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XKeystone: Instrument of mass surveillance

A protester rallies holding a poster against Obama administration’s unconstitucional spying on Americans.

by Stephen LendmanEvidence mounts. America crossed the line. It operates lawlessly. It reflects police state ruthlessness. Big Brother’s real. It watches everyone.
It’s about control, espionage and intimidation. It targets fundamental freedoms. It has nothing to do with national security. America’s only threats are ones it invents. It does so for political advantage.
On July 31, London’s Guardian headlined “XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the Internet.’ ”
Evidence mounts. America crossed the line. It operates lawlessly. It reflects police state ruthlessness. Big Brother’s real. It watches everyone.
It’s about control, espionage and intimidation. It targets fundamental freedoms. It has nothing to do with national security. America’s only threats are ones it invents. It does so for political advantage.

On July 31, London’s Guardian headlined “XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the Internet.’ ”

It “gives ‘widest reading’ collection of online data. NSA analysts require no prior authorizations for searches.” They sweep up “emails, social media and browsing history.”

Every keystroke enters a database. NSA training materials call XKeyscore its “widest-reaching” online intelligence gathering tool. Agency officials call it their Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). It collects “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet.”

London’s Guardian used classified information. It’s sourced from a February 2008 presentation. It’s about meta-data mining. It’s chilling. It’s worst than previously thought.

It explains what Edward Snowden meant, saying:

“I, sitting at my desk, (can) wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email” address.

At the time, US officials scoffed. House Republican Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Mike Rogers said:

“He’s lying. It’s impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do.”

According to Guardian contributor Glenn Greenwald:

XKeyscore lets analysts “mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search.”

“The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.”

Agency personnel use XKeyscore and other systems for “real-time” interception of personal online activity.

US statutes require FISA warrants when targeting a “US person.” It doesn’t matter. NSA operates extrajudicially. XKeyscore permits doing so with technological ease.

It lets analysts search meta-data, emails, and other online activity. They can do it with “no known email account (a ‘selector’) in NSA parlance) associated with the individual being targeted.”

“Analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used.”

A December 2012 slide titled “plug-ins” explains easily accessed information fields.

They include “every email address seen in a session by both username and domain, every phone number seen in a session (eg address book entries or signature block), and user activity.”

It includes webmail, usernames, buddylists, and machine specific cookies, etc.

According to Snowden, XKeyscore lets analysts conduct “searches within bodies of emails, webpages and documents.”

They can access “To, From, CC, BCC, (and) ‘Contact Us’ pages on websites.” Analysts can monitor anyone. They can read and save their personal communications.

Doing so simply requires “clicking a few simple pull-down menus designed to provide both legal and targeting justifications.”

Fourth Amendment rights don’t matter. Privacy no longer exists.

Amounts of information collected are “staggeringly large.” One – two billion records are added daily. Information gathered is so voluminous, it can only be stored for three to five days. Meta-data is kept 30 days.

NSA solves the problem by “creat(ing) a multi-tiered system that allows analysts to store ‘interesting’ content in other databases.”

In 2012, over 40 billion records were collected and stored monthly. Americans are lawlessly monitored. Warrant authorization isn’t gotten.

NSA lied telling the Guardian:

Its “activities are focused and specifically deployed against – and only against – legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests.”

“XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA’s lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system.”

“Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true.”

“Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA’s analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks.”

“In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring.”

“Every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law.”

“These types of programs allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully – to defend the nation and to protect US and allied troops abroad.”

At issue is control, espionage and intimidation. Fundamental freedoms are targeted. Claiming national security priorities doesn’t wash. It’s one of many big lies. Obama officials lied.

They claim surveillance isn’t authorized without demonstrable suspicions. Monitoring, they say, is subject to FISA court oversight. It’s illegitimate. It authorizes virtually all requests. It operates extrajudicially.

It’s been around for 35 years. No case ever went to the Supreme Court.

Things are getting worse.

Freedom’s disappearing in plain sight. Congress and federal courts are co-conspirators. Congress members’ criticisms ring hollow. Legislation prohibiting lawless spying could stop it.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper committed perjury. He lied to Congress. He said NSA doesn’t spy on Americans. Clear evidence proves otherwise. Holding him accountable won’t follow.

Congress approves lawlessness. So do federal courts.

Big Brother is official policy. Political Washington supports it. August 4 is 1984 Day. Nationwide rallies are planned.

Thousands are expected to participate. “Big Brothers have seen enough,” they say. Sustained public pressure’s essential. Congressional inaction demands it.

On July 31, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) headlined “Huge Global Coalition Stands Against Unchecked Surveillance.”

Over 100 organizations endorsed 13 protect human rights principles. Doing so challenges lawless spying.

They advise “on how surveillance laws should respect the law, due process, and include public oversight and transparency.”

According to EFF’s Danny O’Brien:

“It’s time to restore human rights to their place at the very heart of the surveillance debate.”

“Widespread government spying on communications interferes with citizens’ ability to enjoy a private life, and to freely express themselves – basic rights we all have.”

“These principles announced today represent a global consensus that modern surveillance has gone too far and must be restrained.”

Organizations involved represent over 40 nations. “International human rights law binds every country across the globe to a basic respect for freedom of expression and personal privacy,” said EFF’s Katitza Rodriguez.

“The pervasiveness of surveillance makes standing up for our digital rights more important than ever.”

“We know that surveillance laws need to be transparent and proportionate, with judicial oversight, and that surveillance should only be used when absolutely necessary.”

Operating this way assures tyranny. It’s practically full-blown. Police states operate this way. America’s by far the worst.

33 shoking facts which show how badly the economy has tanked since Obama became president

by Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse

Barack Obama has been running around the country taking credit for an “economic recovery”, but the truth is that things have not gotten better under Obama.

Compared to when he first took office, a smaller percentage of the working age population is employed, the quality of our jobs has declined substantially and the middle class has been absolutely shredded. If we are really in the middle of an “economic recovery”, why is the homeownership rate the lowest that it has been in 18 years? Why has the number of Americans on food stamps increased by nearly 50 percent while Obama has been in the White House? Why has the national debt gotten more than 6 trillion dollars larger during the Obama era? Obama should not be “taking credit” for anything when it comes to the economy. In fact, he should be deeply apologizing to the American people.

And of course Obama is being delusional if he thinks that he is actually “running the economy”. The Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy and the U.S. financial system than he does. But the mainstream media loves to fixate on the presidency, so presidents always get far too much credit or far too much blame for economic conditions.

But if you do want to focus on “the change” that has taken place since Barack Obama entered the White House, there is no way in the world that you can claim that things have actually gotten better during that time frame. The cold, hard reality of the matter is that the U.S. economy has been steadily declining for over a decade, and this decline has continued while Obama has been living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It is getting very tiring listening to Obama supporters try to claim that Obama has improved the economy. That is a false claim that is not even remotely close to reality. The following are 33 shocking facts which show how badly the U.S. economy has tanked since Obama became president…

#1 When Barack Obama entered the White House, 60.6 percent of working age Americans had a job. Today, only 58.7 percent of working age Americans have a job.

#2 Since Obama has been president, seven out of every eight jobsthat have been “created” in the U.S. economy have been part-time jobs.

#3 The number of full-time workers in the United States is still nearly 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.

#4 It is hard to believe, but an astounding 53 percent of all American workers now make less than $30,000 a year.

#5 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.

#6 When the Obama era began, the average duration of unemployment in this country was 19.8 weeks. Today, it is 36.6 weeks.

#7 During the first four years of Obama, the number of Americans “not in the labor force” soared by an astounding 8,332,000. That far exceeds any previous four year total.

#8 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.

#9 When Obama was elected, the homeownership rate in the United States was 67.5 percent. Today, it is 65.0 percent. That is the lowest that it has been in 18 years.

#10 When Obama entered the White House, the mortgage delinquency rate was 7.85 percent. Today, it is 9.72 percent.

#11 In 2008, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 268 billion dollars. Last year, it was 315 billion dollars.

#12 When Obama first became president, 12.5 million Americans had manufacturing jobs. Today, only 11.9 million Americans have manufacturing jobs.

#13 Median household income in America has fallen for four consecutive years. Overall, it has declined by over $4000 during that time span.

#14 The poverty rate has shot up to 16.1 percent. That is actually higher than when the War on Poverty began in 1965.

#15 During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans on food stamps increased by an average of about 11,000 per day.

#16 When Barack Obama entered the White House, there were about 32 million Americans on food stamps. Today, there are more than 47 million Americans on food stamps.

#17 At this point, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless. This is the first time that has ever happened in our history. That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.

#18 When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $1.85. Today, it is $3.53.

#19 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#20 Health insurance costs have risen by 29 percent since Barack Obama became president, and Obamacare is going to make things far worse.

#21 The United States has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings compiled by the World Economic Forum for four years in a row.

#22 According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how the number of startup jobs per 1000 Americans breaks down by presidential administration…

Bush Sr.: 11.3

Clinton: 11.2

Bush Jr.: 10.8

Obama: 7.8

#23 In 2008, that total amount of student loan debt in this country was 440 billion dollars. At this point, it has shot up to about a trillion dollars.

#24 According to one recent survey, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

#25 During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans collecting federal disability insurance rose by more than 18 percent.

#26 The total amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has grown by 32 percent since Barack Obama became president.

#27 According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.

#28 As I wrote about the other day, American households are now receiving more money directly from the federal government than they are paying to the government in taxes.

#29 Under Barack Obama, the velocity of money (a very important indicator of economic health) has plunged to a post-World War II low.

#30 At the end of 2008, the Federal Reserve held $475.9 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds. Today, Fed holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds have skyrocketed past the 2 trillion dollar mark.

#31 When Barack Obama was first elected, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio was under 70 percent. Today, it is up to 101 percent.

#32 During Obama’s first term, the federal government accumulated more new debt than it did under the first 42 U.S presidents combined.

#33 When you break it down, the amount of new debt accumulated by the U.S. government during Obama’s first term comes to approximately$50,521 for every single household in the United States. Are you able to pay your share?

Correa takes big risk by bailing on Ysumí

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Rafael CorreaRafael Correa

Reports LatinNews – Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has taken several gambles since coming to power in 2007 – but none bigger than now. Correa signed an executive decree on 15 August paving the way for the exploitation of oil in the Yasuní national park.

He blamed “the world” for failing to back his government’s innovative proposal to pay Ecuador to leave the oil untapped, but in truth he had long since split from the “infantile leftists” with which he co-founded the ruling Alianza País (AP), and departed from the spirit of Pachamama which infuses his constitution.

He has embraced extractive industries to spur Ecuador’s development even more than his neoliberal forebears. Yasuní, however, was the last redoubt, a source of national pride cultivated by his government. Indigenous groups and an emasculated opposition now have a rallying point for protests.

PRD launches offensive to prevent privatization of Petroleos Mexicano

With no change to the Constitution, progressive, nationalist and patriotic, defined the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) its energy reform proposal presented today to transform national oil enterpirise Pemex, but without privatization. Engineer Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, founder of the party and son of former President Lazaro Cardenas, who expropriated the Mexican energy resources in 1938, presented on behalf of PRD Monday which promotes to change the energy regime without making any change in the Constitution.

It includes changes to 12 secondary laws among which reduce the tax to which it is subjected Pemex, described by Cuauhtemoc as confiscatory, economically irrational and financially unsustainable.

Cardenas said on the esplanade of the Monument to the Revolution, where the initiative was launched, that he was available full time to unleash a campaign to prevent the government and the Mexican rightwing to fufil its claims of privatization of hydrocarbons.

He appreciated the importance of promoting a referendum, given the case that the majority of the Congress approves, with the vote against from patriots, he said the reforms aimed by the Executive to change the Articles 27 and 28 of the Mexican Magna Carta.

In that case, he argued, would need a million 635 000 voters to query the first Sunday in July 2015 that he would call federal

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Before he explained that PRD reforms have among their objective to prolong oil reserves; gradually decrease export of resources, development of productive chains, increase production capacity and refining, and build new facilities.

The proposals of PRD, he argued, seek grant budgetary autonomy and management of Pemex and CFE, and transform both public companies.

They are also designed to reduce him the tax burden to that entity; boost energy transition as well as giving a new destination to the resources of surplus oil for example to areas of priority such as education and health.

In the first part of his speech Cuauhtemoc Cardenas evaluated the reform initiative filed Monday by President Enrique Pena Nieto, which in his opinion threatens the sovereignty and independent development of the nation.

He noted that the official exchange search amend Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution but also incomplete because nothing says nor secondary legislation provides specific elements that underpin how to achieve competitiveness for Pemex.

Amazing research: Fish oil found to reverse liver disease in childre

by Jonathan Benson

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have made a breakthrough discovery that could mean the end of liver disease in children with intestinal failure. Published in the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, the findings from their new study reveal that intravenous injections of fish oil, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, are capable of completely reversing liver disease, thus eliminating the need for liver transplants and other drastic medical interventions.
Entitled “Six Months of Intravenous Fish Oil Reverses Pediatric Intestinal Failure Associated Liver Disease,” the study involved testing the effects of intravenous fish oil treatment on a group of 10 children between the ages of two weeks and 18 years old. Each of the children in this group had been diagnosed with advanced intestinal failure-associated liver disease, a high-risk health condition that, for many of the people diagnosed with it, ends in early death.

These children were given the novel treatment for a total of six months, and their outcomes were compared to a group of 20 children who also had the disease but were given conventional treatment rather than the fish oil. Compared to this conventional control group, the fish oil group experienced dramatic recovery — after just 17 weeks of treatment, 80 percent of the children in the fish oil group experienced a complete recovery from their liver disease.

“With this particular study, we set out to determine if a finite period of six months of intravenous fish oil could safely reverse liver damage in these children, and we have had some promising results,” says Dr. Kara Calkins, a physician and assistant professor at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital Department of Neonatology and Developmental Biology, about the findings.

Current FDA-approved treatment protocol involves injecting children with GMO soybean oil So what did the children in the control group receive for their treatment?

Shockingly, they were given an injection of soybean oil, as this is the only treatment currently approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Despite the fact that a miniscule percentage of children given soybean oil derive any benefits whatsoever — the vast majority of soy-based products like soybean oil are also genetically-modified (GM), which carries its own inherent dangers — this is what the FDA considers to be “safe” and “effective” treatment for intestinal failure-associated liver disease.

“[B]ecause intravenous fish oil is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is much more costly than soybean oil, it is typically not covered by insurance,” adds Dr. Calkins about the barriers to using fish oil. “As a result, this oil is considered experimental and is currently available only under special protocols. If it proves safe and effective for patients, we hope it would eventually be available for wider use.”

Study also reveals that soybean oil is a highly-toxic poison that can kill children

Besides its complete ineffectiveness — compared to fish oil’s 80 percent success rate after 17 weeks of treatment, soybean oil was found to be only five percent effective — the study also reveals that the conventional soybean oil treatment is highly toxic and often leads to early death in children. According to a UCLA study press release, soybean oil injections can actually cause intestinal failure-associated liver disease, which, in turn, can lead to early mortality.

Previous studies have already demonstrated the merits of intravenous fish oil injections over conventional soybean oil injections with regards to treating intestinal failure-associated liver disease, but none of them determined an appropriate duration for treatment.

Thanks to this new study, experts hope the FDA will eventually approve fish oil as a preferable treatment option over soybean oil, which has now been proven to be ineffective and completely unsafe.

The secrete document that proves China considers the United States to be a mortal enemy

by Marvin Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin Ramirez

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The following article is from Michael Snyder, of American Dream. He caves in much of what the mainstream media ignores, that China could be a hidden enemy in the bushes getting ready to attack. This is the First of a two-part series. PART 1.

The secret document that proves China considers the United States to be a mortal enemy

by Michael Snyder
American Dream

If you believe that China is our “friend”, then you have been deceived. While U.S. politicians, the mainstream media and the U.S. military may consider China to be a “friend” and a “partner”, the Chinese see things very, very differently. As you will see below, documents produced at the highest levels of the Chinese government make it abundantly clear that China considers the United States to be a mortal enemy. Unfortunately, in the west we have naively assumed that if we opened up trade with China that they would want to be more like us. Instead, opening up trade with China has allowed them to severely damage us economically while continuing to loudly denounce “western constitutional democracy” at the same time.

The truth is that China is not like us and they never intend to be. The Chinese people do not get to choose their leaders in free elections, and the Communist Party in China never intends to allow that to happen.

The Chinese people do not have freedom of speech or freedom of religion, and the Communist Party in China never intends to give the general population those freedoms.

In most cases, Chinese families do not even have the freedom to have more than one child, and if a Chinese family tries to buck the system a mobile abortion van may show up at their front door.

The Chinese system is horribly repressive, and in many ways it continues to get even worse.

And officials in China definitely do not consider the United States to be a “partner”. Rather, they consider the United States to be a rival that needs to be vanquished.

This attitude comes through very clearly in a Chinese government memo known as “Document No. 9″ that the New York Times was recently able to get a copy of…

Communist Party cadres have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. Power could escape their grip, they have been told, unless 6the party eradicates seven subversive currents coursing through Chinese society.

These seven perils were enumerated in a memo, referred to as Document No. 9, that bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping, China’s new top leader. The first was “Western constitutional democracy”; others included promoting “universal values” of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation, ardently pro-market “neo-liberalism,” and “nihilist” criticisms of the party’s traumatic past.

“Document No. 9″

See XKEYSTONE page 5sounds very similar to another “anti-western Communist Party document” that was reported on earlier this year in the Sunday Times by Michael Sheridan…

A hostile anti-western Communist Party document circulating among hundreds of Chinese officials has given the first proof that Xi’s leadership is set on a hard line against liberal foreign influences.

It tells officials they must “completely understand the harm of viewpoints and theories propagated by the West” and emphasises the need for China to “stand
up against the West” by becoming rich and strong.

The communist faithful are exhorted to strengthen their leadership, to be “relentless” in political guidance and to “use battlefield tactics” to defeat liberals and dissidents.

Are you starting to get the picture? China has no intention of becoming more like us. In fact, Chinese officials hate our liberties and our freedoms.

And the Chinese military actually considers the United States to be their “enemy-in-chief”. That is exactly how the U.S. is described in a recent paper which was drafted by the PLA’s deputy chief of staff…

China’s military considers the United States “enemy-in-chief” and, as it has done for decades, maintains a shroud of secrecy around the PLA’s size, capabilities, and intentions. That much is clear from a recent paper written by the PLA’s deputy chief of the general staff, the number two military man in China, for the Study Times, the official newspaper of the Communist Party School.

In addition, some top military officials in China have even advocated using nuclear weapons against the United States first in the event of a military conflict between our two countries…

Gen. Zhu Chenghu expressed willingness to abandon China’s “no first use” nuclear weapons policy, to defend its claim over Taiwan and argued that China should use nuclear weapons against the United States should its military interfere. A 2011 editorial in the Global Times (an English edition of the Communist Party of China’s official newspaper) warned that countries involved in sea disputes with China “need to prepare for the sounds of cannons.”

For now, China is content to trade with us because it benefits them. Chinese officials consider every interaction with the west to be part of a grand game of chess which is marching toward an inevitable conclusion, and they very much plan on being the victors.

And without a doubt, China is defeating the United States on a whole host of fronts right now. The following examples are from one of my previous articles entitled “40 Ways That China Is Beating America“…

NEXT WEEK SECOND PART: THE 40 WAYS.

“Tepco has lost control” – what is really happening at Fukushima

by zerohedge.com

After a self-imposed gag order by the mainstream media on any coverage of the Fukushima disaster (ostensibly the last thing the irradiated Japanese citizens needed is reading beyond the lies of their benevolent government, and TEPCO, and finding out just how bad the reality is especially since the key driver behind Abenomics is a return in confidence at all costs), the biggest nuclear catastrophe in history is once again receiving the attention it deserves. This follows the recent admission by TEPCO of the biggest leak reported at Fukushima to date, which forced the Japanese government to raise the assessment of Fukushima from Level 1 to Level 3, even though this is merely the catalyst of what has been a long and drawn out process in which Tepco has tried everything it could to contain the fallout from the exploded NPP, and failed. And today, in a startling and realistic assessment of Fukushima two and a half years after the explosion, the WSJ finally tells the truth: “Tepco Has Lost Control.”

Here is how the mainstream media, in this case the Wall Street Journal, catches up with a topic covered extensively in the “alternative” media for the past several years:

“This is what we have been fearing,” said Shunichi Tanaka, chair of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, answering questions about the leak at a news conference. “We cannot waste even a minute” to take action.

Behind the leak is a more serious problem: During the past few months it has become clear that Tepco has lost control over the flow of water at the plant and that the problem is escalating, nuclear experts say.

Every day, the utility has to find a place to store around 400 tons of contaminated water that it pumps out of the radioactive reactor buildings, and Wednesday it warned that it is fast running out of space. Storage tanks set up on the fly during plant emergencies have started springing leaks, and Tepco can’t replace them with sturdier ones fast enough. Groundwater-contamination levels are spiking at the seaward side of the plant, and water is flowing into the ocean past a series of walls, plugs and barriers that have been flung up to impede its passage.

What does “losing control” mean in practical terms?

That lack of control is a big liability, said Kathryn Higley, a specialist in the spread of radiation and head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University, who spent a week in Fukushima earlier this year.

So far, the levels of radioactivity that have escaped to the outside remain relatively low, but some experts warn they may not stay that was-particularly as equipment ages and the heavy-duty work of dismantling the damaged buildings and removing the melted fuel rods proceeds. The radioactivity of the water in the most recent leak was so high that workers couldn’t get close enough to search for the cause until the remaining fluid in the tank was removed.

Tepco said it doesn’t think that water has flowed into the sea but can’t say for sure. Some of the flooded reactor basements are similarly too hot to approach, and it is still not clear where the melted fuel cores are, or in what state.

“In the future there might be even more heavily contaminated water coming through,” said Atsunao Marui, head of the groundwater research group at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and a member of a blue-ribbon panel set up in May to figure out ways of managing the radioactive water. “It’s important to think of the worst-case scenario.”

Indeed the “worst-case scenario” is an appropriate topic because as covered here over the weekend, it involves the potential death of millions of largely oblivious Japanese citizens.

Mr. Marui and others say the biggest reason for the scramble now is that Tepco—and the government bodies that oversee it—weren’t planning far enough ahead and waited too long to respond to problems they should have seen coming long ago.

The concerns are piling up. Earlier today Reuters reported that TEPCO “admitted to new spots of high radiation had been found near storage tanks holding highly contaminated water, raising fear of fresh leaks as the disaster goes from bad to worse.”

The bottom line, and what has become painfully clear, is that Japan simply can’t fix the problem. Even China has now figured it out. China said it was “shocked” to hear contaminated water was still leaking from the plant, and urged Japan to provide information “in a timely, thorough and accurate way”. What is strangest of all is that the Japanese people are far less concerned about the government’s cover up.

Oh well: they have their distractions – like a plunging currency, and (transitorily) soaring stock market, in nominal terms of course. Finally the following four charts from the WSJ provide a full breakdown of the current state of play at the devastated nuclear power plant.

Hispanic standout: Alberto Ríos Arizona’s first Poet Laureate

by the El Reportero news services

Alberto RíosAlberto Ríos

Hispanic standout, renowned poet and Regents Professor Alberto Rios has been selected as Arizona’s first Poet Laureate.

Rios, 61, has authored ten books of poetry, three story books and a memoir “Capirotada”. His memoir told of his youth spent living on the Mexico-Arizona border; it won the Latino Literacy Hall of Fame Award. He has received many other recognitions for his work including the Walt Whitman Award in Poetry. The poet and academic started as an English professor at Arizona State University and reached the highest faculty rank in the state’s university system being named Regent in 1989.

His poetry has been featured in more than ninety literary anthologies. His poetry collection ‘The Theater of Night” was honored with the PEN/Beyond Margins award and “The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body” was a National Book Award finalist.

His work is often taught in college curriculum and has been adapted to dance and both classical and popular music.

Jennifer López’s Stalker Lived in Her Pool House for DAYS

Not only does Jennifer López have a stalker, but he was recently arrested for “vacationing” at her Hamptons mansion.

According to police reports, 49-year-old John M. Dubis managed not only to get onto the massive estate while the singer was out of town, but also into the property’s pool house.

For several days Dubis lived in the pool house and walked the grounds freely. Neighbors also saw him on the property and he even took photos during his stay.

Though López’s $10 million home is routinely patrolled by security guards, the three-acre estate was likely easy to hide around, especially considering the pool house is a SFways from the main house.

Dubis was finally arrested on Aug. 8, and charged with burglary, stalking, and criminal contempt.

He has also been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

This was not JLo’s first incident with Dubis. The “Dance Again” singer already had an over of protection out against him after he began contacting her mother earlier this year.

Dubis was arraigned on August 9th and is currently being held on $100,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court on August 28.

Café Tacvba brings their new album songs to SF

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Café TacvbaCafé Tacvba

Don’t miss one of Mexico’s most prominent Rock Bands of all time: Café Tacvba as they perform their classic hits and songs from their new album.

Café Tacvba has announced a 14-day U.S. tour starting at the end of August in San Francisco, California at The Warfield.

Café Tacuba is a band from Ciudad Satélite, Mexico. The group gained popularity in the early 1990s. They were founded in 1989, and since then have had the same musical lineup of musicians.

Café Tacvba went from being a garage band to a concert act in 1989, when they joined the scene surrounding El Hijo del Cuervo, a cultural club in Coyoacán featuring writers and musicians.

As they performed in various venues around Mexico City, they were discovered by Argentinian music producer Gustavo Santaolalla, who at the time was producing albums for leading bands of the burgeoning Rock en Español movement of the time.[1] Santaolalla arranged a contract for the band with Warner Music Latina (WEA), with plans to produce its debut album himself.

Café Tacuba in turn proceeded to record their first song for commercial release, “Tamales de Iguanita,” which WEA released as part of a Christmas-themed rock en español compilation, Diciembre 25, in 1990.

You can see them play on Thursday, Aug. 29, at 9 p.m. Door opens at 8 p.m., tickets $37.50 – $52.50, at The Warfield, 982 Market St. San Francisco.

The work Seven Women debuts in Redwood City

The work Seven Women is original of Humberto Robles and John Rivers. A night at the theater where we’ll see at seven contemporary women, seven standards of what is meant by the feminine side of our days. Each one in a interior monologue perfectly exteriorized, without inhibitions or hesitates, speaks well, telling their story.

On Saturday Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Veterans Metomorial Senior Center, 1455 Madison Ave. Redwood City. For more information, call 640-346-8468 or visit www.circulocltural.org, or by write to circulocultural09@ gmail.com. Must be 13-year-old or older.

5th Annual San Francisco Latino Film Festival

Cine+Mas SF Latino Film Festival in theatres and cultural centers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, screening award winning and critically acclaimed documentary and feature films throughout Latin America, South America and the USA.

The audience will have the opportunity to participate in discussions with local and visiting filmmakers after many of the screenings. Films are screened in their original language with English subtitles. Opening night at the Victoria Theater, on Thursday, September 12, and the festival start on September 13, 2012, doors open 7 p.m. For more info visit www.sflatinofilmfestival.org or call 415-826-7057

Prison hunger strike reaches more than 30 days

Officials claim “gang power play”

Prisoners of the California Department of Corrections.

by Sal Rodríguez

As of Monday, there were 415 California prisoners in seven facilities on hunger strike. Of them, 244 have been on hunger strike since July 8th, making this hunger strike the longest of the three statewide hunger strikes that California prisoners have launched demanding the “Five Core Demands.” California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) spokesperson Terry Thornton told Solitary Watch that it appears that some hunger strike participants who resumed eating are going back on hunger strike.
Hunger strike participants are reporting that they are losing significant weight. The San Francisco Bay View reports that Mutope Duguma wrote on July 22nd, “I have lost 33 pounds thus far. I know things will start to turn for the worse real soon.” Another hunger striker wrote to the Bay View that, “At the moment, my energy is too low to discuss current events.”
The Office of the Receiver has confirmed several hospitalizations of hunger strikers the last few days.

Spokesperson Joyce Hayhoe told Solitary Watch that all hunger strikers are receiving “daily nursing checks, additional assessments by nurses based on their daily checks, and subsequent visits to our in-patient infirmaries, our in-house correctional treatment centers or hospitals.”

CDCR head Jeffrey Beard wrote an Op-Ed in the L.A. Times yesterday, declaring the hunger strike as a “gang power play.” Beard was previously head of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, a system known to house thousands in solitary, including hundreds diagnosed as seriously mentally ill. Beard argues in the Op-Ed that the leaders of the hunger strike are self-interested gang leaders “directly responsible for at least five ruthless murders, 35 violent assaults, including stabbings, and they have racked up more than two dozen violations for possession of weapons and other contraband.” CDCR has invoked this claim of “gang activity” as justification for restricting the release of information about the hunger strike; Public Information Officers at all facilities have been ordered to refer journalists to the CDCR press office.

Further, Beard notes that not all in the SHU are in solitary, noting that those in the SHU are allowed to have visitation and receive letters. Of course, this ignores the reality that not everyone in the SHU will receive letters and, given how remote SHU facilities are, not all families can afford visits to facilities as far north as Pelican Bay.

Having a cellmate in a SHU cell presents its own challenges. Sharing a cell designed for one, with confinement in limited cell space for 22 1/2 to 24 hours a day, coupled with the humiliation of sharing toilets just feet away from where they will eat and sleep, has led some to tell Solitary Watch that having a cellmate can be an infuriating experience.

Having a cellmate also doesn’t address the reality that those in the SHU have severely limited access to constructive programming, human contact, or that CDCRs process of validating gang members and associates has, by their own measure, been wrong most of the time in identifying associates and members of prison gangs.

Beard provided updated figures on the case-by-case reviews CDCR began in October 2012 of all gang validated SHU prisoners to determine whether or not the person reviewed should be released directly into the general population or placed in the Step Down Program (SDP).

The SDP would allow participants to transition out of the SHU in five years, with a four step process with increasing privileges and rehabilitative services as the participant moves up the “steps.” After the fourth step, participants may be released to the general population. The reviews, initially halted when the strike began, appear to have resumed, and Terry Thornton told Solitary Watch that reviews may be resuming with the end of hunger strike activity.

According to the latest figures, 399 have been reviewed. Of them, 62 percent, or about 240, have been released or endorsed for release directly to general population.

Beard also references an incident in which an individual was assaulted for not sharing food with hunger strike participants, which was earlier reported in a CDCR press release. Joyce Hayhoe, according to an LA Times report, recently spoke with a “spectrum” of hunger strikers, some of whom “felt conflicted and pressured not to eat.” Hayhoe also reported that there were also “inmates that were fully supportive of the strike.” These incidents and pressures add to the complex reality of what is motivating hunger strike participants, though Beard doesn’t acknowledge the other side of the spectrum of motivations, instead insisting that many “participating in the hunger strike are under extreme pressure to do so from violent prison gangs, which called the strike in an attempt to restore their ability to terrorize fellow prisoners, prison staff and communities throughout California.”

Beard cites this review process and the creation of the SDP as reasonably addressing the concerns of the hunger strike participants. Further, Beard insists that the new gang validation process is now based more on “gang-related behavior,” which Beard says is in line with what the hunger strikers have demanded. The hunger strike leaders wrote in their explanation of their Five Core Demands that “employs such criteria as tattoos, readings materials, and associations with other prisoners (which can amount to as little as greeting) to identify gang members.”

These criteria are still present in the CDCR gang validation guidelines. CDCR currently uses a point system to assess whether or not a person is a gang member or associate; ten points or above are grounds for validation. CDCR policy states that four of ten points can be possession of “training materials,” which in the past has included possession of pamphlets reference “Marx” and possession of Sun Tsu’s “The Art of War.” Also contrary to Beard’s characterization, “gang-related behavior” remains a vague concept, and the revised system prompted attorney Charles Carbone to blast the revised system as allowing for an even broader definition of gang activity and ultimately more SHU placements.

One day after Russian asylum for Snowden: Obama Administration launches teerror scare

by Thomas Gaist
Infowars.com

Amid escalating denunciations and threats against both Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) contractor-turned whistle-blower, and Russia, which granted Snowden temporary asylum on Thursday, the Obama administration on Friday issued a “global travel alert,” closing US embassies in Tripoli, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Baghdad, Riyadh and Doha based on supposed threats of Al Qaeda attacks.

In total, 22 embassies and consulates are to be closed, and a terror alert has been issued covering the entire Middle East. Official statements have asserted that a contact from Yemen—a country that has been under bombardment from US drones for years—gave information raising the possibility of terror attacks against US embassies.

All three major television networks led their evening news reports with the government’s claims, reporting them uncritically despite the lack of any substantiation or any specific purported threats. Terrorism “experts” were trundled out in the usual fashion to stoke up public alarm.

None of the government’s claims should be taken for good coin. They follow more evidence of broad popular support for Snowden, whom the Obama administration is witch-hunting and targeting for prosecution—or worse—for leaking details of secret surveillance programs that invade the privacy and violate the rights of every American and millions more people around the world.

On Thursday, a Quinnipiac poll was released showing that 55 percent of Americans believe Snowden is a whistle-blower, versus only 34 percent who buy the government line that he is a spy or traitor. Weeks of official statements from Obama, top intelligence officials and politicians of both parties claiming that the spying operations are needed to combat terror threats have obviously fallen flat with the public. There is every reason to believe that Friday’s terror scare was launched in an attempt to sow disorientation and dissipate opposition to the illegal and unconstitutional spying programs.

The Obama administration has threatened to cancel a planned meeting between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow following the upcoming G20 summit in St. Petersburg. This would be one form of retaliation for Moscow’s granting of temporary asylum to Snowden.

Russia’s decision to allow Snowden to leave the Moscow airport to which he had been confined for over a month and settle in Russia for at least a year provoked furious denunciations from the American political establishment. “Obviously this is not a positive development,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Thursday. “We are evaluating the utility of a summit.”

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York called Snowden a “coward” and denounced Russia for “stabbing us in the back.” Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said Snowden was a “traitor to our country.”

“Any time our president is seen to be disrespected, it’s not good,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said in an interview. “Our foreign policy is not working. This is an example of it not working.”

Lon Snowden, father of Edward, told CBS in regard to the asylum decision, “It’s the honourable thing to do, and as not just a citizen of the United States, but a global citizen of this planet, an occupant of the Earth, I am so thankful for what they have done for my son.”

“As you know, he is receiving threats from the United States government every day,” said Anatoly Kucherena, the Russian lawyer who facilitated Snowden’s asylum request. “The situation is heating up.”

“The personal safety issue is a very serious one for him,” Kucherena added. Security concerns will constrain Snowden’s movement, according to Kucherena, who said that he “can’t go for a walk on Red Square or go fishing.”

Friday’s terror alert comes in the midst of a public relations campaign by the administration to portray the spying programs as legal and carefully monitored by Congress. This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to take testimony from top officials of the NSA and the Justice Department concerning the programs. Amid talk of the need for “transparency” and “accountability” from some of the senators on the committee, the hearing only underscored the absence of any serious or principled opposition in Congress and the complicity of both parties, the Congress and the courts in the buildup of the apparatus of a police state.

Congress was fully informed about the NSA programs for years before theGuardian published Snowden’s leaked documents. Democratic Senators Mark Udall of Colorado and Ron Wyden of Oregon have been trumpeted as adversaries of the NSA surveillance and defenders of civil liberties. In fact, they make no serious challenge to either the programs or the spy agencies that carry them out.

Their supposed opposition is two-faced and cowardly. Neither of them even voted against the confirmation this week of a former Bush Justice Department official and supporter of torture and the NSA spying programs as the new Federal Bureau of Investigation director.

They propose token measures to provide a fig leaf of legality and constitutionality to programs that directly violate the Bill of Rights. In a recent meeting between congressional would-be opponents of surveillance and President Obama, Wyden proposed the addition of a “privacy and civil liberties advocate” to the secret court that reviews surveillance requests.

He claims to oppose NSA programs that collect the records of all US telephone calls, but adds caveats that would allow the government to continue to shred the Fourth Amendment’s ban on warrantless searches and seizures. “I am open, for example, on areas like these emergency authorities to make sure that our government is in a position to get information needed to protect the public,” Wyden said after the meeting with Obama.

Neither Wyden nor any of the other congressional “critics” of the spying programs defend Snowden or other whistle-blowers who have exposed US government crimes, such as Bradley Manning and Julian Assange.

Meanwhile, virtually every day brings new revelations of pervasive spying programs. A CNET report reTo advertise in El Reportero call us at 415-648-3711leased Friday stated that the FBI has been pressuring telecommunications providers to install “port reader software” that enables real-time interception of internet metadata, including IP addresses, e-mail addresses, identities of Facebook correspondents, and sites visited by government surveillance agencies. As CNET wrote: “The US government is quietly pressuring telecommunications providers to install eavesdropping technology deep inside companies’ internal networks to facilitate surveillance efforts.”

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