Unelected dictator to open big storage area for 'The Pet Goat,' the only book the sociopath's likely ever read Bush library event brings 5 presidents to Dallas - The nation's five surviving presidents will gather Thursday for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential [sic and sick] Center, a much-anticipated event expected to draw around 10,000 people to Southern Methodist University amid tight security from local and federal law enforcement. The invitation-only ceremony was expected to include speeches by Bush, President Barack Obama and former Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, Bush's father.

Israel’s attorney general says security officials can continue to access emails of foreign tourists landing at Ben-Gurion Airport. If they refuse, they can be denied access to the country. - Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein defended the practice in a statement, saying that such searches “are performed only in exceptional instances, after other relevant incriminating indications are found.” He added that travelers were not required to give security officers their password, but instead open the accounts on their own. But Marc Grey, an attorney for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), said the situation has little to do with passwords. "Passwords are not the issue, email accounts are about as private as it gets," he told Reuters. Although Weinstein added that the traveler is given every right to object the search, he made clear that doing so “will be one of the considerations taken into account when the authorities decide whether to allow his entry into Israel.”

News Forage: Israel airport guards may ask 'suspicious' tourists to open their email accounts

Canada’s government has come under fire for exploiting the issue of a “foiled terror plot” in the country and the April 15 bombings in the US in order to pass a controversial anti-terror bill, which is deemed harmful to civil liberties, Press TV reports. - The Bill S-7 will revive two controversial provisions of Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act if it is passed. The provisions were initially instituted after the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001. Under the first provision, Canada’s police is allowed to preemptively arrest individuals and hold them without charge for up to three days only on suspicion of being involved in ‘terrorism.’ Based on the second provision that provides an investigative hearing, an individual who is suspected of having knowledge of a ‘terrorist act’ can be forced to answer questions, and the person can be subjected to up to 12 months in prison over refusing to respond.

Tony Cartalucci: US-Canada Claim Iran-Al Qaeda Ties Despite US Funding Al Qaeda in Iran for Years

Keith Jones: Canadian government unveils “terror plot” as it adopts draconian new law - Canadian authorities boasted Monday afternoon that working in concert with the FBI and other U.S. national security agencies they had broken up a terrorist conspiracy involving an Iranian-based al-Qaeda cell. The announcement, made at a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) press conference, came just as the House of Commons was set to debate new anti-terrorism legislation that would give the state draconian new powers. [...] The little that has been revealed leaves no doubt that the timing of the arrests was a calculated political decision, made in close consultation with the highest levels of the U.S. government, and with the aim of stampeding the public on both sides of the border into accepting police-state measures.

The controversial but popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has moved to Iceland. The website had moved from Sweden to Greenland but the Pirates were not welcome in Greenland and have now moved to Iceland. The website thepiratebay.is is now up and running. Are the pirates welcome in Iceland? - "Well done, go Iceland" an Icelander said on Facebook. Many Icelanders have expressed their opinion on this unexpected pirate visit and many seem to be extremely happy about this. Whether the authorities will take any action still remains to be seen. General elections will be held on April 27th, or in only two days. The Icelandic Pirate Party has been gaining support and now has close to 10% support and it is extremely likely that they will make it into parliament. The party only has to pass the 5% election threshold to get MP's elected. The party will likely get 3 - 5 MP's, out of 63. It will be interest to see the party's reaction to the Pirate Bay's movement to Iceland.

I was brought up in a country that believed itself to be open and tolerant. Indeed after the Second World War Germany undertook to transform guilt into responsibility. For me, it was always clear that our commitment to those "inviolable and inalienable human rights (1)" as well as freedom of speech (2), were the most precious values and lessons to be drawn from our problematic past. This is why, three months ago, I was dismayed to discover that Freiburg University, one of our oldest German universities, banned an event hosting renowned Paris University Professor Christophe Oberlin who was scheduled to talk about plastic surgery in Gaza.

Freiburg University hosts all kinds of political events, especially and regularly events organized by notorious Israeli Hasbara outlets such as the German Israeli Society and the Zionist Anti-Deutsche. And, if this is not enough, invitations to German Israeli Society events are often publicised by the university, its official bodies and its departments. But for some reason, for Freiburg University, freedom of speech and tolerance seems to end when it comes to the plight of the Palestinian people. The same university, which provides a platform for the German Israeli Society and the Zionist Anti-Deutsche will not provide a platform for Freiburg Cafe Palestine – a humanitarian non-political organization dedicated to the suffering of the Palestinian. In fact, the same university banned Cafe Palestine’s event hosting a prestigious French academic. The official motto of the university,‘The Truth Will Set You Free’ is engraved in shiny gold letters above one of the university's entrances, yet the university itself is clearly terrified of the truth being told within its walls.

Peter Lloyd is suing his gym over banning men at certain times. Men and boys are banned for a total of 442 hours every year. The gym say it is to make women more comfortable. 'I'm suing the gym for gender bias. Not simply because their policy is unfair, but because it pathologises masculinity while simultaneously repressing it.' - When I became a member of my local gym, it was to exercise my body - not my human rights. But that's exactly what I'm doing with the Kentish Town Sports Centre in north London. The venue, owned by fitness company Better in association with Camden Council, attracts hundreds of people from all sections of society: religious, atheist, male, female, young and old. There is no dominant demographic. Everybody is welcome and everybody gets on. But not everybody is equal. Because, in an age of political over-correctness, they ban all men and boys for 442 hours every year - simply because they are male. Adding insult to injury, they still charge them the same full-price membership fee as women, but refuse to offer the equivalent option of male-only sessions. Not only is this an outrageous business model, but it's also sexist. Especially given that council officials base it almost solely on women's needs. Fair? I think not.

Mike Adams: In a police state, citizens have no rights and can be ordered around at the whims of a militarized police force whose goons run around in black uniforms, terrorizing the populace. Welcome to Boston, 2013. The police state is running wild in this city, and it has reached the point where innocent families are being ordered out of their own homes by screaming, aggressive, 'roid-head SWAT teams armed with overwhelming firepower. This is what has emerged from a secret YouTube video that had to be covertly filmed while ducking behind a window. Click here to watch the shocking video.

Lee Rogers: Many Bostonians Love And Worship The Militarized Police State

The parents of the two brothers accused of detonating explosives near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last week are expected to come to the United States to assist with an investigation into the terrorist attack. The mother and father of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been cooperating with US authorities from their native Russia in the days since a pair of homemade bombs blew up in Boston last Monday, killing three and injuring more than 200 others. Now according to the latest reports, Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev are slated to soon come stateside in order to answer more questions about their children as authorities search for answers.

Considering that the establishment based their whole new narrative & story about the 2 Tsarnaev brothers on this photo, citing he ran away without his backpack...Is this evidence that the FBI are trying to use these boys as patsies?

ADG News: Boston Commissioner Calls Tamerlan and Dzhokhar “ACTORS” 2013 - VIDEO - Highly embarrassing and suspicious slip-up by Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis during a live interview with Fox News. Slip of the tongue or something else? This is a complete farce! Clip from Fox News Sunday.

Kerry Pushes for More Rebel Aid Anyhow - In a world where “Israel said so” is often seen as the only proof needed, US officials are expressing an unusual level of doubt today, saying they are “not persuaded” by Israeli claims Syria has used chemical weapons. The claims came at a Tel Aviv conference, where Brig. Gen. Itai Brun claimed Syria had “repeatedly” used sarin nerve gas, and accused the US of ignoring its own “red line” on military intervention in Syria. As with all of these claims, which have been floating around off and on for months, there is no proof to be had, and Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly pressed Benjamin Netanyahu on the matter, who said he couldn’t confirm anything about the general’s claim. Still, Kerry is not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and he cited the “chemical weapons threat” today in his latest exhortation for Western nations to throw more money at Syria’s rebels.

Stephen Lendman: Target Syria: Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use - New allegations claim Syrian chemical weapons use. We've heard similar ones before. Obama calls using them a "game changer." He also said their use crosses a "red line." Syrian officials are unequivocal. Weeks earlier, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad spoke for others saying: "Syria stresses again, for the 10th, the 100th time, that if we had such weapons, they would not be used against our people. We would not commit suicide." Alleging Syrian chemical weapons use resembles bogus claims about Saddam's nonexistent WMDs. It's similar to false charges against all US enemies. Big Lies launch wars. They facilitate them. They perpetuate them.

Joseph Kishore: US ramps up plans for military intervention in Syria - Responding to unsubstantiated allegations by Israel that Syria has used chemical weapons, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared at a NATO council meeting in Brussels on Tuesday that it was necessary to “carefully and collectively consider how NATO is prepared to respond to protect its members from a Syrian threat, including any potential chemical weapons threat.” The Obama administration has previously declared chemical weapons use to be a “red line” that would spark an aggressive response. The chemical weapons claims from Israel are based on photographs supplied by opposition forces relating to a battle that took place near Aleppo on March 19. The Assad regime has claimed that it was the rebels, not government forces, who used the weapons.

StormCloudsGathering: Problems with the Boston Bombing Story Surface

Independent investigative journalist Dan Dicks of Press For Truth produced a video detailing his interview with the Boston bombing suspects’ aunt where she identifies a naked, cuffed, clearly alive and well detainee seen in video aired by CNN, as her nephew and Boston bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tamerlan Tsarnaev would later be announced “dead,” with injuries covering his body from “head to toe.” The aunt is reportedly in fear for her life.

Politicker: Bloomberg Says Interpretation of Constitution Will ‘Have to Change’ After Boston Bombing
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James Corbett: Boston in Context: How the FBI Fosters, Funds and Equips American Terrorists

Twenty-one people, including police officers and social workers, were killed in violent clashes in China's ethnically-divided western region of Xinjiang, a local official said Wednesday. - "Twenty-one persons were killed in all... including social workers and policemen," an official surnamed Cao from the provincial government's news office said of the incident, which, he added, occurred on Tuesday. Gun fights broke out in Bachu county in the west of the province after police went to search the home of locals suspected of possessing illegal knives, a report on Tianshan Net, a government-run news website, said. It said 15 of those killed were either police or social workers, with 11 of them being members of China's Uighur ethnic minority, who live mainly in Xinjiang and are mostly Muslim.

The Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that the tens of thousands of nuclear warheads in the United States and around Europe pose a direct threat to humanity. Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh made the remarks in a speech at meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in Geneva on Tuesday. Soltanieh told the Committee:

“The continued existence of tens of thousands of nuclear warheads in the stockpile of the nuclear-weapon states, most of them on high-trigger alert, and their day by day modernization, constitute the most serious threat to the survival of mankind.”

PressTV: Obama’s nuclear U-turn: Billions set aside for B61 nukes - According to newly published figures, the United States will set aside more than USD 10 billion dollars for a life extension program for the B61 bombs and another USD one billion for adding controllable tail fins. The plan to give new tail fins to nearly 200 B61 gravity bombs stored in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey would give them new mission and new capabilities. The bombs could be delivered by stealth F35 fighter-bombers. "What will be going back to Europe will be a guided nuclear bomb…

Since the assaults on Fallujah in 2004, the city has seen an astronomical rise in birth defects and abnormalities, including some too new to even have a proper medical name. VICE went back to Iraq to investigate.

The EU's anti-terror chief has told the BBC that hundreds of Europeans are now fighting with rebel forces in Syria against Bashar al-Assad's regime. - Gilles de Kerchove estimated the number in Syria at about 500. Intelligence agencies are concerned some could join groups linked to al-Qaeda and later return to Europe to launch terrorist attacks. The UK, Ireland and France are among the EU countries estimated to have the highest numbers of fighters in Syria. "Not all of them are radical when they leave, but most likely many of them will be radicalised there, will be trained," Mr de Kerchove told the BBC. "And as we've seen this might lead to a serious threat when they get back." Across Europe, intelligence agencies have stepped up investigations, says the BBC's Europe correspondent Duncan Crawford. In Britain and Belgium they have increased efforts to track how people are recruited.

PressTV: Syria censures EU oil deal with rebels

As the debate rages on, no other person than the national spiritual leader — the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby — has waded in and used a word no want wants to hear: Depression. Welby has unusual standing in the world of money because in a previous life he served as an oil industry executive and now sits on the parliamentary banking standards committee. He told an audience at the heart of government in Westminster on Monday that there was an issue of confidence and trust — and there is need to rebuild both.

As the campaign builds, Lynne Stewart’s condition has taken a concerning turn for the worse. Her white blood cell count has dropped sharply. Lynne is in isolation currently and will be sent to a Fort Worth hospital for tests.

This news has lent a dramatic urgency to The International Petition Campaign to Save the Life of Lynne Stewart, even as it has crossed a new threshold: Over 10,000 people have signed the petition as signatories pour in daily from across the world. Noted associate of President Kwame Nkrumah, Ambassador Kojo Amoo-Gottfried, Ghana’s former ambassador to China, Vietnam, Cuba and Nicaragua, has called upon all who fought for self-determination and freedom to raise their voices now for “our dear sister in struggle, Lynne Stewart, even as she has fought for us over a lifetime.” The Socialist Forum of Ghana has launched a national campaign to save the life of Lynne Stewart. We must intensify our efforts in this battle for her freedom and her life. Ed Asner, Richard Falk, Daniel Ellsberg, Cornel West, David Ray Griffin, Richard Gage, Ward Churchill, Natsu Saito, Cindy Sheehan, Bonnie Kerness, Zachary Sklar, Alice Walker, Katha Pollitt, Michael Ratner, Sara Kuntsler, Heidi Boghosian, Wallace Shawn, San Francisco Supervisor John Avelos, Peter Kinoy, Peter Dale Scott, Wilhemina Levy, Cynthia McKinney, Pam Africa, and Louis Wolf are among current signers.

Stephen Lendman: Free Lynne Stewart Now

“Settling” constitutes a warcrime according to international law and ICC statute. Even under US’ own military legislations’ - On Monday The Times of Israel newspaper published the results of a poll conducted by Ariel University, revealing “the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews support Israel extending its sovereignty over some or all of the West Bank, either unilaterally or as part of an agreement.”The poll also found that 35% of respondents support the annexation of the entire West Bank under the control of the Israeli government, whilst 24% said that only settlement blocs should be annexed. Twenty percent said that any annexation should be part of an agreement with the Palestinians, while 12% believed that Israel does not need to annex any land to its territory. Only 9% had no answer to the question.According to the total percentage of the respondents who supported expansion in the West Bank, about 80% of Israelis support the expansion of Israeli sovereignty over the territory of the West Bank.

Occupied Palestine | فلسطين: SETTLER TERROR IN PHOTOS

British rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the United Nations Committee against Torture to hold Britain accountable over cases of “complicity in torture”, including by its military forces overseas.

HRW said in a memorandum to the UN Committee, ahead of its review of the UK in May 2013, that London is not complying with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in a number of areas. The rights group said it has urged the UN committee to hold the British government accountable for “complicity in torture”, “lack of an independent inquiry into UK complicity in rendition and torture overseas”, “abuses by UK forces in Iraq”, “expanded use of secret hearings in civil cases”, “breach of the principle of non-refoulement [rendering a true victim of persecution to their persecutor]”, “reliance on ‘diplomatic assurances’ against torture” and “reliance on material obtained under torture for intelligence and policing purposes”.

Peter Symonds: After Boston bombing, Australian media ramps up “war on terror” - The response of the Australian media and political establishment to the state of siege imposed on Boston following the April 15 bombings is a clear indication that the ruling elites are prepared to use the same kind of anti-democratic methods in Australia. In the extensive media coverage, the unparalleled military-police lockdown of a major American city in order to hunt down a single 19-year-old youth allegedly responsible for the bomb blasts was barely mentioned, let alone criticised. It was the photographs, rather than the words, that gave a glimpse of what was taking place—heavily-armed police and national guard troops in combat gear, armoured humvees patrolling the streets, “suspects” being handcuffed. The military and police-state methods that have been used for more than a decade to terrorise the populations of Afghanistan and Iraq—curfews, house-to-house searches, roadblocks, the shutdown of transport—are now being deployed in the United States. Yet the imposition of what is tantamount to martial law in Boston and the trampling on democratic rights is not questioned in the slightest by Australian politicians or in the media.

Keith Jones: Canadian government unveils “terror plot” as it adopts draconian new law - Canadian authorities boasted Monday afternoon that working in concert with the FBI and other U.S. national security agencies they had broken up a terrorist conspiracy involving an Iranian-based al-Qaeda cell. The announcement, made at a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) press conference, came just as the House of Commons was set to debate new anti-terrorism legislation that would give the state draconian new powers. [...] The little that has been revealed leaves no doubt that the timing of the arrests was a calculated political decision, made in close consultation with the highest levels of the U.S. government, and with the aim of stampeding the public on both sides of the border into accepting police-state measures.

Tony Cartalucci: US-Canada Claim Iran-Al Qaeda Ties Despite US Funding Al Qaeda in Iran for Years

Two New York City Police officers will not face charges after the Manhattan District Attorney decided that widely circulated videos of them punching and pepper-spraying protesters amounted to "insufficient evidence" that they had done so.

Anthony Bologna, the now-infamous NYPD inspector, was filmed in September 2011 spraying a group of female Occupy Wall Street protestors who had already been isolated and immobilized by a screen held by other officers. The video, which received well over a million views online and was skewered on late night television, became emblematic of the brutality endured by OWS demonstrators who found themselves on the receiving end of aggressive police tactics.

In the same statement, quietly issued on the Friday that came at the end of the heavy news week that included the Boston Marathon bombings, the District Attorney’s Office announced no charges would be filed against Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardonna. Cardonna was filmed in October 2011 punching protestor Felix Rivera-Pitra seemingly without provocation.

Russia Today: Thug (Cop) found not guilty of assault despite video proof - Video [02/28/13 - Philadelphia]

The Guantánamo hunger strike is, in the end, a protest against George Orwell’s Big Lie. I have not been able to read much during the 11 years I have been held here, and right now I am so dizzy from lack of food that I can barely focus. But when I have had the opportunity, I have read and re-read Orwell’s 1984. It is very instructive: “The key-word here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings … it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.” The Big Lie here in Guantánamo is the idea that holding 166 prisoners in Cuba somehow makes America safe from extremism. Ultimately, any Big Lie falls apart, but only if people care to look closely at it.

The Japanese government says it has detected eight Chinese government ships in the waters near a disputed East China Sea island chain, claimed both by Tokyo and Beijing. - Japan's coastguard said that the vessels entered the waters off the islands, which the Chinese call the Diaoyu and the Japanese call the Senkaku, around 8:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday. The move prompted Japan's Foreign Ministry to summon the Chinese ambassador to Tokyo in protest.

PressTV: ‘Japan may use force on disputed islands’

Muslims want a safe Canada, too. That's what Muhammad Robert Heft, a Muslim community leader in Scarborough, wants his fellow Torontonians to know as the RCMP arrested a Muslim man in the GTA for allegedly plotting a rail attack that would have taken innocent lives. Not only do Muslims in the city condemn the attack, they turned over information in a bid to help foil it. "There is going to be backlash," he said, alluding to those who will blame the Muslim community. "But I want to reiterate. Who was the one who tipped the RCMP off? It was our community."

PressTV: Iran rejects Canada’s claim about terror suspects's links
Two men due in court after Canada thwarts al-Qa'ida-linked plot to blow up US-Canada rail line
National Post: Arrests made in alleged Canadian terror plot