The State of Michigan is ordering that Detroit man Carnell Alexander pay approximately $30,000 in back child support or go to jail, despite the fact that a DNA test proved that he is not the father of the child in question. ● In child support cases, courts sometimes force people to pay back the government’s welfare contributions to a child, even in scenarios when the person being ordered to pay support is not actually the child’s parent. According to WXYZ-TV ABC 7 Detroit, Detroit man Carnell Alexander is facing that exact situation after an ex-girlfriend of his listed him as the father of her child on an application for welfare benefits. Despite the facts that a DNA test proved that he is not the father and his ex-girlfriend agrees that he should not have to pay support, the State of Michigan is ordering him to either pay back the nearly $30,000 worth of welfare contributions it paid to the child’s mother or go to jail.

The United States Postal Service allowed "law enforcement agencies" to secretly monitor the mail of Americans about 50,000 times last year, a new report has revealed. ● According to the report published by The New York Times on Monday, “in many cases the Postal Service approved requests to monitor an individual’s mail without adequately describing the reason or having proper written authorization.” The newspaper says the number of requests indicates that the surveillance on Americans communications is more widespread than previously revealed. The documents for the report were obtained by the Times under the Freedom of Information Act.

New York Times: Report Reveals Wider Tracking of Mail in U.S.
ABA Journal: Snail-mail monitoring expands; lawyers complain of privilege violations, lack of oversight

There was no Russian distress call. That’s the opinion of a Swedish signal intelligence (SIGINT) source after a massive $2.8mn military and media sub-hunt consumed the country for a week. ● Reports of a Russian distress signal and a grainy-picture were enough to deploy the navy while the media widely concluded the vessel had to be a Russian submarine spooking Stockholm. The proof of this was an alleged comms intercept, at distress call frequency, between the supposed sub and Kaliningrad base. But the Dagens Nyheter daily cited a Swedish Intel source who confessed there was no distress call.

Dagens Nyheter: Försvaret: Inget ryskt nödsamtal bakom ubåtsjakt || Försvarsmaktens operation i Stockholms skärgård utlöstes inte av ett nödsamtal på ryska. Det uppger Marinens underrättelsetjänst (MTS-M2) för DN. Försvarsmaktens operation i Stockholms skärgård utlöstes inte av ett nödsamtal på ryska. Det uppger Marinens underrättelsetjänst (MTS-M2) för DN. Lördagen den 18 oktober avslöjade Svenska Dagbladet att ett nödsamtal på ryska föregått ubåtslarmet i Stockholms skärgård. Tidningen berättade också att det förekommit krypterad radiotrafik mellan en sändare i skärgården och en sändare i Kaliningrad där stora delar av den ryska Östersjöflottan finns. Uppgifterna återgavs av i stort sett alla svenska medier, däribland Dagens Nyheter. Avslöjandet fick även stor uppmärksamhet internationellt. Redan i fredagens papperstidning erfor DN att ingen radiokommunikation mellan området och Kaliningrad avlyssnats under den sex dagar långa operationen. DN har nu med stöd av offentlighetsprincipen begärt ut en kopia av ljudupptagningen från Försvarsmakten, samt en översatt utskrift av densamma. [...] Försvarsmakten har tidigare uppgett sig sakna kännedom om att en nödsignal skulle ha skickats från Stockholms skärgård. Men när det gäller ett nödsamtal har myndigheten fram tills nu varken velat bekräfta eller dementera uppgiften om ett sådant uppfattats av den svenska signalspaningen.

The chief Dutch prosecutor investigating the MH17 downing in eastern Ukraine does not exclude the possibility that the aircraft might have been shot down from air, Der Spiegel reported. Intelligence to support this was presented by Moscow in July. ● The chief investigator with the Dutch National Prosecutors' Office Fred Westerbeke said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published on Monday that his team is open to the theory that another plane shot down the Malaysian airliner. Following the downing of the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight in July that killed almost 300 people, Russia’s Defense Ministry released military monitoring data, which showed a Kiev military jet tracking the MH17 plane shortly before the crash. No explanation was given by Kiev as to why the military plane was flying so close to a passenger aircraft. Neither Ukraine, nor Western states have officially accepted such a possibility. MH17 Search on AWIP

Lower oil prices, reflected in falling petrol prices at the pump, have been a boon for Western consumers. Are they also a potent US weapon against Russia and Iran? ● That's the conclusion drawn by New York Times columnist Thomas L Friedman, who says the US and Saudi Arabia, whether by accident or design, could be pumping Russia and Iran to brink of economic collapse. Despite turmoil in many of the world's oil-producing countries - Libya, Iraq, Nigeria and Syria - prices are hitting lows not seen in years, Friedman writes. Analysts identify a number of possible reasons for the steep drop - increased US production, slowing economies in Europe and China and steady production from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). Rather than look at the causes, however, Friedman says to look at the result - budget shortfalls in Russia and Iran - and what it means. Who benefits? He asks. The US wants its Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia to have more bite. Both the Saudis and the US are fighting a proxy war against Iran in Syria. "This is business, but it also has the feel of war by other means: oil," he writes. Paul Richter of the Los Angeles Times agrees that both Russia and Iran are starting to feel the squeeze of lower prices, although he doesn't go as far as Friedman in speculating about a secret war.

Robert Parry ■ When reading the New York Times on many foreign policy issues, it doesn’t take a savant to figure out what the newspaper’s bias is. Anything, for instance, relating to Russian President Vladimir Putin drips of contempt and hostility. Rather than offer the Times’ readers an objective or even slightly fair-minded account of Putin’s remarks, we are fed a steady diet of highly prejudicial language, such as we find in Saturday’s article about Putin’s comments at a conference in which he noted U.S. contributions to chaos in countries, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine. That Putin is correct appears almost irrelevant to the Times, which simply writes that Putin “unleashed perhaps his strongest diatribe against the United States yet” with his goal “to sell Moscow’s view that American meddling has sparked most of the world’s recent crises.”

Paul Craig Roberts ■ Washington Is Defaming Putin

In a wide-ranging conversation, he discusses the surveillance state, the American political system and the price he’s paid for his understanding of patriotism. ● On October 6, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen (professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton) sat down in Moscow for a wide-ranging discussion with Edward Snowden. Throughout their nearly four-hour conversation, which lasted considerably longer than planned (see below for audio excerpts), the youthful-appearing Snowden was affable, forthcoming, thoughtful and occasionally humorous. Among other issues, he discussed the price he has paid for speaking truth to power, his definition of patriotism and accountability, and his frustration with America’s media and political system. The interview has been edited and abridged for publication, compressing lengthy conversations about technological issues that Snowden has discussed elsewhere.

RT.com: FBI reportedly raids home of 'Second Snowden'

Italy's #1 newspaper interviews infamous Swedish sniper Mike Skillt. ● Recently Corriere della Sera (the most widely read daily in Italy) published an interview with the infamous Swedish sniper "Mike," who is fighting for the neo-Nazi Azov battalion in East Ukraine. As Mike's comments clearly illustrate, Azov fighters are fueled by a sense of racial superiority and a visceral hatred for Russia and all Russians.

France will hand over the first Mistral helicopter carrier to Russia in the coming days or weeks, a high-ranking representative from the STX shipbuilding company told RIA Novosti on Monday. "The transfer of the first Mistral helicopter carrier is a matter of several days or weeks," the representative said. In June 2011, Russia and France signed a 1.2 billion euro ($1.5 billion) deal for two Mistral-class helicopter carrier ships. The first carrier, the Vladivostok, was previously expected in Russia by the end of 2014. The second ship, the Sevastopol, is supposed to arrive in 2015. In September, French President Francois Hollande threatened to suspend the deliveries of the ships over Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. Hollande later stated he would make a decision in late October, specifying that the delivery would depend on the observation of the ceasefire by warring sides in Ukraine's internal armed conflict and a political settlement of the crisis. Last week, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said Russia will sue France if it refuses to fulfill its contract obligations on the ships' delivery.

French Political Leader: "France Should Stop Being a US Lapdog" and Deliver Mistral to Russia

Gilad Atzmon ■ The President of CRIF, France's largest Jewish Lobby that specializes in harassing and terrorising the French political elite was indicted on Monday for defamation. Roger Cukierman was cited for remarks he made in an interview on Europe 1 in which he called Dieudonne Mbla Mbla, - France’s No 1 comedian, a “professional anti-Semite.” On Monday, the elder Zionist announced the indictment himself on CRIF's website. “So I am being indicted for having stated on Europe 1 that Dieudonne is a professional anti-Semite. Isn’t that funny? For once, Dieudonne is actually comical.” It seems as if the people who imposed ‘correctness’ on the rest of us, may have to start policing their own language. This may be a positive development.

Maidhc Ó Cathail ■ Using the Holocaust to Justify War || Since bursting onto the U.S. foreign policy stage in the 1980s, the neocons have been masters of “perception management,” devising emotional (and often false) messaging to justify aggressive war, as Maidhc Ó Cathail sees in recent Holocaust-themed propaganda against Syria’s government.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk's People’s Front with it's 21.61% is closely followed by the Petro Poroshenko Bloc with 21.45%. ● With 50.08% of the votes counted, the People’s Front led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk has a narrow lead in Sunday's parliamentary elections gaining 21.61% and is closely followed by the Petro Poroshenko Bloc with 21.45%. The Samopomich (Self-Help) party headed by mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovy comes third with 11.10% of the ballots. The Opposition Bloc led by Yuriy Boyko has 9.82%, Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party has 7.38% and the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has 5.69%. The voter turnout at the snap parliamentary elections, the first since February coup, was recorded at 52.42% In the previous elections, held in 2012, the turnout reached 57.98%.

Itar-Tass: EU politicians not unanimous over Ukraine's future after parliamentary elections
Stephen Lendman ■ MSM Misinformation on Ukraine's Parliamentary Elections
Stephen Lendman ■ Farcical Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections
Anders Romelsjö ■ EU men också CIA och USA vinnare i Ukraina
Pål Steigan ■ Ustabilt valgutfall i Ukraina

The Israeli government has approved plans to build over 1,000 new settler homes in East Jerusalem. It will expand two existing Israeli settlements on part of the territories seized in 1967. An official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the possible political and diplomatic impact. He said on Monday that "The government has decided to advance the planning of more than 1,000 units in Jerusalem – roughly 400 in Har Homa and about 600 in Ramat Shlomo," as cited by Reuters.

Furious with the government plan to impose tax on Internet data traffic, thousands of Hungarians rallied in front of the Economy Ministry in Budapest to protect the freedom of the internet from the 'anti-democratic' measure. ● Tens of thousands gathered in front of the Economy Ministry building on Sunday, urging the politicians to scrap the plan that will see internet service providers (ISPs) pay 150 forints ($0.62) for every gigabyte of data traffic transferred over their networks. Although the draft suggests that ISPs would be able to offset corporate income tax against the new levy, the protesters believe that eventually the new tax burden will end up pinned on common users. The Association of IT, Telecommunications and Electronics Companies has already said the tax would force them to raise prices, Reuters reports. The rally organized via Facebook group with over 210,000 followers said that the move “follows a wave of alarming anti-democratic measures by [Prime Minister Viktor] Orban that is pushing Hungary even further adrift from Europe.”

As the media prepared to vacate newsrooms for the weekend, Democrats snuck in a last minute proposal that the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) be allowed to heavily regulate political content on internet sites such as Youtube, blogs, and the Drudge Report. ● Obama FEC Vice Chairperson Ann M. Ravel announced late on Friday that the FEC was preparing new regulations to give itself control over videos, Internet-based political campaigns, and other content on the web. She insisted that, "A reexamination of the commission’s approach to the internet and other emerging technologies is long overdue."

Female activist who was traumatised after discovering that the father of her son was a spy is to receive compensation. ● The Metropolitan police are to pay more than £400,000 to a woman who has been profoundly traumatised after discovering by chance that the father of her son was an undercover police officer. It is the first time the police have made a payment to settle any of the legal claims brought by women who were deceived by undercover officers sent to spy on political and activist groups. The woman has been receiving psychiatric treatment and has contemplated suicide since she read a newspaper in 2012 and found out the true identity of the man who had fathered her son before abandoning her and the child 24 years previously. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous and is known by the name Jacqui, said the out-of-court settlement in which the Met would pay her £425,000 would not bring closure for her as the force had not admitted wrongdoing. She also criticised the police for dragging out the legal action by refusing to concede for two years that the father, Bob Lambert, was one of their undercover officers, even though he himself had already publicly admitted his covert role.

The Guardian: Britain: Undercover police had children with activists [20 January 2012]

Dmitry Orlov ■ A year and a half I wrote an essay on how the US chooses to view Russia, titled The Image of the Enemy. I was living in Russia at the time, and, after observing the American anti-Russian rhetoric and the Russian reaction to it, I made some observations that seemed important at the time. It turns out that I managed to spot an important trend, but given the quick pace of developments since then, these observations are now woefully out of date, and so here is an update. At that time the stakes weren't very high yet. [...] But what a difference a year and a half has made! Ukraine, which was at that time collapsing at about the same steady pace as it had been ever since its independence two decades ago, is now truly a defunct state, with its economy in free-fall, one region gone and two more in open rebellion, much of the country terrorized by oligarch-funded death squads, and some American-anointed puppets nominally in charge but quaking in their boots about what's coming next.

Paul Craig Roberts ■ Vladimir Putin Is The Leader Of the Moral World || Vladimir Putin’s remarks at the 11th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club are worth more than a link in my latest column. These are the remarks of a humanitarian political leader, the like of which the world has not seen in my lifetime. Compare Putin to the corrupt war criminal in the White House or to his puppets in office in Germany, UK, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, and you will see the difference between a criminal clique and a leader striving for a humane and livable world in which the interests of all peoples are respected.

For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost $33,000. The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report. “How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders said in a recent interview. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?” The federal government does.

● It's jaw dropping video. A 54-second clip from inside a game room near Ala Moana on September 5 clearly shows a Honolulu Police officer assaulting two people. Officer Vince Morre walks in and within seconds, kicks a 25-year old man in the face. Morre and Officer Nelson Tamayori then walk to the back of the game room. They are looking for someone who is not there. When they return from the back, Officer Tamayori heads to the door, but Officer Morre stops and begins assaulting the two men sitting next to him. Neither is resisting or engaging Morre but he begins to slap, punch, then kick one of them. He then turns his attention to the 25-year old man again, kicking him in the head a second time. The blow is so hard, the man flies off of his chair. As he is trying to sit back down, Officer Morre picks up a stool and throws it. It hits the man in the head. The FBI is investigating for possible civil rights violations. ● Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha had not seen the new video and reacted strongly when I showed it to him."That's totally unacceptable," says Kealoha, "Unauthorized use of force, excessive use of force and then you have two officers who just, apparently, stood by." Officer Morre is on unpaid leave. Officer Tamayori is too, for not stopping the attack, and a reserve police officer, Joe Becera, was forced to retire. Defense attorney Myles Breiner is representing the 25-year old victim, but also hadn't seen the new video. "It's outrageous, I've never seen anything like that before," says Breiner. "(An) unprovoked attack on two innocent people, they're not suspects, they're sitting passively down." The victim went to the hospital right after the beating. He had to have staples in his head and has a broken bone in his hand.

Thomas Gaist ■ The results of a private autopsy indicate that St. Louis teenager Vonderrit D. Myers, who was gunned down earlier this month by an off-duty cop, was running away when he was shot, then subsequently killed execution-style with a bullet to the head, attorneys for his family said Friday. Myers was killed on October 8, two months after the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked mass protests that were met by a militarized police crackdown. Jerryl Christmas, an attorney for Myers’s family, said the findings contradicted claims by police that Myers had engaged in a shootout with the officer. “The evidence shows that the story we’ve been given by the Police Department does not match up. There’s no evidence that there was a gun battle going on,” Christmas said. [...] Defending the use of an entire clip of ammunition against Myers, a lawyer for the St Louis Police Officers’ Association stated that whenever an officer uses deadly force, “he uses deadly force until the threat is gone.”

Andre Damon ■ Amnesty International: Ferguson police crackdown violated US and international law || The Amnesty International report, together with the nationwide militarization of the police and the ongoing wave of police killings, exposes the claims of the US government that Washington's endless wars and international provocations are motivated by a desire to defend “human rights.”

Vladimir Putin has lashed out at the United States for destabilizing the world order of checks and balances for its own gains. He also accused the West of inflaming the situation in Ukraine and said Russia was not interested in building an empire. ● The Russian President delivered a fierce broadside aimed at the United States at a speech for the Valdai Club in Sochi, which is an informal group of scholars. He hit out at Washington for behaving without regard to the rest of the world's interests. “The system of international relations needed some changes, but the USA, who believe they were the winners of the Cold War, have not seen the need for this.” He added that the US has been trying to create the world “for their own gains." The Russian President added that because of this, regional and global security had been weakened.

Paul Craig Roberts ■ Washington Is Defaming Putin
The Saker ■ Is the CIA Running a Defamation Campaign Against Putin?

In June 2011, Julian Assange received an unusual visitor: the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, arrived from America at Ellingham Hall, the country house in Norfolk, England where Assange was living under house arrest. [...] They outlined radically opposing perspectives: for Assange, the liberating power of the Internet is based on its freedom and statelessness. For Schmidt, emancipation is at one with U.S. foreign policy objectives and is driven by connecting non-Western countries to Western companies and markets. These differences embodied a tug-of-war over the Internet’s future that has only gathered force subsequently.

The Norwegian government is set to develop a new controversial robot-controlled missile for its fighter jets, but faces opposition from MPs and peace organizations claiming the technology may break international law. ● The partially autonomously controlled missiles, or so-called "killer robots", will be used for airborne strikes for its new fighter jets and have the ability to identify targets and make decisions to kill without human interference. The Norwegian Peace League, for one, believe the technology may violate international law, wanting a parliamentary debate about the move. Alexander Harang of the Norwegian Peace League (Norges Fredslag) demands discussion . He is also a member for the international “Campaign to stop killer robots”.

● Twenty years on from the Rwandan genocide, This World reveals evidence that challenges the accepted story of one of the most horrifying events of the late 20th century. The current president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has long been portrayed as the man who brought an end to the killing and rescued his country from oblivion. Now there are increasing questions about the role of Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front forces in the dark days of 1994 and in the 20 years since.
● The film investigates evidence of Kagame's role in the shooting down of the presidential plane that sparked the killings in 1994 and questions his claims to have ended the genocide. It also examines claims of war crimes committed by Kagame's forces and their allies in the wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo and allegations of human rights abuses in today's Rwanda.
● Former close associates from within Kagame's inner circle and government speak out from hiding abroad. They present a very different portrait of a man who is often hailed as presiding over a model African state. Rwanda's economic miracle and apparent ethnic harmony has led to the country being one of the biggest recipients of aid from the UK. Former prime minister Tony Blair is an unpaid adviser to Kagame, but some now question the closeness of Mr Blair and other western leaders to Rwanda's president. [Hat tip: Steigan Blogger][Video]

Kurdish fighters defending the Syrian city of Kobani against the ISIL say the Takfiri militants have used chemical weapons. ● Kurdish officials and doctors said on Wednesday that the terrorists released a sort of toxic gas in the eastern side of the Kurdish city late on Tuesday. Aysa Abdullah, a senior Kurdish official based in Kobani, said the victims had symptoms that included dizziness and watery eyes and that there was no equipment to precisely determine what kinds of chemicals had been used. Other reports said the victims were transferred to a hospital in neighboring Turkey. Many have joined the ISIL from Iraq’s former Ba’athist regime, highly skilled at using chemical weapons.

PressTV: Saudi king’s nephew admits to Riyadh support for ISIL