and stabilizing influence by his colleagues.

VP and News Director Kingsley Smith described Burns as; “having made a personal difference in my professional life every day.” He wrote that whenever Burns stopped by to share a story, the deep passion and dedication in his work was obvious.

“Put simply, he was a caring soul. He never complained and always worked with grace and dignity. He is on the short list of people that no one ever complained about, ever. I will miss him. The newsroom will miss him. Our viewers will miss him.”

The station has not responded to speculative inquiries about Burns’ death.

Tammi Stefano, Executive Director of the National Safe Child Coalition worked closely with Burns said, “Martin was one of the best investigative producers out there. He was covering issues too difficult for most to grasp, let alone cover, Children in danger by a flawed system, we were personal friends, I miss him every day.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those readers who would like more insight into this dire and festering problem in the child protective services arena, the following articles reveals some of the details of the case of Lexi Dillon. 

 Lexi’s CPS situation is representative of the typical child abuse case being mishandled in ways that are difficult to attribute to bureaucratic incompetence or institutional neglect.

In fact many of the child abuse cases that have gone completely awry have done so with premeditation.  Therefore, the real question is premeditated by whom?   Perhaps the time has finally arrived to ascertain exactly who or what is behind so many purposefully neglected and deliberately mismanaged CPS  child abuse cases.

Recommended Reading

Concerned Parties Still “Demanding Judge Glenn Salter Removal for Endangering Lexi”

Judge Glen Salter Orders Lexi Dillon Sex Trafficked out of U.S.A.

Endnotes

[1] Fight against child abuse loses another prominent voice
Special Note
The original WTW article was also republished by State of the Nation in its original form at the following link: http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=13482

Washington sending new batch of instructors to Ukraine - Kiev

RT

The deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s administration has announced that a group of American instructors will arrive in Ukraine on April 20. A month ago, Kiev reported that up to 300 US instructors had already been deployed in western Ukraine.

“A group of American instructors is set to arrive on April 20 in the Yavoriv range (Lvov Region) to train Ukrainian servicemen,” deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s administration, Valery Chaly, told Voice of America. 

Ukraine is satisfied with the pace of military cooperation with the US, but “would like to see more,” Chaly noted. 

READ MORE: 10 American Humvees welcomed in Ukraine by Poroshenko (VIDEO)
 
In early March, the Sputnik news agency reported that American instructors had already arrived at the Yavoriv training site close to the Polish-Ukrainian border. Near the western Ukrainian city of Lvov and covering 40,000 square kilometers, it’s the largest military firing range in Europe.
If the American military are training the Ukrainians for a month, it could mean that what’s going to take place in late April is a rotation of US instructors. 

Read more
 

Greece Drawing Up Contingency Plans To Nationalize Banks, Bring In Parallel Currency: Report

IBT 

According to a report in the Telegraph, sources close to the Syriza-led government said: “We will shut down the banks and nationalize them, and then issue IOUs if we have to, and we all know what this means. What we will not do is become a protectorate of the EU.”

Greece is due to make a payment of 458 million euros ($498 million) to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 9. But officials told a conference call of Euro Zone deputy finance ministers this week that the country would run out of money by then, raising the possibility of a default on the IMF loan.

Greece's leftist government was swept to power in January, pledging to renegotiate the terms of the country's international bailout, and put an end to internationally supported austerity policies that ministers have said are responsible for a “humanitarian crisis” in the country.

Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis said on Wednesday that the country would have to decide whether to pay back the IMF or pay salaries and pensions. He said it would choose the latter, Reuters reported.

Greece has submitted a list of reforms to its international creditors, which, if approved, will unlock a further tranche of bailout funds. The government is keen to increase revenue by cracking down on the tax evasion that is widespread in the country while maintaining public services.

Read more

Our world is descending into chaos, have you noticed?

Joe Quinn
Sott.net


The Germanwings crash "trial by media" continues unabated. The most recent evidence produced to back up the official story is the alleged discovery of a cell phone video of the last moments of the plane and its passengers. Reporters from both French magazine Paris Match and German daily Bild claim to have viewed the video that portrayed a scene "so chaotic that it was hard to identify people" where "the sounds of the screaming passengers made it perfectly clear that they were aware of what was about to happen to them."


"It is a video that several of us saw together", said Frédéric Helbert of Paris Match, "that we watched dozens of times. You must understand that this video does not allow us to identify any people, it is not a sensationalist video. It is from a passenger who filmed from the back of the plane. The sound is atrocious. It shows the human dimension of panic, distress, screaming people on board. That is what is terrible. It is a very powerful human element, but it doesn't provide any information that might be useful for the investigation."

Indeed, such a video doesn't provide any information useful to the investigation, unless the investigation is being carried on by the mainstream media, with 'evidence', such as this video, being provided by persons unknown.

According to Helbert the video was obtained from "a source close to the investigation" that "required several levels of intermediaries connected to people working on the terrain." Whoever provided the alleged video to Paris Match and Bild did not, however, give them a copy. It seems the reporters were only shown the video, presumably on some media device like a laptop which was then taken away. Helbert said: "I don't have the video. We had the opportunity to see the video."

The immediate response from French 'authorities' came from Lieutenant-Colonel in the French gendarmerie, Jean-Marc Menichini, who said that the report was "completely wrong" and "unwarranted". This was echoed by the French prosecutor Brice Robin who said that no memory cards had been analyzed as part of the probe. Paris Match countered by saying that if police had not yet accessed data from salvaged mobile phone parts "there is a problem in the investigation". That's the understatement of the decade, and the media is a major part of the problem. Yesterday, Robin backtracked and conceded that it was possible that the video was real and demanded that any such videos be handed over to investigators.

Investigators have also said that they found co-pilot Lubitz's ipad and that he had recently searched online for "how to commit suicide and the security measures for cockpit doors". I was expecting they might also have found that he searched for "how to convince someone they need to go to the toilet" but there's no word on that yet. So we're now one step further along, perhaps the final step, in the process of the disingenuous and deliberate character assassination of Andreas Lubitz: his act of mass murder was no spur-of-the-moment thing, it was premeditated.

So a couple of quick rhetorical questions:

• How difficult is it to put together a few-seconds-long video of what appears to be the cabin of an aircraft, where no faces are discernible, and throw in some scream sound effects?
• Are we meant to believe that Lubitz's pilot training did not include an explanation of how to lock the cockpit door, and that he was forced to search online to find out how to do it?
• Are we meant to believe that when Lubitz searched online for how to commit suicide, one of the results was "crash your plane full of passengers into a mountain"? Lubitz was a keen glider pilot. Are we to assume he specifically chose to kill 149 other people along with himself because he couldn't wait a few days until he was alone? The NY Times, the corporation responsible for initiating the highly-suspect and unprofessional trial by media, has helped to bring me back to my senses and focus on the essential:

"The fact that Mr. Lubitz was researching the security measures for the cockpit door seems to indicate that his actions were not only intentional but probably premeditated, as well."

Read more

France bans super skinny models from catwalks

Comment: At least French authorities are doing something right.

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RT

France’s National Assembly voted on Friday, in the latest measures to battle anorexia, to ban models that are considered dangerously thin and will impose heavy fines and prison sentences for agents who employ them.

Models in France will now have to present a medical certificate showing they have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of at least 18, about 55 kg for a height of 1.75 meters before they get hired. 

But France is on the generous end of what is interpreted as thin. The WHO (World Health Organization) says that a BMI below 18 is malnutrition, below 17 is severe malnutrition and below 16 is starvation. 

The law calls for prison sentences of up to six months and large fines of up to €75,000 ($82,000) for any agent that flouts it. 

Read more

U.S. Defense Secretary: We Might Bomb Iran Even If a Peace Agreement Is Signed

Washington's Blog

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said that a deal with Iran wouldn’t necessarily prevent war.
Military.com reports:

The U.S. will reserve the right to use military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon even if a deal is reached Iran’s nuclear program, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday.

“The military option certainly will remain on the table,” Carter said as negotiators in Lausanne, Switzerland, struggled to reach an agreement ahead of a March 31 deadline.

“One of my jobs is to make sure all options are on the table,’ Carter said in remarks at Syracuse University and earlier on NBC’s “Today” program.

We thought that Iran getting nuclear weapons was the main reason we were thinking of bombing them.  So if a peace deal is signed with the U.S., why are we still talking about bombing them?

What's going on?

In reality, top American and Israeli military and intelligence officials say that Iran poses no danger.

But the hawks have desperately been trying to stir up war with Iran for decades, as part of a 65-year program of regime change all over the world carried out by the U.S.

And the U.S. has inserted itself smack dab in the middle of a religious war ... and is backing the most violent side. And see this.

The American people want peace, but the military-industrial complex wants war.

The Chancellor and the Dominatrix - UK

Comment: Let's just remember what kind of weasel Chancellor George Osborne is. A Prime Minister in waiting? Perfect for Downing Street I suppose.

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Beware of Organ Removal for "Cancer Prevention": Jolie's Precautionary Tale

Sayer Ji
Green Med Info

Angelina Jolie has just announced she has removed her ovaries and fallopian tubes to "prevent cancer," following her decision last year to remove her breasts for the same reason. Is this medically justified, sane behavior? 

With Angelina Jolie's recent announcement that she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed because of both a BRCA 'gene defect' and a history of breast and ovarian cancer in her family, the idea that genes play a dominant role in determining biological destiny and cancer risk is proliferating in the mainstream media and popular consciousness uncontrollably like a cancer.

Back in 2014, in a New York Times Op-Ed titled, "My Medical Choice," Angelina Jolie explained why she chose to have a double mastectomy, recounting what her doctors told her was the extreme health risk associated with her BRCA1 'gene mutation':

"My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each." 

At first glance, these estimates are frightening. Who, given such a bleak prognosis, wouldn't also feel compelled towards aggressive intervention when doing nothing (watchful waiting) would result in a 50% increased risk of developing the most lethal gynecological cancer known to exist. [1]

But where do these numbers come from? How did her caretakers arrive with any certainty at this figure?

Read more