Media Once Bitten, Forever Scorn (VIDEO)

May 20, 2013-Free Speech, Government Control, Government Corruption, Mainstream Media, News Articles, Politics, Propaganda, Sleuth Journal, Special Interests, US News, Whistle Blowers

“It would be wholly inappropriate for the President to involve himself in a criminal investigation.” -Jay Carney

Hurrah, the worm has turned! Or has it? The corporatist controlled mass media love affair with the puppet spinmeister seems to be on the rocks. For progressive propagandists, the profession of journalism has long sunk into the sewer. Withal, the elitist snobbery of the self-appointed gatekeepers for the globalist power structure got a slap in the face and a wakeup call, from Associated Press spy-gate. The reporter darlings for the Obama “Chicago Outfit” protection racket just got a taste of unexpected payback appreciation. Slow on the uptake, Obama Lapdog Andrea Mitchell on IRS Scandal: “One of the most outrageous excesses I’ve seen in all my years in journalism” “Wait until this fossil finds out about AP records being seized.”

This sentiment typifies the insincere shock from the hypocrites that ignored the criminal pattern of governance for the last four plus years. Just listen to their temper tantrum in the YouTube video, Media turn on Obama in response to AP probe. Oh, woe is I, how can our esteemed profession be treated in such a way by our celebrity creation rock star? How could he betray us, after we covered for him at every turn?

Well, the fact that the “Chicago Gangster Organization” of the Obama crew targeted the electronic communications of the press should not be a shock in the age of the Patriot Act. The real bombshell is that the Justice Dept. Wiretapped the House of Representative’s Cloak Room. “California congressman Devin Nunes made the claim yesterday that the Justice Department wiretapped telephones in the House of Representative’s Cloak Room, an exclusive part of the Capitol where members are able to privately interact with one another.

“Will the newly invigorated and hardy souls of the “Fourth Estate” become bloodhounds and sniff out the ugly stories behind the headlines? Before the long beleaguered news consumer regains confidence that the muckraker tradition of the Washington Merry-Go-Round has returned, consider who really benefits from this miraculous turn of conscience.

Let’s get right down to it with the despicable truth that most mainstream news is simply a product of disinformation that benefits the shadowy forces that control the editorial content of the spin. Polite company is supposed to ignore that Zionism and the Media has an Israel-First agenda in reporting. The direct links of tribe ownership, editorial approval and journalists staffing is simply a fact within the industry.

The linkage of a systemic slanted viewpoint and sympathy for an ideology that conflicts with traditional Americanism is a reality that cannot be denied by any honest observer. Prodigious lies from politicians are expected, but repeating the prevarications, while professing a claim that objective journalism is their trade, is a primary reason why presstitutes are so despised.

In order to understand the current media scorn towards the Obama regime needs a shot of bold courage for analysis of the geo-political influence that dictates the perspective that goes into print. Since the mass media is a top down cabal of groupthink, it is entirely explicable that some political objective is at the core of the “so called” fabricated media outrage.

The Obama administration has demonstrated a reluctance to do the bidding of the most bellicose pro Zionists. The significance that an illegal preempted strike on Iran, a priority for Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, has not received approval from Barry Soetoro means that the string is running out on Obama usefulness. Interminable media speculation has been registered about Barack Hussein Muslim sympathies. Leaving the extent of such motivations aside, the critical question is whether a teleprompt reader, tutored by the CIA to become an asset for the agency, is really making foreign policy decisions.

Consider that the red line has passed for Obama, and that operations for false flag distractions are firmly in the hands of his controllers. Stripping the imposter in chief of his political capital and placing blame on his inept and gonzo behavior is a natural for the skilled character blackwash of media assassins.

The most reasonable conclusion from an analysis of the sudden turn by a uniform media is that the order, from on high, went forth that ignoring greater Israel interests, has consequences. From none other than the oracle of Zionist supremacy, the New York Times editorial board Spying on The Associated Press, expresses their new found denigration.

“For more than 30 years, the news media and the government have used a well-honed system to balance the government’s need to pursue criminals or national security breaches with the media’s constitutional right to inform the public. This action against The A.P., as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press outlined in a letter to Mr. Holder, “calls into question the very integrity” of the administration’s policy toward the press.”

The mere mention of the Attorney General from the Department of Injustice, mildly stated is just a little late. “Fast And Furious” Eric Holder is the poster boy for careerist corruption going back to the Oklahoma City Bombing. Why now is the media turning on an AG that makes one longing for the resurrection to office of John Mitchell?

The POTUS proclaims, I Have ‘Complete Confidence’ In Holder.

“President Barack Obama continues to back Attorney General Eric Holder following the fallout over the Justice Department secretly obtaining two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press.

During a Rose Garden press conference, the president stated that he has “complete confidence” in the job Holder is doing.”

And why would Obama not back his buffoon sibling in law-breaking? Know Nothing Holder is either the minister of incompetence or the sheriff of selective memory.

“Attorney General Eric Holder used the phrase “I don’t know” or some variation, at least 57 times during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today as House Republicans grilled him over controversies including the IRS’ targeting of Tea Partiers, the Justice Department’s seizure of journalist phone records, and the security lapses surrounding the Boston bombing.

Holder, who says he has recused himself from an intelligence leak probe in which the Department of Justice subpoenaed phone records from Associated Press reporters, repeatedly dodged questions about the growing scandal.

When asked whether the DOJ attempted to work with the AP before seizing the phone records, Holder said, “I don’t know what happened. I was recused from the case.”

The Daily Mail expands in the article, Eric Holder points finger at his DEPUTY, “Holder said that he recused himself from making the controversial decision to subpoena the phone records of Associated Press journalists, saying that it was made by Deputy Attorney General James Cole.”

For all those remaining Obama supporters, why isn’t Eric Holder indicted for obstruction of justice as a prelude to impeachment of his boss?

Already we are hearing that many more disclosures are about to break. One such disgrace, coming out of a broadcaster, notable for their ESPN coverage, is the account of the IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office.

“Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.”

The sport of network political coverage has been more about entertainment than accountability coverage. The application of investigative inquiry and objective criteria is mostly absent from the half-truths and feel good treatment of favored political causes and personalities. Quality investigatory reporting of a Robert Novak, Seymour Hersh or a Jack Anderson is very rare today. The standards that they practiced need to be applied by the Washington press corps.

Will the media demonstrate the same intensity of scrutiny, when querying Press Secretary Jay (Ron Ziegler, Jr) Carney as they did during Watergate? Dream on folks, the asymptomatic embellishment in reporting by the progressive media is embedded in their genes. Their function is to enable the collectivist cover-up that has a primal goal of dismantling our constitutional republic.

Independent news organizations need to get down to veracity and confront the power structure with the same vigor and intensity of John Peter Zenger. The publishing trade honed by Benjamin Franklin is dishonored by the journalists that grovel for career recognition from media conglomerates that write deliberate falsehoods.

Journalists know that their editor can strip out any item that does not conform to the “PC” policy of the publisher. The real Associated Press scandal is that the moguls of media stories are in the business of serving the political agenda of their ownership masters.

The reason that alternative news sites are dangerous to the establishment version of information is that the internet readers obtain no filtered content and are able to assess their own conclusions. The rightful contempt due for government political propaganda also applies to the slick talking heads that mouth the scripts of their internationalist overlords. Whom do you trust? The globalist adaptation of reality has no credibility.

“These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know. We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news.” -AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt

SARTRE is the pen name of James Hall, a reformed, former political operative. This pundit’s formal instruction in History, Philosophy and Political Science served as training for activism, on the staff of several politicians and in many campaigns. A believer in authentic Public Service, independent business interests were pursued in the private sector. As a small business owner and entrepreneur, several successful ventures expanded opportunities for customers and employees. Speculation in markets, and international business investments, allowed for extensive travel and a world view for commerce. He is retired and lives with his wife in a rural community. ”Populism” best describes the approach to SARTRE’s perspective on Politics. Realities, suggest that American Values can be restored with an appreciation of “Pragmatic Anarchism.” Reforms will require an Existential approach. “Ideas Move the World,” and SARTRE’S intent is to stir the conscience of those who desire to bring back a common sense, moral and traditional value culture for America. Not seeking fame nor fortune, SARTRE’s only goal is to ask the questions that few will dare … Having refused the invites of an academic career because of the hypocrisy of elite’s, the search for TRUTH is the challenge that is made to all readers. It starts within yourself and is achieved only with your sincere desire to face Reality. So who is SARTRE? He is really an ordinary man just like you, who invites you to join in on this journey. Visit his website at http://batr.org.

- See more at: http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/media-once-bitten-forever-scorn-totalitarian-collectivism/#sthash.o8F3YhDT.dpuf

Uganda's Daily Monitor raided over Museveni 'plot'

Police say they have a search warrant

Continue reading the main story

20 May 2013 

Ugandan police have raided the offices of at least two newspapers following reports that President Yoweri Museveni is grooming his son to succeed him.

Two radio stations have also been taken off air, the state-owned New Vision newspaper reports.

Last week, newspapers reported claims allegedly made by an army general that those opposed to Mr Museveni's son succeeding him risk being killed.

Mr Museveni, in power since 1986, is due to step down in 2016.

There has been long-standing speculation that his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, a brigadier in the army, is being groomed to succeed him.

The government has denied having any such plans.

'Anarchic'

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

It is horrifying that in this day and age you should employ all these methods - shut down a media house to get to a document”

Alex AssimweMedia boss

Uganda's leading private newspaper, the Daily Monitor, and another newspaper, Red Pepper, last week published a confidential letter, purportedly written by army General David Sejusa, calling for an investigation into allegations of a plot "to assassinate people who disagree with this so-called family project of holding onto power in perpetuity".

The police raid was authorised by a court and was aimed at retrieving the alleged letter from the offices of the two newspapers, New Vision reports.

Two radio stations linked to Daily Monitor, Dembe FM and KFM, had also been "switched off", it reports.

Daily Monitor Managing Director Alex Assimwe told BBC Focus on Africa that about 50 armed policemen had raided its newsroom.

"They must be under instructions. It is horrifying that in this day and age you should employ all these methods - shut down a media house to get to a document," he said.

He added that the newspaper did not have the document, and was not compelled to divulge its sources to the police.

"The law protects us," he said.

Analysts say Gen Sejusa's letter suggests a power struggle within the military top brass, as the older generation of army officers gradually loses power to the new guard, of which Brig Kainerugaba is a prominent member, AP news agency reports.

Gen Sejusa fought alongside Mr Museveni when his rebel movement seized power in Uganda in 1986.

Top army commander Gen Aronda Nyakairima said Gen Sejusa was being investigated, AP reports.

His letter "champions the agenda of the radical and anarchic political opposition, hence rendering him partisan", Gen Nyakairima said, it adds.

Gen Sejusa's lawyer Joseph Luzige said his client was out of the country, and would not return at the moment as he risked being arrested, AP reports.

He would stay out of Uganda until his legal team prepares for any potential cases against him, Mr Luzige added, it reports.

Posted by Thavam

Sri Lanka Has To Do A Lot To Improve Its Fiduciary Risk Management

By W.A Wijewardena -May 21, 2013 

Dr. W.A. Wijewardena

Fiduciary risk: Failure to handle others’ money properly

When someone handles someone else’s money, the fiduciary obligations require him to manage that money with the same care, diligence, prudence and precaution as if he is handling his own money. If he fails, he is causing a fiduciary risk, according to the newest sub branch in political economics today. Fiduciary risk therefore makes it necessary for societies to make a proper ‘fiduciary risk assessment’ with a view to putting in place an effective mechanism for ‘fiduciary risk management’.

Misuse of money entrusted has been there all the time

The fiduciary risk is not a new problem and has been present in societies from time immemorial. For instance, during Kautilya’s time in the 4^th century BCE India, fiduciary risk was so wide spread that Kautilya had to advise his king that effective action should be taken to eliminate it since “a person handling king’s treasures cannot resist the temptation to misappropriate them just like a person with honey at the tip of his tongue cannot resist the temptation to taste a little bit”. He further said that the king cannot see it happening just like one cannot say whether a fish in water is drinking it or not. His prescription was of three kinds: introducing effective checks, balances, controls and audits in public finances, employing spies to detect those who cause fiduciary risks stealthily and punish severely, even at the level of imposing death sentence, those who have been caught in the act. He even recommended that the Treasury officials who cause losses to the king’s Treasury knowingly should be whipped in public as an example to others.

Rule of Law and good governance are the key to minimise fiduciary risks

Two events that took place in the last week have drawn Sri Lanka’s attention to the problem of fiduciary risk. In the first event, a group of trade unionists had charged the power authorities on the impending losses that had been built into the Sampur Coal Power Plant Agreement signed between Sri Lanka and India due to, according to the accusing trade unionists, the negligence of those who had assessed the power project. Though not proved and still a mere allegation, it is an instance of causing fiduciary risk when using other’s money without due care, prudence, diligence and precautions. In the second event, Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, in delivering a talk under the Eminent Speakers series organised by the Miloda Academy of Financial Studies in Colombo, an outfit of the Ministry of Finance, had highlighted ten ground conditions necessary for Sri Lanka to be a nation of worth. Two of them are potential sources of fiduciary risk if not present in a country. They are the need for observing the Rule of Law and pursuing internal good governance practices.

Fiduciary risk generators in projects

Fiduciary risk has been such a critical issue in managing public funds that the British Government’s aid arm, Department for International Development or DFID, had thought it necessary to issue detailed guidelines as to how it should be effectively managed in all its aid projects. According to DFID, fiduciary risk arises when money allocated for a certain purpose is not used for that purpose but for something else, money spenders fail to realise the value for the money they have spent and when spending money, the money spenders do not properly account for their spending. DFID has further elaborated on the reasons for generating fiduciary risks: lack of capacity, competency or knowledge; bureaucratic inefficiency and active corruption.

Many contributors to fiduciary risk in national public finances

The above definition of fiduciary risk by DFID is relevant only to aid money which it provides to nations at national level and individual projects at local levels. But when one looks at a nation’s public finances, fiduciary risks arise from a multitude of failures in managing public finances properly from inception to the end. Who will take the fiduciary risks involved in a nation’s public finances? It is the citizens of the country who have to take the risk and bear the burden as taxpayers (when expenditures are funded through tax money) or holders of government securities (when expenditures are funded by borrowing) or sufferers from inflation (when expenditures are funded by printing money).

The following is, though not exhaustive, a list of such fiduciary risk generators relating to public finances of a country about which the taxpayers as well as aid donors should be wary of.

First, when projects are formulated, costs may be inflated in multiple times with the objective of siphoning off the funds allocated for the projects for private purposes.

Second, as DFID too has highlighted, funds may be used for purposes other than the intended or approved purpose. It is likely that when designing a given project, the intention would have been to use it for a purpose which has not been authorised and the project has been created just as a namesake.

Generate value for money 

Third, the handlers of public finances may not generate value for the money they have spent. This may take two forms. In the first instance, those who run public enterprises may not maximise profits but just make some profits to hide their inefficiencies or do creative accounting to show profits. Secondly, they may actually make losses and keep on justifying those losses on the ground of providing a national service that may free them from creating surpluses. Though today’s society appears to be tolerating these justifications, Kautilya, the 4^th century BCE Economic Guru in India, did not look at such losses kindly. He said that those who make losses in king’s businesses not only eat up the resources of the king, but also the genuine labours of the people who are employed in such enterprises. Hence, the king should put a stop to it.

A mere output or outcome not sufficient

Fourth, the public expenditure programmes may fail to produce the targeted output of the programmes. For instance, suppose that a certain health expenditure programme targets to vaccinate 100,000 children against mumps. If the number of children vaccinated at the end of the programme is less than that, the programme has failed to attain its targets.

Fifth, even if the physical target of a programme has been achieved, the programme may still fail to generate the required outcome. The outcome-phenomenon in this case concerns the quality of the targets earmarked under the programme. For instance, as a result of the vaccination carried out, if a large number of children have ended up with vaccination related other diseases, then the outcome of the achieved output has been sub-standard in terms of the quality of its delivery.

Public expenditure should create impact

Sixth, an associated fiduciary risk may take the form of failure to create the intended impact even when a quality outcome has been delivered. In the above example, the ultimate objective of the vaccination programme is not just quality delivery, but developing a healthy child who will one day become a useful contributor to the wealth of society who according to economists is called a productive human capital unit. To create this impact, the vaccination is necessary, but not sufficient since there are other factors that contribute to the development of such a worker. The expenditure programmes should therefore be connected to all other programmes aiming at that goal.

Spreading disinformation

Seventh, fiduciary risk is created when officials involved in public expenditure programmes do not record the spending properly thereby distorting the accountability of spending and preventing the assignment of losses to those who have been responsible for making them. This deliberate act of disregard to procedures is worsened further when attempts are made to hide the true facts or come up with disinformation campaigns to mislead the public. The danger of such acts is that all those who have an interest in putting the systems into proper order will not get an opportunity to implement the necessary remedies in time.

Corrupt practices

Eighth, the actual commission of corrupt practices by those who implement public expenditure programmes not only increases costs but also creates a bad example for other public servants as well. When such corrupt practices are tolerated with total impunity, it activates a bad law in economics known as Gresham’s Law, named after the 16^th century British Royal Advisor, Sri Thomas Gresham, who advised the Queen Elizabeth, the First, that she should not issue coins of cheap-value metal to circulation with the same face value as gold coins because “the bad money so issued will drive out the good money”. Similarly, the chances are that corrupt public servants, if permitted to continue with impunity, will drive out honest public servants by making everyone corrupt.

Wrong priorities are the killer

Ninth, fiduciary risks arise when wrong priorities are used by policy makers when allocating public moneys. In developing countries, specifically in Africa, a common problem highlighted by writers has been the use of scarce public resources often raised through high-cost borrowings to boost the personal ego and self-importance of ruling despotic leaders. These public projects implemented without a proper priority assessment will end up as failures to improve the living standards of people on a continuous basis meaning that a selected group will benefit during the implementation stage but fail to create incomes and wealth for the people at large thereafter.

Principal-Agent Problem

Thus, there are many instances of creating fiduciary risks in managing public expenditure programmes. Though DFID report has attributed them to lack of capacity or knowledge, inefficiency and corrupt practices, the main reason for the occurrence of this malady in public finance is the existence of a problem known as “the Principal-Agent Problem” in economics. In this problem when applied to public finances, the Principal – the taxpayers – want the agents – the politicians and the public servants – to produce the best outcome and through it, the greatest impact, out of approved public expenditure programmes at the least costs possible. This is known in economics as cost-efficiency. But the agents have other things in mind, namely, how they could maximise costs and make their living better instead of making the lives of the principals better. This problem was highlighted by the American economist William Niskanen in early 1970s when he came up with an economic theory of bureaucracy in which public servants had been eternally maximising their personal wellbeing and not the welfare of people.

Sri Lanka’s existing mechanisms to tackle fiduciary risks

Sri Lanka has created a number of mechanisms to overcome these problems. Budgets presented by governments are to be approved by people’s representatives after subjecting them to the most vigorous probing and criticisms. Here, the parliamentarians are expected to go by their ‘conscience-call’ rather than their affiliation to a given political party. Once a budget is approved, the Ministry of Finance takes responsibility for its implementation. The Secretary to the Ministry of Finance has been designated the Chief Accounting Officer of the Government to ensure the proper accountability of the use of public funds. Once the expenditures are incurred by spending agencies, they are being audited by the Auditor General of the country. The Auditor-General’s report is being reviewed by two select committees of the Parliament – in the case of central government departments, the Committee on Public Accounts or COPA and in the case of semi-government institutions, the Committee on Public Enterprises or COPE. The nation has created a central bank to review the government’s economic policies apolitically and objectively as an ‘impartial spectator’ and autonomy has been given to the central bank to do its job properly.

Sri Lanka’s failure

However, the past experience has been that these mechanisms have not been effective in exercising an effective control over public finances of the country. Parliamentarians vote by political party lines and not on the basis of the conscience-calls they are having. Hence, the citizens are betrayed at that point. Though the Ministry of Finance and its Secretary are required to ensure proper accountability, they are handicapped by a lack of capacity, knowledge, bureaucratic inefficiency and the undesirable political overriding of the public service that has prevailed in the country since 1970s. The Auditor-General does only a financial audit and even then as a post-mortem examination. COPA and COPE are outnumbered by government party parliamentarians who are reported to have taken a defensive line when irregularities in handling public funds have been pointed out as if they are criticisms leveled against them. The Central Bank’s role as an impartial spectator has been diluted over the years with the Bank seeking to take ownership of policies implemented by successive governments.

Sri Lanka’s score declined in Open Budget Index

Sri Lanka’s track record as a prudential budget implementer has deteriorated over the last few years as demonstrated by the score it has earned in the Open Budget Index compiled by International Budget Partnership, a global think tank seeking to improve budget transparency. Of the four indices published since 2006, Sri Lanka’s budgetary process score has in fact improved progressively from 47 in 2006 to 67 in 2010. Though this gain has been encouraging, in the 2012 index, Sri Lanka’s score has fallen to 46 mainly on account of the failure to maintain transparency in handing public finances. Sri Lanka’s performance in 2012 has been found to be moderate with respect to Legislative Strength and the Strength of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the country and weak with respect to public engagement in budgetary processes. According to the index report, most of the good practices which the countries scoring high marks have been adopting do not exist in Sri Lanka. Even when they exist, they have been found to be weak.

Improving the budgetary transparency

Of twelve good practices which are globally accepted today, only three exist in Sri Lanka but in a weak form requiring much improvement. They are the formal requirement for public participation in budgetary processes, the articulation of the purpose of such participation and the development of suitable mechanisms by the governments for having such participation in actual practice. The missing factors in Sri Lanka are much more alarming. They include communication by Auditor General of the audit findings beyond the publication of audit reports, public hearing of the macroeconomic framework in Parliament, Public hearing of the individual agency budgets, Opportunities for public to give evidence during public budget hearings, mechanisms for participation of the public during the budget execution, consultation by Auditor-General in preparing the audit agenda, feedback on the suggestions made by public, release of the Parliamentary reports on the budget hearings and feedback by the Auditor-General on suggestions made by the public during public consultations.

These core requirements are needed to be put in place immediately if the country is interested in improving its fiduciary risk management mechanisms.

*W.A Wijewardena can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com 

Jayalalithaa renews demand for retrieval of Kachatheevu islet from Sri Lanka

May 21, 2013 

Chennai: Voicing concern over attacks on Indian fishermen, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today asked the Centre to take urgent steps for retrieval of Katchatheevu islet, ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974, besides redrawing the International Maritime Boundary Line.

The 1974 Agreement signed between India and Sri Lanka had determined Katchatheevu as a part of Sri Lanka, and it was ceded by the Indian Government unilaterally without obtaining the approval of both Houses of Parliament for a constitutional amendment, she said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The stand of the Government of Tamil Nadu is that Katchatheevu has always been a part of India, geographically, culturally and historically and needs to be retrieved back, keeping in view the livelihood interests and security of thousands of Indian fishermen," she said.

The chief minister recalled that as AIADMK general secretary she had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2008 seeking to declare the agreement null and void in the backdrop of continued attacks on fishermen from the state.

The state revenue department had impleaded itself in the case in 2011 after her party came to power, Ms Jayalalithaa said.

She also said the state assembly had unanimously passed a resolution on May 3 stating that in view of the legal invalidity of the 1974 and 1976 Agreements, the Centre should take steps to retrieve Katchatheevu and surrounding areas.

"I, therefore, request you once again to kindly take urgent measures to get back Kachatheevu and the surrounding areas from Sri Lanka. Further, the IMBL needs to be redrawn after retrieval of Katchatheevu, which will enable our fishermen to carry on fishing in their traditional fishing waters without concerns of safety and security," she said.

Ms Jayalalithaa also enclosed a copy of the May 3 resolution in her communication to Singh. The resolution had sought the retrieval of the islet on the basis of the 1960 Berubari case and considering the need to put an end to the "continuing threat to the livelihood" of state fishermen by Lankan navy and a need to bring a permanent solution to the issue.

LANKAN KILLS 3 FAMILY MEMBERS, THEN HIMSELF

May 21, 2013 

A 48-year-old Sri Lankan settled in Chennai killed his mother, wife and daughter by slitting their throats before committing suicide by jumping in front of a suburban train near Pazhavanthangal on Tuesday morning. His friends said the man was in debt.

C Sundaresan came to Chennai from Sri Lanka 30 years ago and was settled in Thillai Ganga Nagar near Adambakkam. He ran a travel agency and owned two cars. He was also involved in buying imported goods and selling them here. He had suffered losses in the business, his friends told TOI.

On Monday he took his family to a theme park and later to a temple and returned home. Around 4am he slit the throat of his mother Thangamma, 70, and then that of his wife Chitra, 48. His daughter Tamira, 13, resisted his attempt to kill her after which he stabbed her eight times.

He left the door of the house open and went to the railway tracks near the Pazhavanthangal railway station and flung himself in front of suburban train plying between Tambaram and Beach. 

The Government Railway Police found a mobile phone near the body and called the last called number. The person who attended the call identified the owner of the phone and gave police his address. The police team which went to Sundaresan’s first floor apartment found the door open and the bodies lying in a pool of blood. - ToI

Lions And Tigers And Terrorists, Oh My! 

(VIDEOS)

May 17, 2013  

The debate over what actions actually constitute “terrorism,” I believe, will become one of the defining ideological battles of our era. Terrorism is not a word often used by common people to describe aberrant behaviors or dastardly deeds; however, it is used by governments around the world to label and marginalize political enemies. That is to say, it is the government that normally decides who is a “terrorist” and who is a mere “criminal,” the assertion being that one is clearly far worse than the other.

The terrorist label elicits emotional firestorms and fearful brain-quakes in the minds of the masses. It causes the ignorant and unaware to abandon principles they would normally apply to any other malicious enterprise. They begin to reason that a criminal should be afforded justice, while a terrorist should be afforded only vengeance, even though the act of branding a person a “terrorist” is often completely arbitrary. This vengeance is usually pursued by any means. Thus, the terrorist moniker becomes a rationalization for every vicious and inhuman policy of the establishment, as well as for the citizenry.

Dishonorable and foolish people claim the existence of terrorism essentially gives license for the rest of us to become criminal, willfully trampling on individuals’ rights to privacy, property, free speech, due process, civic participation, etc. Mass criminality against the individual in the name of social safety is the glue that holds together all tyrannical systems, triggering a catastrophic cycle of moral relativism that eventually bleeds a culture dry.

Historically, the expanded use of the terrorist label by governments tends to coincide with the rising tides of despotism. A government that quietly seeks to dominate the people will inevitably begin to treat the people as if they are the enemy. Those citizens who present the greatest philosophical or physical threat to the centralization of power are usually the first to suffer. I do not think it is unfair to say that any system of authority that suddenly claims to see terrorists under every rock and behind every tree is probably about to rain full-on fascism down upon the population.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the legal extension of this process, with a vaporous gray language that allows the government to interpret it in any manner it deems useful, which conveniently allows it to interpret a wide range of “offenses” as acts of war against the state.

The Department of Homeland Security’s “If You See Something Say Something” campaign is the social extension of the process, by which it creates the framework for a paranoid self-censored surveillance culture.

The fusion center network is the enforcement extension designed to surround local and State police with an atmosphere of indoctrination and federalized dogma, teaching common cops to profile according to a template that is so ambiguous that literally any activity could be considered suspicious or terroristic.

All that is left for the establishment is to force the vocabulary of fear into mainstream consciousness. This means constant propaganda. This means furious hype. This means an utterly shameless barrage of false associations, misdirections and fantastical fairyland lies. This means that we have reached a point in the grand totalitarian scheme in which the American populace is about to be bombarded with an endless drone of terrorism brainwashing — not demonizing a foreign enemy, but demonizing the hypothetical extremist next door. In fact, the Boston Marathon bombing seems to have been the signal for an escalation of such rhetoric. The high-speed conditioning has already begun.

In Middlefield, Ohio, James Gilkerson, an unemployed man taking care of his elderly mother, was pulled over during a routine traffic stop only to exit his vehicle firing an AK-47 at police officers. The action was obviously unprovoked; the police responded with deadly force, and rightly so. I would have done the same. Gilkerson’s attack was crazy, yes. Criminal? Yes. But Middlefield Police Chief Arnold Stanko’s remarks to the press bring a whole other dark side to this already tragic event. Stanko stated that: “He got out of the vehicle, intending to kill my officers. We don’t know why he did it… He was a scumbag and a terrorist, and he’s dead.”

Stanko doesn’t know why Gilkerson fired at police, but he is certain that the man was a “terrorist.” What if Gilkerson was depressed or overmedicated or he just snapped that day? Terrorism denotes certain premeditation and planning. This attack was clearly not part of a malicious scheme, yet the label of “terrorist” is being thrown around nonchalantly, almost as if law enforcement has been trained to use such rhetoric whenever it suits them.

In Montevideo, Minn., the FBI recently raided the home of Buford Rogers, who was convicted of felony burglary in 2011. Authorities had received reports that Buford was in possession of a firearm, which is illegal for convicted felons. The raid did indeed produce firearms, as well as items the FBI dubbed “explosive devices.” They did not specify what these “explosive devices” were or if they actually posed a significant threat to anyone. After the bust, headlines read “FBI Thwarts Terror Attack.”

Again, there is absolutely no indication here of a planned attack. There’s no indication that Rogers had any intent to hurt anyone or even any ideological motivations to hurt anyone. Yet the terrorism label is used again to describe a routine criminal arrest.

In Tempe, Ariz., 18-year-old Joshua Prater was arrested after a maid found an “explosive device” in his closet and turned it in to authorities. Prater claims he built the device, consisting of a carbon dioxide cartridge, a fireworks fuse, gunpowder, match heads and fireworks, eight years ago; and he claims he was not aware it was dangerous. Police did not call Prater a terrorist, but they did refer to his device as an “IED,” which, as we all know, is the abbreviation used by U.S. soldiers to describe an “improvised explosive device,” the favorite weapon of insurgents and “terrorists” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Such terminology is not coincidental. Make no mistake; this is a calculated effort to introduce the language of the battlefield to the streets of America.

Seattle police are now holding simulation drills of attacks on local schools in which law enforcement officials fight against gun-wielding proxy opponents posing as “angry parents.”

These kinds of drills are a part of a larger DHS program implemented through fusion centers which, in my view, is designed to desensitize law enforcement to violence against common citizens. Said drills have simulated conflicts with constitutionalists, home-schoolers, patriots and so on. Let’s be clear here; the “terrorists” that the police are now being trained to fight against are people like you and me. We are being painted as the future enemy.

Just to solidify this reality, I will also point out the recent exposure of a DHS training program series available on the Federal Emergency Management Agency Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program website, which includes a media section designed to provide teaching aids to agency heads and law enforcement. The series includes a fabricated news broadcast that covers a hypothetical raid on a “militia headquarters.” The video shows semi-automatic firearms, rifle scopes, night vision, flak jackets — all perfectly legal in the United States today — as illegal “contraband,” while painting gun owners and militias as chemical weapon-wielding terrorists.

What started as an appeal to the average American’s sense of Islamophobia after the 9/11 attacks has now evolved into the full-spectrum theater of random domestic terrorism that culminates in what the establishment calls “self-radicalization.”

The concept of self-radicalization is a very interesting propaganda tactic. Rather than limiting the public’s fear only to some outside foreign enemy like Al Qaeda or some domestic activist organization like the liberty movement, the establishment has now composed a narrative in which each and every one of us might one day catch the extremist virus of dissent, defiance or ideological violence and suddenly decide to kill, kill, kill.

The more naïve subsections of our society will accept unConstitutional methods against the “radicalized” out of fear and conditioning, without realizing that the machinations of bureaucracy being used against those they hate could just as easily be used against them in the future.

If the elites achieve the social endgame they desire, legal and political wordplay will become so broad that anyone could be targeted. If you are a citizen who defies the establishment power structure, then you are an extremist. If you are an extremist, then you are a terrorist. If you are a terrorist, then you are an enemy combatant. And, under the NDAA, if you are an enemy combatant, you are no longer a citizen and you no longer deserve Constitutional protection. The circular logic is maddening, not to mention outrageous. But it is also very useful when an abusive government needs a pretext to silence or destroy dissent. Under totalitarianism, all people become terrorists. It starts with the mistreatment of the worst of us, and it ends with the mistreatment of the best of us.

Brandon Smith is the founder of the Alternative Market Project, an organization designed to help you find like-minded activists and preppers in your local area so that you can network and construct communities for barter and mutual aid. Join www.Alt-Market.com today and learn what it means to step away from the unstable mainstream system and build something better. You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com.

- See more at: http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/lions-and-tigers-and-terrorists-oh-my-videos/?goback=%2Egde_1846553_member_241901548#sthash.Qbue4M0R.dpuf

Bangladesh’s other workplace catastrophes

By Richard Pearshouse, Special to CNN-May 20th, 2013

Editor’s note: Richard Pearshouse is a senior health and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of Toxic Tanneries: The Health Repercussions of Bangladesh’s Hazaribagh Leather. The views expressed are his own.

Last year, I spoke with a 40-year-old woman working in a Bangladesh leather tannery in the Hazaribagh neighborhood of Dhaka. The Hazaribagh tanneries, which export hundreds of millions of dollars in leather for luxury clothes, shoes and boots around the world, spew noxious pollutants into surrounding communities. They can also make their workers very ill.

Much tannery work involves measuring and mixing chemicals, adding chemicals to hides in drums, or hauling hides saturated in chemicals out of pits. Fungal infections, scabies, hives, and contact dermatitis are common. Others suffer from respiratory illnesses and chest pains.

Asked what she thought of the possibility that Hazaribagh’s tanneries might eventually move out of the city, the woman told me, “It would be very good…They could start garment factories. This would be cleaner work with a better salary.”

Last week, a deadly fire tore through a garment factory in Dhaka, killing eight workers. This followed the collapse of the Rana Plaza building on more than 1,000 workers, which made it the deadliest ever catastrophe in the history of the garment industry. Last November, a garment factory fire killed more than 100 people. So the tannery worker’s assessment sounds like a sick joke. But the truth is it was a realistic assessment of the deplorable health and safety conditions in Bangladesh.

Indeed, the current spotlight on the tragic mass casualties in Rana Plaza obscures a bigger reality: hundreds of Bangladeshi workers die every year with hardly anyone noticing.

Tannery workers die in ones and twos, often in electrocutions and boiler explosions. I spoke to tannery workers who had broken arms, or who had lost fingers or hands following serious accidents in machines. Many workers said their tannery did not supply any protective equipment. I met girls and boys, some as young as 11, in some tanneries. They work 12 or even 14 hours a day. Despite a law against children doing dangerous work, they told us that they handle skins in pits full of chemicals and water, cut hides with razor blades, or work with dangerous machinery without training or supervision. Studies of occupational cancers among tannery workers in other countries show that Hazaribagh’s employees are right to be terrified of long-term exposure to chemicals.

Tanneries and garment factories are not the only deadly industries in Bangladesh. Non-profit groups monitoring workplace safety say that in an average year, more than a hundred workers will be killed by electrocutions, falling from heights, or crushed by machinery while working in building construction. Despite introducing new regulations to govern the ship-breaking industry in 2011, 15 workers died in accidents in Chittagong yards in 2012. Similar numbers die in rice mills each year. These are only the deaths in accidents – no-one tracks deaths by occupational diseases.

The Bangladeshi government, retailers and consumers have an urgent responsibility to search for reforms in the rubble of Rana Plaza. They should start with a serious inspection regime. The number of workplace inspectors is woefully inadequate: in June 2012, the Inspection Department had just 18 inspectors to monitor an estimated 100,000 factories in and around Dhaka. But it’s not simply a case of more inspectors – they can hardly do their work if they continue to be cozy with industry. A deputy chief inspector with the Inspection Department told me: “We always try to maintain good relations with management. Usually we give advance notice [of an inspection]. Sometimes we send a letter, sometimes we phone if the number is available.” Although the law allows for imprisonment for those responsible for violating workplace health and safety provisions, when violations are found the common penalty is a fine of around $13. Other senior officials have told us they believe the lack of worker protections and hostility to unions stem from some parliamentarians’ financial stakes in garment factories.

Strong and independent labor groups in Bangladesh operate in a pervasively hostile environment. The torture and murder of labor rights activist Aminul Islama year ago remains unsolved. Over a dozen labor rights leaders currently face criminal charges on a variety of spurious grounds. This matters. Organized labor would have had much more support in standing up to pressure from a factory owner to go back into a building whose walls had cracked.

Foreign companies that source from Bangladesh have a responsibility to ensure that the rights of workers throughout their supply chains are respected. Bangladesh’s tragedies have laid bare the fundamental shortcomings of the “social audits” many retailers use to monitor conditions at the factories that produce their goods. At the least, retailers who rely on these audits need to do more to ensure that they are rigorous, transparent and truly independent. Too often, none of those things are true.

Post by:CNN's Jason Miks