US Policy

NSA whistleblowers testify in Bundestag inquiry, disclose “totalitarian” surveillance
Former NSA agents-turned-whistleblowers are testifying before a German parliamentary committee as the Bundestag investigates America's wiretapping methods with one of them branding the NSA approach "totalitarian." It is hoped that evidence from the two US citizens, William Binney and Thomas Drake, will shed light on the methods of surveillance used by the American National Security Agency (NSA) [...]
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The new American tax dictate FATCA comes into force
Americans avoiding US taxes and stashing cash abroad are in trouble from July 1, when a new law forces institutions hiding money to report on their clients. The law will make business with Americans harder, but the US hopes it will raise billions. The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, comes into force on July 1 and requires foreign banks to hand over data on clients to the US Intern [...]
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Apocalypse, Man: Michael C. Ruppert on World’s End
"Apocalypse, Man" is an intimate portrait of a man convinced of the imminent collapse of the world, but with answers to how the human spirit can survive the impending apocalypse. Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Given his tragic death, Michael was an extremely rare person - far beyond what most [...]
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‘The US is pushing its NATO allies to sanction Russia to please Wall Street’
The US is aggressively pushing NATO allies in Europe towards sanctions, while some of them are resisting for their own economic interests because it is harmful to them, Sara Flounders, the head of the International Action Center told RT. [...]
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“Get a warrant” – Supreme Court rules against cell phone searches in ‘big win for digital privacy’
The Supreme Court of the United States said Wednesday that police officers must have a warrant before searching the cell phone contents of an individual under arrest. In a unanimous ruling announced early Wednesday, the high court settled two cases surrounding instances in which law enforcement officials scoured the mobile phones of suspects in custody and then used information contained therein t [...]
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ISIS supporters vow to avenge any US airstrike in Iraq
Supporters of Sunni Islamists waging a campaign of terror across Iraq have vowed that any US airstrikes against its fighters will be met with attacks on Americans. The group has also threated to commandeer its own Air Force as Iraq risks disintegrating. A twitter account with 21,000 followers, dubbed the “League of Supporters”, called for ISIS sympathizers to post messages warning America not [...]
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Battlefield USA: American police “excessively militarized” – ACLU study
Inheriting both the weapons and the mindset of the US military, police are becoming militarized and "hyper aggressive" in their approach to maintaining security on the streets of America. New study calls on police not to treat people as "wartime enemies." [...]
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Polish FM’s oral sex comment on US ‘shows his political realism’ – Moscow
Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has proven his "political realism" by comparing his country's relations with the US to unrewarding oral sex, the Russian Foreign ministry commented. In a leaked recording of a private conversation, Sikorski said that Warsaw’s alliance with Washington is worthless and even damaging as it “creates a false sense of security in Poland,” [...]
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Rand Paul: US created “jihadist wonderland” in Syria, Libya and Iraq
United States Senator Rand Pal (R-Kentucky) says jihadist wonderlands are sprouting up abroad, and American foreign policy is to blame. The possible 2016 presidential contender was discussing the escalating crisis in Iraq on camera with CNN host Candy Crowley over the weekend when he condemned the notion that the American military should intervene further. [...]
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NSA uses 33 countries to intercept web traffic – Snowden Files
The United States has made top-secret deals with more than 30 third-party countries so that the National Security Agency can tap into fiber optic cables carrying internet data in those parts of the world, new leaks reveal. Documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and published on Wednesday by journalists at The Intercept and Denmark’s Dagbladet Information show publically for t [...]
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US wants to oust Maliki, while he refuses to resign in exchange for airstrikes
As the United States mulls whether or not to provide military support to Iraq in its battle against Sunni insurgents, recent reports indicate the White House wants Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki out of power. [...]
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Back to Iraq: F-18 Super Hornets patrol desert to track ISIS forces
In less than three years US fighter jets have returned to Iraqi skies, as Obama's administration has authorized "manned and unmanned" surveillance flights there to keep an eye on the ISIS jihadist group that threatens to overrun the whole of Iraq. [...]
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Spying Together: Germany’s Deep Cooperation with the NSA
Cooperation between Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, and America's NSA is deeper than previously believed. German agents appear to have crossed into constitutionally questionable territory. Three months before Edward Snowden shocked the world with his revelations, members of NSA's "Special Source Operations department" [...]
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New NSA Revelations: Inside Snowden’s Germany File
An analysis of secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden demonstrates that the NSA is more active in Germany than anywhere else in Europe -- and that data collected here may have helped kill suspected terrorists. Just before Christmas 2005, an unexpected event disrupted the work of American spies in the south-central German city of Wiesbaden. [...]
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Ukraine a ‘No-Win’ Situation for the White House, Observers Say – IVN.us
The White House response to Ukraine has not settled well with the American people, something the GOP is taking advantage of. Only 34% of Americans approve of Obama's response. The GOP is taking advantage of that fact, and several Republican senators have started to advocate heavier sanctions against Russia than are currently in place. [...]
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Pentagon wants additional $4.5 bln to fix failed missile defense interceptors
In a bid to beef up its missile defense systems, the United States Department of Defense intends to request $4.5 billion in additional spending over the next five years, according to a report by Reuters. The move – disclosed by Riki Ellison of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance and two unnamed congressional sources – comes partly in response to failed tests that have shown the interceptors [...]
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US missile defense system proves to be useless after $40 bln spent
Despite a decade of testing and tens of billions of dollars'€™ worth of research, a major missile defense program in the United States has proven to be anything but successful, a new investigation suggests. Nevertheless, the Missile Defense Agency, or MDA, plans on conducting next week its ninth exercise of that costly system since 2004, and the outcome of the drill is expected to influence whet [...]
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€‹Islamist terrorism factories steaming in top gear
It was a bad week for blow back. So it goes. Tit-for-tat. Violence begets violence, as every schoolboy knows. Just at the brouhaha over the US solider Bowe Bergdahl being freed by his Taliban captors was simmering, the Taliban attacked Karachi Airport. Soon after, this was followed by yet more drone attacks on Waziristan that killed women and children. [...]
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Iraq Crisis: Created by Bush & Blair and Bankrolled by Saudi Arabia
So after the grotesquerie of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 suicide killers of 9/11, meet Saudi Arabia’s latest monstrous contribution to world history: the Islamist Sunni caliphate of Iraq and the Levant, conquerors of Mosul and Tikrit – and Raqqa in Syria – and possibly Baghdad, and the ultimate humiliators of Bush and Obama. [...]
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