CLG Breaking News: Obama 'drone warfare rulebook' condemned

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government

25 Nov 2012

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Obama 'drone warfare rulebook' condemned by human rights groups 25 Nov 2012 President Barack Obama's administration is in the process of drawing up a formal rulebook that will set out the circumstances in which targeted assassination by unmanned drones is justified, according to reports. The New York Times, citing two unnamed sources, said explicit guidelines were being drawn up amid disagreement between the CIA and the departments of defense, justice and state over when lethal action is acceptable. Human-rights groups and peace groups opposed to the CIA-operated targeted-killing programme, which remains officially classified, said the administration had already rejected international law in pursuing its drone operations. "To say they are rewriting the rulebook implies that there is already a rulebook" said Jameel Jaffer, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Center for Democracy. "But what they are already doing is rejecting a rulebook – of international law – that has been in place since [the second world war]."

White House drafting drone 'rule book' 25 Nov 2012 Facing the possibility that President Obama might not win a second term, his administration accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned drones, so that a new president would inherit clear standards and procedures, according to two administration officials. The attempt to write a formal rule book for targeted killing began last summer after news reports on the drone program, started under President [sic] George W. Bush and expanded by Mr. Obama, revealed some details of the president's role in the shifting procedures for compiling "kill lists" and approving strikes. The draft rule book for drone strikes that has been passed among agencies over the last several months is so highly classified, officials said, that it is hand-carried from office to office rather than sent by e-mail.

Pentagon Wants to Keep Running Its Afghan Drug War From Blackwater's HQ 21 Nov 2012 Inside a compound in Kabul called Camp Integrity [sic], the Pentagon stations a small group of officers to oversee the U.S. military's various operations to 'curb' the spread of Afghanistan's cash crops of heroin and marijuana, which help line the Taliban's CIA's pockets. Only Camp Integrity isn't a U.S. military base at all. It's the 10-acre Afghanistan headquarters of the private security company formerly known as Blackwater. Those officers work for an obscure Pentagon agency called the Counter Narco-Terrorism Program Office, or CNTPO. Quietly, it's grown into one of the biggest dispensers of cash for private security contractors in the entire U.S. government: One pile of contracts last year from CNTPO was worth more than $3 billion. And it sees a future for itself in Afghanistan over the long haul... When all the options are exercised, the contract extends through September 29, 2015, over a year past the date when Afghan soldiers and cops are supposed to take over the war. And the "government preferred location" to base CNTPO? Camp Integrity.

Mysterious respiratory virus claims another life in Middle East 24 Nov 2012 Another person has died and at least three more cases of a mysterious respiratory virus have been discovered in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The World Health Organization confirms that that the new strain is part of the coronavirus family, which also includes the deadly SARS. The WHO has confirmed six cases of infection, with four in Saudi Arabia and two in Qatar. The World Health Organization earlier said that the virus does not appear to be contagious, but on Friday it announced that the two latest cases discovered in a Saudi family were epidemiologically linked.

NORAD F-16s intercept Cessna 337 over Charleston, SC 23 Nov 2012 Two F-16 fighters under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command intercepted a Cessna 337 general aviation aircraft in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina, today at approximately 11:20 a.m. EST. The aircraft was designated a track of interest because of an apparent discrepancy between its track and flight plan. Once it was intercepted and identified, the aircraft landed at the Charleston Executive Airport without further incident. The pilot was directed to contact the Federal Aviation Administration for further direction.

High-tech surveillance gear raises questions in NJ 23 Nov 2012 A federal anti-terrorism program has drawn North Jersey deeper into the practice of hidden surveillance, equipping police departments with high-tech cameras, infrared technology and automatic license plate readers to keep tabs on people as they travel to local reservoirs, financial hubs and malls. The stepped-up security around potential terrorist targets links the region into a network of clandestine monitoring. Some of the departments are already putting to use the equipment provided by Homeland Security; others are gearing up.

Judge Denies Bail to Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond 21 Nov 2012 A federal judge refused release to one of the men accused of helping Anonymous and others hack various media, government and private-spy websites last year. Jeremy Hammond was one of five so-called hacktivists arrested in a March sting operation engineered after the FBI made an informant [traitor] of Hector Monsegur, a hacker known online as Sabu, who led a group called LulzSec. At a bail hearing in New York on Tuesday, Hammond's defense attorney, Elizabeth Fink, implied that investigators used entrapment to snare Hammond for the cyberattack on private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor. Monsegur led the Stratfor attack under his Sabu alter ego while he was working for the government, Fink said.

Anonymous takes down NISD website over student tracking 25 Nov 2012 The hacker group Anonymous has claimed responsibility for taking down the Northside ISD's [Independent School District, San Antonio, TX] website in protest of the district's controversial tracking ID badges for students. The group said in an e-mail to KENS 5 that they took down the district's website (www.NISD.net) on Saturday. They also included in the e-mail a link to a recent Kens5.com article on the district's new Smart IDs: "We saw your article... Anonymous (@tr1xxyAnon) are not going to allow this!" The website was still down as of Sunday morning.

Anonymous to NISD: 'I hope you noticed that I took down your website for a reason' 25 Nov 2012 On Sunday, tr1xxyAnon tweeted, 'This is the official statement of #Anonymous and me.' The announcement was posted on Pastebin. 'Dear NISD, I sincerely hope you have noticed that I have took [sic] down your website for a reason, and that reason is stripping away the privacy of students in your school. What was going through your mind when you had this idea? Now it is your school and your rules, but you seen what I did to your website, and have a simple deal for you, weather you accept it or not, is up to you. ...I am giving you 1-3 days to hold this meeting with the parents... IF you do not hold this meeting and nothing happens, I will simply shut down your website, like I did last time.'

Judge stops school from expelling girl who refused to wear tracking device 24 Nov 2012 A Texas high school student will be allowed to continue going to class for now despite her refusal to cooperate with a[n insane] program that forces pupils to be mandatorily tracked with computer chips. Andrea Hernandez was told she'd be expelled from John Jay High School's Science and Engineering Academy in San Antonio starting next week if she insists any further on disobeying a new policy that requires students to wear ID badges equipped with tiny Radio Frequency Identification ('RFID') chips. Now attorneys with the Rutherford Institute say Hernandez has been granted a temporary restraining order that will prohibit the Northside Independent School District from relocating the student to another facility.

Keystone pipeline protesters arrested in Texas --Cherokee County sheriff's deputies used 'pain compliance' measures 19 Nov 2012 The fight to block construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline through east Texas stepped up Monday as protesters locked themselves to machinery. Dozens of others formed a human chain to keep heavy machinery from moving around the proposed pipeline's path in Cherokee County, said Ethan Nuss, spokesman for the Tar Sands Blockade group. Three protesters at another location suspended themselves from 50-foot pine trees with their life lines anchored by the construction equipment, Nuss said. Cherokee County sheriff's deputies used "pain compliance" measures, including pepper spray, to remove the four protesters locked to the machinery, Nuss said.

UK's RBS could face separate Libor fines: paper 25 Nov 2012 Royal Bank of Scotland is facing the increasing likelihood of having to settle separately with the UK and U.S. authorities investigating its involvement in the global interest rate-setting scandal, the Sunday Telegraph said. The British newspaper said [corpora-terrorists] RBS is concerned it could receive a "double hit" of separate fines - one from the UK's Financial Services Authority and one from the U.S. authorities. The bank had been hoping to agree a single collective deal, similar to the one agreed by Barclays, which became the first, and so far only, bank to settle with regulators over the allegations that traders attempted to manipulate the setting of key inter-bank lending rates such as Libor, paying fines in June totaling 290 million pounds ($464 million).

Protesting Greek municipal workers occupy town halls 22 Nov 2012 Greek municipal workers occupied hundreds of town halls across the country for a fifth day on Thursday to protest against public sector layoffs demanded by European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders. Greece has promised the lenders it will revamp its bloated public sector by putting as many as 27,000 workers into a layoff scheme. City and local workers are expected to be among the first to be laid off under the plan. Their protests have intensified since the Greek government passed a package of austerity measures earlier this month, with workers this week staging daily sit-ins at more than two thirds of the country's 330 city halls and several ministries.

Fire Kills 112 Workers Making Clothes for US Brands 25 Nov 2012 The 100-plus workers who died in a fire late Saturday at a high-rise garment factory in Bangladesh were working overtime making clothes for major American retailers, including Wal-Mart, according to workers' rights groups. Officials in Bangladesh said the flames at the Tazreen Fashions factory outside Dhaka spread rapidly on the ground floor, trapping those on the higher floors of the nine-story building. There were no exterior fire escapes, according to officials, and many died after jumping from upper floors to escape the flames. As firemen continued to remove bodies Sunday, officials said at least 112 people had died but that the number of fatalities could go higher. [Solution: Boycott sacks of sh*t of the universe, Wal-Mart.]

Polar Bears Get Chilly Birthday Surprise 23 Nov 2012 Despite being in sunny California, two polar bears at the San Francisco Zoo celebrated their birthdays this month in true, really chilly style. Pike, 30, and Ulu, 32, got a very special sub-zero treatment Nov. 15 when the zoo had 10 tons of fresh snow blown into their habitat. "As the worldwide symbol of climate change, the presence of polar bears both in the wild and in zoological educational programs is a vital tool in carrying the messages of conservation," the San Francisco Zoo said in a statement. [Slideshow: Polar bears frolicking in fresh snow.]

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