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Behavior
Protest
Pussy Riot releases new video in support of Moscow protest. http://www.avclub.com/article/pussy-riot-releases-new-video-support-moscow-prote-213372
San Diego City Council Staffer Suspended Without Pay After Shooting Comment. A staffer for Councilwoman Lorie Zapf referred to police brutality protesters as “fucking idiots” and said “I wanted to shoot them” http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/dec/12/city-council-staffer-calls-inauguration-protesters/
Religion
Photos: Township orders zombie Nativity scene removed. http://www.wlwt.com/news/30369258
Crime
Gun Violence
ARLINGTON A woman accused of shooting her husband and his adult daughter called a friend Wednesday and told him she did it, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained Thursday by the Star-Telegram. Veronica Dunnachie, 35, was arrested Wednesday in the deaths of Russ Dunnachie, 50, and Kimberly Dunnachie, 20. They were found in Russ Dunnachie’s home in the 2500 block of Edinburgh Street in Arlington by patrol officers who were making a welfare check, according to the affidavit. The suspect has been involved in area open-carry activities and has this quotation on her Facebook page: “Sometimes removing some people out of your life makes room for better people.” Her profile photo shows her aiming a gun. Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article4428614.html#storylink=cpy
Rethinking Gun Control. Surprising findings from a comprehensive report on gun violence. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2013/06/handguns_suicides_mass_shootings_deaths_and_self_defense_findings_from_a.html
Cop Crime
Washington Cop Attempts to Incite Photographer by Invading Personal Space. One tactic we occasionally see is when a cop stands directly in your personal space, close enough where he can kiss you, claiming he has the right to stand where he pleases – when you know if you would do the same to him, he would fear for his life and kill you. What they’re really doing is hoping the citizen pushes the cop off or punches him in the face, which you will see is very tempting in this video where a smug Tacoma cop named Barry Paris does his best to incite photographer Scott Shimek, not only standing in his personal space, but brushing up against him for no reason. Paris is a veteran cop who shot an innocent man in 1996, resulting in a $538,000 settlement for the victim with no disciplinary action against him, so he learned early on he can get away with anything. The latest incident took place Tuesday as Shimek aka Rogue Reflections was photographing a union protest in front of a hospital. As he was photographing the protest, he noticed undercover Tacoma cops following and video recording him, so he turned his camera on them. After 45 minutes, he crossed the street and was issued a jaywalking citation, even though several cops and protesters were also crossing the street in the same area. http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/11/tacoma-cop-incite-photographer-barry-paris/
Cops, CIA Share a Culture of Lawlessness. From Ferguson to Staten Island to Langley, we need to get our security forces under control. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/12/cops-cia-share-a-culture-of-lawlessness.html
War
Cyber War
The FBI told their story about North Korea attacking Sony. Before we retaliate, read what they didn’t tell you. http://fabiusmaximus.com/2014/12/20/rebuttal-holes-fbi-north-korea-sony-attack-74873/
Iraq
Secretary of State John Kerry is a distinguished diplomat with impeccable manners -- but that doesn't mean he's above lobbing a well-placed insult when it comes to enemies of the United States. Kerry made clear earlier this week that he is committed to referring to the Islamic State as "Daesh," a name that the group considers so degrading that it has threatened to kill anyone under Islamic State rule who uses it. The Islamic State's opponents in the Muslim world have already embraced the name. "Daesh" is an acronym for the Arabic phrase meaning the "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria" (though the last word can also be translated as "Damascus" or "Levant"), and it is thought to offend the extremist group because it sounds similar to an Arabic word for crushing something underfoot. Daesh in Arabic "sounds like something monstrous. ... It's a way of stigmatizing [the Islamic State], making it something ugly," Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/kerry-daesh-isil_n_6309664.html
Troops and Veterans
The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero? Chris Kyle, a US navy Seal from Texas, was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and claimed to have killed more than 255 people during his six-year military career. In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as “fun”, something he “loved”; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a “bad guy”. “I hate the damn savages,” he wrote. “I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.” He bragged about murdering looters during Hurricane Katrina, though that was never substantiated. He was murdered in 2013 at a Texas gun range by a 25-year-old veteran reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/06/real-american-sniper-hate-filled-killer-why-patriots-calling-hero-chris-kyle
A worsening morale crisis AFTER 13 YEARS OF WAR, TROOPS FEEL BURNED OUT AND WITHOUT A SENSE OF MISSION. MORE DOUBT THEIR LEADERS AND THEIR JOB SECURITY. http://www.militarytimes.com/longform/military/2014/12/07/americas-military-a-force-adrift/18596571/
Crime and Corruption
Navy Commander Pleads Guilty In Massive Bribery Case. Jose Luis Sanchez entered the plea at a Tuesday hearing in San Diego federal court. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced March 27. A judge agreed to let Sanchez remove a GPS monitor while free on bond. Sanchez was accused of accepting bribes, including prostitutes and travel, for steering Navy ships to Leonard Glenn Francis, chief executive of a Singapore-based company that provided services to vessels at ports. Francis has pleaded not guilty. http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/jan/06/navy-commander-pleads-guilty-massive-bribery-case/
Torture
MEET ALFREDA BIKOWSKY, THE SENIOR OFFICER AT THE CENTER OF THE CIA’S TORTURE SCANDALS https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/19/senior-cia-officer-center-torture-scandals-alfreda-bikowsky/
They Said ‘No’ to Torture: The Real Heroes of the Bush Years. The opposition to torture within the CIA was so strong, Mayer reports, that the CIA Inspector General, John Helgerson, “conducted a serious and influential internal investigation.” That led the Justice Department to “ask the CIA to suspend the torture program”—at least “until it could be reconciled with the law.” The heroes in the torture report include Ali Soufan, former FBI agent and interrogator of terrorists who, according to Lawrence Wright in The Looming Tower, came closer than anyone to preventing the 9/11 attacks. Soufan has argued publicly against torture and in favor of “rapport-building” as the best technique to get information from suspects. The CIA heavily censored his memoir The Black Banners in what Wright called an effort “to punish a critic and to obscure history.” He was featured in a Frontline documentary made by Martin Smith and James Gilmore. Another hero: Alberto Mora. As general counsel of the Navy in 2004, Jane Mayer reported, he tried to stop the torture program. He told his superiors at the Pentagon that the Bush torture policy violated the Geneva Conventions’ prohibition of torture and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.” He described the Bush program as “unlawful” and “dangerous,” and warned that the torturers could face criminal prosecution. He was featured in the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side by Alex Gibney (which won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2007). Some of the heroes were ordinary soldiers, like Sgt. Joe Darby, who first revealed the Abu Ghraib abuses. As a result,” Luban points out, he “had to live under armed protection for six months.” Others were high officials, like Philip Zelikow, an adviser to Condoleezza Rice, who, Luban reports, wrote an “anti-torture memo” that the White House “attempted to destroy.” And there was Ian Fishback, an army captain who reported that his own unit was abusing Iraqi prisoners. Eventually he wrote an open letter to Senator John McCain, asking, “Do we sacrifice our ideals in order to preserve security?” His answer: “I would rather die fighting than give up even the smallest part of the idea that is ‘America.’ ” http://www.thenation.com/blog/192873/they-said-no-torture-real-heroes-bush-years#
Imprisoned Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Speaks About Torture, Prison, and the Future. A jailhouse interview with the man whose disclosures prompted this week’s damning torture report. http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/national-security/imprisoned-former-cia-agent-john-kiriakou-speaks-about-torture-prison-and-the-future.php
CIA morale 'deeply hurt' following Senate report. The US Senate report on the CIA's interrogation methods has unleashed a fierce debate about America's intelligence services. CIA director John Brennan has defended his agency's program, in contrast to President Obama. With a reference to history, Ullman said he expects little to change in the future. "We had the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro by two administrations. We had Jack Kennedy working with the Mafia. I mean, it's absurd. But the fact of the matter is this is unfortunately the way governments operate." Bamford called it outrageous that there will apparently not be any legal consequences for the perpetrators of the murder and torture. Ullman, however, sees things differently. "They had the findings of the president, the authorization of the president, and the findings of the attorney general that this was legal," he said. "If anybody is to be prosecuted, it seems to me it should be the president." http://www.dw.de/cia-morale-deeply-hurt-following-senate-report/a-18124389
Those still searching for their moral compass after being confronted by the repulsive facts in the Senate’s report on torture should take a cue from the one man in Washington who actually knows what it is like to be beaten, humiliated, starved, and isolated — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). When the controversial report was released Tuesday, McCain broke with his own party and spoke passionately on the Senate floor in favor of the release of the report. McCain said that the use of torture, “did much harm and little practical good,” adding that it “stained our national honor.” http://news.usni.org/2014/12/12/opinion-john-mccain-senate-torture-report-revolutionary-war
FLOOR STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE REPORT ON CIA INTERROGATION METHODS http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=1a15e343-66b0-473f-b0c1-a58f984db996 http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2014/1210/Torture-John-McCain-s-unique-brutal-perspective-video
Americans are deeply divided about torture. http://theconversation.com/americans-are-deeply-divided-about-torture-35350
Who would Jesus torture? If it was conclusively proven that torture is not effective in intelligence gathering would you still torture?
Competing claims of torture effectiveness http://bigstory.ap.org/article/67fea22c39e84ce5b210347a676fa499/competing-claims-torture-effectiveness
Dianne Feinstein leaving intelligence job amid clash on tactics report. http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-feinstein-intel-20141207-story.html#page=1
