Speaking via videoconference to an audience at Uruguay’s University of the Republic, Assange pointed to Latin America’s dependency on hardware and traffic handling by the United States as a source of vulnerability to monitoring by overzealous intelligence agencies, including the CIA, NSA and FBI. The world-famous whistleblower has been living in Ecuador’s London embassy for the past year under the auspices of political asylum.“The penetration of the internet in all facets of society, substituting traditional mail and telephone and even physical interaction between individuals has placed in the hands of the US information provided by telecoms for the majority of humanity,” said the author of“Criptopunks,”his latest book to be published.Assange pointed to the growing prevalence of social networking and products offered by companies such as Google as another potential concern for Latin Americans.“The countries of Latin America are uploading profiles of their citizens, unknowingly, in computer systems within huge servers in California, controlled by Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others. These are directly or indirectly controlled by mechanisms, both legal or otherwise, via intelligence services of the United States and peripheral organizations,” he said.The remarks made by Assange to his audience in Montevideo, were published widely by many Spanish-language newspapers in the region, and included what seemed to be a veiled jab at recent revelations that the US Department of Justice had conducted widespread phone surveillance on the Associated Press.The government of the US “has not demonstrated scruples in following its own laws in intercepting these [phone] lines to spy even on its own citizens,” remarked Assange.He added that in the US there “did not exist” laws that impeded the US from “spying on citizens of foreign countries.”The US National Security Agency “receives and processes” millions of communications, according to Assange, and the agency boasts a budget “greater than the FBI and the CIA combined.”Assange warned the audience in Montevideo that, with the use of Google, Facebook and other new trends, there’s a massive privacy threat, to an extent that would have only been the stuff of science fiction not long ago. … Read More
BP blasts US judge in fight against compensation claims
BP wants to halt payouts, amounting to millions of dollars, in what it calls “spurious” compensation claims to victims of the spill. The incident was the largest marine oil spill in history, killing 11 rig workers and discharging some 4.9 million barrels via an uncontrolled leak for 87 days. The ensuing settlement between BP and the US Department of Justice in November of 2012 meant that the oil company pleaded guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter, as well as two misdemeanors and one felony count for lying to Congress. The company is also still in court for criminal and civil settlements, which have thus far cost the company $42 billion. At stake now, according to the new filing by the oil company, are unchecked payouts being permitted under presiding Judge Carl Barbier that could increase BP’s liability by $14 billion. According to The Guardian, BP has expressed in that filing that the additional billions, which the company has not budgeted for, could cause the company “irreparable” harm and make it the target of a takeover. BP was rumored to be a takeover target in late 2012 by Royal Dutch Shell. BP has absorbed large losses stemming from payouts for the massive Gulf spill and sold assets to compensate, taking most of the blame for the extensive damage to surrounding marine and wildlife habitats, as well as the loss of revenue for local maritime industry caused by both the spill, as well as cleanup efforts that involved controversial use of oil dispersant chemicals. In March, the company completed a deal to sell its half of the integrated Russian TNK-BP oil company to Rosneft, in return for $27 billion in cash and shares — $4 billion of which it intended to return to shareholders. Now, citing increasing payouts to Gulf spill claimants under an existing deal, BP has complained that it may have to review its dividend to shareholders. As a result, the company was reportedly considering approaching Prime Minister David Cameron to raise the issue with President Obama, who once called the BP Gulf spill “the worst environmental disaster in American history.”According to the legal injunction filed by BP, Gulf coast businesses in the US are pursuing multi-million dollar claims for “non-existent, artificially calculated” losses.In a filing with a New Orleans court last Friday, BP argues that “while the ultimate amount at stake is at present inestimable, awards for fictitious losses already are hundreds of millions of dollars and could reach billions.”In addition to overseeing payouts to claimants, Judge Barbier is also overseeing a civil claims trial that seeks to determine blame for the 2010 Deepwater spill, now in its seventh week.In response to BP’s claims against him, Judge Barbier accused the oil company of trying to move the claims process to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and beyond his jurisdiction. ”What you’re really trying to do – it’s quite obvious and there’s no subtlety here – is you’re trying to get this issue to the Fifth Circuit,” Barbier said.”If you believe you have a right to appeal, you can take that up with the circuit and then ask me to stay the order. I don’t know why we’re going through all these machinations,” Barbier added. In April both Florida and Mississippi announced suits against BP and oil rig contractor Halliburton under the Oil Pollution Act, just within the law’s three-year statute of limitation. Officials in Florida announced they would seek lost revenues as a result of the spill, as well as punitive damages “due to the egregious nature of the misconduct” leading up to the oil rig explosion and spill.On Thursday, British officials denied that BP had sought PM David Cameron’s intervention in reducing compensation claims. … Read More
U.S. Military Grants Itself the Authority to Deploy Troops in American Cities Without Presidential or Local Approval
In a move that makes clear the direction that our country is increasingly heading towards, the Department of Defense has published an update to a US code that outlines military power during civil unrest. … Read More
Monsanto CEO trashes company’s opponents over ‘elitism’
Just days before a major international demonstration to protest Monsanto is scheduled to occur around the globe, CEO Hugh Grant told Bloomberg this week that critics of his company are fueling anti-GMO sentiment by capitalizing on an increased public interest in how their food is produced and pushing that agenda through social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.Anti-Monsanto advocates — like the ones planning to protest in 36 countries later this month — say they are opposed to, among other items, the company’s habit of heralding genetically altered crops as a solution to third-world poverty by putting profits above possible health risks. Lab-made crops that are resistant to certain chemicals and conditions are the bread and butter of Monsanto, but critics are worried that the company isn’t weighing the full impact of what spreading GMO crops could do to the environment and agriculture sector. Additionally, Monsanto’s legal habits of driving small-time farmers bankrupt over alleged patent infringement has not made them many friends within America’s traditional agriculture sector.Just last week, the US Department of Agriculture set up a serious roadblock in Monsanto’s way by ordering further assessments on a number of GMO crops they want to market that can sustain high concentrations of chemicals used as herbicides that can be toxic in large doses. Speaking to Bloomberg this week, Grant said the USDA’s decision won’t be much of a setback, in his opinion, and added that campaigns to belittle his company are often unfounded or the result of misunderstood disinformation.Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, told Bloomberg, “Most of the people that become motivated to engage the political issues have become convinced that going down the road of genetically engineered foods is not the way to meet the needs of a food insecure population.”According to Grant, those critics aren’t giving his company’s take on the situation the light of day.“I’d feel a whole lot better if it was marinated a little on where is that extra chicken going to come from or who is going to grow the new bushel,” Grant said. Instead, he said Monsanto opponents are ruining the opportunity to feed the world using technological advances.“There is this strange kind of reverse elitism: If I’m going to do this, then everything else shouldn’t exist,” Grant told Bloomberg at Monsanto’s St. Louis headquarters this week. “There is space in the supermarket shelf for all of us.”“And the sad piece of this is, it ends up either or,” Grant said. “So you get conventional agriculture or broad scale or however you define it, and organic. I think we’re going to look back on this period and say, ‘How on earth did that ever become the fight that it became.’”Monsanto protests on six contents are scheduled to take place on May 25 as part of an international day of demonstration. Meanwhile, Monsanto has ended up embroiled in yet another controversy, this time after State Department cables released by WikiLeaks showed that the government lobbied foreign nations on behalf of the GMO kings. Monsanto’s influence over the US government has been questioned previously after ties were publicly disclosed between the company and a number of Washington institutions, including the White House and the Supreme Court of the United States. … Read More
Ignorance is bliss? US attorney claims no knowledge of AP phone taps
US lawmakers questioned the attorney general at a House Judiciary Committee about the two months of AP phone records obtained by the Justice Department without permission. In a session that saw the attorney on the back foot amid calls for his resign, he maintained his ignorance in the “ongoing matter.” Flatly denying any prior knowledge to the subpoenas and who had issued them, he stated that he was 99 per cent sure that deputy attorney general James Cole had issued them.“The matter is being supervised by the deputy attorney general. I am not familiar with the reasons why the subpoena was constructed in the way that it was because I’m simply not a part of the case,” Holder told the committee, adding he was confident that the people who are involved in the investigation adhered to Justice Department regulations. Investigators wish to discern why it was necessary to gather so much information from AP phone records. The Justice Departments claims that the records were seized as part of an investigation into leaked data on a CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bombing plot on the anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden. Holder stressed that the leak was very serious and had put the safety of the American people at risk and as such the Justice Department’s action was justified.Passing the buckThe Justice Department admitted its surveillance of AP’s phone lines in a letter to the organization’s heads last Friday. AP’s Chief Gary Pruitt reacted with ire, condemning the intrusion as a gross violation of press freedom that is inexcusable. AP estimates that over 100 of its journalists were affected by the phone surveillance and has implicated the involvement of the attorney general, alleging that subpoenas require his signature to be carried out. There was a degree of frustration at Holder’s answers during the hearing due to his inability to answer questions on the subpoenas and why the Justice Department failed to negotiate with AP prior to the subpoenas, which is usually standard practice in such situations.“There doesn’t appear to be any acceptance of responsibility for things that have gone wrong,” Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., told Holder. He suggested that Justice Department office should stop by Harry S Truman Presidential Library and take a photo of the famous sign, “The buck stops here.” The White House has also claimed ignorance, stating that it had no knowledge of “any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP.” … Read More
US Prepares to Overthrow Malaysian Government
Without a doubt, this premeditated sedition aimed at Malaysia’s ruling government has been designed, funded, and directed from Washington on behalf of Wall Street and London, not by the Malaysian people on behalf of Malaysia’s best interests. … Read More
New Orleans police arrest Mother’s Day shooting suspect
Akein Scott, 19, was apprehended in the Little Woods section of eastern New Orleans, Louisiana. Police department spokeswoman Remi Braden told the Associated Press that no additional details would be made public until Thursday morning. … Read More
