Court rules bin Laden death photos can stay secret

 

 

By David Ingram

WASHINGTON | Tue May 21, 2013 1:44pm EDT
 

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. government had properly classified top secret more than 50 images of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden taken after his death, and that the government did not need to release them.

The unanimous ruling by three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a request for the images by a conservative nonprofit watchdog group.

Judicial Watch sued for photographs and video from the May 2011 raid in which U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after more than a decade of searching.

The organization's lawsuit relied on the Freedom of Information Act, a 1966 law that guarantees public access to some government documents.

In an unsigned opinion, the appeals court accepted an assertion from President Barack Obama's administration that the images are so potent that releasing them could cause riots that would put Americans abroad at risk.

"It is undisputed that the government is withholding the images not to shield wrongdoing or avoid embarrassment, but rather to prevent the killing of Americans and violence against American interests," the opinion said.

The court ruled that the risk of violence justifies the decision to classify the images top secret, and that the CIA may withhold the images under an exception to the Freedom of Information Act for documents that are classified.

‘Like hardened criminals’: UK police sample DNA from 120,000 children in 2 years

A technician takes a swab for DNA testing. (AFP Photo / Pierre-Philippe Marcou)

 

British police collected the DNA of more than 120,000 children in just two years, with a thousand of them aged 10 at the time of the swab. Most of the youngsters have committed no punishable crime, but their DNA data will be stored for years.

“It is disappointing to see valuable crime-fighting resources being wasted on taking DNA samples from thousands of innocent children while serious offenses go undetected,” said Francis Crook, chief executive of the legal activists Howard League for Penal Reform.

The group was able to obtain the data for 2010 and 2011 with a Freedom of Information request. Other than the overall numbers, the biggest surprise was the age spread – showing that children aged 13 were almost as likely to be recorded in the police database as 17-year-olds.

Seven out of 10 swabbed under-18s were boys.

Most of the youngsters had been taken into police stations pending investigation, or as a caution for minor offences. The vast majority were never charged with recordable crimes.

“Children who get into trouble with the police are usually just up to mischief. Treating so many like hardened criminals by taking their DNA seems excessive,” said Crook.

Sheldan Nidle Update - May 21, 2013

9 Batz, 19 Moan, 9 Eb

Dratzo! We come again with more to tell you. Your world continues to fluctuate between the attempts of the West to spark a conflict capable of stemming the global changes which threaten the powerbase of the dark cabal, and the intent of Russia to force a new reality upon the West. This dynamic has ebbed and flowed during the whole of the last decade. And yet even when this strange power game approaches a point reminiscent of the start of World War I, it then recedes from this dire eventuality. The Agarthan's liaison teams have also been very successful in defusing the situation in the Middle East. Nevertheless, this ongoing process of brinkmanship demonstrates the importance of bringing this volatile situation to a close. Heaven assures us that this constant political bickering is simply the last throes of a type of diplomacy long used by the Western states and that no conflict is to result from it. Indeed, the coming divine intervention is going to transform this whole sorry mess. Meanwhile, more legal ammunition continues to be gathered for use against the cabal in the World Courts. The momentum for 'accountability' accelerates by the day, increasing the numbers of those already, and about to be, arrested.

   Your reality is dying as the economic system it is founded upon grinds to a halt. It is similar to a huge mill which is dependent on a river that is rapidly drying up. The owners, the dark cabal, comprehend what is happening and are intent on getting the last bit of work out of their flagging equipment. The cabal is hunting desperately for a solution to restore the falling levels of the river, but despite its best efforts no solution is found. We have informed the cabal on innumerable occasions what it would take to solve their dilemma and its response has been to proceed doggedly upon the same course. We have therefore moved forward with what Heaven has directed us to do. The cabal is fully aware that its time is up and still it increases its determination to pull some unrealizable miracle out of the air. We watch and marvel at its inane reaction to the inevitability bearing down on it. It is time for these dark-controlled governments to quit and disclose the truth to their beleaguered populations.

Department of Justice Meets Snuggly the Security Bear!

The Age of Corporate Treason by Ralph Nader

Patriotic Yardsticks for Unpatriotic Giant Corporations

The Age of Corporate Treason

by RALPH NADER

Why are big, global U.S. corporations so unpatriotic? After all, they were created in the U.S.A., rose to immense profit because of the toil of American workers, are bailed out by American taxpayers whenever they’re in trouble, and are safeguarded abroad by the U.S. military.

Yet these corporate goliaths work their tax lawyers overtime to escape U.S. taxes. Many pay less than you do in federal income taxes. Imagine corporations, like General Electric, have not paid federal income taxes on U.S. profits for years.

Mega corporations have abandoned U.S. workers by entrenching “pull-down” trade agreements that make it easier than ever to ship jobs and whole industries to fascist and communist regimes abroad which keep their workers near serfdom. Remember, the U.S. has run large trade deficits for the past 30 years as a result of anti-American trade deals pushed by these global companies. These goliaths are pressing for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that will further pull down our economy. (See http://www.citizen.org/page.aspx?pid=1328.)

Corporate CEOs are raiding and draining traditional pension plans for millions of workers who are left without their expected and earned pension payments on retirement. (For more information see Ellen E. Schultz’s book Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers.)

They are freezing the federal minimum wage, for low income service jobs that they cannot export, at $7.25 per hour, leaving thirty million workers today making less than workers made in 1968,  inflation adjusted. Having wages that go backwards into the future means workers cannot afford the basic necessities of life for themselves and their children.