Ten years ago, the calling service had a reputation as a tool for evading surveillance but now it is under scrutiny for covertly passing data to government agencies. ● Skype is being investigated by Luxembourg's data protection commissioner over concerns about its secret involvement with the US National Security Agency (NSA) spy programme Prism, the Guardian has learned. The Microsoft-owned internet chat company could potentially face criminal and administrative sanctions, including a ban on passing users' communications covertly to the US signals intelliigence agency.

You can forget about any default in the debt ceiling crisis. Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Dr. Paul Craig Roberts says, “The debt ceiling will be raised. No government wants to lose its power or lose its ability to borrow. So, if they don’t raise the debt ceiling, it is just a way of Washington committing hari-kari. It simply removes the United States as a super power.” Dr. Roberts goes on to say, “If they don’t make a deal, one of two things will happen. . . . The Federal Reserve, on its own authority, lends the Treasury the money. . . . The other alternative, Obama . . . can simply declare a national emergency and raise the debt ceiling on his own initiative. He could govern as a dictator.” What would happen if the U.S. did default? Dr. Roberts says, “The danger of default is the rest of the world dumps dollars. If they dump dollars, the Fed loses control, the whole system blows up. The banks fail. The bond market collapses. The stock market won’t go down 1,500 points; it would be cut in half. ” No matter what happens, there is still an enormous and growing debt. Dr. Roberts contends, “The situation is unsustainable.” It will blow up at some point, and Dr. Roberts predicts, “It will be worse than the Great Depression because in the Great Depression, prices fell along with employment. Now, prices will be rising and employment would be falling. . . . Gold and silver prices will explode in dollar terms.” Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with former Assistant Treasury Secretary Dr. Paul Craig Roberts.

Paul Craig Roberts: A Caesar In Our Future?
Former US Treasury Official - President To Seize Total Power
No compromise: Obama refuses to raise debt ceiling for 6 weeks

At least 190 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage by Syrian rebels financed by private Gulf donors in an August 4 military offensive in the Latakia governorate, according to a Human Rights Watch report. ● At least 67 of the victims executed had lived in government-aligned Alawite villages, HRW said in its report, “You Can Still See Their Blood,” released Friday, which saw the events as the first evidence of planned crimes against humanity perpetrated by opposition forces. The killings took place when President Bashar Assad’s forces were overwhelmed by the militants, who then proceeded to enter the 10 Alawite villages nearby, sometimes rounding up and executing entire families, while taking others hostage. Torture and decapitations were also testament to the aggravated nature of the military offensive, proof of which was gathered by HRW through reports, witness statements, hospital records and materials recorded by the rebels themselves.

Syrian rebels committed crimes against humanity and executed civilians - HRW

French senators have congratulated Azerbaijan's President on a sweeping election victory, but they could have done it one day before the vote. The French politicians, Nathalie Goulet, Mohamed Soilihi and Jean-Claude Peroni - three of dozens of international monitors in the country - were quoted by Azerbaijan state press on Thursday (10 October) as saying Wednesday's poll was free and fair. "I did not see any difference in the election processes of our countries," France's Soilihi noted. The Central Election Commission (CEC) said that with 92 percent of the vote counted, the incumbent, Ilham Aliyev, won by 85 percent, while the top opposition candidate, Jamil Hasanli, got 5 percent. For its part, the EU foreign service is waiting for the verdict of the Vienna-based watchdog, the OSCE, due at noon Brussels time on Thursday, before speaking out. But a comical mistake earlier on Tuesday by the CEC indicates the regime pre-cooked the result. The CEC contracted a firm called Happy Baku to create a phone app to publish the outcome. But when the app became available for download one day ahead of the vote, it already contained a set of results: Aliyev 73 percent and Hasanli 7 percent. Activists based in Germany, which operate the opposition cable channel Meydan TV, published screen-grabs of the data. The news quickly acquired the tag "appgate" and reached EU officials in Brussels. It also made headlines on the British state broadcaster, the BBC, on Swedish TV and in the US daily, the Washington Post. The app equally quickly went offline. The Happy Baku chief also deleted his Facebook page, Twitter account and LinkedIn page.

The RQ-170 engines are the fifth generation and the engines of Iranian unmanned planes are the third generation, Hajizadeh said on Wednesday, adding that to produce the engine we had to spend 35 years on the project. He said that the home-made version of the US drone RQ-170 captured by the IRGC will make its maiden flight in the near future. ● In relevant remarks in September, Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC said an Iranian drone which has been manufactured through the reverse engineering of the US drone which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011 will be unveiled to the public soon. "All the memories and computer systems of this plane have been decoded and some good news will be announced in the near future not just about the RQ-170 and the optimizations that our forces have done on the reversed engineered model of this drone, but also in area of other important defense achievements," IRGC Lieutenant Commander General Hossein Salami said. ● Iran announced on December 4, 2011 that its defense forces had downed a US RQ-170 aircraft through a sophisticated cyber attack. The drone was the first such loss by the US. US officials have described the loss of the aircraft in Iran as a setback and a fatal blow to the stealth drone program. The RQ-170 has special coatings and a batwing shape designed to help it penetrate other nations' air defenses undetected. The existence of the aircraft, which is made by Lockheed Martin, has been known since 2009, when a model was photographed at the main US airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Richard Goldstone and his team personally confirmed the deaths of 47 children in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. But Wiesel says he doesn’t know anything about the killing of children in Gaza. How seriously can we take his pronouncements on Israeli policy or international affairs if he’s not aware of these basic facts? ● Elie Wiesel’s statements about Israel’s 2008-09 attack on Gaza don’t add up. On September 29, Wiesel appeared alongside Sheldon Adelson, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Shmuley Boteach to talk genocide and about how the “strong” can protect the “weak” in the context of the chemical weapons attack in Syria in August. “Israel is part of our lives. It is truly part of mine,” Wiesel said on stage. At the conclusion of the bizarre event, Max Blumenthal and I asked the world’s most famous Holocaust survivor an obvious, though unasked, question: who would protect the people of Gaza from Israel? His first answer (minute 6:20 in the video above) was that “all human beings should be protected everywhere.” When I pressed him about the 300 children killed in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead and whether he supported the assault, his response was: “I don’t know anything about it.” Blumenthal and I each tried one more time, and Wiesel again said he didn’t know anything about Cast Lead.

Should the government enforce the mandatory use of helmets while walking? 14 out of 20 people we asked at the University of Texas supported the draconian measure, emphasizing once again how the majority of the general public will accept almost any nanny state measure no matter how ludicrous. ● The petition was entitled "Compelled Helmet Use for Misfortunate Public' (CHUMP), and called for the City of Austin to enforce mandatory helmet usage for all citizens in addition to the creation of special walking lanes where people could walk obliviously while texting on their cellphones. ● Most of the individuals who signed the petition had it explained to them very clearly. Some signed straight away, while others took a little convincing but happily put pen to paper. One woman was told that the petition was to "get people to wear helmets while they're walking," to which she responded "oh perfect, yeah, that's great," and immediately signed the petition. When another man indicated his willingness to sign the petition, a woman responded, "You wanna make everybody wear helmets?," to which he responded, "these dummies need to wear helmets." "It will help keep insurance costs down," another woman is told as she signs the petition. "We have socialized healthcare now, so everyone's responsible for everyone," another couple were told. After being told that schools are now banning dodgeball and other contact sports, another woman agreed to sign, remarking that enforcing helmet use, "Makes sense technically." "I think UT we're super trendy, so we can get it, what starts here changes the world, another woman is told, before responding, "I'm down for it." "Of course, tickets for anyone without helmets, God speed, we can do it," comments another trendy after signing the petition. The notion that authorities would seek to mandate some form of control measure to make walking safer is by no means a stretch.

Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have rejoiced in their loss of freedom, who hail him when he speaks of [...] more security [...]. - Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Takfiri militants killed 190 civilians and held over 200 others hostage in Syria’s western province of Latakia in August alone. ● In a report released on Friday, the New York-based rights group presented evidence that anti-Syria terrorist groups carried out the killings and the hostage-taking in their several-day operation that began around Alawite villages in Latakia on August 4. The 105-page report was compiled based upon on-site investigation and interviews with 35 people, including the survivors of the attacks.

'What the Guardian is doing is important for democracy' - On Thursday the Daily Mail described the Guardian as the 'The paper that helps Britain's enemies' - Editors of more than 20 newspapers around the world respond to defend The Guardian.

The Guardian: MI5's Andrew Parker lives in a different world

● Snowden emerged from hiding to receive the Sam Adams Associates Integrity in Intelligence Award. In the photo, the whistleblower appeared to be healthy and happy. He smiled as he stood next to Sarah Harrison, the WikiLeaks journalist who helped him get asylum in Russia. At this time, the geographical location where Snowden received the award is unclear, but he was most likely in Moscow.
● The Sam Adams Associates Integrity and Intelligence Award is given each year by a group of retired CIA officers. It is given to an individual who takes a stand against abuse of information gathering. Many of the award’s past recipients have been whistleblowers — in fact, the award itself is named after Vietnam whistleblower Samuel A. Adams. Wikileak’s Julian Assange received the award in 2010.
● Four former US government officials met with Snowden on the day he received the award — they are the first Americans to have met with the whistleblower since he left the Moscow airport. They claim Snowden was in good spirits and did not regret the leaking of classified documents. Former NSA official Thomas Drake was one of the four Americans who met Snowden. Drake said, “He spoke about going out and about and getting to understand Russia and its culture and the people. For his own safety it’s best that no one else knows where he actually lives. But I believe he is making the best of his circumstances and is living as normally as possible.”

'US unchained itself from constitution': Whistleblowers on RT after secret Snowden meeting - VIDEO