Tag Archives: Winning Hearts & Minds

Russia blacklists 12 Americans in retaliation for U.S. sanctions

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“The Russian Foreign Ministry published a list of 12 Americans barred from entering the country on Saturday after the United States expanded sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.  The blacklist included persons related to legalizing and using torture against inmates of the Guantanamo prison in Cuba, and U.S. servicemen involved in abuses against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or those who concealed crimes.  In particular, Moscow banned entry for U.S. congressman James Moran, as a response to a similar move taken by Washington against Russian State Duma, lower house of the parliament, deputy Adam Delimkhanov.”

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-07/19/c_133496286.htm

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Native Hawaiians to Feds: Give Us Back Our Kingdom

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“Hundreds showed up to testify at the fifteen public hearings held on the islands of Oahu, Lanai, Molokai, Kauai, Hawaii, and Maui.  Residents delivered passionate accounts of Hawaiian history, U.S. militarism, cultural and environmental degradation, land disputes, and a steady stream of ‘no’s’ to the five questions asked by the Department of Interior.  The 1993 Apology Resolution publicly acknowledged and apologized for the United States’ involvement in the illegal overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893, admitting that the United States violated Native Hawaiians’ right to self-determination and international law.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/native-hawaiians-federal-government-give-us-back-our-kingdom-n151801

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Snowden: NSA employees pass around intercepted nude photos

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“Edward Snowden has revealed that he witnessed ‘numerous instances’ of National Security Agency (NSA) employees passing around nude photos that were intercepted ‘in the course of their daily work.’  If Snowden’s allegations of sexual photo distribution are true, they would be consistent with what the NSA has already reported. In September 2013, in a letter from the NSA’s Inspector General Dr. George Ellard to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the agency outlined a handful of instances during which NSA agents admitted that they had spied on their former love interests. This even spawned a nickname within the agency, LOVEINT—a riff on HUMINT (human intelligence).”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/snowden-nsa-employees-routinely-pass-around-intercepted-nude-photos/

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Is The IRS Really Driving Americans To Renounce Citizenship?

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“After surveying 414 expat clients, 327 said they had ‘actively considered,’ ‘are thinking about,’ or ‘explored the options’ of renouncing their U.S. passport because of the new rules. Many cited problems opening and maintaining bank accounts in their new countries and disliked the costs and paperwork associated with compliance.  ‘Some told us that they felt they were now under suspicion by the IRS, even though there was no question of any wrongdoing or having any taxes owing,’ Green said.  U.S. Treasury Department data shows that passport relinquishments were up 220 percent in 2013 from the year earlier.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/irs-really-driving-americans-overseas-renounce-citizenship-1628644

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Angela Merkel denied access to her NSA file

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“The US government is refusing to grant Angela Merkel access to her NSA file or answer formal questions from Germany about its surveillance activities, raising the stakes before a crucial visit by the German chancellor to Washington.  In October, Obama personally assured Merkel that the US is no longer monitoring her calls, and promised it will not do so in the future. However, Washington has not answered a list of questions submitted by Berlin immediately after Snowden’s first tranche of revelations appeared.  Angela Merkel has defended the decision to keep access to the Stasi archive open to German citizens, and has reportedly used the opportunity to view her own Stasi file in person.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/10/angela-merkel-denied-access-nsa-file

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Germany asks top US intelligence official to leave the country

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“Diplomatic relations between Germany and the US plunged to a new low after Angela Merkel’s government asked the top representative of America’s secret services in Germany to leave the country.  According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the US embassy staffer who has been asked to leave is a CIA ‘chief of station’ who coordinates secret service activity in Germany, and who emerged as the key contact for two German officials recently arrested for allegedly spying for the US.  According to German media reports, such drastic action had previously only been thinkable when dealing with ‘pariah states like North Korea or Iran’.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/10/germany-asks-top-us-intelligence-official-spy-row

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Withdrawing Political Legitimacy

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“The World Wide Web is the greatest idea-smuggling network in history. The question is: Which smuggling operations will put the Web to its most productive uses?  My statement of faith is this: not the state.  Smuggling can lead to secession. It can lead to a withdrawal of faith and hope in the messianic state. It can lead to institutional alternatives to the messianic state.  Example: online education as a substitute for tax-funded education. This is technically possible today. At some point, community by community, there will be a tipping point.  The mark of this tipping point will be this: the inability of local governments to get bond issues passed, despite the threatened loss of federal matching funds.”

http://www.garynorth.com/public/12641.cfm

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Germany will resume spying on U.S. for first time since 1945

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“Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is planning to scrap a no-spy agreement Germany has held with Britain and the United States since 1945 in response to an embarrassing US-German intelligence service scandal which has deeply soured relations between Berlin and Washington. The intelligence services of the Allied victors were exempted from surveillance by the BND.  But Mr de Maizière told Bild that he was now not ruling out permanent German counter-espionage surveillance of US, British and French intelligence operations.  A domestic security spokesman for Ms Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats said: ‘We must focus more strongly on our so-called allies.'”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-to-spy-on-us-for-first-time-since-1945-after-double-agentscandal-9590645.html

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CIA Was Involved In U.S. Spying On Germany

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“The Central Intelligence Agency was involved in a spying operation against Germany that led to the alleged recruitment of a German intelligence official and has prompted renewed outrage in Berlin, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Monday.
CIA Director John Brennan has asked to brief key members of the U.S. Congress on the matter, which threatens a new rupture between Washington and a close European ally, one of the officials said.  It was unclear if and when Brennan’s briefing to U.S. lawmakers would take place. The CIA declined any comment on the matter.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/cia-spying-germany_n_5564599.html

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Tax Collectors Grow More Aggressive; Payers Caught in the Middle

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“Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs doesn’t have enough power, or so the British Parliament is told. HMRC wants to be both judge and jury when it comes to recalcitrant taxpayers. It wants to the ability to ‘raid bank accounts’ and to do so without a court warrant. What comes across clearly in both the IRS stance and in the requests by the HRMC is a certain level of arrogance that is magnified by modern communication facilities.  The pushback against intrusive tax collection is growing, even as agency demands for more power and revenue are expanding as well.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35464/As-Tax-Collectors-Grow-More-Aggressive-Payers-Are-Caught-in-the-Middle/

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