Pussy Riot: Our arrest signals start of repression campaign to spread fear

Three members of the punk band Pussy Riot, who performed an anti-Putin song in Russia’s main cathedral, have pleaded not guilty to "abusive actions motivated by religious hatred", but concede what they did was an ethical mistake.

As the trial commenced in Moscow, the performers said it marked the launch of a broader repressive campaign.

“I am taking it as the start of a repressive authoritarian campaign which aims to hamper the public’s political activity and build a sense of fear among political activists,” Ekaterina Samutsevich, one of the group’s members, said in a statement in court.

Charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred or hostility,” Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Ekaterina Samutsevich, 29, may each face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

The first day of proceedings came to a close after a ten-hour marathon. As the three girls made their statements, the prosecutors read out the charges.

The defense motioned to remove the judge on the grounds she was biased – but the motion was rejected. Most appeals filed by the Pussy Riot's lawyers on Monday met no benevolence, unlike the prosecutors' suggestions. In one of the instances, the use of photo and video cameras during the trial was banned. The decision left only Twitter and similar resources as the only media to report the proceedings.

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Fluoride Lowers IQ in Kids, New Study Shows

A review of some two dozen studies by Harvard University researchers published this month in a peer-reviewed federal journal suggests that fluoride added into water supplies “significantly” decreases the IQ of children, leading to renewed calls by activists to end the controversial practice of fluoridation. Most public water supplies in the United States still have the chemical added in by authorities under the guise of preventing tooth decay.

"The children in high fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ than those who lived in low fluoride areas," noted the Harvard research scientists about the results of their study, echoing claims by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that there is substantial evidence of developmental neurotoxicity associated with the chemical. “The results support the possibility of an adverse effect of high fluoride exposure on children’s neurodevelopment.” 

The researchers also expressed concerns about the potential of fluoride to cause irreversible brain damage in unborn children. "Fluoride readily crosses the placenta,” they observed. “Fluoride exposure to the developing brain, which is much more susceptible to injury caused by toxicants than is the mature brain, may possibly lead to damage of a permanent nature."

The study, which was published on July 20 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, also called for further studies on the issue. While fluoride may cause neurotoxicity in animals and adults, not enough was known about the chemical’s effects on the neurodevelopment of children, the researchers said.

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Heat Rises on Central Banks

The U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank face critical tests this week amid heightened expectations that they are moving toward new actions to tackle fragility in the global economy.

Markets have risen on hopes that two of the world's most influential central banks will make additional moves to spur growth if their economies don't perk up—if not this week, then in the weeks ahead. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted three days of gains late last week, and finished largely flat Monday, down 2.65 points, to 13073.01.

But doubts linger in financial markets, and even within the central banks ...

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Bankers found to have rigged Libor rate could face jail

Bankers found to have rigged Libor could face jail after the SFO said it will look to bring criminal charges against those who attempted to manipulate the world’s key borrowing rate.

David Green QC, director of the SFO, said existing legislation could be used to bring criminal actions against banks implicated in the Libor rigging scandal.

Mr Green did not specify the precise charges that could be brought but it is possible bankers found guilty of manipulation could receive prison sentences of up to 10 years.

The decision to pursue prosecutions comes just over three weeks after the SFO formally announced an investigation into Libor and in particular whether it was possible to launch criminal proceedings against individual banks and bankers found to have rigged borrowing rates.

In a statement the SFO said it was “satisfied that existing criminal offences are capable of covering conduct in relation to the alleged manipulation of Libor and related interest rates”.

The SFO has not said which banks are being investigated, but has confirmed that it is looking into “a number of financial institutions”.

However, it is highly likely that major British lenders, including Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, which are already the subject of several international investigations, are among the institutions being looked at by the SFO.

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US, NATO to blame for Syria violence: Analyst

PRESS TV

“There is ample documentation to the effect that the Free Syrian Army which is supported by NATO and the United States has committed unspoken atrocities against the civilian population; and this is documented - it’s even documented by the Vatican,” said Professor Michael Chossudovsky, director of Center for Research on Globalization, in a Sunday interview with Press TV.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost all legitimacy by attacking the armed groups in the city.

Panetta claimed the Syrian government has been “attacking its own people in Aleppo” and that “Assad’s regime is coming to an end and has lost all legitimacy”.

“These are very strong statements because they accuse, they imply an accusation directed against President Bashar al-Assad to the effect that the Syrian government ordered these killings when, in fact, the Free Syrian Army - I’m talking about the killing of civilians - the Free Syrian Army is involved, and we know it, in terrorist activities right from day one for more than 16 months,” Chossudovsky explained.

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Special teams in place to counter Ebola outbreak

The Government is on high alert following an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda that has, so far, claimed 14 people.

Director of Public Health Dr Shahnaaz Sharriff said they have readied specialised teams to respond to a possible Ebola outbreak just in case the virus crosses over from Uganda, where more cases of the virulent disease were reported in the capital Kampala.

Sharriff disclosed rapid response measures are in place to deal with the haemorrhagic fever, to allay rising fears that the dreaded disease may   spread into the country.

“We are confident Ebola will be contained in Uganda but in case of an outbreak in Kenya, we are prepared to handle it,” he said yesterday in a phone interview with The Standard.

Speaking to the Press at Busia District headquarters, Busia acting DC John Maingi, who chairs a team comprising Immigration officials, District Medical officers, the Provincial Administration, Red Cross and Public Health officials said the group is tasked with co-ordinating surveillance, screening of visitors and information dissemination to ensure the disease does not spread.

Maingi said Busia County is considered vulnerable because of its proximity to Uganda and the frequent interactions between members of the two countries.

District Public Health Officer Ambrose Fwamba said screening of visitors began on Sunday evening, adding that an isolation point had been erected at the frontier and in Busia Hospital where those who have contracted the disease will be admitted.

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Scalia: Guns May be Regulated

Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Supreme Court's most vocal and conservative justices, said on Sunday that the Second Amendment leaves room for U.S. legislatures to regulate guns, including menacing hand-held weapons.

"It will have to be decided in future cases," Scalia said on Fox News Sunday. But there were legal precedents from the days of the Founding Fathers that banned frightening weapons which a constitutional originalist like himself must recognize. There were also "locational limitations" on where weapons could be carried, the justice noted.

When asked if that kind of precedent would apply to assault weapons, or 100-round ammunition magazines like those used in the recent Colorado movie theater massacre, Scalia declined to speculate. "We'll see," he said. '"It will have to be decided."

As an originalist scholar, Scalia looks to the text of the Constitution—which confirms the right to bear arms—but also the context of 18^th-century history. “They had some limitations on the nature of arms that could be borne," he told host Chris Wallace.

In a wide-ranging interview, Scalia also stuck by his criticism of Chief Justice John Roberts and the majority opinion in the ruling that upheld the Affordable Care Act this summer. "You don't interpret a penalty to be a pig. It can't be a pig," said Scalia, of the court's decision to call the penalty for not obtaining health insurance a tax. "There is no way to regard this penalty as a tax."

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DHS Prepares for Civil Unrest as Obama Poised to Destroy 2nd Amendment

Surveillance drones have a new mission. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) they will be used for “public safety”. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the DHS, told a House Committee meeting on Homeland Security that the more than 30,000 drones that will be deployed into American skies are just arbitrarily watching out for US citizens.

Napolitano stated : “With respect to Science and Technology, that directorate, we do have a funded project, I think it’s in California, looking at drones that could be utilized to give us situational awareness in a large public safety [matter] or disaster, such as a forest fire, and how they could give us better information.”

Secretly, DHS have been taking bid for contractors who can install “aerial remote sensing” which uses light detection and ranging (LIDAR) that would be part of the unmanned drone missions within domestic US territory.

“DHS believes these airborne images are essential for homeland defense missions, such as planning for National Special Security Events (Super Bowls or a national political conventions come to mind); enhancing border, port and airport security; as well as performing critical infrastructure inventories and assessments” and has spent over $50 million to employ contractors, as well as processors for images and dissemination throughout the DHS.

Coincidentally, the Federal Protective Service (FPS) has been given the responsibility to protecting federally owned property while preparing for civilian led riots expected in the near future.

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Gun carrying man ends stabbing spree at Salt Lake grocery store

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith's store.

Police say the suspect purchased a knife inside the store and then turned it into a weapon. Smith's employee Dorothy Espinoza says, "He pulled it out and stood outside the Smiths in the foyer. And just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people."

Espinoza says, the knife wielding man seriously injured two people. "There is blood all over. One got stabbed in the stomach and got stabbed in the head and held his hands and got stabbed all over the arms."

Then, before the suspect could find another victim - a citizen with a gun stopped the madness. "A guy pulled gun on him and told him to drop his weapon or he would shoot him. So, he dropped his weapon and the people from Smith's grabbed him."

By the time officers arrived the suspect had been subdued by employees and shoppers. Police had high praise for gun carrying man who ended the hysteria. Lt. Brian Purvis said, "This was a volatile situation that could have gotten worse. We can only assume from what we saw it could have gotten worse. He was definitely in the right place at the right time."

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The Justice Department’s MF Global Scandal Dates to 1932

There's an old saying in journalism that there are no new stories, only new reporters. The revelation that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's old law firm used to represent the bankrupt brokerage firm MF Global Holdings is a great example.

Here's the lead paragraph from an article yesterday on the right-leaning news website Breitbart.com, which was following up on an op-ed in the Washington Times:

"Those wondering why the Department of Justice has refused to go after Jon Corzine for the vaporization of $1.6 billion in MF Global client funds need look no further than the documents uncovered by the Government Accountability Institute that reveal that the now-defunct MF Global was a client of Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer’s former law firm, Covington & Burling."

It's great fodder for the scandal mill. It's also not a surprise. Covington & Burling, a powerhouse Washington law firm that was founded in 1919 by former Representative James Harry Covington, in recent years has represented JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and UBS, to name a few. It would have been more surprising if the firm had never represented MF Global. Corzine, for anyone who hasn't been paying attention, is the former New Jersey governor who was MF's chief executive when it collapsed.

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Bradley Manning to Testify on ‘Unlawful Pretrial Punishment’ He Endured

A comprehensive motion containing allegations and evidence from the defense for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks, was filed on July 27. The 110-page motion, which Manning’s defense lawyer said should “shock the conscience of the court” during a motion hearing this month, included a request to the Fort Meade court to dismiss all charges with prejudice because he was subjected to “illegal pretrial punishment” while imprisoned at the Quantico Marine Brig for nine months.

The defense’s motion was not approved for publishing; however, two other motions involving the defense’s request for witnesses to appear during argument on “unlawful pretrial punishment” were posted to the defense’s website. One of the motions reveals Manning will likely take the stand to give testimony on how he was subjected to “unlawful pretrial punishment”—what many have called cruel and inhuman treatment or even torture. His testimony may include what he knows about a video of his interrogation at Quantico, which the government claims does not exist.

Argument on this motion (known as an Article 13 motion) was scheduled for the next pretrial motion hearing, August 27 to August 31. Coombs had scheduled his first public speaking engagement at the Georgetown Law University on August 26, where he would do a presentation specifically on how Manning had been treated at Quantico. But, on Friday the defense’s website reported it had received “additional information” that would impact their argument. The “information” would require “additional witnesses to be called.” The argument on Manning’s “unlawful pretrial punishment” was postponed to October 1 through October 5.

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As Mitt Heads to Sheldon Adelson’s Country, CIA Exposes Israel’s Treachery

After visiting his bankster donors in London, Mitt is on his way to visit megadonor Sheldon Adelson’s other country, Israel. Perhaps in a bid to butter up Adelson, Mitt’s staffers put up an Israeli flag on the plane before they remembered he’s running to be President of the United States.

And just as Mitt prepares to suck up to Israel, leak witch hunt targets Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman have a piece cataloging how much Israel spies on us. They describe:

• Someone tampering with the CIA station chief’s secure phone on at least two occasions
• Someone rearranging the food in a CIA officer’s fridge
• Leaking details from a key Syrian chem and bioweapons scientist working for the US, which led to his disappearance and presumed death

It also reveals that after it gave up its nuke program, the CIA considered Libya a better counter-terrorism partner than Israel.

During the Bush administration, the CIA ranked some of the world’s intelligence agencies in order of their willingness to help in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism. One former U.S. intelligence official who saw the completed list said Israel, which hadn’t been directly targeted in attacks by al-Qaida, fell below Libya, which recently had agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

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Government: we can freeze Mega assets even if case is dismissed

The United States government said today that even if the indictment of the Megaupload corporation is dismissed, it can continue its indefinite freeze on the corporation's assets while it awaits the extradition of founder Kim Dotcom and his associates.

Judge Liam O'Grady is weighing a request to dismiss the indictment against Megaupload because (in Megaupload's view) the federal rules of criminal procedure provide no way to serve notice on corporations with no US address. At a hearing in Alexandria, VA, he grilled both attorneys in the case but did not issue a ruling.

O'Grady speculated, with evident sarcasm, that Congress intended to allow foreign corporations like Megaupload to "be able to violate our laws indiscriminately from an island in the South Pacific."

But Megaupload's attorney insisted that this may not be too far from the truth. Megaupload, they said, is a Hong Kong corporation with no presence in the United States. He argued it was perfectly reasonable for Megaupload to be subject to the criminal laws of Hong Kong, but not the United States.

"It's never had a US address"

For its part, the government suggested that it could sidestep the mailing requirement in one of several ways. For example, it could wait for Kim Dotcom to be extradited to the United States and then mail notice to him, as Megaupload's representative, at his address in prison. Or, they suggested, the government could send notice of the indictment to Carpathia Hosting, a Virginia company that has leased hundreds of servers to the locker site.

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Top Priority: The Terror Within - Official Trailer

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Fukushima Watch: Doctoring Dosimeters — How Far Did It Go?

Over the weekend, a subcontractor that worked at the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant confessed to asking some of its employees to put lead covers on their dosimeters in order to keep their radiation exposure readings artificially low.

Workers gather near their lockers inside the emergency operation center at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in November 2011.

Now, Japanese officials are trying to figure out whether the subcontractor, a small Fukushima Prefecture-based firm, was the only one to doctor dosimeters or whether other companies may have done the same.

“If other companies got away with doing this as well, that would be incredible,” Tatsuya Hariu, a spokesman for Fukushima Prefecture’s Labor Division, which is spearheading the probe into the matter, told JRT. “It would be something that impacted everyone who works at nuclear plants. We’re not just targeting (the one firm) — we’re looking into whether other companies properly recorded radiation exposure.”

The disclosures highlight what experts say could be a major staffing problem as the work of cleaning up one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters stretches on — possibly as long as 40 years. There’s a limited pool of people qualified and willing to work in an environment that’s still highly radioactive in places. When these people hit maximum radiation-exposure levels they are mandated to stop working at the plant. Yet replacement workers — especially in specialized fields — aren’t easy to come by.

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Nancy Pelosi: 'Audit The Fed' Bill Is Likely Going Nowhere

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not join her House colleagues Wednesday in voting overwhelmingly to pass a bill to audit the Federal Reserve. She also doesn't expect it to become law.

Pelosi told reporters Thursday that lawmakers who voted for the bill know that it really just amounts to a warning shot at the Fed that it needs to be accountable, versus a measure that will pass the Senate and be signed by the president.

"I think they know it's just that. Just a shot," Pelosi said at her weekly briefing. "It's probably not going to be the law."

The House displayed a rare moment of bipartisanship when it voted 327 to 98 to pass the "audit the Fed" bill by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). Paul passed similar legislation in 2010 that became part of the final Wall Street reform bill, but he now says that the bill didn't go far enough since it only focused on emergency credit programs and procedural issues, rather than on the substantive details of lending transactions. His 2012 bill doesn't limit the focus of the audit.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said he agrees with the "basic premise" that the Fed should be transparent, but raised concerns that Paul's bill does not exempt monetary policy and deliberations from its reach.

Pelosi echoed Bernanke's concerns. She said the Fed should be held accountable and that people should be able to have a discussion about monetary policy, but warned that the House bill goes too far.

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Ron Paul’s Political Legacy Will Be Decided TODAY

Wednesday the 25th of July is the day that libertarian Congressman Ron Paul’s political legacy will be written, as the House votes on his bill to audit the Federal Reserve.

In order to pass, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, H.R. 459, needs two-thirds of the House to vote in favor. That equates to around 292 votes.

Last month, a bipartisan vote in the House Oversight Committee was almost completely unanimous in approving the bill, advancing it to the House floor.

The bill has 270 co-sponsors, including nearly four dozen Democrats, and insiders believe that every Republican representative will support the legislation, meaning that barring some major flip flopping, the bill will be successfully passed.

If it is successful, the bill would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a top to bottom audit of the Fed’s board of governors and 12 regional banks, and reveal details of its private monetary policy deliberations.

While House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is leading a Democratic charge against the bill, claiming that it will overly politicize the Fed’s monetary policy and “jeopardize the Fed’s independence”.

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Mexican official: CIA 'manages' drug trade

Juarez, Mexico - The US Central Intelligence Agency and other international security forces "don't fight drug traffickers", a spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico has told Al Jazeera, instead "they try to manage the drug trade".

Allegations about official complicity in the drug business are nothing new when they come from activists, professors, campaigners or even former officials. However, an official spokesman for the authorities in one of Mexico's most violent states - one which directly borders Texas - going on the record with such accusations is unique.

"It's like pest control companies,they only control, Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, the Chihuahua spokesman, told Al Jazeera last month at his office in Juarez. "If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."

A spokesman for the CIA in Washington wouldn't comment on the accusations directly, instead he referred Al Jazeera to an official website.

Accusations are 'baloney'

Villanueva is not a high ranking official and his views do not represent Mexico's foreign policy establishment. Other more senior officials in Chihuahua State, including the mayor of Juarez, dismissed the claims as "baloney".

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Anaheim hit by more protests over police shooting

Protesters broke windows of least a half-dozen storefronts in Anaheim on Tuesday and five people were arrested in the second major clash between police and demonstrators since an officer shot dead an apparently unarmed man.

Tom Tait, mayor of the southern California city, had called on Monday for a state and federal review of the shooting of the man, a suspected gang member.

Over 600 demonstrators gathered at City Hall on Tuesday, where officials were holding a regular meeting, police said.

Some threw patio chairs through the windows of a Starbucks, according to a Reuters witness. No one in the restaurant was injured, said Anaheim police spokesman Sergeant Bob Dunn.

In the same block-long strip mall, at least five other businesses also had windows smashed, according to a Reuters witness. Afterward, officers toting shotguns stood guard in front of the storefronts.

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NYPD: Spying Op Outside Its Jurisdiction

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — It's an audiotape the New York Police Department hoped you would never hear.

A building superintendent at an apartment complex just off the Rutgers University campus called the New Brunswick Police 911 line in June 2009. He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection and came across something suspicious.

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