Killing the Messenger - Russia

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Assange Granted Appeal in Supreme Court

Julian Assange has been granted an appeal to the UK Supreme Court to halt his extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations. If the appeal had been denied the WikiLeaks founder would have been en route to Stockholm within 10 days.

Assange himself says he is thankful for this opportunity, and “the long struggle for justice for him and others continues.”

“The issue of extradition safeguards is a concern to many people. There are many aggrieved families in the UK and in other countries in Europe that are struggling for justice,” Julian Assange said. “This afternoon the parliament of the United Kingdom is considering in depth the matters that arise from various extradition cases in the UK, including my own. Today the High Court has decided that an issue that arises from my own case is of general public importance and may be of assistance to other cases and should be heard by the Supreme Court. I think that is a correct decision and I am thankful.”

As for now, the team of his lawyers has 14 days to petition the Supreme Court for appeal, RT’s Laura Smith reports from London. Should it be unsuccessful, they can still turn to the European Court of Human Rights.

One of Assange's lawyers, Gareth Pierce, says the judges have accepted his argument that police and prosecutors may not have the power to issue extradition requests under European law as they are not judicial authorities.

For Assange, the latest developments mean that his stay in Britain — where he lives under house arrest at an affluent supporter's rural mansion — is likely to last for many more months.

The 40-year-old Australian whistleblower has spent almost a year on bail in Britain fighting extradition and previously both courts he has appeared in have ruled against him.

In order for his case to be forwarded to the Supreme Court of Britain, Assange’s lawyers had to persuade two High Court judges that the case raises a question of “general public importance”.

His lawyers have argued that he cannot be extradited as the European arrest warrant is invalid, having been issued by the incorrect authority, and because he has not been charged with any crime.

Assange's hearing on Monday came on the same day as a parliamentary debate on Britain's extradition rules. The House of Commons debate will be based upon demands to change controversial extradition agreements.

Earlier on Sunday, Assange told AP that he was heartened that lawmakers are tackling the issue of extraditions, saying that all people ask for is “the right to not be shipped off to foreign lands without formal charges or the presentation of even the most basic evidence."

Assange had been accused by two women he was involved with during a visit to Sweden in August 2010. One of them accused him of coercion and molestation, the other alleged that he had sex with her as she slept. This happened shortly after WikiLeaks released secret US files regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Although Assange has not been charged by Swedish prosecutors with any crime, they demand that he return to Scandinavia for questioning. Assange denies all accusations, saying the sex was consensual and the investigation is politically-motivated by US officials and other governments angry about their secrets being leaked. Source

CrossTalk: Afghan Backlash

As Bonn conference on Afghanistan convenes, what is the future of this country after 10 years of Western military intervention? The main issues for the meeting are the upsurge in violence; the transition of security forces as international forces begin to withdraw from Afghanistan; and potential negotiations to seek a peace agreement with the Taliban. What has the West, particularly the US, achieved in Afghanistan over the last decade? How will Afghanistan be governed once international troops withdraw? Will the US military ever completely leave? And was the war worth all the lives lost and billions spent? Source

Russia breaks Qatar strings after envoy attack scandal

Russia has down-scaled the level of diplomatic relations with Qatar following an incident with the Russian ambassador to the country, who was physically attacked by Qatari customs and security officers.

Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko suffered an assault at Doha Airport on November 29, on his return from a mission to Jordan. While passing through customs control he was attacked by customs security, who made an attempt to confiscate his diplomatic pouch. Titorenko resisted and was beaten, together with two other Russian diplomats who were there to welcome the ambassador.

The next day Russian Foreign Ministry filed a note of protest to Qatar, demanding that official Doha apologize, but no such apology followed. Source/full story

Joe Biden "Jokes" About Bringing Hundreds Of Millions Of US Taxpayer Dollars To Bailout Greece

Submitted by Tyler Durden 
Vice President Joe Biden, now best known for being the man who relies primarily on Jon Corzine for financial advice, continued his recent roll of epic linguistic blunders this morning. As Reuters reports, the VP, "joked during a visit to debt-choked Athens on Monday about bringing money to help Greece out of its deepest financial crisis in decades. Introducing a member of his delegation during a meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, Biden said: "This man represents the Treasury department. He's brought hundreds of millions of dollars." His comments drew laughs from both the Greek and U.S. delegations." It is unclear if the Greeks laughed because the noted number was orders of magnitude less than what would be needed to actually put a dent in the Greek fast-motion train wreck, or because everyone was waiting to see what the American taxpayer's response would be to learn that while America is hopelessly locked in gridlock of releasing more cash to that country's middle class, the US Treasury is quite happy to disburse taxpayer funding to Greece. We are holding out breath to find out.

From Reuters:

Euro zone ministers will meet on Friday for a summit billed key to finding a way out of a growing debt crisis and may turn to the International Monetary Fund for more aid.

A senior U.S. Treasury official said last week that the United States was not planning to make such loans to the Fund and said the lender's resources were adequate.

Asked what his message to Europe was, Biden said: "Hang in there."

Oddly enough, hanging may indeed be the only option for a whole lot of Europeans soon enough.

Source

Banksters Own You! - Stefan Molyneux

$7.7 Trillion to Wall Street - Anything to Keep the Banksters Happy!

Do you know who Elizabeth Duke is? How about Donald Kohn or Kevin Warsh? No? Well - you should. Because while Congress was debating back in 2008 whether or not to bailout banksters with a $700 billion blank check - these guys and girls were just doing it. They were funneling $7.7 trillion to Wall Street under the table - without one constituent phone call - without worrying about one election - without having to give one explanation.

They were able to do that because they're members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors - a group of people who are not voted into office, but have the power to completely dictate monetary policy in America. They are not politicians - they're technocrats - they're bankers and financial experts. Technocrats aren't interested in democracy - it takes too long, and often the interests of the majority of voters don't quite line up with the interests of the minority of bankers and foreign investors. Or - to put it in today's terms - the interests of the 99 percent rarely line up with the interests of the 1 percent. That's why - back in 2008 - the technocrats at the Fed weren't interested in waiting for Congress - with all of its open debate and constituent services - to bail out the banks - they just went ahead and did it themselves. According to documents obtained by Bloomberg News - in 2009 - the Fed dished out $7.7 trillion in no-strings-attached, super-low interest loans to Wall Street's biggest players.

That's $7.7 trillion!That's more than half of the total value of EVERYTHING - every single thing produced in America - that same year. $7.7 TRILLION out the door - with no one bothering to inform the electorate about it until now.... Source

Water fluoride exposure damages brain

A new study conducted by scientists in India has proved that chronic high fluoride exposure in drinking water can damage the brain.


Researchers focused on the intelligent development that is diminished by high levels of fluoride in drinking water, Infowars reported. The study, which was performed on rats for a period of 60 days, showed that fluoride caused neurodegenerative and morphological alterations in the neocortex, hippocampus and cerebellum areas of the brain, and in the spinal cord and sciatic nerve. 

“High levels of fluoride in drinking water (1-12 ppm) affect central nervous system directly without first causing the physical deformities of skeletal fluorosis,” K. Pratap Reddy of the University College of sciences at Osmania University in Hyderabad wrote in the Journal of Medical and Allied Sciences. 

According to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), there are now 25 studies showing that fluoride is associated with IQ reduction, even at fluoride levels as low as 0.3 to 3 parts per million, which overlaps the range in many American communities (0.7 to 1.2 ppm). 

A previous rat study conducted by Dr. Phyllis Mullenix and her colleagues in 1995 showed that fluoride “can be indicative of a potential for motor dysfunction, IQ deficits and/or learning disabilities in humans.” 

Numerous studies conducted in different countries such as the US, Mexico, China and India have determined that fluoride exposure is associated with IQ deficits in children. Source

Speaker's wife Sally does it again: Cameron an 'arrogant toff'

The British Prime Minister David Cameron is an "arrogant toff ... who is out of touch", says the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

John Bercow's wife Sally, 42, who is known for speaking her mind, told The Sunday Times yesterday: "I've always thought Cameron's a t---."

She then clarified: "No, I don't mean that. You put those words in my mouth. I've always thought David Cameron was not a particularly nice guy. He's a toff who is out of touch. An arrogant toff."

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The Speaker is supposed to be non-partisan, meaning he or she takes no sides in any political debate.

But Mr Bercow's wife has not shied away from talking about other politicians, once calling the leader of Britain's Independence Party Nigel Farage a "great man" and Louise Mensch - a Conservative Party MP - "gorgeous", the Metro newspaper reported.

In February, Mrs Bercow appeared in London's Evening Standard newspaper wrapped only in a white sheet and standing before a window overlooking Parliament.

She said then she was a "complete idiot", but was less circumspect in the Times interview.

"Big deal. It was a nice photograph. I just turned up; they said, 'Will you wear a sheet?' and I thought, 'Why not?"' she said.

"I showed less flesh than I would in an evening dress. It was a laugh for Valentine's Day. John thought it was a nice photograph but once all the media furore started he was, 'Oh, why did you do that?'"

In another interview, Mrs Bercow had named a vibrator as her favourite toy, but said her husband did not mind.

"John thought it was funny. He really did. He said, 'You know that's going to go everywhere.' I said, 'I know, I'm sorry.' He said, 'It doesn't matter.'"

Mr Bercow is from the governing Conservative Party but his wife has stood for the opposition Labour Party.

Once he was elected Speaker, Mr Bercow set out a new style, ditching the traditional breeches and wig.

Instead of saying "Order! Order!" during rowdy exchanges, he would give politicians a lecture about how the public views such behaviour. Source

The Deaf Bookkeeper

On a gloomy Monday, a Mafia Godfather found out that his bookkeeper, Enzo, had cheated him out of $10 million dollars.

His bookkeeper was deaf. That was the reason he got the job in the first place. It was assumed that Enzo would hear nothing that he might have to testify about in court.

When the Godfather went to confront Enzo about his missing $10 million, he took along his lawyer who knows sign language. The Godfather told the lawyer;

“Ask him where the 10 million bucks is that he embezzled from me.”

The lawyer, using sign language, asked Enzo where the money is.

Enzo signed back; “I don’t now what you are talking about.”

The lawyer told the Godfather; “He says he doesn’t know what you are talking about.”

The Godfather pulled out a big black pistol, puts it to Enzo’s temple and said; “Ask him again!”

The lawyer signed to Enzo; “He’ll kill you if you don’t tell him.”

Enzo signed back; “OK. You win!  The money is in a brown briefcase, buried behind the shed in my cousin Bruno’s backyard in Woodbridge!”

The Godfather barked at the lawyer; “What did he say?”

The lawyer replied; “He says you don’t have the balls to pull the trigger.”

Chris Martenson and James Turk talk about Europe and the global economy

In this video Chris Martenson - economic analyst at http://chrismartenson.com and author of The Crash Course and James Turk, Director of the GoldMoney Foundation talk about the problems facing the eurozone as well as the global economy. Chris Martenson points out that the whole world simply has too much debt. This is why he believes that there won't be a real solution to the euro crisis. The big question will rather be who will take losses on the debt, which can't possibly be repaid. The lack of political leadership and unwillingness to accept reality is contributing to this crisis. Additionally, the monetary tools central banks have traditionally used to revive economies are starting to show less and less effect. In Martenson's view, the financial sector has become way to large and interlinked across borders, so that a default by one country could bring down the whole financial systems, because credit default swaps would get triggered and could bring down the writers of those derivatives.

James Turk mentions that today, commercial banks as well as central banks are leveraged at unsustainable levels. While both agree that it makes sense to get back to less risky traditional banking and a sound money system, Martenson raises the question of how it will be possible to bring the leverage down to prudent levels again and how to get rid of the huge amount of complex derivatives. That said, Martenson argues that the gold standard has been proven to be a working monetary system with automatic leveling functions. As a result of the coming structural changes to our monetary system, both men recommend owning tangible assets. They point out, that those who act first have a great advantage.Martenson talks about the misallocation of capital, which occurs when money is being mispriced. The debt bubble was allowed to grow over the last 40 years and is now starting to burst. Due to cheap money, speculation and leverage have grown enormously. The tech stock and housing bubbles were the latest examples of that. He hopes that we will get rid of the unrestrained money systems with all its imbalances and return to some sort of gold standard system. The accumulation of gold by central banks hints to the fact that gold will play a bigger monetary role in the future.Talking about European Central bank policy, Martenson speculates that the ECB could be revealed as a "paper tiger", that is unable to stop speculation against European bonds. This could lead to an escalation of the euro crisis if the ECB does not follow the unprecedented example of the Fed in buying up massive amounts of sovereign debt, even though this violates its rules. He wishes more people took the time to understand basic economics; the illusion that government can pay for something without having to collect taxes in the same amount has been created by the constant accumulation of debt. But since debts can't be grown forever we are now in the early stages of finding that the idea that we can always expand and that debt doesn't matter is wrong. Martenson is afraid, that our society as a whole is not prepared for this paradigm shift yet. He believes that resource efficiency and access to resources will be much more important in the future.Therefore Martenson believes that it's important to become more self-sufficient and less reliant on liquid fuels. Financially he believes in true diversification out of paper assets and into tangible assets such as farmland, woodland, solid businesses and precious metals. Those who can afford to diversify globally should do so to mitigate risks. Most importantly though, Martenson recommends that we see the coming changes as opportunities rather than insurmountable challenges.This video was recorded on November 16 at the Gold & Silver Meeting 2011 in Madrid. Source

Jim Rickards: "The Fed is Playing with a Nuclear Reactor - and the Danger is They Melt it Down"

'Financial terrorists behind EU crisis' Max Keiser on Press TV

Powerful banks such as Wall St. banks, Germany's Deutsche Bank and the Bank of England are committing acts of 'financial terrorism' which have caused the Euro crisis, an analyst tells Press TV.