Category Archives: Torture

Greenwald: Torture porn promoter

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An insightful piece at reclusive leftist on one of the most prominent  activists against torture….when it’s done by the government   – “libertarian” Glenn Greenwald.

Greenwald has been unmasked as a corporate/intelligence shill and Iraq war-promoter by his own leftist ex-fans.

 

Update: I have been asked to preface this post with a warning that readers may find it disturbing.)

When I posted a link to Glenn Greenwald’s column the other day, I was unaware of his history as an advocate for torturers. Greenwald has vigorously championed torturers’ rights, has explicitly privileged their version of events over that of their victims, and has asserted — in agreement with the torturers — that “no real pain was inflicted” on the victims.

Of course these aren’t the torturers at Gitmo or Abu Ghraib. It’s the film company of “Max Hardcore,” an extreme pornographer who grossly abused women while filming the proceedings for the entertainment of other men. Hardcore claims his victims were thrilled to be tortured, and Greenwald accepts this point of view unquestioningly.

Amazing what a difference gender makes, huh?

And if you’re thinking that it’s not a question of gender, that the real difference is between prisoners of war and allegedly volunteer performers, think again. I’ll help you:

Imagine that instead of Max Hardcore, we have a U.S. Army dude stationed in Iraq with a sideline in homemade porn. Imagine that this homemade porn is of a very special kind, involving Iraqi boys and young men off the streets, the ones who are scavenging in garbage dumps and living hand-to-mouth. Our imaginary Army pornographer offers these guys $20 each to be in a porn video. Many of them say yes — after all, $20 is a fortune for a street kid.

Each porn video consists of heavy-duty homosexual sadism and racism. The young Iraqi victim in each film is violently penetrated, choked, beaten, urinated on, masturbated on, fed his own feces, and forced to crawl on the floor while saying things like, “I’m a filthy sand n*****” and “Mohammed is a pig-f*****.” The Army pornographer screams racist epithets at the young victim throughout — that is, when he’s not too busy raping and kicking and pissing and force-feeding shit down the Iraqi’s throat. By the end of each video, the Iraqi victim is shrieking in pain and sobbing uncontrollably. When the camera finally shuts off, he collects his $20 and gets the hell out — shocked, shattered, humiliated to his core.

So think about that. Think about this imaginary series of homemade porn from Iraq, and imagine that it’s widely popular — on Army bases, stateside, anywhere white men enjoy fantasizing about torturing exploited Iraqis. How do you think people like Glenn Greenwald would react? Do you think Glenn would be talking loftily about the Army pornographer’s First Amendment rights? Do you think he would say that the videos are simply entertainment? That no harm is being done, to anyone? Would he insist that the central fact of the matter is that the Iraqis are exercising perfect free will? And that by honoring their desire to be humiliated and tortured for $20, he’s respecting them as people?

Of course not. If porn like that existed, there would be an uproar. C*****! People would throw up after 10 seconds of one video. What kind of sick shit is this? The racism! The hatred! The sheer breathtaking cruelty! And the whole surrounding exploitation — god! Paying these garbage dump kids all of $20 to be tortured! It’s too sick to believe. And what kind of insane people get off on this shit anyway? What’s wrong with them? Is our society really that vicious? Liberals all over the blogosphere would be writing long posts about the black heart of American fascism. And people like Glenn Greenwald would be saying that if this shit isn’t illegal somehow, then by god, we need to find a way to make it so.

That’s if the victims were men.

In the real world, of course, there is porn just like that: it’s what Max Hardcore specialized in. But his victims were female, you see. And that makes it okay. You can do anything to a woman — anything at all — and as long as some dude gets an orgasm out of it, it’s okay.

(And I cannot resist noting the extent to which the orgasm, in our current bizarro era of human-rights-as-defined-by-Larry-Flynt, has assumed preternatural importance as a kind of all-purpose salvific justification.

If you’re a guy who likes seeing women get beaten up and raped and mauled, but you don’t get any kind of sexual charge out of it, you’re a creep who hates women. But if it gives you an orgasm, then by god, it’s a healthy and beautiful thing. And anybody who says otherwise is a prude.)”

More here on the so-called “left-libertarian” alliance and what it really fronts for.

Voice of the Martyrs: Fraud and Pedophilia?

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Michael Wurmbrand is the son of the famous Jewish-born communist, Richard Wurmbrand, who converted to Christianity and suffered extraordinary persecution in communist Romania.

In February 2014, Michael Wurmbrand  wrote to Voice of the Martyrs, the prominent Christian organization founded by his deceased father, to drop their association with his name because of suspected fraud and pedophilia in its leadersip:

My parents died in 2000-2001 and I am now 74 years old.

Against my express request NOT TO DO SO, the mission Voice of the Martyrs of Bartlesville (VOM), Oklahoma, USA and its international affiliates, continue to use Richard Wurmbrand, Sabina Wurmbrand, my parents’ persona, pictures, writings and books, my persona also to obtain your donations!

Tom White, the past Voice of the Martyrs Chairman for more than 20-years, committed suicide in April, 2012, only two to three hours after an accusation of child sexual molestation (pedophilia) of a 10-years old girl was formally filed by her parents with the local police, and while the Bartlesville, OK. police were searching to arrest him. This terrible event made world news. At the time of his committing suicide, Tom White had a $140,000+, plus perks, yearly salary and very substantial travel and expense accounts used in his extensive and frequent international travel year after year. Since the suspected perpetrator was dead, the police closed any further investigation of the sexual molestation. The police chief and the former mayor of the town of Bartlesville, OK. were personally serving on the Board of Directors of Voice of the Martyrs. A few other directors are related to each other or get salaries from the organization.

I asked in writing of the Voice of the Martyrs Board of Directors for an independent investigation, to be undertaken from outside of VOM. The investigation in the famous legal action in England of Jimmy Saville, the BBC children program head while alive, started with only 2 cases BUT there were more than 600 pedophilia complaints after Saville died. In the last 4 years, the state of Arizona, for instance, failed to investigate 6,000 cases of children molestation. Being the son of Richard Wurmbrand, a person of my background and position could have more inside information, than I can discuss publicly. I asked therefore for an independent investigation!….”

This is one more instance of the highest levels of conservative anti-communist circles being associated, rightly or wrongly, with pedophilia.

Here are some other recent scandals in conservative Christian circles.

More here.

Some Protestant foes of the Roman Catholic Church derided Wurmbrand’s ecumenism as a false-front for a New World Order co-optation of Christianity.  (LINK DELETED)

[ADDED: I should clarify that I consider this accusation deluded and semi-litarate.]

It is important to consider that the allegation of pedophilia has not been followed by any public testimony from victims, which is usual in such cases.

There was a third-party statement by a Christian minister in the area to the effect that he had spoken to the father of the alleged victim and was sure that the abuse had taken place.

However, that isn’t evidence.

The minister in question was Wade Burleson,  pastor of the  Southern Baptist Emmanuel Enid church.  In a comment on his blog, defending his unsubstantiated statement, he described his past government affiliations.

Wade Burleson said…

Ken,
I have worked as a chaplain for the Tulsa Police Department (1987-1992), the Garfield County Sheriff’s Department (1992-2012), the Department of Justice (1995), the FBI and DEA special task forces (1995-2012), and have had training in hostage negotiation, criminal interrogation and the like. You can trust me when I say the man on the phone was who he says he is–though not one ounce of my training is even needed to immediately ascertain the truth. Of course, for me to tell you how I know would give too much information that I have pledged to keep confidential.

Tue May 01, 08:27:00 AM 2012

His blog post was addressed to the ten-year old girl and confirmed her abuse, but it didn’t produce any evidence.

The post was reproduced at Christianpost.com, where astute readers faulted it for its theatricality and lack of substance.

[I will add more on this as I research the story.]

The local police-chief who was in charge of the investigation  was  on the board of Voice of the Martyrs  at the time and shut the case down, without disclosing anything further.

The case was closed within a month of the charge, even before the coroner’s office issued a medical report.

That report, shared with the press, showed that VOM chief Tom White died from a mixture of alcohol and prescription drugs.

The quick cover-up of the case can be interpreted either in VOM’s favor (the charges were false and concocted to destroy the organization, so there was no evidence) or against it (the charges were true but hushed up to save VOM).

White took his life before a warrant had been issued, suggesting that he had been tipped off in advance, presumably by Tom Holland, the police-chief.

Holland himself  is facing two cases of discrimination.

He has been ranked 14 among America’s top 100 worst bosses.

Oddly, he was brought into the Bartlesville Police Dept. to clean it up. It had a bad reputation for corruption.

This is significant because city documents show that VOM was on the receiving end of a corrupt subsidy via tax-payers for  improvements that the city had asked it to perform.

There are other questions.

According to its 2008 income tax returns, VOM has gross receipts of over $44,000,000, but spent only around $9 million for services directed for persecuted Christians, which is its stated mission as a non-profit.

That mission is what earns it tax-exempt status from the government.

VOM’s director at the time of the 2008 returns earned a six-figure salary ($140000/year).

Total salaries at VOM in 2008 amounted to over $2,000,000.

One of  VOM’s principals in 2008 turns out to  have been convicted twice for embezzlement.

(I am not naming him or linking the article, since I haven’t researched this personally).

As the Bible says,

Put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help…

 

US “Strip-Search”: Same As Soviet Gulag’s

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http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/women-src/images/nightsearch.jpg

Gulag history: online exhibit

This is a drawing by Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia, a former prisoner of the Soviet Union, of prisoners stripped of their clothes by prison guards in the Soviet gulag.

[Courtesy of Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia Foundation, Moscow.]

Note: These are political prisoners in a concentration camp in the Soviet Russia.

Note: “Strip-searches” that humiliate the subject in exactly the same way as in Soviet Russia, and to the same extent (and worse), are conducted routinely as “standard procedure” in the United States, without any kind of sustained questioning from the media and academic institutions.

QUOTE (Preet Bharara about Khobragade’s strip-search)

“He said she was “fully searched” by a female deputy marshal in private and called it standard procedure for “every defendant, rich or poor, American or not.”

[The red herring is the emphasis by Bharara on the notion of equality.

Of course, the treatment of a diplomat as though she were a random citizen is in itself an issue.

A gross violation of international protocol/law is clearly a hostile act by the Dept. of State and the NY attorney.

But the outrage among Indians over the matter was perfectly appropriate, even beside the question of the immunity of foreign diplomats in a host country.

Strip-searches, regardless of the status of the victim, are barbaric and violate human rights.]

In the US, such searches are being used for mere suspects, people not yet found guilty of anything at all, people arrested for any charge whatsoever.  In practice, people have been strip-searched for trivial offenses like unpaid traffic-tickets.

Please note that visual inspection of cavities which is a part of all standard strip-searches requires the subject to bend over and part the buttocks for inspection of the anus, often with a flash-light. It also requires the subject to move the testicles or bare the labia for visibility.

Often, the subject is asked to squat on his haunches and cough while baring his genitals. These are, by any standard, deeply humiliating and self-demeaning acts for any one, innocent or guilty, to perform in public, especially in front of a uniformed stranger, subject to few or no restraints. and especially when the procedure is also video-taped, ostensibly for security, thus harnessing the subjects not only into acts of voyeurism but into their pornographic representation and subsequent replication ad infinitum in contexts and for audiences over which he/she has no control, practical or legal.

Strip-searches – whether they include visual inspection of the body-cavities or digital probes of body-cavities  – constitute a type of custodial rape or sexual molestation, and have been deemed so by the laws of some countries.

But they have been defined as constitutionally sanctioned behavior permissible to the state, even in the case of minor offenses, by decree of the US Supreme Court:

QUOTE:

“Every detainee who will be admitted to the general population may be required to undergo a close visual inspection while undressed,” Justice Kennedy wrote, adding that about 13 million people are admitted each year to the nation’s jails.

The procedures endorsed by the majority are forbidden by statute in at least 10 states and are at odds with the policies of federal authorities. According to a supporting brief filed by the American Bar Association, international human rights treaties also ban the procedures.”

Gulag: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom:

“The arrival at the corrective labor camp turned out to be the culmination of the humiliation. First we were made to strip naked and were shoved into some roofless enclosures made out of planks. Above our heads the stars twinkled; below our bare feet lay frozen excrement. An enclosure measured 3 square feet. Each held three to four naked, shivering, and frightened men and women. Then these ’kennel cages’ were opened one after the other and the naked people were led across a courtyard‘the camp version of a foyer‘into a special building where our documents were ’formulated’ and our things were ’searched.’

The goal of the search was to leave us with rags, and to take the good things ’sweaters, mittens, socks, scarves, vests, and good shoes’for themselves. Ten thieves shamelessly fleeced these destitute and barely alive people.

‘Corrective‘ is something that should make you better, and ‘labor‘ ennobles you. But ‘camp‘? A camp wasn‘t a jail. So then what on earth was going on? ”

“The night search, the most degrading procedure, was frequently repeated. “Get up! Get undressed! Hands up! Out into the hall! Line up against the wall.” Naked we were especially frightened. “Among the blind, the one-eyed is king,” and next to them I was still a hero—for the time being. Our hair was undone. What were they looking for? What more could they take away from us? There was something, however: they pulled out all the ties that had been holding up the nuns’ skirts and our underwear.”

Courtesy of Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia Foundation, Moscow. Translation by Deborah Hoffman.

NANNY-GATE COLOR REVOLUTION – 1/23/14 Updated

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New Links Added Will Be Dated In Red On The Side When Needed

I have corrected whatever was blocking comments  (I think)

Image from Wikipedia of Goddess Durga.

DURGA-RIOT OR “SIKH SPRING” FOR INDIA?

THE DURGA VIDEO

What was the significance of several news reports on the Khobragade story showing an Indian woman with multiple arms on the posters of domestic workers protesting the treatment of Khobragade’ maid?

The female icon with multiple arms in Hinduism is the goddess Durga, who represents the Divine Female (feminine energy) or Shakti.

[This the Hindu equivalent of Shekhinah in Judaism.]

Shakti is the consort of Shiva, the third person of the Divine Trinity in the Hindu pantheon.

Durga is the motherly form of the Divine Feminine, while the fierce form of the Divine Feminine is Kali.

Early on in the Khobragade story, a video representation of the arrest appeared on the net. It was later removed.

The video was an animation of the arrest, in which, as in the news reports, Khobragade kept turning into a multi-armed figure reminiscent of the Goddess Kali:

“The one-and-a-half-minute spoof has been posted by a group called “Next Media Animation TV. And though not everyone will be amused by the fact that the sari-clad Khobragade keeps turning into a Goddess Kali-like entity, the idea seems essentially to tell the basic story of the row wittily. Subtitles include one that goes “US not sari”.

Next Media Animation is an animation company in Taiwan.

It is run by a former Pentagon analyst, Mark Simon, from Virginia, headquarters of US intelligence and of the government-subsidized electronic snooping industry. [See below.]

It is a subsidiary of Next Media, a Hong Kong- based media conglomerate that creates humorous animations of news events.

Next media is the creation of serial entrepreneur Jimmy Lai and it is the largest media group in Hong Kong.

Jimmy Lai is known as the “Rupert Murdoch of Asia” for bringing in a flashy, tabloid-style of media into Asia. (Added: Jan 20, 2014)

Lai owns the biggest media operation in Hong-Kong.

Lai is highly critical of the Chinese government for its human-rights violations and lack of democracy, which has got wide coverage in propaganda outlets, like the BBC. (Added: Jan 21, 2014)

He has been targeted because of this, it is reported.

Lai’s position on China seems close to the position of the US State Dept. A further nexus between Lai and the West is the Catholic church. Lai is said to be a devout Catholic.

Durga is not only a significant icon in the Hindu pantheon, she has also been used to represent the nation of India, more specifically,  PM Indira Gandhi, who was famously painted as Durga in a portrait by a Muslim artist.

Indira Gandhi was in charge of Operation Blue-Star, to put down Sikh militancy in 1984. She was later assassinated by one of her own guards, a Sikh, in retaliation for Blue-Star.

The quadruple significance of Durga (as representing feminine energy, Hinduism as such, the Indian nation, and Mrs Gandhi) suggests the Devyani episode was a carefully planned operation, not a random event.  It also suggests the political motivations at work.

CONCLUSION:

Jimmy Lai seems to be an outlet for CIA disinformation and psyops.

NEWS REPORT: A Pentagon defense analyst headed Lai’s pro-democracy activism

QUOTE:

“Lai had made donations of nearly $8 million over five years to pro-democracy groups and individuals — and that [Mark] Simon, as head of his private office, handled the payments.”

QUOTE

“Simon, who spends most of his time in Taiwan, where he runs Next Media’s animation unit, dismissed the whole affair as a “sloppy farce.”

NEWS REPORT: This interview with Lai in the New York Times mentions a video made by Next Media that showed Osama Bin Laden being urinated on and raped in hell.  Lai says the video was an “accident” by young employees.

FURTHER READING:

1. The Federal Reserve Cartel: The Eight Families, Global Research, June 1, 2011

2. The Invisible House of Rothschild

Assistant Secretary of State, Uzra Zey, who seems to be the chief architect of Nanny-Gate, has been very critical of Chinese human rights. (Added: Jan 20, 2014)

Imagery reminiscent of Kali/Durga also shows up in photographs of domestic workers groups protesting the treatment of the diplomat’s maid in New York City. The photos were repeatedly run in news reports.

The news photos of the groups showed them carrying pictures of a woman with multiple arms:

#StandwithSangeeta Rally for justice for Domestic Workers

Stand With Sangeeta Rally For Justice For Domestic Workers

(Added: Jan 20, 2014)

The superimposition of images of Kali/Durga on the  story of a “slave-nanny” suggests a demonstration along the lines of the “Pussy Riot” demonstrations in Russia, which have been  reported to be a CIA operation. (Added: Jan 21, 2014)

Conspiracy by the US State Department, NGOs, and US Embassy in India

(Durga Riot and Sikh Spring for India?)

The Indian nanny-gate conspiracy is the latest episode in the US State Department’s  machinations in India.

Those machinations are apparently entailed by the Asian Pivot strategy enunciated by US President Barack Obama in 2011, to use the Indian sub-continent to contain China and project US power in Asia.

As part of this strategy, senior members of the US State Dept are reported to have orchestrated a case against a senior Indian diplomat to high-light the US-UN Anti-Trafficking agenda.

This was done over several months in 2013, in co-ordination with the highly publicized global Modern Slavery campaign promoted by the Corporate/CIA/NGO  establishment, along with labor unions (AFL-CIO) and philanthropic foundations, like Walk Free, the creation of an Australian billionaire.

Anti-trafficking and modern slavery are intended to provide the “humanitarian” case for UN intervention into a country.

For that reason, it’s important to remember who represents the US in the UN.

The US Ambassador to the UN is Samantha Power, a noted proponent of humanitarian intervention who is married to Cass Sunstein, Obama’s information czar.

Sunstein is infamous for advocating “cognitive infiltration” into dissident groups.

Samantha Power was directly lobbied by Freedom Network (anti-trafficking NGO) to support the anti-trafficking agenda early on in the Khobragade story (see below).

All this is obvious.

What is less obvious is that Nanny-gate seems to have been orchestrated in coordination with (or in connivance with) a radical Sikh separatist (Khalistani) group that has been pushing Sikh-genocide claims against the Indian government in the US, UK, and Canada.

These genocide claims have been pushed most strongly by the group, Sikhs For Justice, based in New York.

In Nanny-gate, an analysis of the time-line of events (see below) suggests that Sikhs For Justice was acting in concert with the US court system in New York and with the NGO behind the nanny, Safe-Horizon, also based in New York.

The time-line buttresses the argument that the Devyani Khobragade strip-search was a planned event in the unfolding drama of a Color Revolution in India.

Color Revolutions use propaganda, covert (black) operations, espionage, provocations, and human-rights claims to destabilize and undermine/destroy national sovereignty to precipitate the balkanization of a region.

Examples of assault on Indian sovereignty:

Item: The custodial rape on in December, 2013, of a senior Indian diplomat, formerly consul to Pakistan, is in gross breach of the Vienna Convention.

Item: The T3 trafficking visa granted to Sangeeta Richard and her family, circumvented the Indian judiciary, which had a non-bailable warrant out for her arrest for extortion and theft. The exfiltration of Philip Richard and their two children from India was also illegal under international and Indian law. Both actions also violated US law.

Item: The recent case (January 2014) of alleged rape, in which the Danish victim is planning to use a Danish medical examination, even though Delhi police have found no evidence of rape.

This seems to be part of an ongoing UN-sponsored “Rape Crisis” hysteria in Delhi.

Summary:

Events are being orchestrated to build a public case of India as a “failed state” lacking sovereignty, de facto and thus de jure.

ANALYSIS OF EVENTS:

Close association of Bharara, maid’s law-firm, trade unions, human rights NGOs,  and Khalistani Sikh separatists

ITEM:

Dana Sussman, the lawyer for the maid, works for Kane Kessler, a New York corporate law firm.

Kane Kessler has represented the NY State Division of Human Rights in US Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.

Preetinder Singh (“Preet”) Bharara is the US Attorney for the Southern District of NY.

He is the son Dr. Jagdish S. Bharara, a Khatri (upper-caste Hindu of Kshatriya class) Sikh pediatrician in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and his Hindu wife, Desh.

Bharara’s wife is half-Jewish and half-Muslim. She is the daughter of a Pakistani doctor father and an Israeli mother, (Added: January 21, 2014).

QUOTE:

“An intimate recalls that he was married not once but four times: first a Hindu ceremony, then a Sikh ceremony, then a Muslim ceremony, culminating in “the main event”—a Jewish ceremony.”

Preet Bharara’s brother Vineet (“Vinnie”) is also an attorney.

Vineet Bharara is Deputy Mayor at New York City Authority.

He owned Diapers.com, which he sold to Amazon for $540 million.

NEWS REPORT: Sikhs for Justice files suit against Congress over the killing of Sikhs in 1984 on May 30, 2011, in the Southern Dt of NY, where Bharara is the US attorney.

ITEM:

Dana Sussman/Kane Kessler teams up with Preet Bharara and with AFL-CIO in a case in November  2013

This is one more piece of evidence for the close affiliation of Bharara, the unions (AFL-CIO), and Human Rights NGOs

There are many other pieces.

ITEM:

Dana Sussman is affiliated with Safe-Horizon (the largest victims services group in the world) and Freedom Network, the national coalition of anti-trafficking NGOs in the US,

Leadership of both outfits is comprised of high-profile activists at the UN level and leading Rothschild-cartel banks and corporate heads

(See: Safe Horizon Board of Directors and Freedom Network Board Leadership Team)

TIME-LINE OF EVENTS SHOWING COORDINATION OF KHALISTANI DEMANDS WITH ACTIONS TAKEN IN MAID CASE

The Sikh separatist (Khalistani) group, Sikhs For Justice, has aligned itself vehemently with the maid.

Sikhs For Justice is located in Ocean Town, New Jersey, part of greater Metropolitan New York.

350 5th Avenue North NY 10118                       Tel: 212-601-2707

It lists its activities as counseling and psychologists, not mentioning its radical, separatist agenda.

MARCH 2013

Sangeeta Richard tells Khobragade she wants to work outside the household in New York at a second job. As she is on an official passport which prevents her from working outside her present job, Khobragade denies the claim.

APRIL 2013

NEWS REPORT: “Pro-Khalistan Group’s Proximity to US Lawmakers Raises Concerns,” April 29,2013

A Khalistani (Sikh separatist) group black-listed by India has a secret meeting with US Congressmen, while shutting out pro-India Sikh groups.

MAY 2013

JUNE 2013

Sangeeta Richard leaves without notification sometime between June 21and 23 2013.  The Indian government revokes her passport with effect from June 22. K informs the Office of Foreign Missions (June 24) who tells her to file a report with the NYPD, which initially refuses, but on written request files a report on June 25 and then closes it, stating that Sangeeta was missing.

Sangeeta reportedly lives with strangers and a Sikh temple in New York. She later arrives at Safe Horizon, which puts her in touch with the State Dept.

JULY 2013

On July 1 Khobragade receives a threatening call from an anonymous female attorney asking for a change in visa status enabling Sangeeta to work outside the Indian mission and for compensation for 19 hours a week of work.Khobragade refuses to negotiate and asks for the person’s identity, which is refused.

The call is reported to the NY Police Dpt and the Office of Foreign Missions a request is made to trace the call on July 2. On July 5, a complaint is made to the NYPD of aggravated harassment, involving extortion and blackmail.

Indian officials inform the US Embassy in India and the State Dept in DC.

On July 8,  Khobragade and several consular officials meet Sangeeta at the offices of Access Immigration, where Sangeeta asks for $10,0000, for her official passport to be changed to a personal one, and for a change in visa status allowing her to work in the market.  Indian officials tell her compensation will be payed before she leaves, but she has to return to India since her passport has been canceled.

There is an altercation and Access calls the police, which escorts Sangeeta away.

On Jul 19, Sangeeta’s husband Richard, a driver in the Mozambique embassy, files a petition in Delhi court alleging that the Indian govt has held his wife in police custody and that she has been enslaved in New York. He claims that Uttam Khobragade has threatened him with dire consequences should complain.

The petition is withdrawn 4 days later.

AUGUST 2013

SEPTEMBER 2013

The US State Department writes to the Indian Ambassador to investigate the Richard case; asks for proof of minimum wages paid. Sept 4, 2013.

NEWS REPORT: SIKHS FOR JUSTICE files a class-action suit in NY Federal Court against the Congress and Akali Dal, Sept 5, 2013 .

SFJ accuses Congress of protecting those guilty of extra-judicial killings in 1984. A summons is issued to Sonia Gandhi when she lands in NY for medical treatment.

On Sept 10, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs lodges a strong protest at the tone of the US letter.

Khobragade files for anticipatory anti-suit injunction in Delhi HC on Sept 20, 2013

On Sept 21, the Indian Embassy explains to the State Dept that Sangeeta is trying to subvert laws in both countries.

OCTOBER 2O13

NOVEMBER 2013

On November 19, 2013, a non-bailable warrant for the arrest of Sangeeta Richard is issued by the Indian High Court in Delhi and notice of the warrant is sent to the US Embassy and to the US State Dept with a request for her arrest.

NEWS REPORT: SIKHS FOR JUSTICE files “Sikh Genocide 1984” with UN Human Rights Commission, Nov 19, 2013

DECEMBER 2013

Warrant forwarded to US Embassy in Delhi, December 6, 2013

NEWS REPORT: SIKHS FOR JUSTICE attends “Genocide and Sovereignty” Conference in Canada and determine to pursue genocide motion before Canada in 2014, Dec 7, 2013

Sangeeta and Philip Richard scheduled to appear in Indian Court on Dec 9, 2013

Philip Richard and his two children are “evacuated” from India to US on December 10, 2013

NEWS REPORT: The Indian Supreme Court reinstates a colonial-era ban that criminalizes homosexuality, although no one has ever been prosecuted under it.

Several members of the US embassy in India have homo-sexual partners.

Under USC Title 28, Sec. 1746, criminal charges of visa fraud (maximum of 10 years in jail) and perjury (maximum of 5 years) are filed against Khobragade by the US State Dept Bureau of Diplomatic Security on Dec 11, 2013 and a US Magistrate judge issues an arrest warrant.

Officers of the Diplomatic Security Services arrest Khobragade on criminal charges on Dec. 12, 2013 at 9.30 AM  after she drops of her children at school in Manhattan. She is taken to the courthouse at noon.

Female agents of the US Marshals conduct a strip-search in private (including cavity inspection but not probe) that is recorded on camera for security.

She was repeatedly DNA swabbed and “held with prostitutes and drug-addicts” according to her account.

She was produced hand-cuffed before a magistrate at 4 PM and released on a $250,000 recognizance bail on the same day, Dec. 12.

On December 20, a number of rights groups protested against the alleged treatment of Sangeeta Richard in front of the Indian Embassy in New York.

The protesters included Safe-Horizon (whose attorney Dana Sussman was representing Richard), the National Domestic Worker’s Alliance, Damayan Migrant Workers Association, the National Guestworker Alliance, and the National Domestic Workers’Alliance. Also present was the Break the Chain campaign.

The Democratic Youth Federation of India, a left-wing group, protested Khobragade’s arrest in Chennai, outside the US consulate on Dec 20.

Communist Party of India members scuffled with police in New Delhi in protest near the American center on the same day.

Earlier in the week Congress party members protested as well.

NOTE: All the protests were by left-wing or communist groups, both in India and in the US, for or against Khobragade.

US-based Sikh rights group to hold Justice Rally supporting Sangeeta Richard,  Dec 29, 2013

Pro-Khalistani group Sikhs For Justice publicly stand with Sangeeta Richard, after DK’s arrest.

US says visa fraud charges against Khobragade will not be dropped. Dec. 30, 2013

JANUARY 2014

On January 8, Khobragade is granted a G1 visa giving her full diplomatic immunity.

On January 9,  a US grand jury indicted her on two counts of visa fraud and perjury. India was requested, and refused, to waive immunity and she left the country.

On Jan. 10, Indian expels Wayne May, the chief of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (in charge of 424 security officers, marines, police officers, and agents, including CIA) in New Delhi, for conniving in the flight of Philip Richard and his two children from India on a T-3 trafficking visa, in violation of the Indian high court order, and in violation of Indian tax laws. May’s wife, a community officer, has posted racially charged and offensive remarks about India on Facebook.

Sikhs for Justice urges Kerry to suspend India from the domestic visa program, Jan 10, 2014

Sikhs For Justice, a pro-Khalistani group based in NY, wants Indian govt condemned for acting against national sovereignty, January 15, 2014

In response to recent reports about British MI6 and SAS assistance in the Indian raid on the Golden Temple in 1984, Sikhs For Justice wants a public condemnation of the Indian government for its violation of the nation’s sovereignty.

(Lila: You can see where this is going).

NOTE Sangeeta Richard was looked after by a Sikh temple in New York

Quote: “From that moment on, Sangeeta Richard relied on the kindness of strangers within the Indian community in New York City, and even was looked after at one point by a Sikh temple.”

Here is a list of Gurudwaras – Sikh temples – in New York.

Background Information linking Mossad/CIA/ ISI to Sikh terrorism

1.Revived Khalistani movement (behind assassination attempt on General Brar) is strong and well-funded in Anglophone countries

2. Revived Khalistani movement is supported by ISI in Pakistan

3. Mossad/ADL Created Sikh Terrorism

Note:- Mossad also created LTTE and abetted Afro-Dalit movement.

Planned divide-and-conquer strategy?

North and South India  incited to fight in a nuclear war to the advantage of other actors?

There are reports of the creation of a second Israeli state in the areas bordering Myanmar (former Burma) – Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland.(Added: Jan. 20, 2014)

QUOTE:

“Many people suspect a complicit understanding between Christian missionaries (majority of them are from the US, and most of them are not innocent propagators of Christianity but linked to the worldview of Bush as shown by Vijay Prasad (“Eastward, evangelical soldiers!” Frontline, 12-25 February 2005) and the on-going drive to identify many tribes in Mizoram and Manipur as “Jews” (which has been earlier reported in the Mili Gazette”

The Indian-Jewish community (like Beni Israel) and Mossad act with Parsis, Sikh separatists, Tamil militants, and other disaffected groups.

Added: Jan. 20, 2014 Hillary Clinton has been discussing foreign policy with Chief Minister Jayalalitha of the South Indian state, Tamil Nadu, as though it were a national government.

The Rothschild cartel is using the Tamil Eelam issue to create a foot-hold in Sri Lanka, while demonizing Lankans as genociders of Tamils.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha is bending over backwards for the Vatican and Mossad/Israel.

ITEM:  US LEGAL POSITION IN KHOBRAGADE ARREST IS WRONG

1. The illegality of the grant of the T-3 Visa to Sangeeta Richard

A T-3 visa is only granted for trafficking crimes, not for labor exploitation. There were never any trafficking charges brought against Khobragade, despite the media’s hype and propaganda.

2. The evacuation of the Richard family comprised multiple violations and frauds committed on the Indian legal system, US law, and international law.

The “evacuation” of  Sangeeta’s husband, Philip Richard, and their two children from India while there was an outstanding non-bailable warrant for the arrest on extortion and theft charges of both Sangeeta and Philip, was a direct obstruction of justice and in contempt of the Indian court that issued the warrant.

The flight also constituted an act of trafficking under international and US law and an act of visa fraud under US law.  The tickets for the Richard family were purchased fraudulently, under Indian tax law.

3. Under Section 3, Article 41 of the Vienna Convention 1963, the US arrest and strip-search was illegal

“If criminal proceedings are instituted against a consular officer, he must appear before the competent authorities. Nevertheless, the proceedings shall be conducted with the respect due to him by reason of his official position and, except in the case specified in paragraph 1 of this Article, in a manner which will hamper the exercise of consular functions as little as possible.”

4. The strip-search was also in violation of the US Marshals standards for the treatment of foreign diplomats:

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT and judicial authorities of the United States always treat foreign diplomatic and consular personnel with respect and with due regard for the privileges and immunities to which they are entitled under international law. Any failure to do so has the potential of casting doubt on the commitment of the United States to carry out its international obligations or of negatively influencing larger foreign policy interests. As stated above, however, appropriate caution should not become a total “hands off ’ attitude in connection with criminal law enforcement actions involving diplomats (p.16).

5. Under the Vienna Convention the US has no jurisdiction over Khobragade’s labor contract with another Indian citizen in her household on an India government passport:

“Consular officers and consular employees and members of their families forming part of their households shall be exempt from all obligations under the laws and regulations of the receiving State in regard to the registration of aliens and residence permits.”

6. US Bureau of Diplomatic Security agent Mark J. Smith misread the visa application form that is alleged to be fraudulent.

The sum $4500 was not the maid’s intended/required salary, as the major media repeatedly stated. It approximates the diplomat’s salary but is in excess of her official salary.

(Added: Jan 23, 2014)

7. Sangeeta Richard, not Khobragade, filled out and signed the visa application and was party to both written contracts as well as to the oral contract.  She was educated, literate, and had multiple close family ties with the very agent in charge of anti-trafficking (the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Chief Wayne May, who employed her in-laws), so she cannot plead ignorance or coercion.

8. ISAACBROCK SOCIETY: Khobragade Guilty Only of “Form Crime” created by sociopathic bureaucrats (Added: Jan 20, 2014)

ITEM: US DOUBLE-STANDARDS ON DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY

1. The US has claimed diplomatic immunity for acts of murder and maiming, with no compensation to the victim

2. The US claimed immunity for sexual abuse, solicitation of a minor, sex tapes, forced abortions, rape, slavery, murder,

3. The US claims international law rules when its diplomats are at fault under local laws.

AN INDIANS VIEW-POINT: Letter to an Indian Nanny in New York from the Do-Gooders Foundation in New York City (Added on 1/20/14)

ITEM: US EMBASSY & STATE DEPT  ORCHESTRATION OF NANNY-GATE PSYOP

1. John Kerry admitted to agreeing to the arrest of Khobragade, Dept of State Briefing, Dec. 18, 2013

2. Senior officials kept in loop, January 19, 2014

Reports show that all senior US embassy officials in Delhi were secretly involved in the illegal “evacuation” of Sangeeta Richard and her family.

The purchase of tickets was made by Mrs. May to avoid public perception of direct embassy involvement in the operation.

3.  Richard family flight drawn up by nexus of  US diplomats

Indian intelligence (Intelligence Bureau) has unearthed a huge ring of  US diplomats misusing diplomatic privilege to conspire together and to interfere in the internal matters of the Indian state, a violation of the Vienna Convention, 1963.

Richard was a government employee, like Khobragade, on a government passport.  She was subject to a non-bailable warrant issued by an Indian court for extortion and theft.

Her exfiltration amounted to subversion of the Indian judiciary by the US Embassy.

That would violate both Indian law and the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations, 1963.

The conspiracy to spirit out Richard included the following senior US embassy officials who all employed Richard’s immediate family (mother-in-law and father-in-law) over a period of at least 10 years:

1. Timothy Haley (Counsellor,  Regional Security Office) and his wife Joyce Haley (Consular Section) worked in Delhi from 2011 onward

2. Current Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Uzra Zeya in Washington (former deputy ex secy to former Secy of States Condie Rice and Hillary Clinton, Counselor in Delhi from 2009-11

3. Wayne  May (Chief of Diplomatic Bureau of Security) and Alicia May (community liaison) in Delhi. Wayne May has publicly stated his belief in an over-arching global terror threat called Al Qaeda and on the need for a pro-active response to it. (Added: Jan 21, 2014)

READ wife Alicia May’s anti-Indian/Hindu remarks on Facebook: “Vegetarians are rapists.”

IB (Intelligence Bureau) also found that Richard’s in-laws had worked ten years ago for the following diplomat:

4. Geoffrey R. Pyatt, US Ambassador to Ukraine, when he was posted in Delhi from 2002-2007 as  Minister Counselor.

QUOTE:

“According to officials, after her (Lila: Urza Zeya’s) deputation to the US embassy in Delhi, Zeya served as Chief of Staff to Deputy Secretary William Burns. She also worked as Executive Secretary, US State Department’s Accountability Review Board probing the September 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

However, a US committee on foreign affairs in a meeting in May 2013 had raised suspicion over Zeya’s role in the Benghazi probe after she allegedly shielded Burns and Hillary Clinton from being summoned by the ARB for questioning about the attack. But, the incident is said to have given her career a major boost and she was appointed acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on March 2013.

“Zeya allegedly played a major role in converting the entire low wages controversy into a human trafficking issue”

5. GEOFFREY PYATT’S AGENDA

Pyatt advised K.V. Rajan (member of PM Manmohan Singh’s National Security Advisory Board to feed anti-Iran views into Indian Government

“When WikiLeaks published State Department cables, Pyatt became embroiled in controversy because of a May 4, 2007, cable he sent recommending that K.V. Rajan, a secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and a member of the Prime Minister’s National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) visit Washington DC in order to help “feed” U.S. government views on Iran into the Indian system.”

ASST. SECY OF STATE UZRA ZEYA’S AGENDA

ITEM:

Uzra Zeya’s Bihari roots (Uzra Zeya is a Muslim of Pakistani origin)

ITEM:

Uzra Zeya advised by India’s Consul in Afghanistan:- India’s strategic interest in Afghanistan clash with Pakistan’s interests. (Wikileaks Cable)

Pakistan wants no Indian role in Afghanistan. Zeya apparently supports Pakistan’s position.

ITEM:

India’s Consul in Pakistan was Devyani Khobragade from 2007-2010.

QUOTE

“She didn’t have a problem in Islamabad where you would expect to face challenges. This (the row) happened in a country supposed to be a strategic partner,” the official said.

ITEM:

1. Zeya’s cover-up for Hillary Clinton on the Benghazi Accountability Review Board

2. Benghazi: Background on Hillary Clinton’s Handpicked Accountability Review Board: Unanswered Questions

QUOTE

“Former CIA Officer Clare Lopez has characterized US Activities in Benghazi as “gun running”…

Background: “America’s Great Game: The CIA;’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East,” Hugh Wilford, Basic Books, Dec 3, 2013

ITEM:

GOVERNMENT/CORPORATE FUNDED HUMAN RIGHTS NGO’S BEHIND ANTI-TRAFFICKING AGENDA & SANGEETA RICHARD

1. Mind-Body-Politic: Soros NGOs BEHIND ANTI-TRAFFICKING AGENDA: COLOR REVOLUTION IN THE MAKING

2. Billionaire NGO Invests In Human Misery

QUOTE

A political commentator Carry Roberts who exposed several frauds masterminded by US NGOs wrote in ‘Renewamerica’ that “victims of battering are in short supply these days. So when no victim is known to exist, the solution is obvious: fabricate one.”

“Like other abuse shelters, Safe Horizon makes a grand show of being perpetually hard-up for cash…..But how many would-be donors know Safe Horizon resembles Citicorp or Bank of America, far more than a grass-roots organisation dedicated to providing succour to persons down on their luck?” Roberts wrote, adding that Safe Horizon rakes in nearly $56 million every year and pays skyscraper salaries that would put many bail-out bank executives to shame.

NOTE: Anti-trafficking NGO Freedom Network Chief was liaising with media in Assam, Andhra, Bengal and urging purchase of anti-trafficking software to be shared with US intelligence

LETTER: Freedom Network Applauds Arrest of Diplomat To UN Ambassador Samantha Power, Dec. 17, 2013

ITEM: SANGEETA RICHARD LIES

1. Richard claimed she was underpaid and over-worked and that she worked for less than $1 an hour.

But boarding, travel, food, utilities, electronics, and beauty-parlor bills paid by the Indian diplomat added up to over $2000/mth.

2.  Richard claimed she was forcibly prevented from traveling.

Richard claimed that she asked to go back to India and was denied.

Quote:

“When I decided to come to the United States, my hope was to work for a few years to support my family and then return to India.

[Lila: The claim is contradicted by her own mother-in-law, as well as by her own extortionist demands made on the premises of the firm, Access International, in the presence of several witnesses.

Richard demanded to have her passport and visa changed so she could stay on and work in the US]

(Added: Jan 23, 2014)

Richard also claimed that she had no time to sleep or eat or relax.

“I never thought that things would get so bad here, that I would work so much that I did not have time to sleep or eat or have time to myself.”

[Lila: This claim is contradicted by her request in March-April to work outside the house-hold of Khobragade to make money. That request is also corroborated by Richard’s later request for a visa/passport change and her subsequent refusal to return to India. The passport/visa change and refusal to return are confirmed by witnesses at Access International.]

Richard:

“Because of this treatment, I requested that I return to India but that request was denied,” Richard said in a short, cryptic statement that largely served to glorify Safe Horizon’s role in the episode than throw any great light on her differences with the diplomat and how it widened.

[Lila: The govt. of India canceled Richard’s official passport when she absconded from the Khobragade household, so her” request to return” is a bogus claim. Richard was obliged to return. It was because she didn’t want to return to India that she trumped up a trafficking case against her employer. At least, that is how the evidence looks to me.]

From Sangeeta’s own diary:

“The whole family is very nice. I don’t feel that I am their domestic help. The children call me ‘tai’ (aunt). Madam is also quite nice and keeps smiling all the time. Sir is quite sensible. He takes care of things so it gives me a lot of free time.”

US MARSHALS STANDARD PROCEDURE INVOLVES CAVITY INSPECTION
(WHICH IS A SEARCH BUT NOT A PROBE).

ITEM: PREET BHARARA’S CONFUSED CHARGES

Bharara’s bogus charge against Khobragade that she confiscated the maid’s passport

Sangeeta Richard’s BLUE (personal) Indian passport became invalid once she had traded it in for her WHITE (official) passport.

The WHITE (official) passport was revoked by the Indian Government as soon as Sangeeta stopped working for Khobragade.

That was a Government of India action. It was not an action taken by Khobragade.

Meanwhile, Preet Bharara charged 49 Russian diplomats with Medicaid fraud and yet let them go, claiming they had diplomatic immunity. Actually,  some of them only had consular immunity, like Khobragade, and, furthermore, were junior to her.

Still further, Russian President Vladimir Putin banned Bharara from entering Russia for “biased and politically motivated” prosecution of its citizens.

Compare that to the tame response of the Indian government, a response that was nonetheless excoriated and ridiculed in the Indian press.

(Added: Jan 20, 2014)

ITEM:

PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN BY MAJOR MEDIA

Devyani Custodial Rape OK’d By John Kerry

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Here’s the proof that, as I’ve said, this arrest and “standard procedure” strip-search was approved at the highest level, by Secretary of State, John Kerry.

Dept. of State, Daily Press Briefings, December 18, 2013

(Khobragade was arrested on Dec 12)
QUESTION: Did Secretary Kerry personally sign off on the arrest?

MS. HARF: I don’t think that’s how it works. I’m happy to check. Sign off officially or – I don’t even – I mean, in any way —

QUESTION: Was he aware that the arrest was going to take place?

MS. HARF: He was certainly aware, yes, absolutely. He’s been kept up to speed on this case. I can double-check on exactly how it works.
QUESTION: The last one —

MS. HARF: How the process works, I just don’t know.

QUESTION: So he approved the arrest?

MS. HARF: I can double-check on how it works, because I don’t know he has official approving authority.

Yes, wait, and then I’ll come up to —

Eaten By The Japanese: The Memoir Of An Unknown Indian Soldier

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In “Eaten by the Japanese”  Richard Crasta has collaborated with his 86 year old father John Baptist Crasta to give us an amazing account of his experiences as an Indian soldier in the Allied army, who became a Japanese POW,  experiences completely ignored by the majority of academic historians and writers.

Atrocities committed in Asia have never received  more than marginal attention until now, even though the death rate of Indians who were Japanese POWs was higher than the rate for victims of the Nazis.

Excerpts from Pragati:

“From “The Second Voyage of the Torture Ship”:
Dysentery broke out on the ship. The few latrines were being used by both unfit and fit men. In our own party of one hundred and fifty, three or four deaths occurred daily. The corpses were wrapped in a worn-out blanket and lowered into the deep ocean, unwept for and unsung. I could see hardy men prostrate with dysentery, unable to move, without any clothes. The Japanese did not pay any heed to what was going on. Dysentery spread to other holds of the ship, killing seven to eight daily. But the ship was not stopped, nor was an attempt made to evacuate the victims.

Insanitation and squalor increased. There had been cases of men dying from dysentery within a day of getting sick. Except for separate accommodation being allowed, no treatment was given to the men, and the disease spread anyway. The scene was pitiful and heart-rending. Brave, virile soldiers who would have defied anybody in battle were now helpless like babies and were groaning and rolling naked on the floor presenting a weird spectacle. I could not bear it and tears started trickling from my eyes as nothing in my life had moved me to that extent. Was this the penalty we were paying for being honest and principled?

From “Koga the Devil”:
…..Owing to agonizing pain, my temperature did not subside. I and the four others requested Koga to shoot us as it was better to die than to remain as their prisoners. He jokingly gave us shovels and spades, asking us to prepare our own graves so that we might be shot the next morning.

Basanta was the one most cruelly mistreated. For some trifling offence, he was tied with live battery wires; and when the unfortunate man cried for mercy, all the Japanese laughed. He fell down. They kicked him and made him get up, again tying him up with the torturing wires. Besides Basanta, there was another Sikh, Kartar Singh, with us. Koga ordered them to shave off their beards as, according to them, the beards made them ill. For disobeying him, they were beaten.

One day, Basanta was standing by. Koga, like a dog, came upon him and passed urine on him. On another occasion, Basanta was spat upon.

We again pleaded with Koga to shoot us all. He warned us not to repeat this request. We were their prisoners and must obey them. Even the British General Percival was being ordered about by a Japanese soldier. We had been defeated in the war and must not speak anything out of the way.

From “Killing to Eat: or Calling Upon the Japanese to Face their Dark Side”:
And though I believe all of us have within us a dark side, and that in a profound sense we are also the Other, it is also important, in the illusory everyday world that we call Reality, that we append the stories of the weak and the voiceless to the histories written by the mighty and the once-mighty, and that each us of register our horror, our personal footnote, to the Official and often Sanitized Communal History. Any lingering doubts I may have had about the title disappeared after I met Roger Mansell, an American war historian who had been examining the Japanese record in World War II. Mansell was horrified by the lack of remorse in a recent Japanese compendium of World War II recollections called Senso. He explained that American G.I.s had been cannibalized simply as an act of demoralization; these acts had nothing to do with the nutritional needs of the Japanese. So I decided to retain the title for this second, public edition, even allowing in a moment of optimism that the book might receive attention in Japan and persuade the Japanese to confront and admit to their widely observed racism and start a national campaign to tackle it, making it less possible for a future Pico Iyer to say, “In Japan, an Indian is the lowest of the low.”

Comment:

What a gift the internet has been. I posted this excerpt not to provoke racial/national animosity or to endorse requests for national apologies or recriminations. But just to add to public knowledge, and to show how much of our real history has been suppressed, ignored or distorted. All these years of reading WW II history, and even reading about the cannibalising of George Bush’s comrades by the Japanese, I’d never heard about the experiences of Indian solders.

John Marks: The Manchurian Candidate – Brainwashing

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From The Search for the Manchurian Candidate – John Marks

Chapter 8.   Brainwashing:

In September 1950, the Miami News published an article by Edward Hunter titled ” ‘Brain-Washing’ Tactics Force Chinese into Ranks of Communist Party.” It was the first printed use in any language of the term “brainwashing,” which quickly became a stock phrase in Cold War headlines. Hunter, a CIA propaganda operator who worked under cover as a journalist, turned out a steady stream of books and articles on the subject. He made up his coined word from the Chinese hsi-nao—”to cleanse the mind”—which had no political meaning in Chinese. Continue reading →

Gold, Silver, and “Suspicious Foreigners”

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Mark Mitchell comments on the CFTC hearings and the manipulation of trading of gold and silver derivatives (read IOUs):

“Maguire added: “What’s going to happen, if you’re an Asian trader, or a non-Western trader, who has no loyalty, or doesn’t care about homeland security or anything else, who says, now wait a minute, if I can establish in my mind that there is 100 ounces of paper gold, paper silver for example, for each ounce of real silver, than I have a naked short situation here that I can squeeze and they can go on the spot market which is basically a foreign exchange transaction, short dollar, long silver to any amount they want – billions, trillions — whatever they want, and they can take this market, squeeze this market, and blow it up…”

In other words, the problem isn’t just that criminal naked short sellers manipulate the metals market downwards. It is that they have created a condition where a foreign entity can merely demand delivery of real metal to induce a massive “squeeze” that sends the price of metals skyrocketing, putting huge downward pressure on the dollar. Meanwhile, says Maguire, with prices rising, “for 100 customers who show up there is only one guy who is going to get his gold or silver and there’s 99 who will be disappointed, so without any new money coming into the market, just asking for that gold and silver will create a default.”

This would be a point, except…except..

1. This kind of fraudulent activity in the markets in the West is going to be seen by most foreigners as a direct act of financial aggression against them, not just domestic market participants. You can’t admit that your entire market system is rigged in favor of US and European banks, and then expect that the rest of the world is just going to stand there and not retaliate in some way…with justification.

Turnabout is fair play. Defense is not offense.

2.  I doubt that Chinese, Saudis or any other foreigners are interested in squeezing the dollar, since they are the primary holders of dollars. In international markets, the dollar is still the reserve currency and most people save in it. Nor is the American middle class, loyal or disloyal, going to want a weaker dollar. They earn their money in dollars. The only people likely to attack the dollar are speculators, who will do it because they see a gain to be made from it. And the people most likely to do it successfully are the same people who are involved in manipulating it in the first place...the corrupt bankers and financiers who’ve got the most to gain in this and the least to lose.

Nothing that Paulson, Greenspan, Geithner, Summers, or Bernanke have been doing adds up to anything like a “strong dollar” policy. They’ve done everything but shout “bail” to dollar holders.

Army Suicide Level Rises to “Epidemic Levels”

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Jason Ditz at Antiwar via Christian Peacenik:

“Calling 2009 a “painful year,” the US Army announced today that it faced a record number of suicides among Army personnel, with 160 active-duty soldiers taking their own lives.”

Christian Peacenik goes on to comment:

“This surpassed the previous record of 140 in 2008, and the previous record before that was 115 in 2007. The Army has been keeping track of suicides since 1980, with the level suddenly rising to epidemic levels in recent years.”

In an attempt to cope, many soldiers turn to drugs and alcohol, and many others, as Friday’s AP story reminds us, end up killing themselves. Needless to say, the effects of this psychological destruction remain even after one leaves the service. As Dahr Jamail points out, “A 2008 court case in California revealed a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) email that revealed 1,000 veterans who are receiving care from the VA are attempting suicide every single month, and 18 veterans kill themselves daily.”

But again, the American idiocracy, with all its meaningless symbols and gestures, doesn’t want to hear any of this. Which is why we need to bring this to the idiocracy’s attention and explain why it’s yet another reason to bring our troops home.”