Featured In solidarity with a free press:

SOME MORE BLASPHEMOUS CARTOONS

Defending free speech and free press rights, which typically means defending the right to disseminate the very ideas society finds most repellent, has been one of my principal passions for the last 20 years: previously as a lawyer and now as a journalist. So I consider it positive when large numbers of people loudly invoke this principle, as has been happening over the last 48 hours in response to the horrific attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Read More At: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/09/solidarity-charlie-hebdo-cartoons/

French cartoonist Sine on trial on charges of anti-Semitism over Sarkozy jibe

By Henry Samuel in Paris 6:00AM GMT 27 Jan 2009

Maurice Sinet, 80, who works under the pen name Sine, faces charges of "inciting racial hatred" for a column he wrote last July in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The piece sparked a summer slanging match among the Parisian intelligentsia and ended in his dismissal from the magazine.

"L'affaire Sine" followed the engagement of Mr Sarkozy, 22, to Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, the Jewish heiress of an electronic goods chain. Commenting on an unfounded rumour that the president's son planned to convert to Judaism, Sine quipped: "He'll go a long way in life, that little lad."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/4351672/French-cartoonist-Sine-on-trial-on-charges-of-anti-Semitism-over-Sarkozy-jibe.html

 

Dieudonne Faces Trial Over Charlie Hebdo Post

Notorious comedian Dieudonne is accused of sympathising with the Paris attackers in a "contemptible" social media post.

< snip >

However his lawyer, Jacques Verdier, protested his innocence.

"The prime minister said that under exceptional circumstances there should be exceptional measures and the first thing they did was to arrest Dieudonne," he said.

http://news.sky.com/story/1407536/dieudonne-faces-trial-over-charlie-hebdo-post

Dieudonne, a comic who popularized an arm gesture that resembles a Nazi salute and who has been convicted repeatedly of racism and anti-Semitism, is no stranger to controversy. His provocative performances were banned last year but he has a core following among many of France's disaffected young people.

The Facebook post in question, which was swiftly deleted, said he felt like "Charlie Coulibaly" — merging the names of Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who seized a kosher market and killed four hostages, along with a policewoman.

In a separate post Monday afternoon, the day the investigation was opened into Dieudonne, the comic wrote an open letter to France's interior minister.

"Whenever I speak, you do not try to understand what I'm trying to say, you do not want to listen to me. You are looking for a pretext to forbid me. You consider me like Amedy Coulibaly when I am not any different from Charlie," he wrote.

http://hosted2.ap.org/AKJUN/2e515285f07040df999bd6b670db791c/Article_2015-01-14-EU--France-Attacks/id-9e54acddce97402da99b02d64d1a32c6

 

A Muslim in Canada decided to put ‘free speech’ to the test in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shootings by joking about 9/11 and the Holocaust on Twitter.

He is now the subject of a police investigation.

Hot dog seller Jerry Reddick took to the social media network yesterday to experiment with how far he could take freedom of expression, writing, “Let’s test just how free freedom of speech is when it’s not Muslims being disrespected.”

Read More At: http://www.infowars.com/muslim-puts-free-speech-to-the-test-jokes-about-holocaust-911/

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, wants President Obama to pressure social media to cooperate with GCHQ, the British intelligence service that works closely with the NSA in the United States to surveil the internet and private electronic communication.

Intelligence services are increasingly critical of encryption methods used by Facebook and Twitter to secure the communications of users.

MI5 boss Andrew Parker took the tech giants to task for encryption and warned the “dark places from where those who wish us harm can plot and plan are increasing.”

Parker said tech companies must offer “greater co-operation” in the fight against terrorism and added that “privacy has never been an absolute right.”

Continue . . . http://www.infowars.com/cameron-to-obama-force-tech-companies-to-cooperate-with-surveillance-agency/

 

Four Killed In Anti-Charlie Hebdo Protests

Dozens more are wounded in violent demonstrations in Niger, as protests against the magazine erupt around the world.

At least four people have died in Niger in violent protests over the Charlie Hebdo's publication of a new cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.

Continue . . . http://news.sky.com/story/1409237/four-killed-in-anti-charlie-hebdo-protests


UK And US Announce Joint Anti-Terror Plans

David Cameron and Barack Obama announce new measures to combat extremism, promising it is a fight "we know how we will win".

http://news.sky.com/story/1409435/uk-and-us-announce-joint-anti-terror-plans


3,000 "Moderate Rebels" Defect to ISIS - US Preparing 5,000 More

January 16, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Reported along the peripheries of the Western media, it was reported recently that some 3,000 so-called "moderate rebels" of the "Free Syrian Army" had defected to the "Islamic State" (ISIS). While not the first time so-called "moderates" have crossed over openly to Al Qaeda or ISIS, it is one of the largest crossovers that has occurred.

With them, these 3,000 fighters will bring weapons, cash, equipment, and training provided to them by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, the UK, and perhaps most ironic of all in the wake of the recent terror attack in Paris, France. Indeed, ISIS and Al Qaeda's ranks continue to swell amid this insidious network of "terror laundering" that is only set to grow.

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2015/01/3000-moderate-rebels-defect-to-isis-us.html

 

Pentagon to deploy 400 troops to train Syrian rebels

(Reuters) - The U.S. military is planning to send more than 400 soldiers to train Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State along with hundreds of U.S. support personnel, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday.

The training mission is expected to begin in the spring at sites outside Syria, Colonel Steve Warren said. Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have offered to host the training.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/16/us-syria-crisis-usa-idUSKBN0KP0FO20150116

Evidently putting a stop to the funding and arming of Islamic extremists isn't going to be part of Obama and Cameron's "winning plan" to fight terrorism. I'm pretty sure that when their "winning plan" is revealed the solutions will be for us to give up more of our liberties and give the US and UK governments more money, more power and more control over our lives.

 

One Million Muslims to Protest Against Charlie Hebdo Cartoons

Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Muslim organization in Pakistan and arguably the most influential in the South Asian sub-continent, will rally a million Muslims on Friday to protest Charlie Hebdo and its satirical take on Islam.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/one-million-muslims-to-protest-against-charlie-hebdo-cartoons.html

 

Charlie Hebdo: Report from Europe

Paul Craig Roberts

Note: The first video has the most visual information.

Here is a video of the execution of Amedy Coulibaly. It is a German website with the actual live French video of the police assault on the deli. There are three videos. The first one repeatedly shows Coulibaly with tied hands containing no weapons shot downand killed when he could easily have been captured. It is as if the order was to make sure that there is no live suspect whose story might have to be explained away. The first video also repeatedly shows the execution in slow motion. Commentary in French accompanies the video. http://alles-schallundrauch.blogspot.co.at/2015/01/amedy-coulibaly-wurde-hingerichtet.html

In response to my Charlie Hebdo update http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/01/16/charlie-hebdo-update-paul-craig-roberts/ European readers report that the situation in Europe is much the same as in the US and UK. The “mainstream” print and TV media parrot the official line and raise no unsettling questions. The independent Internet media is where real information is reported.

The German print and TV media have suffered dramatic declines in readers and viewers. This decline accelerated when Udo Ulkotte’s book about CIA penetration of European media was published by Kopp Verlag and became a best seller. Thinking people no longer trust the German media. The German media has lost the intelligent part of the population and only retains the somnolent sheep.

Continue . . . http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/01/17/charlie-hebdo-report-europe/

 

‘Wearing the Saudi Muzzle’

UK Failing to Defend Blogger Sentenced to 1,000 Lashes – Amnesty

The British government has been accused of “wearing the Saudi muzzle” over its failure to publicly condemn Saudi Arabia for continuing to flog a prominent blogger.

Amnesty International said the UK government’s “credibility” is undermined, as it celebrates free speech in the wake of the Paris attacks but fails to condemn “oil-rich” Saudi Arabia.

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi is to receive 50 lashes this Friday, the second installment of a 1,000-lash sentence for “insulting Islam” via an online forum he launched.

Badawi, who also faces 10 years in jail and a £175,000 fine, was flogged 50 times after Friday prayers last week, just days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France.

While the Foreign Office condemned the flogging, senior government officials have not publicly commented on the case.

Kate Allen, Amnesty International’s UK director, accused the British government of “wearing the Saudi muzzle” over the case.

“Our ministers rightly celebrate free speech in Paris or in London but suddenly seem to lose their own power of utterance when it comes to forthrightly and publicly condemning the authorities in Riyadh,” Allen said. “Why do ministers keep wearing the Saudi muzzle? It seriously weakens the UK’s credibility if it’s seen to tone everything down when it comes to oil-rich Saudi Arabia.”

She added: “David Cameron and his ministers should have the courage of their convictions and say – loud and clear – that Raif Badawi’s case is an absolute disgrace, that this weekly flogging should be halted, and he should be freed from jail.”

Continue . . . http://www.globalresearch.ca/wearing-the-saudi-muzzle-uk-failing-to-defend-blogger-sentenced-to-1000-lashes-amnesty/5425337

 

It's not about a free or unfree press. It's about hypocrisy.

Some questions. If you don't mind.

First, how do you know they were Muslims?

Who benefits politically from this attack?

Do Muslims benefit by bringing the condemnation of the world down on themselves?

How is that supposed to help them bring the non-Muslim world under submission, exactly?

France decided to follow it's own foreign policy instead of Washington and Israel's by voting in favor of the Palestinians and calling to end the sanctions against Russia to protect European interests.

Now that this attack has happened will France continue on it's own foreign policy path or will it fall into line with Washington and Israel's?

Does it really makes sense to keep funding and arming foreign Islamic rebel groups that have a rather famous nasty habit of taking the money the training and the weapons and defecting to the radical Islamic groups?

If you think it does, how do you keep convincing yourself that your conclusion has been rendered without bias during a careful examination of all the available evidence?

Now we're back to who benefits.

Who benefits most from Islamic terrorist attacks against Western countries?

The Muslim world that get's treated with more contempt after each attack?

Or

The western governments that gain more power and control over their own populations by an instant and almost unanimous call to give more power and control to the government to protect us from the Muslim world?

And the last question.

What are the three things government desires the most?

 

So, only Muslims can identify themselves as Muslims?

Evidence? You mean like masked men identifying themselves as Muslims?

Then why would they attack Charlie?

I beg to differ they also have Washington, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, France and the UK funding them training them and arming them.

Oops. You missed a couple questions.

What the Charlie Hebdo Execution Video Really Shows

I am well aware that I’m stepping into a hornet’s nest by posting this video, which is going viral. Those who wish to silence all debate have an easy card to play here, accusing me of buying into a conspiracy theory. There’s only one problem: unlike the video-maker, I have few conclusions to draw about what the significance of this video is in relation to the official story. That is not why I am posting it.

But it does, at least to my mind and obviously a lot of other people’s, judging by how quickly it’s spreading, suggest that Ahmed Merabet, the policeman outside the Charlie Hebdo office, was not shot in the head, as all the media have been stating.

That said, it does not prove much more. It doesn’t prove that Merabet did not die at the scene. Maybe he bled to death there on the pavement from his earlier wound. It certainly doesn’t prove that the Kouachi brothers were not the gunmen or that the one who fired missed on purpose. Maybe he just missed.

Nor does the video’s removal from most websites prove that there is some sort of massive cover-up going on. Ideas of good taste, especially in the immediate aftermath of a massacre close to home (ie here in the West), can lead to a media consensus that a video is too upsetting. That can occur even if it does not show blood and gore, simply because of what it implies. Herd instinct in these instances is very strong.

But the unedited video clip does leave a sour taste: because unless someone has a good rebuttal, it does indeed seem impossible that an AK-47 bullet fired from close range would not have done something pretty dramatic to that policeman’s head. And if the video is real – and there doesn’t seem much doubt that it is – it clearly shows nothing significant happened to his head either as or after the bullet was fired.

So what points am I making?

Continue . . . http://www.globalresearch.ca/what-the-charlie-hebdo-execution-video-really-shows/5424505

Laws have certain flexibility to them, the vast legroom that allows a degree of significant contortions. The most resilient ones tend to be those concerning security. Where safety is perceived to be at stake, the legroom widens. Interpreters of national security laws tend to make leaps to extend their application as far as possible. Rather than reading down the effects of legislation, with the tendencies to limit civil liberties, the desire lies in expanding power. The drafting, for that reason, is fundamental.

Since 2000, the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) has noted an institutionalised campaign against that noble profession, with a notable increase in incarcerations.

“Throughout the world, CPJ research has found, the vague wording of national security and terror legislation has allowed the authorities wide latitude to retaliate against reporters covering sensitive issues” (Feb, 2013).

In 2012, the number of journalists incarcerated reached 232, of whom 132 were held on grounds pursued under national security legislation. This makes poor reading, but even more striking is the performance of countries keen to trumpet the virtues of a free press with its assortment of liberties. While doing so, they have also been busy cutting strips from various sacred cows.

CPJ reports that the use of such national security legislation to target practitioners of the journalistic code was regrettably pioneered by US authorities from the Bush administration onwards. “The United States helped legitimise the tactic by imprisoning at least 14 journalists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay throughout the past decade.”

In October last year, the National Union of Journalists told the British Parliament that police misuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) to snoop on journalists and sources was “systematic and institutionalised.” An example that caught the eye of parliamentarians was how the police surreptitiously obtained a Mail on Sunday’s reporter’s home records in connection with former MP Chris Huhne’s speeding fraud.

Read More At: http://www.globalresearch.ca/her-majestys-police-state-and-britains-regulation-of-investigatory-powers-act-ripa-keeping-national-security-vague/5425389


Can someone please explain to me why no western leader has called for and end to the funding, training and arming of foreign Islamic groups? They'll all claim to need more money, more power and more control over our lives so they can protect us from the threat of global Islamic terrorism but none ever step up and say hey, stupid stop giving the foreign Islamic groups money training and weapons!

It seem like a no brainier to me. The first step in combating terrorism should be to stop enabling terrorists!

 

Yeah I figured the answers might bring on an episode of cognitive dissonance.

Weird how that happens when what you're being told doesn't line up with the evidence. I go with the evidence, most others go with what they're told. Easier and less painful that way I guess. And ya still get to be accepted by all the right people. Yay!

 

US troops training Syrian ‘moderates’ could top 1,000 – Pentagon

The Pentagon announced that a mission to train the “moderate” Syrian opposition may involve over 1,000 US troops. The first soldiers may flow into the region in a month, while the trained fighters may return to Syria to “fight ISIS” by the end of 2015.

The earlier announced number suggested 400 pairs of US boots on the ground in countries neighboring Syria, where the training will take place. However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a press briefing on Friday that the total number "could approach 1,000."

"It might even exceed that. I can't rule that out," Kirby added.

http://rt.com/usa/223559-us-troops-syria-training/

 

NEO: Paris Terror, the Smell of False Flag

(Editor’s note: Republished here after being published in Russia, this was our opening story on the Paris attack. We got it right day number one.)

We have smoking gun evidence no one can refute that at least one aspect of the Paris terror attacks was theatrically staged. This reminds me of what a priest told me years ago, “You get caught having sex with just one little boy and they label you a pedophile.”

The internet is now filled with amateur exposes, one thing is different this time. Not only are the “amateurs” right, some of them are very right.

Read More At: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/01/15/neo-paris-terror-the-smell-of-false-flag/

The 7.62 x 39 round has ballistics similar to a .30 .30 round although the .30 .30 round normally is loaded with heavier bullets 150 -180 grains vs the typical 7.62 x 39 123 grain bullets. I have fired my share of 7.62 x 39 out of Ak's and SKS's. The Russian rounds as most military surplus rounds do have a steel core. They have steel cases and copper washed steel full metal jacketed bullets, not thin work hardened pure copper jacketed bullets like most American made ammo.

AK 47s aren't known for being all that accurate, their mechanisms are sloppy and loose to maintain battle field reliability in the worst possible conditions. Up close and personal is where they shine. If you or I were to fire one at the sidewalk from three feet it would take out a chunk of that sidewalk. If it hit a person's head from that range there would be no doubt as blood bone and brain matter would be all over the sidewalk in a micro second.

Yet in the video there is none of that. Is this another case of a "magic bullet"?

Anyone who has trained with blank ammo in the military can tell you that you need a special attachment on the end of the barrel to facilitate the action cycling out the spent round and loading a fresh one. Without this attachment a full or semi auto "assault" rifle becomes a single shot. Now that I've said that I will say that AK 47s do not have a bolt that will "hold open" after the last round has been fired.

But an AK 47 will eject the last round in the mag with no problem at all. It's just that the bolt won't "hold open" after it does.

 

Freedom of Speech? Boston Mayor Bans Bad Mouthing of Olympics, as Facebook Will Filter Out “Fake News”

In case you need a refresher, here’s the text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Apparently, this doesn’t apply to the Mayor of Boston when it comes to silencing the speech of public employees who may not like that the Olympics may be coming to town.

The Boston Globe reports that:

http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/01/21/freedom-of-speech-boston-mayor-bans-bad-mouthing-of-olympics-as-facebook-will-filter-out-fake-news/

 

Former U.S. intelligence linguist and national security veteran Scott Rickard accused American intelligence of looking the other way to enable the Hebdo Charlie terrorist attacks in Paris that dominated headlines and reopened international talks to combat terrorism with increased spy powers.

Rickard, who claims to have worked under numerous operations including Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Communications Security (COMSEC), Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), charged that members of the intelligence community were aware of the attacks before hand, but did not reveal information that could have stopped them, in order to further a “hidden agenda.”

That 3 minute interview can be viewed here.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/hidden-agenda-within-intelligence-community-allowed-paris-attacks-for-a-police-state-with-grand-spy-powers_01222015