Who's Got the Button?

RT: France, the US and UK are saying the UN report clearly points to the Assad government's involvement in the August attack . But how can they be so sure, especially as the document states that improvised rockets may have been used, possibly pointing to rebel involvement?

Michael Maloof: I have a report from a source who has direct connections with classified information and he basically told me that [the] US military did an assessment based upon 50 indicators and clandestine interviews that the sourcing of sarin originated out of Iraq and into Turkey before some of it was confiscated in May in Turkey. He believes that since that report was disseminated in August in 2013, that there has actually been a more significant amount of sarin production both in Iraq and in Turkey going to the opposition, principally Al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra.

That was their specific target, to see to what extent Al-Qaeda was actually involved in production, in research and dissemination. He says what was confiscated was bench level or small specimens at the time, but that the production now they believe is much more robust and that the non-proliferation, genie, as he says, is no longer exclusive. So there's quite an increasing concern that this is still ongoing, that production is occurring among some Sunni salafists in Iraq and continues to be transported into Turkey.

  RT

Waiting for an Apology

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has postponed a state visit to Washington in response to the US spying on her communications with top aides. Rousseff is demanding a full public apology from President Obama.

[...]

The Brazilian government said in a statement that "the conditions are not suitable to undertake this visit on the agreed date." It expressed hope that the conflict will be resolved “properly” and the trip will happen "as soon as possible."

[...]

Barack Obama spoke with Rousseff on Monday in an attempt to persuade her into following through with the trip, the Brazilian president's office said, according to AP.

Brazil’s TV Globo reported that the call between the two presidents lasted for about 20 minutes. Obama and Rousseff discussed revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the Brazilian leader’s phone calls and emails. The two presidents then “jointly” agreed to cancel the meeting, Globo reported, citing the presidential office.

  

Jointly. Obama hasn’t just been fed crow.

Mass Murderers in the US

I guess they forgot to include a graphic showing the male/female ratio.

  Ann Telnaes

”There’s going to be mistakes.”

The Obama administration waived provisions of a federal law which ban the supply of weapons and money to terrorists.

  RT

Okay, we’re just up front with it now. We support and arm terrorists.

President Barrack Obama ordered such a waiver for supplying chemical weapons-related assistance to "select vetted members" of Syrian opposition forces, the administration announced on Monday.

If he can’t be allowed to send in American troops and/or bombs, then he’ll just arm the opposition.

And, oh yes….

The US plan to provide chemical weapons-related assistance to Syrian opposition was in the works before the August attack a senior administration official said as cited by NBC News.

That chemical weapons attack sure was helpful.

So this is who we’ll be arming:

The Syrian opposition groups are increasingly dominated by radical Islamists, many of them foreign fighters who, the UN says, are involved in numerous crimes committed in Syria.

[...]

Still, US politicians believe national intelligence community can ensure that the military assistance goes to the right hands.

Of course they do. Why would you even doubt it?

"Our intelligence agencies, I think, have a very good handle on who to support and who not to support," Senator Bob Corker said on CBS on Sunday. "And there's going to be mistakes. We understand some people are going to get arms that should not be getting arms. But we still should be doing everything we can to support the free Syrian opposition."

...hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Naval Yard Shooting

A young man with a troubled history, but high level clearance and access to the DC Naval Yard was the alleged killer of 12.

Mondays' shooting comes less than a month after a military panel recommended the death sentence for US military Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 and injured 30 others at the Fort Hood military base in Texas on November 5, 2009.

[...]

US authorities are still trying to piece together exactly who Aaron Alexis was, and what drove him to gun down 12 people in cold blood and injure another eight.

[...]

Alexis had converted to Buddhism and attended the local Buddhist temple.

“We are all shocked. We are nonviolent. Aaron was a very good practitioner of Buddhism. He could chant better than even some of the Thai congregants,'' Ty Thairintr, a congregant at Wat Budsaya, a Buddhist temple in Fort Worth, told AP.

Thairintr, who said he last saw Alexis five weeks ago, said the latter was upset with the Navy because “he thought he never got a promotion because of the color of his skin. He hated his commander.”

“He was a very devoted Buddhist. There was no tell-tale sign of this behavior,” Thairintr said.

  RT

Really? “He hated his commander,” is not a sign?

Buddhist, Muslim...they're all the same, right Christians?

The NSA Is Looking to Fill a New Position

Job qualifications are listed on the posting.

It's Sunday

Since his elevation to the head of the Catholic faith, I have become a fan of Pope Francis — a pontiff who has become truly revolutionary in his faith and his lifestyle. As someone raised in the Catholic Church, I have never seen his equal. He has washed the feet of a Muslim female prisoner, declined the pomp and formality of past popes, and remained a humble priest in his lifestyle. Now, Pope Francis has written a long letter to a non-Catholic saying that he believes that even atheists can go to heaven and that God cares more about your heart than your profession of religion.

[...]

[A]nd now there is a report of a possible consideration of dropping celibacy for priests.

[...]

He said “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience. . . . Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”

[...]

It is a remarkably tolerant and enlightened view of faith at a time of extreme orthodoxy and religious intolerance. It is all the more remarkable given the increasingly antagonistic language directed against non-believers.

  Jonathan Turley

Am I going to have to stop slamming the Catholic Church? Or is Pope Frank going to meet an untimely end?

It's Sunday

A trio of Arizona “exorcists” has ventured to England to fight what it describes as the endorsement of satanic elements in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series.

“Harry is using this magic for good,” 18-year-old Brynne Larson explains in video posted by the Daily Mail on Monday. “So here we have the dangerous idea that you can use this magic for good or bad. When in reality, all magic is bad ’cause you’re getting your power from Satan.”

  Raw Story

Hey, the US has plenty to spare, and I’m sure England won’t mind three more.

Larson and friends Tess and Savannah Scherkenback will be profiled in a BBC special on Friday discussing both their longtime friendship and their training by Larson’s father, Rev. Bob Larson, who claims to have performed 15,000 exorcisms. The BBC reported that Bob Larson asks for donations of $200 for each exorcism.

And when he thought of England – Harry Potter’s own birthplace – and the possibilities for his trio of pretty little whores, he could barely calculate the riches he could amass.

I don’t know, though. I think he might be overestimating. He probably should have sent them to Arkansas.

“The spells and things that you’re reading in the Harry Potter books, those aren’t just something that are made up,” 18-year-old Tess Scherkenback says. “Those are actual spells.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Baaaaad NSA. Baaaad.

The NSA used ‘man in the middle’ hack attacks to impersonate Google and fool web users, leaks have revealed. The technique circumvents encryption by redirecting users to a copycat site which relays all the data entered to NSA data banks.

Brazilian television network Globo News released a report based on classified data divulged by former CIA worker Edward Snowden on Sunday. The report itself blew the whistle on US government spying on Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, but hidden in amongst the data was information the NSA had impersonated Google to get its hands on user data.

  RT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Remembering the Case of Saddam Hussein

Perhaps it will work again.

The reader suddenly realizes that the diplomatic developments had been hastily cut and pasted into the speech, probably only hours before. Obama had intended to build the case for smashing Assad to an imperial peroration – a laying down of the law from on high. But his handlers threw in the towel, for reasons both foreign and domestic. Temporarily defeated, Obama will be back on the Syria warpath as soon as the proper false flag operations can be arranged.

  Black Agenda Report

[W]hile the Russian plan for Syria to relinquish its chemical weapons appeared to ease the crisis over possible U.S.-led strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a new potential for an impasse came quickly: Moscow rejected U.S. and French demands for a binding U.N. resolution with "very severe consequences" for Syrian non-compliance. In Damascus, a senior government official said the Russian proposal is still a "broad headline" that needs to be developed. He said Syria was ready to sign the chemical weapons convention, but not if such a move is forced by foreign powers.

[...]

Meanwhile, a French official close to President Francois Hollande said Russia objected not only to making the resolution militarily enforceable, but also to blaming the alleged Aug. 21 chemical attack on the Syrian government and demanding that those responsible be taken before an international criminal court.

  alJazeera

Let’s make it impossible, shall we?

Syrian rebel leadership rejected Russia's initiative Thursday, according to a video statement obtained by Reuters.

  alJazeera

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.