grahamhgreen
grahamhgreen's JournalIs it true that Social Security has increased 300% recently in Russia?
That's what my Russian cabbie is telling me....
OMG!!! Threat Level ORANGE!!!!!
From the White House: The Intelligence Community believes that terrorists will attempt multiple attacks against U.S. targets worldwide in the event of a U.S led military campaign. A large volume of reporting across a range of sources, some of which are highly reliable, indicates that terrorists probably would attempt to launch terrorist attacks against U.S. interests claiming they were defending Muslims.
http://www.dhs.gov/homeland-security-advisory-system
EDIT: 
Secret Detainee Abuse Photos may see the Light of Day
The federal judge ordered the government to appear in court on September 8 and produce the photographs or submit additional evidence to support keeping the photos secret.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) staff attorney Marcellene Hearn reacted, “Americans have a right to know what was done in our names in military detention centers. We have a right to know what resulted from senior officials’ decisions to authorize and tolerate the abuse and torture of prisoners.”
The ACLU has been pursuing the release of records related to detainee treatment and “the death of prisoners in United States custody and abroad after September 11, 2001, since October 2003.
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/08/27/judge-governments-justification-for-keeping-detainee-abuse-photos-secret-is-not-sufficient/#
In Saudi Arabia death row inmates are beheaded and crucified in increasing numbers
A deadly August is just the tip of the iceberg for Saudi Arabia which executed more than 2000 people between 1985 and 2013, figures provided by the human rights group reveal.
According to them, trials in capital cases are often held in secret and defendants are given no or insufficient access to lawyers.
And people in Saudi can be executed for a range of crimes including adultery, armed robbery, apostasy, drug-related offences, rape, witchcraft and sorcery. Most executions are done by beheading and many take place in public. In some cases decapitated bodies are left lying on the ground in public squares as a “deterrent”.
http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/beheadings-at-record-levels-saudi-arabia-executes-dozens-in-deadly-august/story-fnh81ifq-1227037172765
Not sure why Saudi Arabia is our ally and we have to go to war with ISIS if the goal is humanitarianism.
Pro "war with ISIS" people, please explain.
EDIT: seriously, can anyone explain why it's OK for Saudi Arabia to do this, but not ISIS? Why attack ISIS and not SA? Why not leave the area to it's own fate?
Our track record shows me that our use of military force in the region just makes things worse..... MUCH worse.
Dogs feed on Ebola victims
Source: New Dawn
The residents of the Mount Barclay Community within the Johnsonville Township, outside of Monrovia woke up on last Friday morning in total dismay when the remains of dead Ebola victims were reportedly seen, eaten by dogs, something reminiscent of the brutal civil war here, when dogs ate dead bodies on the streets.
The Liberian Government, through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, buried some unaccounted-for corpses, suspected to have died from the Ebola Virus in that township few weeks ago.
Read more: http://www.thenewdawnliberia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12468:dogs-feed-on-ebola-victims&catid=25:politics&Itemid=59
Ugh
Defense rests in Blackwater trial
Source: AP
The Blackwater crew had gone to Nisoor Square to clear a path for a safe return to the Green Zone of a convoy carrying a State Department official.
At the trial, a federal jury witnessed the anguish of more than a dozen Iraqi citizens recounting the loss of their loved ones, a number of them crying for justice from the witness stand.
In all, more than half a dozen of the 19 men in the Blackwater unit called Raven 23 were summoned by prosecutors to testify against their former colleagues.
Former Blackwater guard Jeremy Krueger testified that he didn't fire his weapon because he didn't see any threats and did not see anyone firing at the Blackwater convoy. He said he saw Slough firing his weapon into the driver's side of a white car.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/defense-rests-blackwater-trial
New Zealand: Saudi Christian Converts Live in Fear
One source said Saudi government agents were planted among the thousands of students who came to New Zealand each year to study, to ensure their behaviour did not bring "shame" on the Kingdom or their families.
In Saudi Arabia it is against the law for Muslims to abandon their faith, and Christians and other religious minorities are subjected to discrimination, harassment, detention and in rare cases torture and death.
There have been numerous documented cases of Saudi nationals being uplifted from foreign countries. In 2012, columnist Hamza Kashgari, who'd been accused of insulting the prophet Mohammad on Twitter, tried to seek asylum in New Zealand but was intercepted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, sent home and jailed without trial.
In May last year, a young Saudi Christian who had arrived in Auckland two months earlier and claimed asylum was snatched off the street by three men just three days before his refugee interview and was flown back to Saudi Arabia, where it is believed he spent time in prison and was tortured. His lawyer, Roger Chambers, said the man had managed to secretly make contact with his friends in Auckland.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10417951/Fears-for-Saudi-christian-converts
ISIS "tremendously well-funded". By whom? ...and why aren't we choking the funds off and prosecuting
the funders?
The ISIS money has to hit the banks at some point, in this day and age tracking hundreds of millions should not be all that difficult (considering the NSA knows what porn you watch http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2013/11/nsa-sexint-abuse-you%E2%80%99ve-all-been-waiting).
This would be a far more cost effective method of fighting them than wasting more blood and treasure in the desert (which, of course, will never work as the war has been going on there since antiquity) 
Follow the money.... why is this so difficult? Perhaps because at least some of it leads back to Mcain, Graham, and Prince Bandar (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-saudi-arabia-iraq-syria-bandar/373181/)
"They're incredible fighters. ISIS teams in many places use special operations TTPs," said the second official, who has considerable combat experience, using the military term for "tactics, techniques and procedures."
In sobering press conference Friday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said ISIS has shown that it is “as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen.”
“They’re beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well-funded,” he said. “This is beyond anything that we’ve seen.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/isis-incredible-fighting-force-us-special-ops-sources/story?id=25116463
War is Very Profitable. Invest Your Own Children. nt
Iraq: on the Front Lines with the Shia
"When I withdraw my forces now the Sunnis will come back and they will become an incubator for Isis again," said one fighter. "When I liberate an area from Isis why do I have to give it back to them? Either I erase it or settle Shia in it."
"If it's for me I will start cleansing Baghdad from today," added another fighter. "We have not started sectarian war, we are just trying to secure our areas, but if the sectarian days come back then I am sure it will be won by us."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/24/iraq-frontline-shia-fighters-war-isis
In my view, this is a 1400 year old religious war.
"you can't win it" - GWB
Prosecution of our own war crimes, and creating a better America here at home, one that we can hold up as an example for the rest of the world, is our best course of action. Not more war.
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Member since: Thu Dec 30, 2004, 03:05 PMNumber of posts: 15,741