After announcing last week that he did not plan to participate personally in the September 8 mayoral race, Prokhorov said on the talk show ‘Iron Ladies’, aired by NTV, that his personal sympathies lie with the frontman of a heavy metal band, Sergey Troitsky, aka ‘the Spider’. Prokhorov called the current campaign “elections without a choice” and said that he wanted to support Spider purely in order to make the elections more interesting. He added that some time ago he was a fan of heavy metal music. The Spider’s program is certainly interesting. He has announced that he would introduce visa regime in the city, remove all restrictions on smoking and replace migrant workers by specially-designed robots made to look like characters from children’s cartoons. Before registering as a candidate in the Moscow mayoral race, Sergey Troitsky ran in elections in two suburban towns – Khimki and Zhukovsky. His platforms were equally bizarre and included, for example, building huge oxygen generators to solve ecological problems. He lost in both polls, garnering only a miniscule number of votes. Apart from promising to back the Spider, Prokhorov also ruled out his support of popular anti-corruption activist Aleksey Navalny, saying that while he was very successful as a whistleblower, it takes a much more constructive approach to be a good mayor. Besides, Prokhorov noted that he did not share Navalny’s harsh nationalist stance. Navalny is running for the opposition Russian Republican Party (RPR-PARNAS). He is currently on trial over a major graft case, but can still take part in the poll if he is not convicted before it is run. Navalny claims that the process against him is politically motivated. Prokhorov’s own potential participation in the Moscow mayoral elections was possibly the hottest topic of Russian politics after incumbent Mayor Sergey Sobyanin submitted his early resignation, necessitating the poll. With Prokhorov’s participation yet unannounced, politicians and observers discussed how the billionaire would deal with his numerous foreign assets, as Russia has recently introduced a law that forbids top-level politicians from possessing foreign securities or holding accounts in foreign banks. Some expected that Prokhorov would put forward his sister Irina, who is known for her charity projects and an intellectual program on her brother’s TV channel RBC, as a mayoral candidate. However, Prokhorov said that his party would participate in next year’s elections to the Moscow City legislature with the slogan “The mayor is yours, but the Duma is ours.” He reiterated this intent in the weekend TV show. “I will not go anywhere, I will fight for my Moscow and I will prove it during the Moscow Duma poll,” Prokhorov stated. At present there are nine registered candidates in the mayoral race. Five of them are independents and four are backed by political parties. Acting Mayor Sobyanin on Monday registered as an independent, despite his membership in the parliamentary majority United Russia party. … Read More
Anti-Gay Republican Wanders into LGBT Pride Event
http://www.youtube.com/v/MVhk37hg8a8?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata View article - Anti-Gay Republican Wanders into LGBT Pride Event
Ron Paul fears US might assassinate NSA leaker Snowden
Speaking to Fox Business News on Tuesday, the former Republican congressman from Texas said, “I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile.” “I mean, we live in a bad time where American citizens don’t even have rights and that they can be killed. But the gentleman is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on,” Paul said. Rep. Paul, who retired from Congress earlier this year after an unsuccessful bid at the presidency, has been outspoken in regards to both the Obama White House’s drone program and the need to protect whistleblowers. On the campaign trail last year he hailed Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks source behind hundreds of thousands of sensitive files, and earlier this week he threw his weight behind supporting Snowden. “The Fourth Amendment is clear,” the Washington Times reports Paul said earlier this week. “We should be secure in our persons, houses, paper and effects, and all warrants must have probable cause. Today the government operates largely in secret, while seeking to know everything about our private lives – without probable cause and without a warrant.” “The government does not need to know more about what we are doing. We need to know more about what the government is doing,” he said. “We should be thankful for individuals like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald who see injustice being carried out by their own government and speak out, despite the risk. They have done a great service to the American people by exposing the truth about what our government is doing in secret.” Adding to Fox Business, Paul said, “It’s a shame that we are in an age where people who tell the truth about what the government is doing gets into trouble.” Previously, Paul had harsh words for the drone program after an unmanned aerial vehicle was used to execute three US citizens in Yemen in 2011. “Now we know American citizens are vulnerable to assassination,” he said during a GOP debate last year. But despite Rep. Paul’s efforts to turn the drone program on its ear, the White House has continued to order strikes against suspected terrorists, an issue that it has only really began to discuss in public in recent months after the congressman’s son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) demanded the administration justify the killing of Americans. “America cannot take strikes wherever we choose – our actions are bound by consultations with partners, and respect for state sovereignty,” President Barack Obama said during a national security address in Washington, DC last month in which he admitted that drones have killed four US citizens between 2009 and 2011. “America does not take strikes to punish individuals – we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people, and when there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat. And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set,” he said. Samir Khan, Jude Kenan Mohammed, Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki — were all executed by US drones. Attorney General Eric Holder admitted last month that only the elder al-Awlaki was targeted to strike, adding at least three Americans to the list of collateral damage causalities created in the name of the drone war. According to the Center for Responsive Politics’ website OpenSecrets.org, Snowden made two contributions totaling $500 to the presidential campaign of then-Rep. Ron Paul during 2012. … Read More
You can’t go home again: The uncertain fate of Edward Snowden
Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, never intended to remain in the shadows. “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,” he told the Guardian from his boutique hotel in Hong Kong, where he had remained ensconced for three weeks before reportedly checking out Monday afternoon. In revealing the existence of PRISM, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive data mining surveillance program which gave the agency backdoor access to e-mails, videos, chats, photos and search queries from nine worldwide tech giants, was wishful thinking, Snowden expressed the fear his exposure would overshadow the greater issue at hand. “I don’t want public attention because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing,” he told the daily. “I know the media likes to personalize political debates, and I know the government will demonize me,” he continued. However, the firestorm which has ensued was all but inevitable. Peter King, the chairman of the House homeland security subcommittee, was unequivocal in his condemnation of Snowden. “If Edward Snowden did in fact leak the NSA data as he claims, the United States government must prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and begin extradition proceedings at the earliest date,” King, a Republican lawmaker from New York, said in a written statement. “The United States must make it clear that no country should be granting this individual asylum. This is a matter of extraordinary consequence to American intelligence.” Prior to Snowden’s decision to disclose his identity, the NSA had already filed a criminal report with the Justice Department following media leaks on Prism. On Thursday, James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence in the US, decried the leaks on the programs as “reprehensible,” claiming the unauthorized disclosure of information “risks important protections for the security of Americans.” Based on Hong Kong’s 1996 extradition treaty with the US, if Snowden is in the city-state, his time there may be short lived. On Monday, Regina Ip, formally Hong Kong’s top official overseeing security, told reporters it would be in Snowden’s “best interest to leave Hong Kong,” AFP reports. Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, said the city’s administration was “obliged to comply with the terms of agreements” with the US government, which included the extradition of fugitives. However, she was unable to confirm whether the government had received an extradition request, adding: “I doubt it will happen so quickly.” The United States Consulate in Hong Kong has referred all questions to the Justice Department in Washington, which has only said that it is in the preliminary stages of an investigation into the disclosure of information pertaining to government programs to monitor telephone and Internet communications. In terms of the US-Hong Kong Extradition Treaty, both Hong Kong and Beijing have the power to stymie Snowden’s extradition. China for its part has no extradition treaty with the United States. In negotiating the treaty, Hong Kong was unbending on the inclusion of clauses providing for the denial of extradition to the US in specific circumstances, arguing that such provisions were necessary for obtaining approval from Beijing. Article 3 of the treaty, for example, allows the Chinese government to refuse surrendering a person if it thought the surrender “relates to (its) defense, foreign affairs or essential public interest or policy.” Hong Kong and Beijing are further granted the right to reject an extradition request deemed to be “politically motivated,” or criminal charges have already been initiated against the individual in question. Even if Hong Kong gave the green light to Snowden’s extradition, Beijing maintains veto power, as the mainland remains in control of foreign relations and issues of national defense despite the city-state’s semi-autonomous status. Snowden initially said his choice of Hong Kong was based on its “strong tradition of free speech.” However, he had no illusions about what fate might await him, saying all of his options “remain bad.” “Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads [Chinese organized crime]. Any of their agents or assets,” he told the Guardian. “We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be.” As of Monday afternoon, it was no longer clear if Snowden was in fact still in Hong Kong. The Mira Hotel confirmed on Monday evening that Snowden had in fact stayed at the hotel but checked out at 12:30 p.m., the New York Times reports. The hotel was unable to provide any further information, and the Hong Kong government was unable to comment on whether Snowden had left the territory, saying it did not comment on individual cases. “All cases will be handled in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong,” the government said in a brief statement. Icelandic asylum bid? Regarding his hopes of asylum, Iceland, with its strong reputation as a bulwark of Internet freedom, remains his top choice. And in fact, prominent figures from the tiny Nordic nation have already issued a statement of support. “Whereas IMMI [Icelandic Modern Media Initiative] is based in Iceland, and has worked on protections of privacy, furtherance of government transparency, and the protection of whistleblowers, we feel it is our duty to offer to assist and advise Mr. Snowden to the greatest of our ability,” Forbes cites a statement from Icelandic deputy Birgitta Jonsdottir and Smari McCarthy, executive director of the IMMI, as saying. “We are already working on detailing the legal protocols required to apply for asylum, and will over the course of the week be seeking a meeting with the newly appointed interior minister of Iceland, Mrs. Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, to discuss whether an asylum request can be processed in a swift manner, should such an application be made.” Jonsdottir and McCarthy, who helped publish the now infamous Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” video in 2010, already managed to pass a new source protection law in 2011 via their work at the IMMI. But with April’s elections being won by the center-right Independence and Progressive Parties, Jonsdottir, as a member of the left-leaning Pirate Party, will inevitably have less political clout in the opposition. Wikileaks for its part expressed reservations about the hopes the current political climate in Iceland would be conducive to Snowden’s asylum hopes. “Snowden out of date on Iceland,” the group wrote via Twitter on Sunday. “New conservative government elected a month ago. Countries must step forward to offer Snowden asylum now.” The Icelandic consulate in Hong Kong said it had “no comment” on the case, refusing to say whether he Snowden had attempted to contact them. ‘Anywhere you can speak freely and live privately’ There are currently around 75 countries with no formal extradition treaty with the United States, although that in and of itself does not guarantee no extradition will take place. Many countries without a formal extradition treaty are more than willing to comply with an extradition request on a quid pro quo basis. In other cases, states may opt to lock up a suspect in a local prison while investigating the case against a suspect. In fact, three states which actually have extradition treaties with the United States, Ecuador, Venezuela and Cuba, might be viable options for Snowden. Ecuador, which in fact has relatively strong ties with the United States, granted political Asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in August 2012. Venezuela and Cuba, on the other hand are locked in deeply adversarial relationships with Washington and would potentially welcome Snowden with open arms. Snowden for his part told the Washington Post he would “ask for asylum from any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy.” ‘They will kill you’ If Snowden does manage to evade the long-arm of the US law, he believes extrajudicial means remain a definite part of the equation when dealing with the United States’ vast intelligence apparatus. “You can’t come forward against the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk, because they’re such powerful adversaries, that no one can meaningfully oppose them. If they want to get you, they’ll get you in time,” he warned. Barton Gellman of the Washington Post wrote on Sunday that in his earliest communications with the NSA contractor, there was an implicit understanding that Snowden would be “made to suffer” for his actions, “and that the return of this information to the public marks my end.” Snowden went so far as to say that not only his life, but the lives of journalists investigating the story were as imperiled as long as the story had not yet gone public. The US intelligence community “will most certainly kill you if they think you are the single point of failure that could stop this disclosure and make them the sole owner of this information,” Snowden wrote to Gellman. Although Snowden could be accused of paranoia, Steve Steven Clemons, an American journalist and publisher of the political blog, The Washington Note, reportedly overheard security officials in Washington Dulles International Airport saying both Snowden and Glen Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who broke the NSA electronic surveillance story, should be “disappeared.” “In Dulles UAL lounge listening to 4 US intel officials saying loudly leaker & reporter on #NSA stuff should be disappeared recorded a bit,” the Atlantic’s Clemons tweeted on Sunday. Clemons, who says the men had just attended a conference hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, told the Huffington Post one of them was wearing “a white knit national counter-terrorism center shirt.” In a Q&A with the Guardian, Snowden believed the veracity of Clemon’s claims despite voices to the contrary. “Someone responding to the story said ‘real spies do not speak like that’. Well, I am a spy and that is how they talk. Whenever we had a debate in the office on how to handle crimes, they do not defend due process – they defend decisive action. They say it is better to kick someone out of a plane than let these people have a day in court. It is an authoritarian mindset in general.” Glenmore Treaner-Harvey, Editor-in-Chief of the World Intelligence Review website, told RT the United States will use every power available to them, both legal and illegal, to get their hands on Snowden. However, he believes at this point, Snowden “is too high-profile to be spirited away” in a rendition operation, perhaps forcing the United States to work through legal channels for the time being. Snowden himself acknowledged this likelihood in coming forward, telling the Guardian the publicity the leaks have generated will make it “harder for them to get dirty.” Facing prison, death and the potential of asylum that may offer him legal protections if not physical ones, Snowden remained stoical, saying “I am not afraid because this is the choice I’ve made.” Whatever fate he meets in the end, Snowden finds hope in the belief that whatever awaits him, “the outcome will be positive for America.” But with so many unknowns, on one point he has little doubt: “I do not expect to see home again, though that is what I want.” William Echols, RT … Read More
NSA leaker Snowden supported Ron Paul’s presidential run
With all eyes turned to 29-year-old Edward Snowden, the former CIA analyst who leaked documents about the National Security Agency’s domestic spying is already on his way to becoming the most discussed man in America. Less than 24 hours after the Guardian went public with Snowden’s identity on Sunday, the leaker’s personal life and politics have already taken center stage. Now at the center of some discussions is Snowden’s endorsement of Ron Paul during last year’s presidential race, a revelation that is providing a rare glimpse into the ideologies of a man who will likely face decades in prison for going public. According to donation info published by the Center for Responsive Politics’ website OpenSecrets.org, Snowden made two contributions totaling $500 to the presidential campaign of then-Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) during the last calendar year. Snowden made a $250 contribution to Rep. Paul on March 18, 2012, and another $250 donation on May 6. Rep. Paul was vying for the Republican Party’s nomination as president during last year’s election, ultimately losing that slot to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Paul ended his active campaigning phrase shortly after Snowden’s second contribution was made and retired from Congress in early 2013 after serving decades on Capitol Hill. Although other links between Snowden and Paul haven’t been published yet, the leaker did say in an interview this week that he supported a third party presidential candidate during the 2008 race that ultimately ended in a win for Barack Obama, a Democrat. “A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party. But I believed in Obama’s promises. I was going to disclose it [but waited because of his election]. He continued with the policies of his predecessor,” Snowden told the Guardian. Before Barack Obama won his bid for the White House in 2008, he campaigned on a promise of having the most transparent presidential administration in the history of the United States. Today his office continues to stand by that vow despite spearheading an unprecedented war against leakers. The Obama administration has so far charged seven people under the Espionage Act, and more leakers have been prosecuted under that legislation than by every previous president combined. Snowden is reported to currently be in Hong Kong after fleeing his apartment in Hawaii at the beginning of last month. He previously worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and, most recently, defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. He only worked there for three months before the Guardian published top secret documents last week about the NSA’s phone and Internet surveillance programs, operated for years under a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and a well-hidden program called PRISM. “The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records [and] credit cards,” Snowden told the Guardian. “I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.” Before the Guardian went public with Snowden’s allegations about the spy program — then later his identity — the leaker went to the Washington Post and asked them to publish his evidence of PRISM. “Snowden asked for a guarantee that The Washington Post would publish — within 72 hours — the full text of a PowerPoint presentation describing PRISM, a top-secret surveillance program that gathered intelligence from Microsoft, Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley giants,” Post reporter Barton Gellman admitted this week. “I told him we would not make any guarantee about what we published or when,” Gellman recalled for the Post. According to Gellman, “The Post sought the views of government officials about the potential harm to national security prior to publication and decided to reproduce only four of the 41 slides.” Snowden’s attempt to expose the secretive program through the Washington Post draws an eerie parallel to the case of Bradley Manning, the 25-year-old Army private who gave hundreds of thousands of sensitive government files to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks — but not before his phone calls to the Post and New York Times were ignored. On the campaign trail last year, then-Rep. Paul said he’d protect Bradley Manning and other whistleblowers if elected to the White House. “I maintain that government becomes more secret and the people’s privacy is being destroyed. We should protect the people’s privacy and we should make the government much more open,” Paul said last April during a campaign stop in San Antonio, Texas. “I would certainly lean in the direction of protecting people that are trying to tell the truth,” said Paul. “The more openness the better. That’s what a free society is all about. It wouldn’t be so critical if the government was a lot smaller, but because it is so big it is big issue because there is so much that could be hidden.” … Read More
Tea Partier: Republicans Don’t Want Black People to Vote
http://www.youtube.com/v/AIILXEWlCDU?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Continue reading: Tea Partier: Republicans Don’t Want Black People to Vote
Obama appoints UN envoy Rice to national security position amid controversy
President Barack Obama confirmed Wednesday that Susan Rice will walk away from her position as the United States envoy to the UN in order to take on a new role within his administration. The president made the remarks Wednesday afternoon from the Rose Garden outside of the White House just hours after Tom Donilon, Obama’s security advisor since October 2010, tendered his resignation. Rice was nominated by Obama to be the American ambassador to the UN only weeks after he was elected to office in late 2008 and previously served as assistant secretary of state for African Affairs under President Bill Clinton. Obama called the role of national security advisor “a herculean task” and “one of the most critical” in the government during Wednesday’s remarks, adding that Rice would be best fit for the role because she “exemplifies the finest tradition of American diplomacy and leadership.” The appointment is expected to generate more than just a little controversy, however, particularly in light of the comments Rice made last year about the Benghazi incident that made her a lightning rod for Republican criticism. In the wake of the September 11, 2012 assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Rice went on several American talk shows and described the event as a spontaneous response sparked by an anti-Islamic video produced in California. Rice blamed the storming of the building on a violent demonstration that erupted outside of the consulate after a similar one broke out in Egypt, but intelligence that later went public proved her assessment to be wrong. Four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed in the assault. More than one month after Rice first remarked publicly about the Benghazi tragedy, she blamed talking points handed to her from American intelligence officials for gaffe. She later admitted that a spontaneous protest never occurred in Benghazi, and today US officials attribute the attack to terrorists aligned with al-Qaeda. Even as criticism grew, however, Rice was rumored in late 2012 to replace outgoing secretary of state Hillary Clinton, only for reports to trigger a major backlash from Republicans livid about the Benghazi remarks. Nearly 100 lawmakers from the GOP opposed the possibility of Rice replacing Sec. Clinton, sparking the UN rep to withdraw her name from the pool of potential candidates in December. Obama would later name Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) as his new secretary of state. During Wednesday’s press conference from the Rose Garden, Obama said he was personally grateful for Donilon’s role as security advisor, and said, “I’m proud that this work will be carried on by another exemplary public servant.” “Susan understands that there is no substitute for American leadership,” Obama said, calling her “passionate,” “pragmatic” and “a fierce champion for justice and human dignity” who “puts her country first.” As the UN ambassador, Obama said Rice “reinvigorated American diplomatic efforts” and helped put tough sanctions in place against Iran and North Korea. Rice said she was “deeply honored and humbled” to be appointed by the president, but said “we have vital opportunities to seizes and ongoing challenges to confront.” “We have much more to accomplish on behalf of the American people, and I look forward to continuing to serve on your national security team to keep our nation strong and safe,” she said. Perhaps first on the agenda for Rice, though, will be battling the criticism that is already been delivered courtesy of her GOP foes. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) accused Rice of “misleading” the public regarding the Benghazi attack and questioned why the White House appointed her to such an important role in the wake of the actions that are still used by members of the Republican Party to target the Obama administration. “How are they going to have the authority for people to believe what they’re saying, when he’s promoting someone who directly and deliberately misled the public over Benghazi?” Paul asked Fox. “I can’t imagine that we would be keeping Ambassador Rice in any significant position, much less promoting her to an important position,” he said “Obviously I disagree [with Obama’s] appointment of Susan Rice as Nat’l Security Adviser, but I’ll make every effort to work [with] her on [important] issues,” Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) wrote on Twitter. Last month, Vice President Joe Biden praised Rice, adding that even after Benghazi she had “the absolute, total, complete confidence of the president.” Samantha Power, a former special assistant to the president and senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights at the National Security Council, has been asked to fill Rice’s shoes at the UN headquarters in New York. … Read More
