2019-09-09: News Headlines

RT (2019-09-09). Another probe?! Democrats to investigate Trump 'pressuring Ukraine' into 2020 election meddling. rt.com Democrat chairs of three House committees have accused the White House of pressuring Ukraine into "politically motivated" investigations into the business dealings of 2020 Democrat presidential frontrunner Joe Biden's son Hunter. | In a letter sent to the White House counsel on Monday, heads of the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees cited a "growing public record" for "nearly two years" that allegedly showed President Donald Trump's personal attorney Ru…

RT (2019-09-09). Trump says he 'could' meet with Iran President Rouhani. rt.com US President Donald Trump said he has "no problem with the idea" of meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. There are rumors the meeting could happen later this month at the UN General Assembly. | Trump left open the possibility of the meeting during one of his helicopter press-conferences at the White House on Monday, prior to departing for North Carolina. | Iran should straighten it out, because they're in a very bad position right now. | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that Trump was willing to meet with Rouhani "with no pre-condition," because "we don't want war with Iran." | Se…

WSWS (2019-09-09). Pamela Anderson defends Assange, challenges McCain's daughter on US TV. wsws.org Anderson's powerful refutation of the official smears against Assange demonstrated why the corporate media has instituted an almost universal blackout on the WikiLeaks founder.

WSWS (2019-09-09). FBI targets groups opposing Trump's concentration camps as "Extremists" wsws.org As the fascist in the White House continues his dictatorial measures on the border, a bipartisan group of politicians and intelligence agents is working to criminalize political opposition.

William D. Hartung (2019-09-09). The Raytheon United Technologies Merger and the Military Industrial Complex. William Hartung. globalresearch.ca The planned merger between Raytheon and United Technologies will only further consolidate a bloated military-industrial complex. | That's the take of William D. Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. | He is is …

Philip Giraldi (2019-09-09). Revisiting Stuxnet: The Israeli-American Computer Virus that Started Cyber-Warfare. globalresearch.ca New evidence has surfaced to demonstrate how both American and Israeli intelligence services, aided by European partners, have long been targeting Iran in spite of clear evidence that it constituted no threat. The story involves the Stuxnet virus or "worm," …

Stephen Lendman (2019-09-09). US-Taliban No-Peace "Peace Talks" globalresearch.ca On Sunday, Pompeo called talks with the Taliban dead, no agreement forthcoming without "significant commitments" from its authorities. | On Saturday, Trump cancelled what he called secret talks with the Taliban and (US-installed Afghan puppet) president Ghani to be held separately …

teleSUR (2019-09-09). Venezuela Rejects 'Lies' published by Colombian Outlet. telesurenglish.net Venezuelan Communication Minister Jorge Rodríguez offered Monday a press conference in which he denied a publication made by the magazine Semana this weekend that allegedly linked the Venezuelan Government to irregular groups in Colombia. | "The publication of Semana magazine is full of lies about the operations of the Venezuelan State," Rodríguez said as he showed evidence that dismantles the report, which he attributed to former Colombian President àÅlvaro Uribe Vélez as an intellectual author. | Rodríguez said the supposed document extracted from Venezuelan intelligence bodies does not correspond to…

Hannah Mowat (2019-09-09). Europeans Must Face Their Own Role in the Destruction of the Amazon. globalresearch.ca Images of the Amazon burning have caused global alarm. They have also, say observers, triggered a response unparalleled in the history of the politics around climate change: the setting of international red lines on environmental destruction. For President Macron …

RT (2019-09-08). Afghan peace talks dead 'for the time being' & US won't enter any agreement — Pompeo. rt.com US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that peace negotiations with Afghanistan's Taliban are dead and that Washington will not enter any future agreement without "commitments" from the militants. | Appearing on a round of cable news shows Sunday morning, Pompeo told one of these, Fox News, that negotiations with the Taliban are dead "for the time being," adding that Washington is recalling its special envoy to Afghanistan to work out its next steps. Also appearing on CNN, Pompeo said that the US would not enter into any future agreement with the Taliban without "significant commitments" from the fighters,…

Matt Field (2019-09-08). Strangelove Redux: US Experts Propose Having Artificial Intelligence (AI) Control Nuclear Weapons. globalresearch.ca Hypersonic missiles, stealthy cruise missiles, and weaponized artificial intelligence have so reduced the amount of time that decision makers in the United States would theoretically have to respond to a nuclear attack that, two military experts say, it's time for …

Edward Curtin (2019-09-08). US Media Propaganda. Drawing "Liberals" and "Leftists" into the CIA's Orbit. NPR. globalresearch.ca Back in the 1960s, the CIA official Cord Meyer said the agency needed to "court the compatible left." He knew that drawing liberals and leftists into the CIA's orbit was the key to efficient propaganda. Right-wing and left-wing collaborators were …

WSWS (2019-09-07). Peter Greste's panel discussion in Sydney: Support for censorship and throwing Assange to the wolves. wsws.org Greste advocates the anti-democratic conception that a "responsible journalist" censors information that is deemed too controversial for the population to know.

James Bovard (2019-09-06). 9/11 and the American Orwellian Nightmare. counterpunch.org Next week will mark the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Politicians and bureaucrats wasted no time after that carnage to unleash the Surveillance State on average Americans, treating every citizen like a terrorist suspect. Since the government failed to protect the public, Americans somehow forfeited their constitutional right to privacy. Despite heroic efforts by former NSA staffer Edward Snowden and a host of activists and freedom fighters, the government continues ravaging American privacy. More

RT (2019-09-06). 'Jack Ryan' TV show means US coup in Venezuela is toast. rt.com CIA agent Jack Ryan will tackle 'nuclear-armed' Venezuela in the next season of the Amazon streaming show. That is perhaps the clearest admission that Washington's attempt at regime change in Caracas has failed. | Amazon teased the second season of 'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan' this week, ahead of its premiere in November. The 90-second trailer shows the title character on a mission to Venezuela, which may have secretly obtained nuclear weapons from the evil Russians (who else?), or something to that effect. | Needless to say, this has been met with everything from raised eyebrows to outright derision by journalist…

Aaron Maté (2019-09-06). Embassy insider exposes CNN lies about Julian Assange. thegrayzone.com A "bombshell" CNN report claimed to show how Wikileaks founder Julian Assange published stolen Democratic Party emails in 2016 in…

unitedEditor (2019-09-06). NATO Deep State in Turkey. uwidata.com àúnal àáevikà∂z, the deputy opposition leader of the main opposition party in Turkey, the Republican People's Party (RPP, Turk. CHP), commented on President Recep Tayyip Erdoƒüan's recent trip to Russia, saying: "We are concerned that if Turkey, a member of NATO, continues to purchase weapons that are not can be integrated into the Alliance system, …

Edward Curtin (2019-09-06). Will NPR Now Officially Change Its Name to National Propaganda Radio? dissidentvoice.org Back in the 1960s, the CIA official Cord Meyer said the agency needed to "court the compatible left." He knew that drawing liberals and leftists into the CIA's orbit was the key to efficient propaganda. Right-wing and left-wing collaborators were needed to create a powerful propaganda apparatus that would be capable of hypnotizing audiences into …

RT (2019-09-06). Trump is going after Democrats' favorite lawfare tactic, AG Barr signals. rt.com US President Donald Trump has already faced nearly 40 nationwide injunctions against his policies, issued by federal judges following complaints by Democrats. Now his Justice Department is saying it might move against the tactic. | Remember the "Muslim ban"? One of Trump's first executive actions was to suspend travel to the US from several Muslim-majority countries, only to see it immediately blocked by federal judges in Hawaii and California. The expanded and revised travel ban was eventually upheld by the US Supreme Court, but only after more than a year of litigation. | The same scenario has played out wit…

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2019-09-06). Washington Supreme Court Establishes 'Very Important Precedent' for Climate Necessity Defense in Case of Valve-Turner Ken Ward. commondreams.org In a decision that could profoundly impact future litigation involving climate activists, the Washington Supreme Court this week refused to review a lower court's ruling to allow valve-turner Ken Ward to present a "necessity defense" for charges related to a 2016 multi-state action that temporarily shut down tar sands pipelines. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/ken1.jpg

RT (2019-09-05). Big Tech & Big Brother meet at Facebook HQ to discuss how to 'secure' US elections. rt.com Security teams for Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft met with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence's office to coordinate a strategy to secure the 2020 elections. | The tech platforms met with government officials at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters on Wednesday, the company has confirmed, boasting that Big Tech and Big Brother have developed a "comprehensive strategy" to get control of previous election-related "vulnerabilities" while "analyzing and getting ahead of new threats." | Facebook has scrambled to get in front of the 2020 election after being…

United Nations (2019-09-04). New technologies, artificial intelligence aid fight against global terrorism. un.org Although terrorists have become skilled at manipulating the Internet and other new technologies, artificial intelligence or AI, is a powerful tool in the fight against them, a top UN counter-terrorism official said this week at a high-level conference on strengthening international cooperation against the scourge.

Ben Norton (2019-09-03). 'Free Julian Assange!' say Roger Waters, John Pilger, and British MP Chris Williamson. thegrayzone.com Legendary musician Roger Waters sang "Wish You Were Here" in honor of Julian Assange, at a public concert outside the…

Fight Back (2019-08-31). Chicago students say, 'CIA off campus!'. fightbacknews.org Chicago, IL – On the afternoon of August 28, members of Students for a Democratic Society and AnakBayan Chicago, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, passed out flyers on the quad to oppose the partnership that the university has with the CIA. SDS members held a banner reading "CIA off campus," the slogan that has been used in past decades by student activists around the country in similar campaigns. Protesters held signs each detailing a different CIA operation and the number of deaths it caused. | In February 2018, the UIC announced that they had become a CIA Signature School. Only three months later, Gina…

Staff (2019-08-30). "All-Out Attack": Trump's Anti-Immigrant Policies Target Children, Cancer Patients & Servicemembers. democracynow.org On Tuesday, the Trump administration reportedly ended its "medical deferred action" program, which allows immigrants with serious health problems to stay in the U.S. for up to two years beyond the terms of their visas to receive critical treatment. Just one day later, it announced that some children born to U.S. servicemembers and government employees stationed overseas will no longer automatically receive citizenship. The policy changes come days after the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to allow the Trump administration to implement its rule banning almost all migrants from seeking asylum in the Unit…

Staff (2019-08-30). Family of Mexican Teenager Slain by Border Agent Awaits SCOTUS Ruling to Determine If They Can Sue. democracynow.org This fall, the Supreme Court will decide whether the parents of Sergio Hernández Gàºereca, a 15-year-old Mexican teen killed by a Border Patrol agent in 2010, can sue the American agent in a U.S. federal court. It's been nearly 10 years since Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa Jr. shot across the El Paso-Juárez border and struck Hernández Gàºereca in the head. The central question in the case is whether a Mexican citizen killed on Mexican soil by a U.S. border agent is protected by the U.S. Constitution — allowing for the family members of victims to file civil lawsuits. If the Supreme Court rules in…

ACLU (2019-08-27). New Resource Tool Sheds Light on Government's Prepublication Review System. aclu.org Millions of current and former government employees are subjected to this far-reaching censorship system. | This piece was originally published in Just Security. | For more than three years, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have been litigating a series of Freedom of Information Act requests relating to "prepublication review." Under this far-reaching censorship system, millions of current and former government employees, con…

Mnar Muhawesh (2019-08-26). Breaking The Media Blackout on the Imprisonment of Julian Assange. mintpressnews.com The same media that has spent years dragging Assange's name through the mud is now engaging in a blackout on his treatment. If you are waiting for corporate media pundits to defend freedom of the press, you're going to be disappointed.

ACLU (2019-08-23). Will North Carolina's Supreme Court Allow Racism to Remain a Persistent Factor in its Death Penalty? aclu.org North Carolina's Supreme Court will determine whether evidence of racism in capital punishment can be swept under the rug. | In 2009, North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act (RJA), which allowed defendants to strike the death penalty from their cases if they could show that racial discrimination was a factor in their prosecution. The law came as a response to a series of exonerations of Black people who were falsely convicted of crimes they did not commit by all-white or nearly all-white juries. The legislature took a bold step to address was what suspected to be deeply troubling evidence of racism infe…

Ricardo Vaz (2019-08-14). Venezuela's Maduro Reshuffles Cabinet as Supreme Court Strips Three Opposition Lawmakers of Immunity. venezuelanalysis.com The National Constituent Assembly will also evaluate bringing forward legislative elections.

splcenter (2019-08-13). SPLC joins brief opposing Kansas law targeting immigrants. splcenter.org The SPLC and 29 worker and immigrant rights organizations filed an amicus brief today urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a court decision stating that a Kansas identity theft law cannot be used to turn local law enforcement into immigration agents.