At least six people have been killed after US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan carried out separate airstrikes in the eastern part of the war-ravaged country during the past 24 hours, Press TV reports. ● Local officials said an unmanned aerial vehicle launched an airborne attack in the mountainous eastern province of Khost on Monday, leaving four people dead. Two other people lost their lives in a similar airstrike in the eastern province of Laghman earlier in the day. The US-led forces have recently increased their air raids against civilian areas in Afghanistan. On September 26, a drone attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar left at least six people, including two women, dead and a woman injured. Four people were also killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar on September 23. [...] The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country, despite the presence of thousands of US-led troops.

PressTV: Two killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan

US-led coalition airstrikes destroyed grain silos and other targets in parts of northern and eastern Syria dominated by Islamic State, killing civilians while only wounding ISIS fighters, according to an organization monitoring war in Syria. ● The overnight bombings hit mills and grain storage facilities in Manbij, a militant-held town in northern Syria. Coalition forces possibly mistook the structures for Islamic State holdings, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday. The US military responded to the claims later Monday morning, according to Reuters, saying that Islamic State vehicles were adjacent to the grain storage facility, and that there is no evidence of civilian casualties. The United States and Arab allies have conducted airstrikes against Islamic State and other jihadist groups in Syria since last week, and in Iraq since last month. The stated goal of the coalition’s bombing campaign is to cripple Islamic State operations, including bases, combat forces, and supply lines. Islamic State, an Al-Qaeda splinter group that reportedly has as many as 30,000 fighters in the region, has come to control large areas of Syria and northern Iraq since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011. The group is also known as ISIS or ISIL. The destruction of grain silos in Manbij only killed civilians, said Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Observatory, which claims to have a network of sources throughout Syria. "These were the workers at the silos. They provide food for the people," he said Monday. Abdulrahman could not offer an exact casualty count. The airstrikes "destroyed the food that was stored there,” he added, according to AP. Neither Reuters nor AP could immediately verify his claims. The Britain-based Observatory was founded in 2006 and is chiefly opposed to President Bashar Assad’s government in Syria.

SANA: Al-Moallem: Any effort for combating terrorism should comply with international law ● VIDEO
RT.com: Nearly $1bn already spent on US military campaign against ISIS
PressTV: Obama’s ISIL strategy is against Assad govt.: Rodney Martin
Stephen Lendman ■ Obama's Phony War on Islamic State Militants
Glenn Greenwald & Murtaza Hussain ■ The Fake Terror Threat Used To Justify Bombing Syria

Unbearable hubris: In a "60 Minutes" interview Sunday evening, Obama was asked why the US was contributing such a significant portion of the military coalition against the jihadist group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS. Obama responded by arguing that other countries were not stepping up."When trouble comes up anywhere in the world, they don't call Beijing, they don't call Moscow. They call us. That's the deal," he quipped. When CBS' Steve Kroft pressed Obama on the relatively small contributions from some of the US' coalition partners, Obama insisted such arrangements were expected. "That's always the case. That's always the case. America leads. We are the indispensable nation," he said. "We have capacity no one else has. Our military is the best in the history of the world." Obama pointed to past US humanitarian efforts after other countries were hit by environmental disasters. "When there's a typhoon in the Philippines, take a look at who's helping the Philippines deal with that situation," he said. "When there's an earthquake in Haiti, take a look at who's leading the charge helping Haiti rebuild. That's how we roll. That's what makes us Americans."

Protesters carry umbrellas to guard against tear gas as photo-sharing site Instagram appears blocked in a social media crackdown. ● Thousands of democracy protesters have defied tear gas and police baton charges to remain on the streets of Hong Kong for another night amid rising international tensions. Some demonstrators wore masks and resorted to umbrellas or plastic capes to protect themselves - prompting the phrase "umbrella revolution" to trend on social media. However, in a shift of tactics, uniformed police looked on from behind barricades and have so far not intervened in the peaceful protest. Sky's Asia Corespondent Mark Stone, at the scene, said the activists were "good natured but utterly driven". Sunday night saw riot officers fire 87 rounds of tear gas after being charged by "violent protesters", with police saying 41 people had been injured.

Peter Lee ■ Beijing reaps bitter fruit in Hong Kong
J. Michael Cole ■ Is Xi Losing Control of China's ‘Peripheries’?

PressTV: US war with China in future 'inevitable' || A number of American politicians argue that a military conflict between the United States and China is inevitable in the future, a political commentator in Washington says. “It’s very definitely an element inside the US that is arguing that a war with China at some future point is almost inevitable, because China is a rising power, becoming a formidable military power in the region, and the US is static and some people feel even declining,” said Jeff Steinberg, a senior editor for the Executive Intelligence Review. He also added that despite China’s efforts to “build economic cooperation” in the South China Sea and de-escalate tensions in the region, the US military doctrine is seeking the “encirclement and containment” of China. There are “many people in China who believe that the whole underlying concept behind President Obama’s Asia pivot is an encirclement and containment of China for an eventual conflict,” he said.

High Rise Safety Initiative: Today We Filed Suit to Reverse the City’s Fraudulent Determination on Our Second Petition. Read our filing and letter to Justice Wooten.

Dear Supporters, On September 4, 2014 the High-Rise Safety Initiative submitted a second petition containing over 33,000 signatures to override the City Council’s lack of action on our first petition. The second petition secures our place on the November 4th ballot if it contains at least 15,000 valid signatures, assuming we also win the pending lawsuit regarding the petition’s legality, where we still have not received a decision. This past Wednesday, the City Clerk certified only 7,343 out of 33,366 signatures in the second petition as valid, leaving us 7,657 shy of the 15,000-threshold. A Determination that Reeks of Fraud.

Given the dramatic difference in the percentage of invalidated signatures, 57% on the first petition compared to 78% on the second petition, it was immediately apparent that the City Clerk and the Board of Elections had determined to wrongly invalidate thousands of signatures — and in so doing, disenfranchise thousands of voters — in order to keep the High-Rise Safety Initiative off the ballot. Sure enough, when the City finally provided a copy of its notations, we saw that the percentage of signatures invalidated because the signer was allegedly “not registered” had skyrocketed from 43% on the first petition (28,404 out of 65,597) to 73% on the second petition (24,523 out of 33,366).

With the help of several volunteers, we then reviewed a sample of 663 signatures invalidated because the signer was allegedly “not registered.” We found that 43% were in fact registered voters; their signatures had been marked “not registered” without rhyme or reason. If that rate held for all 24,523 signatures marked “not registered,” it would mean that the City wrongly invalidated some 10,653 signatures, nearly one third of the people who signed the second petition, and it would put us well over the 15,000-threshold. This Must Not Stand

Earth Day — an annual event first launched on April 22, 1970. The inaugural festivities (organized in part by then hippie and now convicted murderer Ira Einhorn) predicted death, destruction and disease unless we did exactly as progressives commanded. Sound familiar? Behold the coming apocalypse, as predicted on and around Earth Day, 1970.

Steven E. Koonin Climate Science Is Not Settled
WUWT: The de-evolution of climate activism

Earlier today, a Philippine court found La Union residents Vicente and Dorma Ridon—who have been in jail during their trial since June 2012—guilty of child abuse, animal welfare crimes, human trafficking, and wildlife-protection crimes for forcing girls to torture and kill puppies, rabbits, and other animals in “fetish” videos. PETA Asia worked with authorities to ensure that the Ridons were located, arrested, and prosecuted. The Ridons, who have been sentenced to life imprisonment, also received a fine totaling over 9 million pesos each for their part in making the videos.

Newly released files obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have outted the British government for engaging in "fake victim blog posts," online "false flag operations" and other practices using a package of software tools and other technology, all with the goal of manipulating public opinion. Chat room posts, altering online polls and changing news feeds are all part of the suite of software technology, as noted by journalist Glenn Greenwald: One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. Greenwald said Britain's spy agency, GCHQ, was in charge of the UK-based deception operation; the GCHQ is akin to America's NSA. Also part of the overall effort are the other three members of the "Five Eyes" alliance: Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

RT.com: 'Bought Journalism': German bestseller reveals CIA pay Western media for spin & bias - Video

According to social media activists, a Saudi Air Force officer has refused orders to carry out an airstrike on Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) positions in Syria. The Saudi officer, Captain Faisal Al-Ghamdi, is said to have refused to participate in the airstrikes due to his support of the terrorist group. The news has circulated amongst pro-ISIS pages and has been referenced by their ground activists in Saudi Arabia, adding to the already turbulent relations between the terrorist group and Wahhabi-led government. Saudi officials have yet to comment on the validity of this story.

PressTV: New US-led airstrikes against ISIL in Syria kill civilians
Antiwar.com: US Airstrikes Hit More Syria Oil Refineries
Finian Cunningham ■ US seeks to target Syrian government
Finian Cunningham ■ US-led coalition against ISIL: Front for regime change
MD Nazemroaya ■ Fighting ISIL is a Smokescreen for US Mobilization against Syria, Iran

“Submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot bur[s]t trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsib[l]e or folding, magazine - 30 rd. capacity.” ● In May, the USDA's Office of Inspector General filed a request for these weapons. But why exactly do they need them? According to a USDA press rep, the guns are necessary for self-protection. ● Not everyone believes the USDA being armed to the teeth is justifiable. On Aug. 2, the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund launched a petition to support a bill that would curb the ability of agencies like the USDA to arm themselves. They see it as overkill and scare tactics, especially for smaller producers. “What we have seen happen, with the FDA especially, is they have come onto small farms, raw milk producers, and raided the heck out of them with armed agents present,” says Liz Reitzig, co-founder of the Farm Food Freedom Coalition. “Do we really want to have our federal regulatory agencies bring submachine guns onto these family farms with children?” ● The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund are not the only ones interested in taking guns out of the hands of USDA agents. Utah Congressman Chris Stewart is the sponsor of the bill on the FTCLDF petition. “At its heart it comes down to this: To myself, and for a lot of Americans, there is great concern over regulator agencies with heavy handed capabilities,” Rep. Stewart told Modern Farmer. His bill, H.R. 4934, hopes “to prohibit certain federal agencies from using or purchasing certain firearms, and for other purposes.” When asked about the USDA’s plan for submachine guns, he said, “I can’t envision a scenario where what they are doing would require that.” ● Another concern is simply accountability. The request for submachine guns from the USDA doesn’t say how many guns — asking them seems like a non-starter. “They have been very unhelpful in trying to find out any information about this,” said Rep. Stewart. “We couldn’t get answers — it doesn’t seem right to me.”

Modern Farmer: Why Is the USDA Buying Submachine Guns?

Transcript (Information Clearing House)
PressTV: Israeli war on Gaza was genocide: Erekat
Stephen Lendman ■ Investigating Gaza War Crimes

On this coming Thursday it was scheduled an event at the Swedish Foreign Office, where the organization Right Livelihood awarding the Alternative Nobel Prize, was to make the official announcement: “And the winners is. . . Edward Snowden!”...However, the National Swedish Televison SvT announced today in their main news-sending “Rapport”, that Carl Bildt has “strongly reacted against the bestowing of the alternative Nobel Prize to Edward Snowden”, and hence ports the organization from the Ministry offices. The Swedish MSM, e.g. SvD - and of course, The Local – rushed to publish Carl Bildt’s statements on he “had nothing to do” with the decision of banning the award-ceremony from the ministry where he happens to be the boss, and that the all thing was due to “new security routines” [sic] after 30years uninterrupted routines regarding Right Livelihood awards at the Foreign Office locals. Since 1985, the organization Right Livelihood Award is announcing the annual winners of the traditional alternative Nobel Prize at the flamboyant locals of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Err…Until right now, after they communicated to the Foreign Office that the 2014 prize-winner is Edward Snowden. The reaction of the boss at the Foreign Office, Minister Carl Bildt, was to oust the organization giving the alternative Nobel Prize from the Foreign office. End of story.

Anders Romelsjö ■ Carl Bildt – en hycklare?

On Sept. 26, 2014, This is a special session from parliament either to join U.S. led air strikes on Islamic State militants in Iraq.

Haaretz: Erdogan: Turkish troops could be used to establish secure zone in Syria
The Intercept: The Khorasan Group: Anatomy of a Fake Terror Threat to Justify Bombing Syria

Two asylum seekers have been severely beaten and abused by security guards in a German town. The police compared the brutal actions to those committed by US guards in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, against the prisoners. ● The seekers were abused in shelter home in a small community of Burbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany, reported the country’s press. The alleged suspects filmed all the guards’ actions on smartphones. A local journalist received a DVD showing the abuse. Police authorities immediately opened investigation into the case. One video shows an asylum seeker lying on the floor and one of the members of security staff pinning his neck down with his boot. The other guard is sitting near-by, seeming posing to the camera.

Senior European and European Central Bank (ECB) officials agreed to threaten Ireland with national bankruptcy if the government made any attempt to burn bondholders, the Sunday Independent can reveal. ● The threat was made at a high-level teleconference meeting, details of which have been revealed for the first time by the Central Bank governor, Dr Patrick Honohan. Mr Honohan, who famously told the nation Ireland would be entering the Troika bailout programme live on radio as government ministers were publicly denying it, also revealed he was kept out of loop about the meeting.In a new book about the late Brian Lenihan, Mr Honohan said he only found out about the meeting after the Troika delivered the ultimatum to Mr Lenihan on November 26, 2010.

Eric Zuesse ■ U.S. President Barack Obama replaced the Ukrainian Government in late February 2014, and he has achieved a lot there, most especially by means of the civil war that resulted when he tried to exterminate the people who had voted for the previous Ukrainian leader – the man whom Obama overthrew. Obama installed in that coup an anti-Russian Ukrainian Government, and so he now needed to get rid of Ukraine’s pro-Russian voters, who were the residents in Ukraine’s southeast, especially in Ukraine’s Donbass region. If the voters there weren’t killed &/or expelled, then the Ukrainian leaders whom Obama imposed would be voted out of office in any nationwide Ukrainian election; so, this ethnic-cleansing campaign was necessary to Obama in order to make his new anti-Russian Ukraine last, not break up into a pro-U.S. northwest and a pro-Russia southeast. Obama lost that war. Here is what Obama achieved in the process, as shown by a video documentary posted to youtube on September 23rd, which interviews survivors in the region that Obama’s regime was bombing, these being the main people who were affected by Obama’s policy. The documentary is HERE, and THESE are stills from it, summarizing it.

Leonid Bershidsky ■ Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is running a magic show. By pretending his country has a chance of joining the European Union or NATO, he is hoping to obscure Kiev's, and Europe's, gradual capitulation to Russian President Vladimir Putin. || On Thursday, Poroshenko announced a reform program meant to culminate in a bid for EU membership. "The doors of the European Union are open to us, I am absolutely sure of that," he said. "Well-bred people always knock and never enter without permission, even if there's no lock." Today, Poroshenko's administration submitted a bill to parliament to repeal the country's non-aligned status and "create grounds for Ukraine's integration into the Euro-Atlantic security space."

Tyler Durden ■ When we first covered the Carmen Segarra lawsuit alleging the capture of the NY Fed by Goldman Sachs back in October 2013, we didn't have much hope for justice to get done. We said that "while her allegations may be non-definitive, and her wrongful termination suit is ultimately dropped, there is hope this opens up an inquiry into the close relationship between Goldman and the NY Fed. Alas, since the judicial branch is also under the control of the two abovementioned entities, we very much doubt it." ■ Sure enough, the lawsuit was dropped (and no inquiry was opened) but not before it became clear that the very judge in charge of the case, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, was herself conflicted, after it was revealed that her husband, Greg Andres, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, was representing Goldman in an advisory capacity. Curiously, before she assumed her current office in March 2013, back in 2008 Abrams returned to Davis Polk herself as Special Counsel for Pro Bono. She had previously worked at the firm from 1994 to 1998. For the full, and quite amazing, story of how the "Judge" steamrolled Segarra's objections reads this Reuters piece. ■ As a result of this fiasco, some wondered just how far do Goldman's tentacles stretch not only at the money-printing (i.e., NY Fed) level, not only at the legislative level (see "With Cantor Down, Which Other Politicians Has Goldman Invested In?"), but at the judicial as well.

National Review’s Katherine Timpf interviews protestors at the Flood Wall Street climate march. Some segments are just unbearable to watch. The video pretty much tells you all you need to know.

Roy Spencer ■ 10 Ways To Tell Tuesday’s UN Climate Summit Isn’t About Climate

US President Barack Obama is using ISIL as a pretext to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a political commentator says. ● “When that may happen, we don’t know, but it seems inevitable,” Veterans Today columnist Shamus Cooke said in a phone interview with Press TV on Friday. He added that Obama has chosen to campaign against the ISIL terrorist group with the Persian Gulf monarchies that “are attempting to topple” the Syrian government. “Qatar, for example, recently announced that Bashar Assad is still the main problem, not ISIL. So, the agenda is still also to attack the Syrian government,” the analyst said.

Finian Cunningham ■ US seeks to target Syrian government
MD Nazemroaya ■ Fighting ISIL is a Smokescreen for US Mobilization against Syria, Iran
Antiwar.com: Dempsey on US Ground Troops: Whatever It Takes
RT.com: Pentagon ready to train up to 15,000 Syrian "rebels"

The General Conference of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rejected a resolution tabled by 18 Arab nations, to submit Israel’s nuclear program to inspections and for Israel to accede to the non-proliferation treaty. A virtually identical resolution was adopted in 2009, but the IAEA failed to address Israel’s non-compliance. The resolution was rejected by 58 nay votes, 45 votes in favor of the resolution and 27 abstentions. Independent analysts estimate that Israel has a stockpile of 200 – 400 nuclear warheads, ranging from megaton sized warheads to suitcase and pineapple sized devices. Israel does not officially recognized that it has a nuclear weapons program at all. The weapons program does not only raise regional and international security concerns and concerns about proliferation, but concerns about serious human rights abuses against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention.

Monsanto’s experimental genetically modified wheat has been discovered growing in the second US field in Montana, about a year after the discovery of the company’s unapproved crop growing in Oregon disrupted US wheat exports. ● Monsanto’s experimental genetically modified wheat has been discovered growing in a second field in Montana, about a year after the discovery of the company’s unapproved crop growing in Oregon disrupted US wheat exports. The plants were discovered at a test site at Montana State University, where back in 2000-2003 Monsanto was conducting field trials of its wheat, genetically modified to tolerate Roundup herbicide. Although the government believes the wheat never reached market, it has still opened an investigation into finding the rogue plants at a site that was not supposed to host any tests after 2003, USDA's Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service announced on Friday.

Free-speech organisations find US government is ‘failing to protect the rights of its most vulnerable citizens’ as popular books – including Shakespeare – are banned from institutions. ● There is “widespread censorship” of books in US prisons, according to a report submitted to a UN human rights review, which details the banning of works about artists from Botticelli to Van Gogh from Texan state prisons for containing “sexually explicit images”. The report from two free-speech organisations, the New York-based National Coalition Against Censorship and the Copenhagen-based Freemuse, to the United Nation’s (UN) Universal Periodic Review states that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) lists 11,851 titles banned from its facilities. These range from the “ostensibly reasonable”, to what it describes as “the telling”. The report states that the US is “failing to abide by its international commitments to protect fully the fundamental rights of some of its most vulnerable citizens” – prisoners and children – and that “this failure diminishes vital artistic and creative freedoms that are both integral to the dignity of the person and instrumental to the enjoyment and defense of a culture of human rights”, the two organisations make a number of recommendations.

Press briefing by Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, H.E. Mr. Sergey V. Lavrov

RT.com: Ukraine turmoil result of European-wide security crisis - Lavrov

Tyler Durden ■ I don't want to spoil the revelations of "This American Life": It's far better to hear the actual sounds on the radio, as so much of the meaning of the piece is in the tones of the voices -- and, especially, in the breathtaking wussiness of the people at the Fed charged with regulating Goldman Sachs. But once you have listened to it -- as when you were faced with the newly unignorable truth of what actually happened to that NFL running back's fiancee in that elevator -- consider the following:

1. You sort of knew that the regulators were more or less controlled by the banks. Now you know.
2. The only reason you know is that one woman, Carmen Segarra, has been brave enough to fight the system. She has paid a great price to inform us all of the obvious. She has lost her job, undermined her career, and will no doubt also endure a lifetime of lawsuits and slander.

So what are you going to do about it? At this moment the Fed is probably telling itself that, like the financial crisis, this, too, will blow over. It shouldn't.