John Kerry leads Senate and Congress in lemming like charge over cliff of military strikes against Syria

Video Source: Press TV

http://youtu.be/M9TURdMhOSk

By: Graham Hancock

I was nauseated and repulsed to see John Kerry's testimony of 3 September at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Syria. Kerry made a slickly disingenuous case for US bombing raids and missile strikes against Syria, endlessly reiterating (although at one point rather suspiciously fumbling) President Obama's now very familiar and oft-repeated mantra that the proposed intervention will be "proportional, limited and will not involve boots on the ground." In other words what Kerry and Obama are seeking to sell to the representatives of the US public is that they can have their cake and eat it -- they can feel morally virtuous about punishing a dictator for his alleged use of chemical weapons without actually having to get American hands dirty or risk American lives.

This is madness wrapped up in deception cushioned by cowardice and driven by evil. Once the US starts sending in its bombers and firing its missiles and killing hundreds or even thousands of innocent Syrian civilians in "unavoidable collateral damage" then American hands will be dirty and American lives will be put at risk by the inevitable backlash that will follow. Kerry, Obama and others in the pro-intervention camp are also lying to the American public by creating the illusion that their supposed "proportional and limited" intervention will actually be effective in reducing the risk of chemical weapons being used again in Syria, by any of the warring factions, in the future. The opposite is in fact the case. To add more missiles and bombs to the horrific, chaotic, crazed situation that presently prevails in Syria can only make that situation more horrific, chaotic and crazed and make it more likely that further horrors will be perpetrated, perhaps by the regime or perhaps by the smorgasbord of Al-Qaeda-linked "rebel" groups who have reportedly committed as many as 40,000 foreign jihadists to the civil war in an attempt to overthrow the Assad regime and replace it with a fundamentalist Islamic state. Watch this short (7-minute) interview with Mairead Maguire, a genuine Nobel Peace Prize winner. Unlike President Obama who won his Nobel Prize for making a few fancy speeches, Mairead won hers for years of peace activism in Northern Ireland, risking her life every day. As a young journalist I was privileged to travel around Belfast with Mairead in 1977 and witness her courage in action and she shows that courage again in speaking out in favour of peace and against US military intervention, following her recent visit to Syria and the Lebanon:

Syria: Nobel Peace Laureate Tells Her Account of What She Witnessed

Video Source: We Are Change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msA35ATXol8

Mairead draws specific attention to another key point in all this. The forces that will be empowered by the proposed American strike on Syria are undoubtedly those very jihadist, fundamentalist, terrorist forces that America claims are its most deadly enemies. What is the hidden logic in such an action? I say hidden because I see no overt or obvious logic in it other than this lemming-like charge to "punish" Assad for using chemical weapons. The proper and legal way to proceed involves a little more care and caution. First deploy the full resources of the UN system to establish the facts unequivocally as to whether the Assad regime used chemical weapons or whether the attack was perhaps the work of others. Second, if the UN Inspectors conclude that the Assad regime did use chemical weapons then reach a decision at the Security Council as to the appropriate international response. Third implement that response with full international backing. Any military intervention by the United States ahead of the full report from the UN weapons inspectors, and ahead of a Security Council resolution is illegal in international law and can only add to the further deterioration of sane and reasonable behaviour in the world.

Finally there IS a humanitarian disaster in Syria and in its neighbours which are now playing host to MORE THAN TWO MILLION REFUGEES. If the US, France, the UK and other rich and powerful countries REALLY wish to help the people of Syria then the first thing they should be rushing to do is to help those millions of refugees with massive, generous, unstinting support. Sadly I do not see this happening. The refugees continue to suffer in inadequate camps with minimal international funding while the US focusses all efforts and attention on the rush to more war, more bombs, more missiles, more killing and more chaos.

Unlike their government, I believe that the American people want peace. I can only hope and pray that they will make their voices heard in the days ahead and insist that sanity, love and decency prevail.

Let us have a rush to peace, a rush to provide food, water, medicines and shelter to the millions who are suffering, a rush to love, a rush to understanding, and not, ABSOLUTELY NOT, a rush to war.

I write this from Turkey at the beginning of a three week trip to this suffering region which in Mairead's words is witnessing a proxy war by outside forces. I agree with her absolutely that the world must stand up against it.

Additional background here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/running-transcript-senate-foreign-services-committee-hearing-on-syria/2013/09/03/35ae1048-14ca-11e3-b182-1b3bb2eb474c_story.html

and here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/03/syria-kerry-hagel-strikes-senate

and here: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi/

The latter report, on a possible earlier use of nerve gas in Syria bears careful reading.

-----------------------------------

You can Find Graham Hancock at the following websites:

Graham Hancock – Official Website

http://www.grahamhancock.com/
Graham Hancock - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/GrahamHancockDotCom
Graham Hancock - Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Author.GrahamHancock

 

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International Law and "The Responsibility to Protect"

Video Source: The Real News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywYIL1ZYmjU

In the final segment (Part 4 of 4) of Paul Jay's interview with Vijay Prashad on Reality Asserts Itself, the subject is the undermining of international law and military interventions in the name of human rights.

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Stiff sentences for writers, military and political leaders in Turkish coup plot trial

 

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/turkey-ergenekon-trial-verdict-041/

A Turkish court has handed down 17 life sentences in the ‘Ergenekon’ trial of nearly 300 alleged coup plotters, including for ex-army chief Ilker Basbug and several other ex-top brass, along with leftist party leaders and a journalist.

The other sentences in the case ranged from one year and three months to 117 years behind bars, and the charges included instigating an armed uprising against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government, “aiding a terrorist organization”and conducting anti-state activities.

Retired Brig. Gen. Veli Kucuk, who was convicted of founding and heading the clandestine, secularist ultra-nationalist organization known as Ergenekon, received a double aggravated life sentence as well as an additional 99 years and one month in prison.

Prominent civilian suspects in the case, including journalist Tuncay Ozkan, Workers’ Party leader Dogu Perincek, accused of “leading a terrorist organization,”and lawyer Alparslan Aslan, identified as the assailant in the Turkish Council of State attack also received aggravated life sentences with additional years of imprisonment from the court.

Only 21 defendants were acquitted, and 16 others were released after the court took into consideration the time they spent in detention during the 6-year trial.

The court’s verdict has not yet come into power, and indictments are to be reviewed by Turkish Supreme Court. Several defendants have already announced they will appeal.

Turkish security forces were braced for large protests from the opposition at Silivri prison, west of Istanbul, where the verdicts were announced.

Despite bans for rallies being issued prior to the verdict delivery, demonstrators started arriving to the courthouse since early in the morning. Critics of Erdogan’s government, including the main opposition party, have described the trial as a “political witch hunt” aimed at cracking down on the country’s strong secularist traditions.

RT’s Irina Galushko, reporting from outside the prison complex, said local media estimated the number of security personnel at 10,000, with 13 water cannons having been spotted at the site.

Reports emerged later of tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons being used against protesters who gathered outside the Silivri complex.

The 2,455-page indictment listed dozens of charges against the 275 defendants, including accusations of them being members of an alleged ultranationalist terrorist network Ergenekon, which, according to the court, conspired to overthrow Erdogan’s government. Prosecutors had insisted on life sentences for 64 of the defendants.

The case was opened in 2007 when 27 hand grenades were discovered in a house in Istanbul. Accusations soon began circulating that the explosives were intended to be deployed in an coup attempt. The number of suspects and allegations continued to balloon over the proceeding five years.

Army officers, politicians, scientists, journalists and lawyers would later be implicated in the scheme. All of the accused deny the charges which have been levied against them.

One of the most notable arrests was the January 2012 detention of ex-military chief Ilker Basbug. That members of the military feature so prominently in the case has sparked accusations that Prime Minister Recep Erdogan is attempting to purge the military in a bid to put it under his thumb. The Turkish military staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and also forced a pro-Islamist government out of office in 1997. Over the past weekend four senior military officials were dismissed from their posts.

“People here say that essentially Ergenikon is just a pretense under which the Prime Minister is taking people who he personally does not like and putting them in jail so as to get rid of dissident voices,” RT's Irina Galushko reports from Istanbul.

Critics of the case include the main opposition party, who argue the charges brought against the accused are vague and the trial has dragged on for a suspiciously long period of time. They have further decried the use of anonymous witnesses as unacceptable. Critics of the proceedings have further characterized it as a politically motivated attempt on the part of Ergdogan’s Islamist government to stifle secularist activists in the country.

“This trial has been ridiculous and it ends with the verdict expected from the beginning that will be no surprise for no one. And it will be the end of trust in Erdogan’s government for a lot of people and it also is the end for the judicial system of Turkey,” Yunus Soner, from the Workers Party of Turkey, told RT.

Court hearings concerning the so-called Ergenekon trial have regularly led to violent clashes between the defendants’ supporters and police.

The trial is wrapping up in an already politically volatile climate, as Turkey has witnessed anti-government rallies on a near weekly basis, with the latest having taken place over the weekend. Monday’s verdict is expected to trigger further unrest.

Key Sentences:

Military & Police

Life sentences or more: Former armed forces chief General İlker Başbuğ, Former army commander Hurşit Tolon, Retired Col. Dursun Çiçek, Retired Col. Fuat Selvi, Hasan Ataman Yıldırım, retired generals Nusret Taşdeler, Hasan Iğsız and Şener Eruygur, Retired Brig. Gen. Veli Küçük, Capt. Muzaffer Tekin.
49 years: Lt. Col. Mustafa Dönmez.
47 years: Retired Col. Arif Doğan.
41 years: Retired Maj. Fikret Emek

Politicians:

Life: Workers’ Party leader Doğu Perinçek.
21 years: Workers' Party Press Secretary Hikmet Çiçek.
15 Years: Workers' Party Secretary-General Ferit İlsever

Journalists, Academics, Lawyers:

 
Life: Journalist Tuncay Özkan and lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz.
34 years: Journalist Mustafa Balbay.
22 years: Professor Yalçın Küçük

Mafia Bosses:

12 years: Semih Tufan Gülaltay.
10 years: Drug lord Sami Hoştan

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“Incredible India" Home to Modern Slavery

Source Video: The Real News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVP-4RfhKGM

Millions of people, including children, toil in bonded labor in India, even though the practice has been outlawed for years.

For more Real Investigative Journalism visit:

The Real News – Official Website

http://therealnews.com/
The Real News - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealNews

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Manning US Army like child torturing ants with a magnifying glass’ (FULL LEAKED TESTIMONY)

 

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/manning-trial-recording-leak-177/

A speech freedom advocacy group has released audio of Bradley Manning’s testimony about his motives for leaking secret US government documents to WikiLeaks. It marks the first time the public has heard Manning's voice since his 2010 arrest.

Defying the military's ban on making recordings at Manning’s pre-trial tribunal at the military court at Fort Meade, the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) has released Manning’s February account to the judge explaining why he exposed military secrets.

"We hope this recording will shed light on one of the most secret court trials in recent history, in which the government is putting on trial a concerned government employee whose only stated goal was to bring attention to what he viewed as serious governmental misconduct and criminal activity," the FPF said in a statement.

While unofficial transcripts of the statement are available, this is the first time anyone outside the court has heard Manning’s own explanation of how and why he gave the Apache helicopter video, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars Logs and State Department Diplomatic Cables to WikiLeaks

Freedom of the Press Foundation

https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/

Manning justifies his actions with a firm belief that what he identifies as US government wrongdoings need to be exposed in order to “spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan.”

In the recording he goes on to accuse the army of “not valu[ing] human life," comparing servicemen "to a child torturing ants with a magnifying glass."

In regards to the “Collateral Murder” video, which shows US Apache helicopters opening fire on and killing civilians, including journalists, Manning said “the most alarming aspect of the video to me, however, was the seemingly delightful bloodlust they appeared to have.”

 

The attacks footage received worldwide coverage following the release of 39 minutes of classified cockpit gunsight material in 2010, starting the controversy surrounding WikiLeaks and its whistleblowing founder Julian Assange.

Because recording is prohibited at Manning’s hearings, the Pentagon is pursuing measures that would strengthen security and prevent information leaks from the trial.

Military judge Denise Lind, who is trying Manning’s case, has been informed by the Department of Defense that there was "a violation of the rules for the court," a spokesman said in a statement sent to AFP, and that the “US Army is currently reviewing the procedures set in place to safeguard the security and integrity of the legal proceedings and ensure PFC Manning receives a fair and impartial trial.”

Twenty-five-year-old Private First Class Manning has been held in US military custody following his arrest in May 2010. He has pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges set against him. If convicted, he could face 20 years in jail. He is pending trial as the prosecution still intends to pursue the 12 remaining charges.

Leaked Video by Bradley Manning

 

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Obama secretly signs the most aggressive cybersecurity directive ever

 

Reuters/Rick Wilking

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-directive-20-cyber-715/

Six years after the White House first started running amok on the computer networks of its adversaries, US President Barack Obama has signed off on a top-secret order that finally offers blueprints for the Pentagon’s cyberwars.

Pres. Obama has autographed an executive order outlining protocol and procedures for the US military to take in the name of preventing cyberattacks from foreign countries, the Washington Post reports, once and for all providing instructions from the Oval Office on how to manage the hush-hush assaults against opposing nation-states that have all been confirmed by the White House while at the same time defending America from any possible harm from abroad.

According to Post’s sources, namely “officials who have seen the classified document and are not authorized to speak on the record,” Pres. Obama signed the paperwork in mid-October. Those authorities explain to the paper that the initiative in question, Presidential Policy Directive 20, “establishes a broad and strict set of standards to guide the operations of federal agencies in confronting threats in cyberspace.”

Confronting a threat may sound harmless, but begs to introduce a chicken-and-the-egg scenario that could have some very serious implications. The Post describes the directive as being “the most extensive White House effort to date to wrestle with what constitutes an ‘offensive’ and a ‘defensive’ action in the rapidly evolving world of cyberwar and cyberterrorism,” but the ambiguous order may very well allow the US to continue assaulting the networks of other nations, now with a given go-ahead from the commander-in-chief. Next in line, the Post says, will be rules of engagement straight from the Pentagon that will provide guidelines for when to carry out assaults outside the realm of what is considered ‘American’ in terms of cyberspace.

“What it does, really for the first time, is it explicitly talks about how we will use cyber operations,” one senior administration official tells the paper of the policy directive. “Network defense is what you’re doing inside your own networks. . . . Cyber operations is stuff outside that space, and recognizing that you could be doing that for what might be called defensive purposes.”

When The New York Times published an exposé on the White House’s so-called Olympics Games program earlier this year, the world became fully aware for once of America’s involvement in international cyberwar, but much to the chagrin of Washington. Officials including members of Pres. Obama’s national security team spoke on condition of anonymity to tell the Times that his predecessor, then-Pres. George W. Bush, began the program in 2006 to target Iran’s nuclear facilities and then passed it along to the current administration to continue under the leadership of the current commander-in-chief.

“From his first months in office,” David Sanger wrote for the Times, Pres. Obama “secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons.”

Congress has fought tooth-and-nail in the months since to plug any leaks that could potentially spill the beans regarding any further secrets with the potential of effecting national security, but those efforts appear unsuccessful given this week’s Post report on Presidential Police Directive 20.

Now take the example of Iran: according to the Post, Pres. Obama’s signature on last month’s directive means the US now has rules and regulations when it comes to protecting its own infrastructure from cyberattack, and can do so by means of launching what appear to be pre-emptive assaults of their own.

“It should enable people to arrive at more effective decisions,” a second senior administration official tells the Post. “In that sense, it’s an enormous step forward.”

That comment echoes US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s insistence earlier this year that “defense alone is not enough” in terms of keeping the country safe. But what it also seems to do is put on the books a presidential policy that equates an overzealous offense with a solid defense. While the US has cited Iranian hackers as the key players behind a recent attack on the websites of Capital One Financial Corp. and BB&T Corp., two of the biggest names in the American banking industry, the US has done little — on the record — to reveal any similar assaults from abroad. Instead, rather, it’s relied on fear-mongering to try and convince the country to accept a cybersecurity legislation that will assure American’s safety from foreign hackers, all for the small price of sacrificing their digital-age privacy.

While the Obama White House has failed to acknowledge the Olympic Games program or any involvement in the Stuxnet or Flames viruses linked to the initiative, computer researchers in both the US and Russia have tied Washington to the cripplingly malicious coding. Earlier this month, California-based Chevron, one of the world’s leaders in the oil sector, went public with claims that Stuxnet had infected — but not affected — their computers after the virus was unleashed.

The ability to slow down or speed up centrifuges in nuclear facilities from thousands of miles away made Stuxnet a virus that had very substantial powers. Refusing to speak of the Olympic Games program specifically, former CIA chief Michael Hayden told the Times, “This is the first attack of a major nature in which a cyberattack was used to effect physical destruction.”

According to the Post’s latest, though, future assaults by way of Stuxnet or similar worms could be considered by Washington as defense mechanisms to make sure Iran doesn’t retaliate for what America has long-been lashing out with. One source tells the Times that, before last month’s directive, severing any link between a US-computer and an overseas server by any means possible would be an act that would put America on the offensive. Now even a preemptive attack that disconnects other countries could be considered a defensive ploy according to the president.

“That was seen as something that was aggressive…particularly by some at the State Department,” one defense official tells the Post. With the signing of Pres. Obama’s latest order, though, the paper writes that the directive “effectively enables the military to act more aggressively to thwart cyberattacks on the nation’s web of government and private computer networks.”

It is thought that, through the directive, any systems linked even remotely with America’s can be fair game for an assault. Given the expansion of cloud computing and the ever-expanding interconnection of communities across the globe on the Web, though, that could essentially enable Uncle Sam’s cybersquad to get away with a whole new slew of tricks to try and topple adversaries of any kind that threaten the American way of life. When and where those actions are necessary, of course, remains another topic of discussion. Will those orders be signed in secrecy as well, though?

 

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UK forcing Palestinians to drop UN bid

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/11/271565/uk-forcing-palestinians-to-drop-un-bid/

The British government is pressuring the Palestinian Authority (PA) to abandon its efforts for a non-member status in the United Nations, says a senior member of Fatah movement in Palestine.

“Until this moment, there is no international pressure on the PA concerning the UN bid (from Europe), except from Britain,” Nabil Sha’ath told Palestinian independent news agency Ma’an.

Sha’ath, who is a member of the Fatah Central Committee, said London has been trying to force the Palestinian Authority to drop its bid apparently for the US to get more time to kill regarding the bid for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

However, he pledged that the PA is determined to push with the bid despite London’s pressure and threats by the US to cut off its funding for the Palestinian Authority.

“The PA will not postpone the UN bid as it is a strategic decision,” Shaath said, adding that the bid would be submitted by the end of November.

Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas has decided to table a resolution at the UN General Assembly for a Palestinian state.

In a recent interview with the Voice of Palestine Radio, Sha’ath stated that the PA expects several European countries to back the resolution.

“European countries are talking with us about the timing of the vote, the formula of the draft resolution to the UN.”

The US and the UK want Palestinians to return to the negotiating table over a deal with the Zionist regime of Israel.

The Palestinian-Israeli talks, observers consider no more than delaying tactics to buy time for Tel Aviv, hit a deadlock after the Israeli regime resumed building of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories in October 2010.

The Fatah bid centers on recognition of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, but Abbas has said he will only return to talks with Israeli officials when they recognize a Palestinian state at pre-1967 borders.

Abbas is not widely supported in Palestine partly due to his position on the return of Palestinian refugees forced out of their lands by Israeli forces in May 1948.

Many Palestinians believe he has given up on the right to return, especially after his interview with Israel’s Channel 2 earlier this month where he said he ‘does not have the right’ to live in the city that his family was expelled from in 1948.

His remarks were also condemned by the resistance movement Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Islamic Jihad Movement.

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Division is the Tool of Choice by the Ruling Class in Quebec and Canada

 

Photo By: SFBrennan Art

http://sfbrennanart.blogspot.ca/2012/10/who-will-protect-us-from-police.html

Written By: Stewart Brennan

World United News

Governing policy has never really changed much in Quebec or Canada, regardless of perception of who makes the laws or controls the wealth.

The fact is, that the people from all the provinces and territories within Canada are controlled by an elitist group that hold power at every level of government, where legislation is used to divide and conquer via cultural and language divisions.

Keeping our communities at each others throats is the tactic used by those that control the wealth, especially when attention begins to focus on what they are really doing.

Consider that every law that is passed, by any level of government, works in favour of someone or some company that is either bent on aquiring or selling something that is not theirs or is to protect them from liability from past legislation that gave them control to buy or sell something that was not theirs.

Division has worked well for the Elite Across Canada.

Let us remember that it isn’t the little people that rule but those that control the money that rule. The people of Canada have been enslaved to serve a system put in place by the wealthy of this and other nations. The “Oligarchy” controls all aspects within the system and has cornered every market while quelling the resistance against them.

What we are told to do is go to our subservient jobs, pay taxes, and follow every law imposed on us regardless of its tone. To resist is to be imprisoned or threatened by the security system they have put in place. Ideally, the Police force is used for their own protection and not the protection of society as the lessons from the G20 meetings in Toronto, or the Student protests in Montreal clearly illustrated.

Video: Peaceful Protesters are attacked after singing Canadian National Anthem on Queen Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2010)

Video: Violence erupts as Riot police attack student protest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada (2012)

Put in our place.

When the population protests government decisions, there is complete silence by the mainstream media on the real issues surrounding the protests and a deafness towards the peoples complaints by an out of touch Parliament. They have our best interests at hand or so they tell us.

We are then told that to change the decisions they have made, we have the democratic right to make change through the political process and choose one of the parties the Oligarchy bankrolls and parades in front of us…does anyone really think there is a mainstream political party that has not been bought and paid for?

The power structure that governs us politically, socially, and economically in Canada are decidedly parasitic against everyone and are the root causes of all the economic hardships we endure and will continue to endure if something is not done. The establishment controls the wealth and power by their ownership of all the banks, land and major corporations. We are just pawns to be used in a Banking Kingdom and Fife.

One of the illusions given by those in control is that our local, Provincial, and Federal tax dollars go into taking care of the community…however, we are never allowed to know how much they collect, or where the money is spent. To make things worse, corrupt government allowed our Central Bank to give away the power to issue money.

The Bank of Canada gave away the issuance of the Canadian Dollar to privately owned banks who then started to “Loan us our own money”, PLUS, we had to pay our own money back to them with interest! This little known fact happened in 1974 under the watch, of then, Canadian Prime Minister, “Pierre Elliot Trudeau”. However, this practice of thievery was known by all other political parties and allowed to continue by every Governing Provincial and Federal Governments since.

Video: Canada Issued Debt-Free Money From 1935-1974

The “National Debt” and thus “Provincial Debt” is controlled by a foreign group of elitest bankers who have taken control of all our wealth by charging us compound interest on money that was never intended for them to issue. Where before, when the Bank of Canada issued the money, we didn’t have to pay interest back because it was our own money being created by our own bank, and therefore controlled only by Canadians.

The Politicians will not return us to debt free money or even address it because they are owned by the corporate structures that control the very same avenues of theft. It does not matter which political party is in power because all parties are controlled by corporate and banking interests that run the entire power structure. Politicians will evade the banking theft question whenever pressed.

The compound interest that has taken hold of our tax dollars is the sole reason that we have soaring inflation, tax increases across the board, a loss in purchasing power, a loss of social services, increased unemployment, a rapid increase in poverty, homelessness, and rise in crime. The monetary system and those that control what has been in place since 1974 is directly responsible for our hardships.

Today in Canada we face a growing foreign takeover of all our infrastructure, wealth and resources by greedy interests. An outrageous example of this is the take over bid by Chinese "State Owned" CNOOC of the Canadian privately owned corporation NEXEN. (See video below.)

Video: China’s CNOOC has agreed to buy Canada’s NEXEN for 15.1 Billion Dollars

When there is no more money available to pay back debt, you lose everything of value that you have as a Nation.

Today in Quebec and Canada all our tax money is going to pay off the compound interest on the principal of a debt that is controlled by private foreign elitist bankers instead of going into the community. This fact is the sole reason why our country’s mineral and resources are being sold down the river to outside groups…here in Quebec the land and everything on it belongs to outside interests, it’s not ours…and that goes for those in Alberta, Ontario and every other Province and or territory.

The more indebted to the international banking cartel we become, the more intertwined we become in the grotesque international hatreds we see unfolding across the World. Our government has told us they have taken sides against people in other nations whom they have no business or right to interfere with. Certainly NOT in my name!!!

My plea to the Canadian people regardless of descent, origin, or status be it English, French, Jew, Muslim, black, white, purple or orange, it’s time to stand together as a unified community, as a nation, and stop the division being inflicted upon us by those that rule!

Common sense, respect, and tolerance to culture and language are expressions of unity and the tools that will free our society from this oppression we face. Standing together is our strength in battling all forms of division that the ruling elite constantly unleash upon our communities. We should be united in telling our government that “If you oppress one part of the community, you oppress all of it, and we do not support you!” We should not tolerate ANY attempts of division what so ever.

This is not a Liberal, Conservative, Separatist, or New Democratic position. It is a position of being a humanist, of having empathy for others, of mutual respect, and being what we hold deer in our hearts as "being Canadian"…To be free…really free.

It’s time to stand up and take back the control of our monetary system from the parasitic private bankers! It’s time to FORCE the government and mainstream media to back down! It’s time to change the system to one that is controlled by the people and not political representatives that cater to the wishes of the corporate few.

How Do We Make Change

How do we do it? We do it by creating direct democracy and establishing criteria that allows people to run for office based on experience in the fields that they hold. We do it by removing the private banks from control of our national currency. We do it by becoming the media, by being open to change, by becoming an economic block, and by our passion for equal rights, respect for one another and belief in the right to exist. We do it together!

No person or culture should be singled out and subject to a muzzle by fear mongering groups or individuals that base their paranoia in propaganda spread by an elitist group and their media, nor should we respect laws that force us all to conform to their racism in all its shapes and forms. No foreign individual, group, or nation should come first over the people of Canada!

Stewart Brennan

Back up Links:

01. Canada a human rights slaughterhouse

http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2012/10/canada-human-rights-slaughterhouse.html
02. Quebec to come down hard on those defying language laws
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2012/10/quebec-to-come-down-hard-on-those.html
03. Canada closes Iranian embassy, suspends diplomatic ties
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2012/09/canada-closes-iranian-embassy-suspends.html
04. Canadian Premier Harper skips UN General Assembly to get Jewish award
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2012/09/canadian-premier-harper-skips-un.html
05. Racist Attack by Radio Shock Jock Ruled not Defamatory
http://jimquail.com/2011/02/17/racist-attack-not-defamatory/
06. Quebec New Years Special draws complaints of Racism
http://rabble.ca/babble/central-canada/quebec-new-years-special-draws-complaints-racism
07. Court sides with Quebec DJ turned MP who made racist remarks against Hatian and Arab Cab Drivers
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/court-sides-with-quebec-dj-turned-mp-who-made-racist-screed-against-cabbies/article576433/?service=mobile
08. Montreal-area board considers making French mandatory in schoolyards
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1091534--montreal-area-board-considers-making-french-mandatory-in-schoolyards
09. Quebec French Language Schoolyard Ban on all languages except French
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/11/23/quebec-french-language-schoolyard-ban_n_1110929.html
10. PQ Accused of Political Takeover of Quebec Schools
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/10/11/less-english-and-more-sovereignty-pq-accused-of-political-takeover-of-quebec-schools/
11. Bill 78: Worst Law since War Measures Act
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/18/bill-78-quebec-protests-war-measures-act_n_1528309.html
12. Canada Issued Debt-Free Money From 1935-1974
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxD2-lQwYa8
13. G20 Stand-Off with Riot Police on Queen Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqCiAqslAyA
14. The Crime of the Canadian Banking System
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7HMt5MgsDg
15. Video: China’s CNOOC has agreed to buy Canada’s NEXEN for 15.1 Billion Dollars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zaazutwgfc
16. Quebec Chamber of Commerce (See members)
http://www.ccquebec.ca/
17. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce (See Members)
http://www.chamber.ca/
18. Quebec: Huge protest supports striking students, denounces Bill 78
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2012/05/quebec-huge-protest-supports-striking.html
19. US-Canada “Terror Justice”: I Will Never Forget Omar Khadr
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2012/10/us-canada-terror-justice-i-will-never.html
20. Canadians call for increased state control of natural resources
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2012/10/canadians-call-for-increased-state.html
21. Allowing China's CNOOC to buy Canadian oil company would be treason, MP says
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2012/10/allowing-chinas-cnooc-to-buy-canadian.html

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi says she can not back Rohingya Muslims

 

Muslim Rohingya people in Mayebon Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Mayebon township in the western Myanmar Rakhine state on November 1, 2012

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/04/270339/suu-kyi-refuses-to-support-rohingyas/

Myanmar Noble Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi says she will not back the minority of Rohingya Muslims that have been persecuted and killed by the majority Buddhists.

"I am urging tolerance but I do not think one should use one's moral leadership, if you want to call it that, to promote a particular cause without really looking at the sources of the problems," Suu Kyi told the BBC on Saturday.

This is the first time that the opposition leader has announced her stance about the months-long violence in her country officially.

Since the onset of the deadly violence against Rohingyas in the western Rakhine state in June, Suu Kyi has been the target of harsh swipe from international human rights activist for failing to speak against the killings and persecution of Muslims in Myanmar.

"If people are killing one another and setting fire to one another's houses, how are we going to come to any kind of reasonable settlement?" she said.

The remarks by the democracy champion, as she is described by Western countries, come as all major news outlets are providing compelling evidence about the persecution of Rohingyas at the hands of Buddhists and Myanmar’s security forces.

The Myanmar government and its majority population refuse to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and label the minority of about 800,000 as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, an impoverished state that has shown no willingness to help the Rohingyas.

More than 100,000 Rohingyas have been displaced since the violence broke out in June, according to the UN. However, the humanitarian situation is continuing to deteriorate.

"The situation is dire. The UN is doing its best, but it is trying to find more funding to help them," said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an NGO working with the Rohingya.

 

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American Killers and their Killer Friends

 

A Syrian insurgent fires shots at a helicopter during clashes with the Syrian Army force in the northern province of Idlib, June 26, 2012.

By: Rodney Shakespeare

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/03/270168/american-killers-and-their-killer-friends/

In 1968 around five hundred unarmed civilians were massacred by American soldiers at My Lai (Son My), Vietnam. Most of the victims were women, children, infants, and the elderly.

Many of the women were raped, or gang-raped and their bodies mutilated. Only one soldier was found guilty and he then served a mere three and a half years under house arrest (i.e., he was sentenced to three and a half years of lounging on a sofa, drinking Coca Cola, eating pizzas and watching television).

In 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by a missile from the American ship USS Vincennes. All two hundred and ninety on board including sixty six children and sixteen crew members were killed. The United States has never admitted responsibility, nor apologized.

In 2007, leaked videos revealed that American helicopters were playing lets-shoot-’em video games whose object is to machine gun as many people as possible in the shortest possible time. Posted on YouTube, the thirty nine minute cockpit video shows three incidents, in which people were targeted as they walked along Baghdad streets, sat in a van or went into a building, unaware that Apache gunships were aiming to destroy them.

Because the dead included two Iraqi journalists working for Reuters TV, the news agency attempted to request the video footage under the Freedom of Information Act. It did not succeed. The footage was eventually acquired from an undisclosed source in 2009 by the website Wikileaks which released the footage in 2010, under the name ‘collateral murder’.

Moreover, as ‘collateral’ is being mentioned, it should be remembered that the Americans snigger and titter when reference is made to ‘collateral damage’. By ‘collateral damage’ they mean the hundreds of civilians now being killed, in various countries, by the drones which blast them apart with never a word of apology let alone compensation for the killing of innocents. These are war crimes of the worst sort. Furthermore, American drone policy is being extended to new countries almost every day.

And now a video, if confirmed as genuine, shows Syrian insurgents beating government soldiers before spraying them with bullets. However, this latest massacre is only the latest in a string of summary executions throughout Syria and the reason is that the insurgents, supported by the Americans, the Saudis, the Qataris and the Turks, are a bunch of throat-slitters, thugs and gangsters.

Of course, the USA, once again exposed as connected to war crimes, is throwing up its hands in horror and claiming that the massacre must have been done by the irresponsible few. We are innocent, they say.

Oh no they’re not. The USA is hand in glove with these killers and its only complaint is when, like My Lai in 1968, like with Flight 655 in 1978, like those videos from 2007 in Iraq, clear evidence reveals that a war crime has been committed. The USA trains, finances and arms these gruesome killers, and, when it cannot do so directly, does so through its allies such as Turkey or Saudi Arabia. These war crimes go on because the USA has embarked upon a wholesale war against Islam in which anything is allowed.

They started the war in September 2001 (just think of Tower Number Seven, not touched by an airplane, suddenly imploding into dust....)

Of course, just in case it gets caught out once too often in war crimes, the USA has been careful to ensure that it is excluded from the aegis of the International Criminal Court. Furthermore, in the United Nations Security Council the USA has a veto which is always sufficient to ensure that the Council does not put the USA up before the ICC.

However, world public opinion is now becoming fully informed that, like Zionist Israel, the USA does not care if it commits war crimes. Nor does it care if war crimes are committed on its behalf. It only cares if a war crime is exposed.

That is why Bradley Manning, a young American soldier is being tortured in a military prison, when he has not yet been tried and convicted and why the USA, together with its subservient ally, the UK, is intent on getting its hands on Julian Assange for allegedly revealing those videos to world opinion. If he did it, Assange was only doing what journalists always do if they can i.e., reveal the crimes of governments.

However, the USA, suffused with its sense of arrogant exceptionalism (which means that the USA believes it can torture and kill indiscriminately while receiving plaudits from the rest of the world) is not going to stop committing war crimes. It is only going to try to prevent exposure by, for example, ensuring that alternative radio and television media such as Press TV are shut down.

Nor is the USA going to stop its allies from committing war crimes or straightforward ordinary crimes. As long as a regime agrees to give overt or covert support to the ever-expanding Zionist entity then, in the USA’s eyes, it cannot possibly be complicit in anything which is wrong. Which is why Israel itself commits war crimes, and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, to take but a few, daily commit civilian crimes.

So next time you hear hectoring Hilary Clinton lecturing somebody on freedom and democracy just remember that, behind the rhetoric, there lies an evil intent to commit war crimes or get somebody else to do them.

-----------

About: Rodney Shakespeare

A Visiting Professor of Binary Economics at Trisakti University, Jakarta, Indonesia, Rodney Shakespeare is a Cambridge MA, a qualified UK Barrister, a co-founder of the Global Justice Movement http://www.globaljusticemovement.net, a member of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice. His main website is http://www.binaryeconomics.net. Shakespeare is also Chair of the Committee Against Torture in Bahrain. More articles by Rodney Shakespeare

 

 

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UN Human Rights Committee censures Turkey’s human rights record

 

UN Human Rights Council meeting (file photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/02/270028/un-censures-turkey-human-rights-record/

The United Nations has censured Turkey for its vague Anti-Terrorism Law, which allows the authorities to prosecute many activists, lawyers and journalists, and even detain them for a long time before their trials with no access to a lawyer.

A panel of 18 independent experts at the UN Human Rights Committee reviewed Turkey’s human rights record for the first time, saying on Thursday that some of the provisions within the country’s counterterrorism law do not match with international law and that the law is limiting the right to due process.

Michael O’Flaherty, the chairman of the UN committee, stressed that the world body was worried about “the vagueness of the definition of the terrorist act in the 1991 law and the very far-reaching, unacceptable restrictions on the right of due process for accused people and the high number of cases in which human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and even children are charged under the anti-terrorism law.”

“Not for terrorism, but for the free expression of their opinions and ideas, in particular in the context of non-violent discussion of the Kurdish issue,” O’Flaherty said.

The UN committee called on Istanbul to provide changes in its law so that it works according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a pact which was endorsed by 147 countries including Turkey.

More than 100 journalists are serving in Turkish prisons, together with thousands of activists, military officers, politicians, and lawyers. Most of the prisoners are accused of supporting Kurdish militants and plotting against the government.

The panel expressed concerns about the fact that the prisoners do not have access to a lawyer for the first 24 hours, when they believed the risk of torture was very high.

"Detainees do not have access to an effective mechanism to challenge the lawfulness of their pre-trial detention and do not always in practice have prompt access to a lawyer,” the experts also said.

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Kuwait arrests opposition leader ahead of mass protest

 

Former Kuwaiti opposition MP Musallam al-Barrak (AFP Photo/Yasser Al-Zayyat)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/kuwait-opposition-leader-arrested-561/

Kuwaiti authorities arrested a prominent opposition figure over his criticism of the Gulf Arab state's ruler. It came days before an expected mass rally protesting against a reform, which critics say undermines opposition political forces.

Musallam al-Barrak, an ex-legislator and leader at the nationalist Popular Action Bloc was arrested late on Monday following a news conference at his house.

He is accused of criticizing the ruler of Kuwait, Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, during an opposition rally on October 15, when he said the emir should avoid sliding towards “autocratic rule”. The country's constitution proclaims the emir "immune and inviolable" and thus criticizing his actions is unconstitutional.

Before his arrest, Barrak called on his supporters to turn up for a new protest rally come Sunday, saying he would be with them spiritually, if not in person.

Last week Kuwait arrested three other opposition figures on similar charges. They have been released on bail after five-day detention and are new expecting trials, which are to commence in mid-November.

Barrak lashed out at the emir over a controversial change of the electoral law ordered by the ruler ahead of the December 1 election, which critics say will hamper the opposition in the parliament.

The opposition had majority in the elected parliament after the February election, putting the legislative body at odds with the government, which is dominated by the members of the ruling al-Sabah family.

The emir disbanded the legislative body this month. Several opposition factions said they would boycott the poll taken under the new rules.

The oil-exporting country has been touched less by the public uprisings in the Arab world than some of its neighbors, partially thanks to its generous welfare system.

Still, the opposition gathered tens of thousands of people in the streets to protest against the electoral reform. Kuwait City lately saw violence, as the authorities used riot police to disperse protesting crowds.

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Canadian police urge Parliament to pass domestic spying bill

 

(AFP Photo / Patrick Kovarik)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/canada-police-spy-bill-c-30-455/

Police across Canada are urging Ottawa to resurrect a controversial Internet surveillance bill that would allow them to monitor Canadians' digital activities in real-time without a warrant.

­The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has made a plea to on the federal government to pass Bill C-30, also known as the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act ahead of a gathering by the provincial and federal justice ministers next week.

The group is concerned that Parliament will be closed down before the legislation is passed.

“We have a fear that it will die on the order paper,” said Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, who is also the president of the association. “And if it does, then our investigators will be constrained and victims will suffer greater harm because of that,” the Canadian Press reports.

Deputy police chief Warren Lemcke agreed with Chu’s assessment, saying that “right now there are gangsters out there communicating about killing someone and we can't intercept that,” as cited by CBC news.

The legislature, introduced in the Canadian Parliament last February, demands that the country’s telecommunication industry provide law enforcement with the “authority to intercept communications and to require telecommunications service providers to provide subscriber and other information, without unreasonably impairing the privacy of individuals, the provision of telecommunications services to Canadians or the competitiveness of the Canadian telecommunications industry.”

If passed, the law would also give the police the power to make it a crime to use social media as a tool to injure, alarm or harass individuals. It would also grant access to the individual’s private data such as name, address, phone number and email without a warrant.

The law would ask the companies to place tracking bugs in their programs so that police, if needed, could spy on conversations if they got the necessary legal approvals.

Until now, C-30 has remained shelved by Parliament, and has not been debated after receiving mass criticism when it was originally released.

Critics claimed that the authorities would likely use the powers to harass peaceful protestors and activists.

A number of social media protests were organized, one of which circulated personal details from the divorce files of the bill’s sponsor of the bill-Public Safety Minister’s Vic Toews.

People also marched on the streets, demanding checks to the would-be unlimited police powers.

A public opinion poll conducted by Angus Reid after the bill’s introduction concluded that "the idea of surrendering subscriber data and identifiers without a warrant” is rejected by almost two thirds of Canadians.

 

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Greek journalist arrested over exposing politicians' alleged tax evasion

 

The president of Greece's Association of Judges and Public Prosecutors Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou (R) attends a meeting of Greek judges at the supreme courthouse in Athens (AFP Photo / Aris Messinis)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/greece-officials-swiss-accounts-journalist-warrant-407/

Greek police have arrested one of the country’s top journalists, after his publication Hot Doc released the so-called 'Lagarde list,' containing the names of some 2,000 Greeks with funds hidden in Swiss bank accounts.

The police arrested Kostas Vaxevanis, the owner and editor of Hot Doc, during a live radio interview on Sunday. “They're entering my house with the prosecutor right now. They are arresting me. Spread the word,” Vaxevanis tweeted.

He is due to appear in court on Monday to answer charges of privacy violations from publishing the list of names, which dates to 2007. “Instead of arresting the tax evaders and the ministers who had the list in their hands, they are trying to arrest the truth and free journalism,” Vaxevanis said in an interview.

The speaker of the Greek Parliament, several Finance Ministry employees and a number of business leaders all reportedly had Swiss HSBC bank accounts.

The Hot Doc article revealed that data matched that of Christine Lagarde, the former French finance minister who in 2010 provided her Greek counterpart a list of names of those alleged to have large sums of money stashed away in Swiss banks.

Citing privacy concerns for individuals on the list, Hot Doc said it had redacted exact bank balance figures, but added that some accounts contained as much as 500 million euros.

The Greek government took no action at the emergence of the first 'Lagarde list.' Tax evasion has become a hotly contested issue, as the country’s parliament is expected to vote on a new 13.5 billion euro austerity package that most Greeks oppose.

On Friday, the office of former Prime Minister George Papandreou denied accusations that he knew about the list, after a member of the opposition Syriza party asserted that Papandreou had helped arrange a meeting with the chief of the Geneva HSBC branch when he was in power.

Last week, former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said that he had asked the country’s financial crimes unit to investigate about 20 Greeks suspected of maintaining large holdings in Geneva, after French authorities forwarded him the list in 2010. He also claimed that the Finance Ministry’s legal adviser had told him that using the list as evidence was problematic, since an HSBC employee had illegally leaked it.

International lenders have long insisted that Greece investigate those suspected of tax evasion before the country be deemed eligible for further bailouts.

The Hot Doc report did not make specific accusations of money laundering. The publication pointed out that it was legal to own a Swiss bank account, but implied that the Greek government has done little to investigate the matter.

Giorgos Voulgarakis, the speaker of parliament from Mr. Samaras’s center-right New Democracy Party, was quick to deny the accusations and responded by accusing Hot Doc of slander. According to the magazine, Voulgarakis’ HSBC deposits dating back to 2003 are not on the speaker’s tax declarations.

A massive social media campaign is now underway asking that all charges against Vaxevanis for his role in the 'Lagarde list' leak be dropped.

­‘Tax immunity for Greece’s rich’

­The leading investigative reporter in Greece had been arrested for “effectively serving the public interest,” Yanis Varoufakis, professor of Economics at the University of Athens, told RT.

He says Greek politicians are not keen to expose corruption as the country’s political and business elite have historically been intertwined.

“Let’s not beat about the bush. The great problem with tax evasion in Greece…it is one of the reasons that Greece is being portrayed internationally as a corrupt country, and Greeks on the streets who pay their taxes, work very hard and are suffering are incensed at how they are portrayed internationally,” Varoufakis said.

“The fact is that for the last 30-40 years, the rich in Greece has enjoyed a kind of tax immunity. They’re not really tax evaders, they’re immune from tax because of the cozy relationship that they have with politicians who legislate in a way that makes that tax immunity,” he continued.

He argues that this conflict of interest has made Greek politicians more interested in covering up tax evasion than exposing it.

“Look, for three years now during this crisis while austerity is being imposed, the vast majority of workers have no alternative but to pay their taxes. Politicians of the major parties are pointing moralizing fingers at the weak members of Greek society saying ‘oh, you have not been paying your taxes, you’re a tax evader, this is why we are in such a terrible state.’ So now that the truth is coming about their tax evasion, the fact that tax evasion is played very skillfully by the rich, as it has been done for 30-40 years, now their particularly keen to be idle in the face of such a list.”

Watch the full interview with Yanis Varoufakis on RT

Video coming soon!

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Pakistan’s anti-drone campaigner Imran Khan removed from US airline for interrogation

 

Pakistani politician Imran Khan (AFP Photo / A Majeed)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/us-immigration-drone-strikes-398/

US immigration authorities have taken Pakistan’s former cricket superstar-turned-politician Imran Khan off a flight to New York and interrogated. Khan is known for his anti-drone campaigning.

Khan, who is now a popular political figure in Pakistan and ahead of the Pakistan Movement for Justice party (PTI), was removed from an American Airlines flight heading from Canada to New York and interrogated. Immigration officials asked him whether he was planning to protest in the US, as well as demanding to know his views on drone strikes and jihad.

Earlier this month, the former cricket star led thousands of Pakistani protesters, together with some US anti-war advocates, on a march from Islamabad to the tribal region of South Waziristan in opposition to US drone strikes. About 15,000 of his supporters joined him in the high-profile march, which focused attention on the strikes that have killed large numbers of civilians. Islamabad recently said that 80 percent of drone-related deaths were civilians.

“I was taken off the plane and interrogated by US Immigration in Canada on my views on drones. My stance is known. Drone attacks must stop,” Khan wrote in a tweet after being questioned on Friday. Khan had been on his way to the US to give a speech and attend a fundraiser organized by his political party, which the delay caused him to miss.

“Missed flight and sad to miss the fundraising lunch in NY but nothing will change my stance,” he tweeted.

Furthermore, Khan said the official who was questioning him did not seem to understand drone warfare himself. He also expressed confusion over why he was granted a visa to visit the US given if his stance on drones was a problem.

Khan heads a political party that was founded in 1996 and ignored for years. The PTI was called “Pakistan’s one-man party” by the US Department of State. Today, it is rapidly growing, with electable officials joining. The Pakistani leader believes the War on Terror “has been devastating for Pakistan,” he said in an interview with Julian Assange in June.

“Basically, our army was killing our own people,” he said.

He is an avid opponent to US presence on Pakistani soil – even when it came down to the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011. The US mission to kill the former terrorist leader in Pakistan shows that “our ally did not trust us,” the politician said.

Rather than employ Pakistan as “a hired gun, being paid to kill America’s enemies,” Khan believes the US should trust that there will not be terrorism coming out of Pakistan.

Several Canadian commentators have suggested that groups protesting Khan’s entrance to the US may have influenced Immigration to pull him off the flight. The American Islamic Leadership Coalition last week requested that Hilary Clinton attempt to revoke his visa due to what they believe are sympathetic views towards the Taliban.

“The US Embassy made a significant error in granting this Islamist leader a visa,” the group said in a statement reported by the Sun. “Granting individuals like Khan access to the US to fundraise is against the interest of the people of Pakistan and the national security interests of the US.”

Ali Zaidi, a senior PTI party leader, demanded an apology from the US government for removing Khan from the plane. So far, no apologies have been made, and Immigration officials have only restated their policies.

“Our dual mission is to facilitate travel in the United States while we secure our borders, our people, and our visitors from those that would do us harm like terrorists and terrorist weapons, criminals, and contraband,” Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Joanne Ferreira told the Toronto Sun.

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