The murder of Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi was an organized hit to cover up direct arm deals. ● A former CIA gun runner revealed that the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in order to cover up the U.S. State Department’s direct arm shipments to al-Qaeda. William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee started his career as a CIA contract pilot in the late 1950s, delivering guns and ammunition on behalf of the agency to Fidel Castro. Plumlee confirmed that such arm deals are still common today, with the State Dept. shipping arms to al-Qaeda via the CIA.

The National Security Agency's employees misused the agency's surveillance power and eavesdropped on the phone calls of girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives and spouses and engaged in other "intentional" abuses of their authority on "12 occasions" since 2003, according to a newly released letter by the agency’s inspector general. ● According to a letter by NSA inspector general Dr. George Ellard, the NSA employees at times have been caught in collecting intelligence on love interests. But until now, the specific examples and the frequency of such cases have never been disclosed by the NSA. The practice is known as LOVEINT. Spy agencies often refer to their various types of intelligence collection with the suffix of 'INT,' such as 'SIGINT' for collecting signals intelligence, or communications; and 'HUMINT' for human intelligence, or spying, the WSJ reports.

Russia Today: Intelligence agencies want 'all the phone records,' defend surveillance programs

Jason Liosatos speaks to Dr Paul Craig Roberts, former head of policy at the Department of Treasury under Ronald Reagan, and editor of the Wall Street Journal. They talk about the casino like financial system and the destructive addiction of profit and control by those running it. Paul outlines the consequences we could be facing if it continues its disastrous trajectory without vision or wisdom, and helps us understand where it all went wrong and why. They discuss Syria, as the Iraq deja vu, as it becomes obvious our governments are openly lying and will do virtually anything to push forward their hegemonic intentions worldwide, regardless of the damage to the population or the planet. Paul Craig Roberts on AWIP

Russia has enough evidence to assert that homemade sarin was used on August 21 in a chemical attack near Damascus, the same type but in higher concentration than in an Aleppo incident earlier this year, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said. “On the occasion of the incident in the vicinity of Aleppo on March 19, 2013 when the United Nations, under the pressure of some Security Council members, didn’t respond to the request of the Syrian government to send inspectors to investigate, Russia, at the request of the Syrian government, investigated that case, and this report, i.e. the results of this investigation are broadly available to the Security Council and publicly,” Lavrov said. “The main conclusion is that the type of sarin used in that incident was homemade. We also have evidence to assert that the type of sarin used on August 21 was the same, only of higher concentration.” The minister said he had recently presented his US counterpart John Kerry with the latest compilation of evidence, which was an analysis of publicly available information.

Russia Today: UN checking 7 reported chemical incidents in Syria, incl 3 near Damascus

In the face of increasing threat of unilateral military actions against turmoil-ridden countries, Russia has raised the issue of some nations attempting to spin international law as they see fit. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has spoken on the problem of international security and the brief respite that the Russia-brokered chemical arms deal has given the embattled Syrian government in an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia.

A charm offensive toward the West by Iran's new president and his nuanced approach to his predecessor's Holocaust denial have run into an Israeli wall of suspicion hardened by Tehran's nuclear pursuits. ● Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not be fooled by Hassan Rouhani's international outreach, and the world must not be either. So when Netanyahu arrives in the United States next week, he will be on what aides describe as a mission to unmask Iran's new administration - even as the West sees a potentially promising partner for negotiations to stop what it fears is a drive by the Iranians to develop atomic weapons. "We've anticipated ever since Rouhani's election that there would be American dialogue with Iran," a senior Israeli official taking part in the annual U.N. forum told Reuters. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian energy purposes only. Rouhani said in his U.N. speech on Tuesday that nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction "have no place in Iran's security and defense doctrine. Israel, widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, demands a total rollback of Iran's nuclear projects, including uranium enrichment and plutonium production that could arm a bomb.

Stephen Lendman: Rohani in New York
Pepe Escobar: Rouhani surfs the new WAVE
Salon.com: Iran president: We’re tired of war
Boston Herald: Iran tries to shine light on Israeli nukes
Haaretz: In this UN act, Iran is the star and Israel is the grump observing from the sidelines

US puts pressure on India because of their cheap medicine that undercuts big Pharma. ● On the eve of a meeting between US president Barack Obama and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh at the White House, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today warned that India faces retaliatory political pressure from the US government and pharmaceutical industry for its efforts to legally limit abusive patenting practices and to increase access to affordable generic medicines. Pharmaceutical companies are aggressively lobbying congress and the Obama administration in a broad campaign to press India into changing its intellectual property laws. India is a critical producer of affordable medicines, and competition among generic drug manufacturers there has brought down the price of medicines for HIV, TB, and cancer by more than 90 percent.

David Sirota: For all the scoffing among "journalists" at Glenn Greenwald, Americans trust the media more after his disclosures. ■ There should be no doubt that the whistle-blowing of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and the reporting by Glenn Greenwald at the Guardian together comprise the single biggest ongoing media story of the last few months — and it has truly been a media story. Indeed, unlike the journalism that surrounds a spontaneous event like a natural disaster, the reporting surrounding the NSA disclosures is, in part, about the fundamental relationship between the press and the government. More specifically, as Snowden himself said, it is about “the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government” by publishing material the government wants to keep secret.

There are five reasons for the world economic crisis and it cannot end happily. This is the opinion of our expert Marc Russe Ph.D., MBA Columbia University. He is the author of many books and he was the general manager of such transnational corporations as Carrefour, Aventis and Veolia for 20 years.

“Because I said so, that’s why.” That is the creed of authoritarians and thugs in jackboots the world over and that was basically what occurred in this traffic stop gone terribly wrong. A simple traffic violation ended up with an angry cop shattering a terrified woman’s car window and forcing her to the pavement face down simply because she only wanted to roll the window down half way. In true “serve and protect fashion” the officer said to terrified woman, “If you don’t open the window I”m going to break the window.” When the woman calmly and reasonably asked why he insisted the window be rolled down more than halfway, while steadfastly refusing to cave to his raised voice and threats, the uniformed bully escalated, shattering her window and sending glass all over her as she visibly cringed away from him. She was then dragged from the car and placed face down on the pavement before being cuffed.

The following is an open letter written by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of the Russian punk rock band “Pussy Riot”:

Beginning Monday, 23 September, I am going on hunger strike. This is an extreme method, but I am convinced that it is my only way out of my current situation. The penal colony administration refuses to hear me. But I, in turn, refuse to back down from my demands. I will not remain silent, resigned to watch as my fellow prisoners collapse under the strain of slavery-like conditions. I demand that the colony administration respect human rights; I demand that the Mordovia camp function in accordance with the law. I demand that we be treated like human beings, not slaves.

About half of the American people disapprove of US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy when it comes to Iran and Syria, a new poll shows. ● The latest New York Times and CBS News poll, which was taken before Obama’s UN speech, indicated that 49 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of foreign policy -- the highest disapproval Obama has ever received on this measure. The negative rating has increased among all political groups, with disapproval up 8 percentage points among Democrats, 10 points among Republicans and 13 points among independents. According to the poll, 52 percent disapproved of the way the US president was handling the situation in Syria and 82 percent backed the US-Russia agreement to have Syria turn over all of its chemical weapons.

● Weeks of failed efforts to sell the Syrian War to the American public seemingly still aren’t over, as President Obama used the occasion of his speech to the UN General Assembly to demand a UN resolution authorizing military action against Syria if the chemical disarmament process stalls.
● While giving lip-service to the idea of diplomacy, President Obama made it clear repeatedly during the speech that his view of American “exceptionalism” centers entirely around its willingness to fight unwise wars.
● “I believe America is exceptional, in part because we have shown a willingness, through the sacrifice of blood and treasure, to stand up not only for our own narrow self-interest, but for the interests of all,” Obama insisted. This of course segued back into calls for authorization to attack Syria.

Bill Van Auken: Obama at the UN: A defense of unilateral aggression ■ Aside from the self-serving contention that Washington’s unending military interventions—from Somalia to the Balkans, Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Central Africa and elsewhere in the past two decades alone—are in the “interest of all,” this use of the term American exceptionalism betrays a historical ignorance that is unintentionally revealing. [...] Now, America’s “exceptionalism” is invoked not to praise American wealth and democratic institutions, but to justify American militarism—the means by which US imperialism increasingly seeks to offset its relative economic decline. This testifies to the depth of its political crisis, and the revolutionary implications of the sweeping changes in social relations during the past 35 years, which have turned the US into one of the most socially unequal nations on the planet.

Stephen Lendman: Obama's General Assembly Address ■ His address didn't surprise. It was beginning-to-end demagogic boilerplate. It featured imperial mumbo jumbo. He turned truth on its head like he always does. A year ago he claimed intervening in Libya was to "cope with violent conflict, care for the wounded, and craft a vision for the future in which the rights of all Libyans would be respected." "And after the revolution, (he) supported the birth of a new democracy, as Libyans held elections, and built new institutions, and began to move forward after decades of dictatorship." Fact check: Libya was Africa's most developed country. Most Libyans supported Gaddafi. They did so for good reasons. He provided free healthcare, education and much more. His Libya no longer exists. Obama turned it into a charnel house. Now Libya's a failed state. Obama lied claiming otherwise. He bears full responsibility for what happened. He moved on. He's waging war on Syria. He wants another imperial trophy. He'll stop at nothing to get it. Rogue states operate this way.

The U.S. military has been forced to relocate a large fleet of drones from a key counterterrorism base on the Horn of Africa after a string of crashes fanned local fears that the unmanned aircraft were at risk of colliding with passenger planes, according to documents and interviews. Air Force drones ceased flying this month from Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. installation in Djibouti, after local officials expressed alarm about several drone accidents and mishaps in recent years. The Pentagon has temporarily moved the unmanned aircraft from the U.S. base in Djibouti’s capital to a makeshift airstrip in a more remote part of the country.

Balochistan government spokesman Jan Mohammad Buledi Wednesday morning confirmed that 238 265 people have died in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that flattened almost everything in the Awaran district, while 8 persons perished in Turbat of Balochistan, Geo News reported. ● Buledi said that in all six districts of Balochistan were hit by the earthquake, which included Turbat, Awaran, Panjgor, Chagi, Khuzdar and Gawadar, while of them Awaran witnessed widespread devastations, where in Tehsil Mashkay alone 55 persons died. The provincial government has declared emergency. Rescue work is underway and the Frontier Corps and the Army are providing aid to the victims. District Administration and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority are also doing its utmost to provide relief and succour to the suffering people in the area. The scale of the territory involved is daunting. Awaran district has an estimated population of around 300,000, scattered over an area of more than 21,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles). Officials said the tremors demolished hundreds of mud houses and it was feared that the death toll would increase.

Geo News: بلوچستان: زلزلے سے جاں بحق افراد کی تعداد 265 ہوگئی
BBC: Pakistan earthquake: Hundreds dead in Balochistan - Video

Warsaw has, for a second time in 12 months, rejected a request from the European Court of Human Rights to hand over information involving the alleged existence of secret CIA prisons operating on its territory. ● The Polish government said it could not comply with a new request filed by the European court over the detention of Saudi-born Abu Zubaydah, who was later transferred to Guantanamo Bay prison, Reuters reported Tuesday. The officials said their comments might compromise a Polish criminal investigation. Although Poland has been applauded for being the only Eastern European country to begin its own investigation into claims of clandestine CIA prisons operating in the country, human rights activists have expressed their frustration with the lack of progress in the government’s five-year-old inquiry. Human rights organizations say the secret prisons served for "extraordinary rendition" of suspects who were flown in from around the world without legislative oversight, and were often tortured.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday delivered his first English-language TV message to the American people in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

● "I would like to say to American people: I bring peace and friendship from Iranians to Americans."

Rouhani is in many ways the "it" man of this U.N. General Assembly, where Western leaders are trying to gauge whether his diplomatic overtures will translate into concrete policy changes. He has recently exchanged letters with U.S. President Barack Obama, and there had been suspicion brewing in diplomatic circles that the two leaders would meet face-to-face, informally, at the United Nations in New York. "There were some talks about it," Rouhani told Amanpour through a translator. "And preparation for the work was done a bit as well." "The United States declared its interest in having such a meeting, and in principle Iran could have under certain circumstances allowed for it to happen," he said. "But I believe we didn't have sufficient time to really coordinate the meeting to the full extent that we needed to." Two senior U.S. administration officials told CNN on Tuesday that the encounter was called off because it was considered "too complicated" for Iran back home.

Russia Today: Rouhani acknowledges Holocaust, dismisses nuclear threat accusations

The photo splashed on the cover of a Greek newspaper this weekend shocked a nation: Pavlos Fyssas, a Greek rapper whose music inveighed against far-right groups, lay dying in a pool of his own blood as his girlfriend cradled him in her arms, moments after he was stabbed in the heart. ● The suspect has been linked to Greece’s neo-fascist Golden Dawn party. Almost as chilling are accusations by some witnesses that a squad of police officers stood by as a group of burly, black-clad party members chased Mr. Fyssas down. A police spokesman denied that account, saying officers arrived right after the stabbing, in a gritty Athens suburb last Wednesday, and promptly arrested the suspect. The killing of Mr. Fyssas has spurred the government to begin a risky crackdown on Golden Dawn, opening its first investigation into whether the police forces are infiltrated by sympathizers or members of the group, one of the most violent rightist organizations in Europe.

President Barack Obama used powerful historical imagery Tuesday in defending his original call for military action in Syria, invoking memories of the Holocaust to denounce the Assad regime's purported use of chemical weapons. "The ban against the use of chemical weapons, even in war, has been agreed to by 98 percent of humanity," he continued. "It is strengthened by the searing memories of soldiers suffocating in the trenches, Jews slaughtered in gas chambers, Iranians poisoned in the many tens of thousands." [Probably written by his Jewish speechwriter, US deputy national security adviser Benjamin Rhodes.]

Times of Israel: Full text of Obama’s 2013 speech at UN General Assembly
Stephen Lendman: Obama's General Assembly Address
VoR: The US is an insane power like the Nazis – Dr. Edward Herman

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the Jewish state’s delegation to walk out of Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s address to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday afternoon. “Despite the charm offensive by the new Iranian president, the policies of the regime toward Israel have not changed,” Netanyahu said in a statement. Netanyahu reiterated he is not buying the new Iranian leader’s course for a moderate path, stating that Iran is still pursuing a nuclear weapon.[Remember: The shitty little state already has them.]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff lambasted US spying on her country at Tuesday’s UN summit, calling it a “breach of international law.” She further warned that the NSA surveillance, revealed since June, threatened freedom of speech and democracy.

“Meddling in such a manner in the lives and affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and as such it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries, especially among friendly nations,” Rousseff said. “Without the right to privacy, there is no real freedom of speech or freedom of opinion,” Rousseff told the gathering of world leaders. “And therefore, there is no actual democracy,” she added, criticizing the fact that Brazil had been targeted by the US.

The Guardian: Brazilian president: US surveillance a 'breach of international law'

The Telegraph: Nairobi terror attack: Americans and Briton 'among the gunmen' ● At least two Americans and one Briton were among the gunmen that stormed the Westgate mall in Nairobi, killing at least 69 people, the Kenyan foreign minister has said. Amina Mohamed said in an interview with “PBS Newshour” that “two or three Americans” and “one British woman” were among the militants in the attack. She said the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived “in Minnesota and one other place” in the United States. The British jihadist was a woman who has “done this many times before,” Ms Mohamed said, adding to speculation that it was the "White Widow", Samantha Lethwaite.

VoR: Nairobi massacre over: '5 terrorists killed, 11 arrested' - Kenyan President

Kenny's Sideshow: World Wide Gladio ■ The strategy of tension keeps moving around so no predictable pattern can be established. Earlier this last week it was the DC Navy Yard and this time it's Kenya and the attack is in an upscale Israeli owned mall. The dead include Africans, Europeans, Asians and North Americans. So far no reports of any Israelis killed even though there's a Dead Sea mud kiosk there which you might think would be a top priority for any self respecting 'terrorist.' Israeli advisers are johnny-on-the-spot to help formulate a strategy though. The recent discovery of oil deposits in Kenya's Turkana County could increase insecurity in the region. No kidding?

Chris Floyd: Sword Play: Attacking Civilians to Justify "Greater Security" [2005] ■ 'You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security." This was the essence of Operation Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West -- against their own populations. Hundreds of innocent people were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks -- on train stations, supermarkets, cafes and offices -- which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political opponents. The purpose, as stated above in sworn testimony by Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra, was to demonize designated enemies and frighten the public into supporting ever-increasing powers for government leaders -- and their elitist cronies. First revealed by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti in 1991, Gladio (from the Latin for "sword") is still protected to this day by its founding patrons, the CIA and MI6. Yet parliamentary investigations in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have shaken out a few fragments of the truth over the years. These have been gathered in a new book, "NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe," by Daniele Ganser.

AWIP: Report: US military to hit targets in Kenya, other African states ■ So now we know who started this and why - Israel & its puppet state, the US. Their list of targets clearly was prepared a long time ago. Then a wee bit of proxy terror and the public's ready to accept it all without any resistance. All they have to do is soften up a target area with some terror first and then they're ready to go. (Much more efficient than using missionaries, like they did over a century ago, and simpler too. Terrorists instead of missionaries. - Neat, isn't it?) East Africa's wide open to them now, the oil & gas, titanium & gold, all theirs for the taking. They can do whatever they like. There's nothing we can do about it. And they know it.

■ Tony Rooke refused to pay a TV license fee because the BBC intentionally misrepresented facts about the 9/11 attacks, he alleged. It is widely known that the BBC reported the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 over 20 minutes before it occurred. WTC 7 was a 47-story skyscraper that was not hit by a plane on 9/11 but collapsed at free-fall speed later that day.
■ So Rooke said the BBC had to have had prior knowledge to a terror attack making them complicit in the attack. He presented the BBC footage to the judge along with a slew of other evidence, and the judge agreed that Rooke had a reasonable case to protest. Rooke was found not guilty and he was not fined for failure to pay the licensing fee.
■ For all intents and purposes a UK ccourt has just ruled that the BBC was complicit in the september 11th, 2001 attacks in the United States. Fantastic. A small victory but a huge symbolic victory and one you would have never otherwised have heard of.

Five years after the near-collapse of the nation’s financial system, the economy continues a slow recovery marred by high unemployment, hesitant consumers and sluggish business investment. ● Many of the top Wall Street bankers who were largely responsible for the disaster — and whose companies either collapsed or accepted billions in government bailouts — are also unemployed. But since they walked away from the disaster with millions, they’re juggling their ample free time between mansions and golf, skiing and tennis. Meantime, the major banks that survived the crisis, largely because they were saved with taxpayer money after being deemed “too big to fail,” are now bigger and more powerful than ever.

The United States is reportedly preparing a list of targets for possible military strikes in Kenya and some other African countries.
● Former US general Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said the strikes are aimed at targeting militants involved in Sunday's deadly attack on a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.
● Somalia’s Al-Shabab fighters have reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it is in retaliation for Kenya’s military actions inside Somalia.
● This as Kenyan security sources in Nairobi revealed that Israel has sent its special forces to Kenya to fight with the militants at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, according to an AFP report. The report added that Israeli Commandoes were airlifted to the east African country just after the start of the attack.

So now we know who started this and why - Israel & its puppet state, the US. Their list of targets clearly was prepared a long time ago. Then a wee bit of proxy terror and the public's ready to accept it all without any resistance. All they have to do is soften up a target area with some terror first and then they're ready to go. (Much more efficient than using missionaries, like they did over a century ago, and simpler too. Terrorists instead of missionaries. Neat, isn't it?) East Africa's wide open to them now, the oil & gas, titanium & gold, all theirs for the taking. They can do whatever they like. There's nothing we can do about it. And they know it. - Editor