06/02/15 ~ The Raw Story

Tuesday, 2 June 2015

'Big, bright' meteor seen over Tasmania

A meteor sighting over Launceston this morning has prompted a reminder that cold, clear winter conditions provide a perfect platform for sightings. As northern Tasmania shivers through sub-zero overnight temperatures, the clear skies helped the region's early risers spot a rare meteor display.

Residents near Launceston reported seeing a large, bright meteor travelling through the sky just before 5:00am. Lesley from Gravelly Beach told ABC Northern Tasmania she witnessed the bright display as she drove to Launceston's airport.

"It was so big and so close and I thought 'gee, this is going to land in someone's backyard'," she said.

"I've never seen anything as big as what this was before, and so bright - in the tail there were a couple of very bright spots."

Local astronomer Martin George said meteors occurred more often than people thought, but seeing a bright one was rare.

"The longer you spend looking at the night sky, the more likely you are to see meteors," he said.

"Typically you'll see about five or six every hour, but brighter meteors are few and far between."

He said with colder nights often leading to clearer skies, now was the best time to be on the lookout.

"We also have longer nights in the winter, which means there is plenty more opportunity to go out stargazing or meteor-gazing and, of course as always, you do see much more if you're away from those nasty city lights."

"A person under surveillance is no longer free; a society under surveillance is no longer a democracy."—Writers Against Mass Surveillance

THE GOOD NEWS: Americans have a right to freely express themselves on the Internet, including making threatening—even violent—statements on Facebook, provided that they don't intend to actually inflict harm.

The Supreme Court's ruling in threw out the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who was charged with making unlawful threats (it was never proven that he intended to threaten anyone) and sentenced to 44 months in jail after he posted allusions to popular rap lyrics and comedy routines on his Facebook page. It's a ruling that has First Amendment implications for where the government can draw the line when it comes to provocative and controversial speech that is protected and permissible versus speech that could be interpreted as connoting a criminal intent.

That same day, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, the legal justification allowing the National Security Agency (NSA) to carry out warrantless surveillance on Americans, officially expired. Over the course of nearly a decade, if not more, the NSA had covertly spied on millions of Americans, many of whom were guilty of nothing more than using a telephone, and stored their records in government databases. For those who have been fighting the uphill battle against the NSA's domestic spying program, it was a small but symbolic victory.

THE BAD NEWS: Congress' legislative "fix," intended to mollify critics of the NSA, will ensure that the agency is not in any way hindered in its ability to keep spying on Americans' communications.

The USA FREEDOM Act could do more damage than good by creating a false impression that Congress has taken steps to prevent the government from spying on the telephone calls of citizens, while in fact ensuring the NSA's ability to continue invading the privacy and security of Americans.

For instance, the USA FREEDOM Act not only reauthorizes Section 215 of the Patriot Act for a period of time, but it also delegates to telecommunications companies the responsibility of carrying out phone surveillance on American citizens.

AND NOW FOR THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY NEWS: Nothing is going to change.

As journalist Conor Friedersdorf warns, "Americans concerned by mass surveillance and the national security state's combination of power and secrecy should keep worrying."

In other words, telephone surveillance by the NSA is the least of our worries.

Even with restrictions on its ability to collect mass quantities of telephone metadata, the government and its various spy agencies, from the NSA to the FBI, can still employ an endless number of methods for carrying out warrantless surveillance on Americans, all of which are far more invasive than the bulk collection program.

As I point out in my new book just about every branch of the government—from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between—now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to spy on the American people. Just recently, for example, it was revealed that the FBI has been employing a small fleet of low-flying planes to carry out video and cell phone surveillance over American cities.

Then there are the fusion and counterterrorism centers that gather all of the data from the smaller government spies—the police, public health officials, transportation, etc.—and make it accessible for all those in power.

And of course that doesn't even begin to touch on the complicity of the corporate sector, which buys and sells us from cradle to grave, until we have no more data left to mine. Indeed, Facebook, Amazon and Google are among the government's closest competitors when it comes to carrying out surveillance on Americans, monitoring the content of your emails, tracking your purchases and exploiting your social media posts.

"Few consumers understand what data are being shared, with whom, or how the information is being used," reports the . "Most Americans emit a stream of personal digital exhaust — what they search for, what they buy, who they communicate with, where they are — that is captured and exploited in a largely unregulated fashion."

It's not just what we say, where we go and what we buy that is being tracked. We're being surveilled right down to our genes, thanks to a potent combination of hardware, software and data collection that scans our biometrics—our faces, irises, voices, genetics, even our gait—runs them through computer programs that can break the data down into unique "identifiers," and then offers them up to the government and its corporate allies for their respective uses.

All of those internet-connected gadgets we just have to have ( refers to them as "(data) pipelines to our intimate bodily processes")—the smart watches that can monitor our blood pressure and the smart phones that let us pay for purchases with our fingerprints and iris scans—are setting us up for a brave new world where there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

For instance, imagine what the NSA could do (and is likely already doing) with voiceprint technology, which has been likened to a fingerprint. Described as "the next frontline in the battle against overweening public surveillance," the collection of voiceprints is a booming industry for governments and businesses alike. As reports, "voice biometrics could be used to pinpoint the location of individuals. There is already discussion about placing voice sensors in public spaces, and [Lee Tien, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation] said that multiple sensors could be triangulated to identify individuals and specify their location within very small areas."

Suddenly the NSA's telephone metadata program seems like child's play compared to what's coming down the pike.

That, of course, is the point.

Whatever recent victories we've enjoyed—the Second Circuit ruling declaring the NSA's metadata program to be illegal, Congress' inability to reauthorize Section 215 of the Patriot Act, even the Supreme Court's recognition that free speech on the internet may be protected—amount to little in the face of the government's willful disregard of every constitutional safeguard put in place to protect us from abusive, intrusive government agencies out to control the populace.

Already the American people are starting to lose interest in the spectacle of Congress wrangling, debating and negotiating over the NSA and the Patriot Act.

Already the media outlets are being seduced by other, more titillating news: Caitlyn Jenner's cover, Kim Kardashian's pregnancy announcement, and the new book told from Christian's perspective.

What remains to be seen is whether, when all is said and done, the powers-that-be succeed in distracting us from the fact that the government's unauthorized and unwarranted surveillance powers go far beyond anything thus far debated by Congress or the courts.

© NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter observation shows the vast swirls of Reiner Gamma in the Oceanus Procellarum region of the moon, to the west of the crater Reiner. Scientists have long pondered the origin of these swirl patters and others like them and new computer simulations point to cometary impacts being a possible cause.

Strange bright swirls have long been known to exist on the moon's surface and their origin is steeped in mystery. Often stretching thousands of miles across the lunar landscape, scientists have tried to make connections with the elegant curved shapes with the moon's interior magnetism or interactions between moon dirt and the solar wind, but these explanations have fallen short.

Now, inspired by the Apollo moon landings and armed with a powerful computer model, researchers at Brown University think they have an alternative answer for these swirly patterns.

Over the past 100 million years, many small comets impacted the moon's pockmarked surface. Along with the icy nuclei that carved craters into the moon rock, the gaseous comet atmospheres — known as a comet's coma — would have also blasted into the moon's uppermost layer of regolith, possibly leaving the swirly imprint.

"We think this makes a pretty strong case that the swirls represent remnants of cometary collisions," said planetary geoscientist Peter Schultz, at Brown University.

Like a strong gust of wind blowing across a dry, dusty beach, Schultz and co-investigator Megan Bruck-Syal (who is now a researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) believe that as a comet hits the moon's surface, the coma also blasts into the surface, blowing away the dark, lightweight upper layers of regolith (the moon's fine dusty "soil"), exposing the brighter layers below.

This hypothesis takes its lead from the Apollo lunar modules that landed on the moon in the 1969′s and 70′s.

"You could see that the whole area around the lunar modules was smooth and bright because of the gas from the engines scoured the surface," said Schultz in a Brown press release. "That was part of what got me started thinking comet impacts could cause the swirls." These findings have been published in the journal .

Through the use of computer simulations, Schultz and Bruck-Syal have revealed that the impact of comets on the moon could indeed create the vast swirls — the eddies and vorticies created by the gaseous coma impacting the lunar surface appear to leave their own special kind of imprint in the uppermost layers of regolith, often far from the parent comet's impact crater.

These simulations may also explain the magnetic anomalies discovered near the swirls. During a comet impact on the moon, small iron-rich particles would melt and cool and align in the direction of the magnetic field carried by the comet.

"Comets carry with them a magnetic field created by streaming charged particles that interact with the solar wind," Schultz said. "As the gas collides with the lunar surface, the cometary magnetic field becomes amplified and recorded in the small particles when they cool."

These are some of the most sophisticated computer simulations of the origin of the mysterious swirls and they certainly provide a compelling explanation, but further observational evidence is needed.

"Everything we see in simulations of comet impacts is consistent with the swirls as we see them on the moon. We think this process provides a consistent explanation, but may need new moon missions to finally resolve the debate."

We live in a society where sitting in stillness and silence, void of any stimuli, is seen as doing nothing - a view polluted with a negative stigma, with the implication that doing nothing is synonymous with nothing. However, this could not be further from the truth. To sit in stillness is not actually to do "nothing," in the sense that time is wasted and there is no gain. It is, in reality, closer to doing everything, as being in touch with our inner stillness, or consciousness, has a powerful ripple effect on every single aspect of our lives in one way or another. Of course, failing to wake up to this truth also effects everything, but only by ensuring that what we consider to be "everything" in our lives has little substance and limited depth.

The type of downtime I am referring to is one in which we quiet our minds and do not work to achieve any particular goals, execute any task on our to do lists, or engage in external stimuli. It is not one and the same with leisurely downtime such as vacationing with friends, watching TV, or reading a book. That indulging in downtime - the kind in which we enter a state of idleness, quieting our mind - is unproductive and lazy is not merely an idea, but more of a belief a large portion of society has adopted as an absolute truth. However, concrete evidence proving it to be true is grotesquely lacking, leaving statements implying that always being on the go and doing something equates with a successful and meaningful life as nothing more than that: statements. semantics. words with no depth to penetrate.

As it turns out, neuroscientists are now finding the exact opposite to be true, and a new stance on how we expend our time is gaining momentum: always busying ourselves with something diminishes the quality of our lives. When we do not carve time out of our lives to be idle and create empty space in our heads for new ideas to arise, the areas most essential to living a productive, creative, and vibrant life are negatively impacted - or, in the least, brought to either an outright standstill in progress or complete and utter chaos. The reality is, when we "empty" our minds we are not wasting time. On the contrary, we are actually greatly reducing the odds that the time we spend engaging in external activities - whether work related, personal, or social - is wasted or of little substance.

Continuously busying ourselves and filling every waking minute with something to check off our to do lists allots little to no room in our minds for fresh ideas and renewal to arise. You don't have to become a monk or go on a retreat where you sit in isolation in a room and meditate for months in order to reap the benefits of doing nothing in the manner I am referring to. You only need to silence your mind, to devote yourself to idleness, for five to ten minutes a day, preferrably a few times throughout the day. If you are thinking you do not have so much as one increment of five to ten minutes to dedicate to doing nothing every day, much less various ones, all hope is not lost. You can still enter a state of idleness in which you are not focused on doing anything and your interior world is not swayed by stimuli of any kind while performing mundane, habitual tasks such as household chores like laundry or the dishes, since "doing nothing" in this case essentially means to make space in your head - to quiet the mind, to do nothing mentally, to be conscious, to enter a state of heightened present moment awareness. There are simple strategies to do so even with a schedule full of activities, and adopting them can result in significant health benefits.

The Health Benefits Of Doing Nothing

When we are constantly doing something, we are simultaneously constantly stimulating our nervous systems to the point of exhaustion - and an overexerted, depleted nervous system can most certainly give birth to an array of health problems, as well as make it all but impossible to overcome them. For optimal health and healing, we need our nervous systems on board and rooted in our bodies with expendable energy to place towards any problematic areas that may arise which need excess nourishment to be replenished. Otherwise, achieving a state of homeostasis and living a balanced, healthy life is highly unlikely.

Regularly carving out time to devote to doing nothing, to sitting in idleness and dropping into a conscious state of being, produces many health benefits including, but not limited to, reduced heart rate, better digestion, improvements in mood, and a boost in overall emotional well-being - which, of course, affects everything on a biochemical and physiological level, thereby serving as a major deciding factor on whether or not we fall ill, and/or remain ill. Mental downtime also replenishes glucose and oxygen levels in the brain, and allows our brains to process and file things, which leaves us feeling more rested and clear headed, promotes a stronger sense of self-confidence, and enstills within us a deep trust in life. When we trust in the unfolding of life, we trust change. We do not resist it, or any experience for that matter. It is then that we are able to transmute even the worst types of pain - physical, mental, or spiritual - into meaningful experiences that change us on deep, fundamental levels for the better. It may seem as though such changes only impact us or those directly associated with us in some way; but collectively, they impact the world, both shaping and embodying the form that defines the nature of humanity.

Strategies For Creating Downtime To Do Nothing

In the morning: Immediatly upon opening our eyes every morning, many of us do the same thing, as there is a relatively limited selection of actions to choose from. Options range from hitting snooze on our alarms, getting up to brush our teeth, yelling at anyone who is brave enough to talk way too loud for 6 AM (or to talk, period), eating breakfast, or making coffee. There really aren't many other options than that, at least not ones not deemed significant enough to make the list of the most common things people do when they first wake up. Except, there is one undoubtedly more significant thing that should be added to the list, as it is more essential to life than anything else we can do to start the day: the most powerful thing we can do upon waking is . To remain idle and quiet our minds, and enter the present fully into a state of conscious being.

Choosing to start the day consciously, to clear our heads before new stimulus bombards it, profoundly changes everything that happens throughout the day ahead of us. While it may not so much change what happens on an external physical, aesthetic level, delving into the day consciously changes what happens on an internal level. This indirectly changes the feeling sense of all that happens around us, giving greater depth, meaning, and a sense of aliveness to every moment of the day not only for us, but for everyone connected to our daily activities both directly and indirectly.

If you find it hard to take five to ten minutes to do nothing but sit or lay still, for five to ten minutes while quieting your mind (falling back sleep doesn't count), then the following practice may help: Starting at your feet and working your way up, scan your body for any areas that feel tense or uneasy. When you run into one, focus your attention, which is to say your energy, on it and imagine you are breathing into it, with each rise and fall of your chest relaxing it more and more. Doing so not only quiets the mind, it balances the mind-body connection, making way for a more grounded state of being throughout the day.

At work: Although sitting at your desk - or whatever your workplace environment entails - and staring out the window is infamously hailed as lazy, unproductive, and a general indicator that someone is either unmotivated or incompetent to work, research conducted by The Energy Project paints a different picture. The Energy Project, a consulting firm specializing in engagement and productivity among workers, vehemently begs to differ. According to their Vice President of business development, Andrew Deutscher, the longer people work without taking breaks to rest and replinish their minds, "the worse they feel and the less engaged they become." ^[1^]

The Energy Project's research results on workplace productivity and idleness found that individuals who took five to ten minute breaks from work to do nothing a few times a day displayed an approximately 50% increase in their ability to think clearly and creatively, thus rendering their work far more productive. Results like these are what prompt the firm to advocate for the allowance of employee breaks and short, restorative naps while on the clock. This, of course, benefits everyone involved -employees, employers, and the people using their services.

When Tackling Daily Chores: When we execute daily household chores like dishes or laundry, we feel like we are doing nothing - in the sense that we are not doing anything significant, which is actually quite perfect. Rather than turning on the TV, radio, or calling someone to escape the uncomfortable feeling of doing nothing important, we can instead free fall into that feeling. Rather than resist the feeling of doing nothing significant when performing repetitive tasks and chores, we can instead make the conscious choice to fully enter it, and in doing so give it great significance.

Daily chores like washing the dishes and folding laundry become so habitual due to their repetitive nature that our physical actions are basically on cruise control when executing them. This can either be a really boring or really rewarding reality - we get to choose which. Since we do these tasks automatically without much thought, our minds are already quieted to a significant degree, making them great tools rather than burdens. Since our minds are already quieted more than usual, we have an advantage - the only effort we have to place towards doing nothing is to simply be aware that our mind is quieted more than usual and choose to tune into it without implementing any external stimuli to busy our mind.

In the space that external stimuli would have otherwise filled, there is consciousness. And where there is consciousness, there is deep peace, even when external factors are unsatisfactory. And where there is deep peace, there is a love whose existence could never be threatened by any external source or event. And where there is love such as this, there is the richest source of what we call life.

Sources

1. , May 2015 Issue

2. theenergyproject.com

3.nytimes.com

Defense official's warning destroys media claims that only "conspiracy theorists" believe martial law could be declared in the near future.

In a stunning revelation published by a mainstream news outlet, an anonymous Department of Defense official has revealed their belief that a DoD Directive outlining military support to civilian authorities is the latest step towards President Obama eventually using military force against the American people.

The quote from the defense official was published in a now viral report that detailed the 2010 DoD Directive and how it could be used, under authority from the President, to unleash the might of the US military onto the civilian population.

"This appears to be the latest step in the administration's decision to use force within the United States against its citizens," a defense official told the Washington Times.

According to the report, another anonymous US Official also claimed that President Obama considered using the military during the Bundy Ranch standoff but eventually decided against it.

The directive was signed on December 29, 2010 and includes normal provisions on support for civilian emergency services before revealing that the President has the power to deploy the military on American citizens as he sees fit.

This fact was already known due to numerous executive orders but the directive shows that President Obama himself has signed new orders during his presidency that confirm this power.

A section on using the military during civil disturbances includes:

Federal military commanders are provided EMERGENCY AUTHORITY under this Directive. Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the President in accordance with applicable law (e.g., chapter 15 ofReference (d)) or permitted under emergency authority, as described below (see DoDD 3025.12 (Reference (j)) and DoDD 5525.5 (Reference (c))).

In these circumstances, those Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances because:

(1) Such activities are necessary to prevent significant loss of life or wanton destruction of property and are necessary to restore governmental function and public order; or,

(2) When duly constituted Federal, State, or local authorities are unable or decline to provide adequate protection for Federal property or Federal governmental functions.

Another troubling section of the directive details how the military will go about providing lethal assets to local authorities including arms and drone technology.

The section also openly acknowledges that the military is planning for situations where a confrontation between law enforcement and American citizens is expected.

Except for immediate response and emergency authority as described in paragraphs 4.g. and 4.i. of this section, only the Secretary of Defense may approve requests from civil authorities or qualifying entities for Federal military support for:

(1) Defense assistance in responding to civil disturbances (requires Presidential authorization) in accordance with Reference (j).

(2) Defense response to CBRNE events (see DoDI 2000.18 (Reference (aa))).

(3)Defense assistance to civilian law enforcement organizations, except as authorized in Reference (c).

(4) Assistance in responding with assets with potential for lethality. This support includes loans of arms; vessels or aircraft; or ammunition. It also includes assistance under section 382 of Reference (d) and section 831 of title 18, U.S.C. (Reference (ab)); all support to counterterrorism operations; and all support to civilian law enforcement authorities in situations where a confrontation between civilian law enforcement and civilian individuals or group is reasonably anticipated.

This directive is literally part of the blueprint for martial law in America yet the mainstream media continues to pretend that fears of martial law are simply the ramblings of crazed conspiracy theorists.

In other words, the corporate media is expecting and hoping that the American people are so blind that they refuse to see reality and instead go along with transparent media lies.

There have been at least 200 mainstream news reports that attacked Alex Jones and the entire alternative media for being worried about Jade Helm 2015, one of the largest realistic military training exercises ever seen on American soil, yet defense officials within the Pentagon are themselves worried about Obama's plan to use military force against citizens.

You can count on the fact that, if one defense official is willing to risk it all and give a quote like the one above, many others within their agency are also worried.

Military drills and movements within the last 2 months

In a major report published late last week, I wrote about the upcoming dirty bomb drill known as "Operation Northern Exposure" and how it was yet another military drill that has either taken place or been announced within the last two months.

The list includes:

On March 13th, Intellihub founder Shepard Ambellas detailed photos and documentation of nearly 40 U.S. Army soldiers, wielding training rifles and dressed in full combat gear, participating in an urban warfare style training drill just outside the Texarkana Regional Airport perimeter.
In the middle of April, a report out of Big Springs, Texas revealed that a train full of military equipment and over a dozen helicopters had arrived in the town ahead ofJade Helm 2015.
Photographs taken in Corona, California a few days later added to the Jade Helm speculation after they showed a MRAP full of what looked to be U.S. Marines driving down the 1-15 freeway. "In broad daylight with not a care in the world"
On April 24th a shocking report on Intellihub News detailed armed troops seen confronting angry protesters in a "professional news package"of riot control training released by the military
"A massive buildup, a lot of movement and its undeniable at this point," read the headline on April 25th after a convoy was seen in Oroville, California that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Moving into May, photographs taken in Indiana showed a massive military convoy heading down the freeway. The photos, taken by a concerned citizen, show the convoy heading west on I-70 for reasons unknown.
Two days later, video footage, this time out of Texarkana, Arkansas, highlighted a convoy of Humvees driving down the highway as well as a trainload of military vehicles that was seen shortly after.
In mid May, Intellihub reporter Alex Thomas published a detailed report that confirmed that the military was indeed training to take on the American people, this time in the form of domestic house to house raids.
The next day a new report, also by Alex Thomas, proved that Marines were actually practicing for the internment of American citizens.
On May 18th, a train full of hundreds of military Humvees was spotted, further revealing the increased military buildup across the country leading into Jade Helm 2015. The train was heading towards Cleveland for unknown reasons although a possible connection to planned upcoming protests had been mentioned.
This past week a massive military war game simulation called Raider Focus was announced. The war game will include the largest military convoy seen on the roads of Colorado since World War II.
On may 23th, Intellihub News reported on pictures sent to ANP that show a 1/4 mile long military train convoy near the Colorado Wyoming border.
Finally, a report published this week detailed a stunning propaganda move by the military involving a New Jersey school and the worship of the military on the streets of America. "As parents, teachers, and students looked on with joy, Marines from the Special-Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force landed helicopters on the baseball diamond of a New Jersey school."

Perhaps the most important aspect of this report, besides the fact that we now have confirmation that at least some within the government are against declaring martial law in America, is the fact that this is direct evidence that President Obama himself has thought about and made sure he has the power to use the military against the public at large.

Instead of assuming he had the power under past executive orders and laws, President Obama's Department of Defense put it in writing during the height of the Tea Party insurgence.

At this point is it up to the American people to continue to counter the propaganda being pushed by the mainstream media and the military PR machine by educating friends and family about the very real and documented dangers of martial law being declared in America.

About the Author

Alex Thomas is a reporter who has worked in the alternative media for over three years. His work has been featured on numerous news outlets including Infowars and RT. Alex is an exclusive weapon of Intellihub.

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© Reuters/Jalal Al-Mamo

A woman reporter runs with a rebel fighter to avoid snipers at the frontline against the Islamic State fighters in Aleppo's northern countryside October 10, 2014.

The United States has accused the Syrian military of carrying out air strikes to help Islamic State fighters advance around the northern city of Aleppo, messages posted on the U.S. Embassy Syria official Twitter feed said.

Islamic State fighters pushed back rival insurgents north of Aleppo on Sunday near the Turkish border, threatening their supply route to the city, fighters and a group monitoring the war said.

Fighters from Levant Front, a northern alliance which includes Western-backed rebels and Islamist fighters, said they were worried Islamic State was heading for the Bab al-Salam crossing between Aleppo and the Turkish province of Kilis.

"Reports indicate that the regime is making air strikes in support of ISIL's advance on Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population," a post on the U.S. Embassy Syria Twitter account said late on Monday, using an acronym for Islamic State.

Reports indicate that the regime is making air-strikes in support of #ISIL's advance on #Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population
— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015

Syrian officials have previously dismissed as nonsense allegations by Washington and Syrian opposition activists that the Syrian military has helped Islamic State's fight against rival Syrian insurgent forces.

"The Syrian army is fighting Islamic State in all areas where it is present in Syria," a military source said.

The United States suspended operations in its embassy in Damascus in 2012 but still publishes messages on the embassy Twitter feed.

The account said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had long lost legitimacy and "will never be an effective counterterrorism partner."

Assad and Syrian officials have frequently called for international cooperation to fight jihadists in Syria. Damascus has described all insurgents fighting against it as foreign-backed "terrorist organizations."

State news agency SANA said on Tuesday the military had "eliminated" a number of Islamic State fighters in the Aleppo countryside and that air strikes had destroyed some of the group's vehicles.

But the U.S. Twitter feed said Damascus had a hand in promoting Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot which has seized land in Syria and Iraq.

"With these latest reports, (the military) is not only avoiding ISIL lines, but, actively seeking to bolster their position," it said. Syria has accused its regional enemies of backing hardline insurgent groups.

With these latest reports, #Asad is not only avoiding #ISIL lines, but, actively seeking to bolster their positon. #Syria
— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015

The Syrian military has carried out recent air bombardments in the province, including inside Aleppo city and on the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab to the northeast, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Some rebels have questioned why U.S.-led forces bombing Islamic State in Syria and Iraq have not focused on bombing the jihadists around Aleppo city.

In rebel-held Aleppo, a local council that helps run civilian affairs called on fighters to be ready for battle with Islamic State, the Observatory said on Tuesday, citing a statement.

It called on "all mujahideen" to respond to Islamic State fighters which it said were receiving "air cover from the regime."

Guallatiri or Guallatire is one of the most active volcanoes in northern Chile. It is just west of the border with Bolivia and at the southwestern end of the Nevados de Quimsachata. It is a symmetrical 6,071-metre-high (19,918 ft) (3.7723 miles) ice-clad stratovolcano. Wallatiri is capped by a central dacitic dome or lava complex, with the active vent at its southern side. The volcano last erupted in 1960.

Elevated seismic activity since the night 30-31 May triggered SERNAGEOMIN to raise the alert level of the volcano to "yellow." A swarm 22 earthquakes related to internal rock fracturing, possibly caused by rising magma, was registered shortly after midnight 30-31 May. A magnitude 3.7 quake occurred at 05:17 local time the next morning.

At the same time, slight deformation of the summit area of the volcano was detected as well, which would be consistent with a new magma intrusion at depth. No other changes (such as increased degassing, rock falls etc) have been noted.

© Reuters/Jalal Al-Mamo

A woman reporter runs with a rebel fighter to avoid snipers at the frontline against the Islamic State fighters in Aleppo's northern countryside October 10, 2014.

Islamic State fighters pushed back rival insurgents north of Aleppo on Sunday near the Turkish border, threatening their supply route to the city, fighters and a group monitoring the war said.

Reports indicate that the regime is making air-strikes in support of #ISIL's advance on #Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population
— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015

"The Syrian army is fighting Islamic State in all areas where it is present in Syria," a military source said.

The United States suspended operations in its embassy in Damascus in 2012 but still publishes messages on the embassy Twitter feed.

The account said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had long lost legitimacy and "will never be an effective counterterrorism partner."

State news agency SANA said on Tuesday the military had "eliminated" a number of Islamic State fighters in the Aleppo countryside and that air strikes had destroyed some of the group's vehicles.

But the U.S. Twitter feed said Damascus had a hand in promoting Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot which has seized land in Syria and Iraq.

With these latest reports, #Asad is not only avoiding #ISIL lines, but, actively seeking to bolster their positon. #Syria
— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015

Some rebels have questioned why U.S.-led forces bombing Islamic State in Syria and Iraq have not focused on bombing the jihadists around Aleppo city.

In rebel-held Aleppo, a local council that helps run civilian affairs called on fighters to be ready for battle with Islamic State, the Observatory said on Tuesday, citing a statement.

It called on "all mujahideen" to respond to Islamic State fighters which it said were receiving "air cover from the regime."

America's Biggest Secret: Wikileaks Is Raising A $100,000 Reward For Leaks Of The TPP

If there is one piece of legislation (and in a "democracy", there is no reason why any one law should be fast-tracked through Congress under the shroud of secrecy) that should be passed in complete openness and in full view of the general public, especially by the world's "most transparent organization", it is Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multi-trillion dollar treaty with 29 classified chapters, which - when not if passed - will have an impact on the vast majority of workers in the US, on their wages and living conditions.

And yet, when it comes to the TPP, not only is the text of the legislation under lock and key, but the law's drafters, primarily US corporations, have made it so profoundly secret, that "many of the provisions will not only be secret before the vote in the House, but will also be kept secret for four years after the bill is signed. That means we won’t know what’s in it even after it’s passed."

Curiously, according to Wikileaks, the TPP contains 29 chapters but only 5 pertain to trade. As Red State reports, "Wikileaks will be publishing the entire bill and they have already released the chapter on Investment. It’s very interesting. It is written in a such a way as to give multinational companies a huge advantage on trade. If a public hospital is built close to a private one, the private hospital has the right to sue the country for expected losses." The chapter on investment can be found here.

It gets worse:

The agreement also regulates the internet and requires internet companies to gather certain data which they will be required to share with certain private companies. Many of the provisions will not only be secret before the vote in the House, but will also be kept secret for four years after the bill is signed. That means we won’t know what’s in it even after it’s passed.

Wikileaks has more information:

The Investment Chapter highlights the intent of the TPP negotiating parties, led by the United States, to increase the power of global corporations by creating a supra-national court, or tribunal, where foreign firms can “sue” states and obtain taxpayer compensation for “expected future profits”. These investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals are designed to overrule the national court systems. ISDS tribunals introduce a mechanism by which multinational corporations can force governments to pay compensation if the tribunal states that a country’s laws or policies affect the company’s claimed future profits. In return, states hope that multinationals will invest more. Similar mechanisms have already been used. For example, US tobacco company Phillip Morris used one such tribunal to sue Australia (June 2011 – ongoing) for mandating plain packaging of tobacco products on public health grounds; and by the oil giant Chevron against Ecuador in an attempt to evade a multi-billion-dollar compensation ruling for polluting the environment. The threat of future lawsuits chilled environmental and other legislation in Canada after it was sued by pesticide companies in 2008/9. ISDS tribunals are often held in secret, have no appeal mechanism, do not subordinate themselves to human rights laws or the public interest, and have few means by which other affected parties can make representations.

For those interested, here is a Julian Assange interview in which he shares his take on the TPP's highly classified contents:

But what is by far the worst, and is both farcical and tragic at the same time, is that in a parallel effort, the same Wikileaks which is a semi-illegal organization in the US and whose founder will be immediately arrested should he leave the sanctuary of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, has leaked 3 of the 29 chapters. It is now raising a reward of $100,000 for the missing chapters of the TPP legislation. To wit:

America’s most wanted secret. The TPP is a multi-trillion dollar international treaty that is being negotiated in secret by the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico and others. This massive agreement has 29 chapters, of which 26 are still secret. It covers 40% of global GDP and is the largest agreement of its kind in history. The treaty aims to create a new international legal regime that will allow transnational corporations to bypass domestic courts, evade environmental protections, police the internet on behalf of the content industry, limit the availability of affordable generic medicines, and drastically curtail each country’s legislative sovereignty. US Senator Elizabeth Warren has said “[They] can’t make this deal public because if the American people saw what was in it, they would be opposed to it.” Over the last two years WikiLeaks has published three chapters of this super-secret global deal, despite unprecedented efforts by negotiating governments to keep it under wraps. The remaining 26 chapters of the deal are closely held by negotiators and the big corporations that have been given privileged access. The TPP is also noteworthy as the icebreaker agreement for the proposed ‘T-treaty triad’ of TPP-TISA-TTIP which would see TPP style rules placed on 53 nations, 1.6 billion people and 2/3rds of the global economy.

Said otherwise, a non-profit, international organization whose legal status has been openly challenged by various western governments, is seeking to bribe whistleblowers in Congress who have access to the full TPP, just so the public can see what the US president is rushing to slam through Congress without anyone have any idea of its contents. In other words, Wikileaks is scrambling to do what in any normal representative democracy should be taken for granted.

Of course, if the country in question is a democracy in all but name, and in reality is a oligarchic corporatocracy-cum-banana republic, then all bets are off.

Finally, while we showed it previously, here are the members of the US Business Coalition for TPP, who "splurged" for donations to various Senators (source) in the first few several months of 2015 to assure that despite some cosmetic straight to C-SPAN glithces in the Senate, the TPP never met with any serious challenges by America's elected representatives.

These are the corporations that stand to benefit the most from the utmost secrecy of the TPP.

ISIS, Assad Regime Now Fighting Together In Syria, US Alleges

When last we checked in on the situation in Syria, ISIS (who a secret Pentagon document recently revealed was, and probably still is, considered a US “strategic asset”) was supposedly on the move, emboldened by recent successes in the ancient city of Palmyra and the conquest of Ramadi in Iraq, where, you’re reminded, Iraqi forces showed “no will” to fight according the Pentagon.

Recent reports also indicated that the militants may have commandeered 2,300 humvees worth more than $1 billion when the group sacked Mosul last summer, a convenient “loss” for the US which can now justify four times that amount in arms sales to allies who will now need to counter a ‘better-equipped’ ISIS.

On the heels of Palmyra, Ramadi, and a suicide bombing at a Saudi mosque, the US military and Congressional war hawks have ratcheted up the calls for American boots on the ground in Iraq. More specifically, what’s needed is so-called forward “spotters” who will aid in making airstrikes more precise and thus avoid the type of collateral damage and failed bombing runs that have allegedly plagued the air campaign thus far. Or, as we put it last week: Carefully worded trial balloons don’t get much better than that. You see, the problem is that we are accidentally killing innocent children on our bombing runs and that’s if we’re lucky enough to be able to drop any bombs at all which apparently we only do a quarter of the time, and the whole “problem” could be “fixed” by deploying a couple of “spotters” with laser pointers.

But no good narrative is complete without a series of multi-colored maps which usually depict the enemy’s advance using various shades of red or orange or purple much like one might use to depict the spread of a deadly virus. That way, the public begins to equate the enemy advance with a rapidly proliferating biological threat.

Alas, none of this has yet created enough public support for a ground incursion in Iraq and Syria, which needs to come sooner rather than later because after all, Qatari natural gas isn’t going to pipe itself into Europe.

So we suppose that if the original plan was to wait on ISIS to make the final push into Damascus before claiming that the US “must take action” to expel the murderous black flag-waving hordes on the way to installing a more ‘agreeable’ regime, it might make sense to just skip a step and claim Assad and ISIS have now teamed up, that way, we can equate the two and kill two birds with one stone (or, more accurately, serve one CIA asset a burn notice and oust an ‘unfriendly’ regime with 10,000 marines).

Cue Reuters:

The United States has accused the Syrian military of carrying out air strikes to help Islamic State fighters advance around the northern city of Aleppo, messages posted on the U.S. Embassy Syria official Twitter feed said.

Islamic State fighters pushed back rival insurgents north of Aleppo on Sunday near the Turkish border, threatening their supply route to the city, fighters and a group monitoring the war said.

Fighters from Levant Front, a northern alliance which includes Western-backed rebels and Islamist fighters, said they were worried Islamic State was heading for the Bab al-Salam crossing between Aleppo and the Turkish province of Kilis.

"Reports indicate that the regime is making air strikes in support of ISIL's advance on Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population," a post on the U.S. Embassy Syria Twitter account said late on Monday, using an acronym for Islamic State.

But the U.S. Twitter feed said Damascus had a hand in promoting Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot which has seized land in Syria and Iraq.

"With these latest reports, (the military) is not only avoiding ISIL lines, but, actively seeking to bolster their position," it said. Syria has accused its regional enemies of backing hardline insurgent groups.

If that sounds strange to you, that's because it is. Recall from the Pentagon document mentioned above that a spokesperson for The Islamic State of Iraq called on "the Sunnis in Iraq to wage war against the Syrian regime regarding Syria as an infidel regime for its support of the infidel army Hezbollah and other regimes he considers dissenters like Iran and Iraq."

Now, apparently, ISIS and the Assad regime have inexplicably decided to ban together.

With these latest reports, #Asad is not only avoiding #ISIL lines, but, actively seeking to bolster their positon. #Syria

— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015

Here's more from Reuters:

Syrian officials have previously dismissed as nonsense allegations by Washington and Syrian opposition activists that the Syrian military has helped Islamic State's fight against rival Syrian insurgent forces.

"The Syrian army is fighting Islamic State in all areas where it is present in Syria," a military source said.

And the US again:

Reports indicate that the regime is making air-strikes in support of #ISIL's advance on #Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population

— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015

For their part, the 'moderate' Syrian opposition claims "it is fact" that Assad is now aiding ISIS and in fact has been doing so for the better part of two years. From Islam Alloush, a spokesman for the Islamic Front, via The Guardian:

“Yesterday, the regime bombed Mare’a (which was held by the opposition) exactly at the same time when Isis was attacking us, and this helped them greatly."

“It has become a matter of fact since 2013 that the Syrian regime has bombed us to stop us fighting Isis properly. Isis have never attacked Syrian planes. They owe their success to the regime.”

Draw your own conclusions, but if one wanted to speed up the process of bringing about regime change in Syria, one way to do so would be to claim that Assad and ISIS are now working together in an attempt to crush the opposition.

That way, increased US military "support" could be justified by claiming that the barbarous ISIS hordes are now teaming with a regime that allegedly uses chemical weapons on its own people, thus creating a murderous Frankenstein monster by sewing together the ISIS bogeyman and the 'maniacal' Assad regime and trotting it out to the public as justification for yet another US ground war.

United Airlines is facing a customer backlash after discriminating against a Muslim passenger. Tahera Ahmad was on an internal US flight when she was refused an unopened can of soda. The flight attendant believed she would use it as a weapon.

Ahmad, a Muslim chaplain from Northwestern University, was traveling from Chicago to Washington, DC, for a conference aimed at promoting dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youth.

During the flight, she asked the flight attendant if she could have a can of diet coke. However, the 31 year-old's request wasn't granted. The attendant told her: "Well I'm sorry I just can't give you an unopened can so no diet coke for you," Ahmed wrote on her Facebook page.

Moments later, the passenger sitting next to her was given an unopened can of beer. This prompted Ahmad to ask the flight attendant why she hadn't been given an unopened can of diet coke.

"We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane," the attendant is reported by Ahmad to have said.

An astounded Ahmad tried to ask her fellow passengers to support her claim, but unfortunately she only received more abuse.

A man sitting in the opposite aisle yelled at her saying; "you Muslim, you need to shut the F** up."

The 31 year-old responded by saying, "What?!"

The man apparently leaned over, looked her in the eye and said: "Yes you know you would use it as a weapon, so shut the f**k up." Fighting back tears so as to not cause a scene, Ahmad said she was shocked no one came to her defense, and that other people just shook their heads in dismay.

Horrified social media users have been voting with their feet and wallets after the scandal broke, with a number of passengers saying they will never fly with United Airlines again. Others have written messages of support for Ahmad on Twitter, under the hashtag, #unitedfortahera.

Ahmad, who says she has been a victim of Islamophobia on previous occasions, told the that the flight attendant's behavior was particularly patronizing because she was "publically targeted as a threat to people."

"That is a very horrible feeling," said Ahmad, who later added the flight attendant in question did apologize to her.

"The flight attendant also acknowledged that the man who yelled at me was wrong for doing so and apologized that her behavior led to that. She acknowledged it was unethical and said he never should have said anything," she said.

Ahmad also mentioned that once the plane had landed, the pilot came up to her and apologized for what had happened and personally took her to the service desk so she could file a complaint.

A spokesman for United Airlines, Charles Hobart, said the airline was trying to contact Ahmad in order to "get a better understanding of what occurred during the flight." Hobart added United was discussing the alleged incident with Shuttle America, United's regional partner and operator of the flight.

Valentina Lisitsa, a well-known Ukrainian-born American classical pianist who has faced censure over her strong opposition to Kiev's war in Donbass, has told Sputnik that she is getting ready to hold a concert in Donetsk later this month.

Speaking to Radio Sputnik on Tuesday, Lisitsa noted that her performance, to be held in Donetsk, the capital of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, is likely to take place Friday, June 22, the symbolic 74th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War.

Noting that the performance would take place either at the Donetsk National Academic Opera Theatre or outdoors before the city's main square, Lisitsa stated that she would be very happy if it were held outdoors, "because I know how much interest and thirst for classical music and for music in general there is among Donbass residents, and I'm very excited to go there."

Asked about whose composers' works she planned to play, Lisitsa noted that it would be "very symbolic to perform Prokofiev, because he is from that region; he was a composer whose roots are [in the Donbass region]" and his music was inspired and influenced by his homeland. Moreover, she plans to play beloved pieces by composers including Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Bach, whose "pieces...unite all of us - that make us feel like one close family."

In addition to her hopes to give joy to the people of Donbass, Lisitsa also hopes to show her fans and those who observe and follow her work that ordinary people "on all sides don't want war, to fight with each other; they don't want their children, their husbands, sons and daughters to die under bombs and bullets." She wants to show her Western followers that the people of Donbass are just like them, that they love classical music just like them. Noting that she will post video of her performance on YouTube, she said that "I think that's the best kind of service I can possibly do for the people of Donbass."

The classical pianist explained that she does not "expect miracles" when it comes to the grandeur of the venue or the quality of the piano, but notes that it is the music and the soul behind it, rather than the instrument, which is most important.

Lisitsa first gained wide-scale media attention for her political views in March, after Canada's Toronto Symphony Orchestra cancelled her performances over numerous comments she had made on social media condemning Kiev authorities and their war in eastern Ukraine. A renowned Kiev-born pianist, Lisitsa first gained mass popularity among lovers of classical music in 2007, when she began posting videos of her performances on YouTube, which have since garnered tens of millions of views, and earned Lisitsa tens of thousands of loyal fans.

Lisitsa told Sputnik that she has never been afraid that her decision to express her views would limit her career, noting that musicians aren't in it for the money anyway, "but because we want to share our love of music - something that is our common human heritage, and we are here to share it with as many people as possible."

A kindergarten in East Jerusalem has come up with a controversial play which showed a kid dressed as IDF soldier "killing" a Palestinian boy with a gun. The supporters of the "victim" then cover him in a Palestinian flag.

The play took place in a kindergarten at the Dar al-Hekma private school in Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the Arabic-language Himma News reported. The site posted a video of the performance but soon deleted it. It was later uploaded by the .

In the video, a kindergarten pupil dressed as an IDF soldier takes another boy, apparently a Palestinian, from the crowd. He explains to him something and then "shoots" him at close range.

Then kids playing Palestinian supporters are seen running to the victim, grieving the murder of their fellow comrade. They later cover him with a Palestinian flag.

Girls in veils are also seen in the video. They are yelling that Palestinian prisoners in Israel are spending their best years in prison but will, with the help of God, kill all the collaborators and "occupiers."

"The collaborator is a traitor! He sold himself, his people, and his homeland!", the girls are heard saying, as cited by Jerusalem Post.

The paper says that the background music for the play is a song by Ferkat al-Walad, a band which is known for promoting jihadist values.

The Dar al-Hekma school, which apparently concentrates on Palestinian-Israeli relations, is now under investigation from the Education Ministry, which says that it views the incident "very seriously."

The incident "will be reviewed at the district level. The office will operate in accordance with the findings of the review," it said in a statement.

A mind-boggling 25% of Australians say they are at least "slightly interested" at the prospect of having a chip implanted in their skin that could be used for payments, new research has found.

The research by credit card company Visa and the University of Technology Sydney found Australians are open to the prospect of paying for items using wearable tech including smart watches, rings, glasses and even a connected car.

"Australians are among the world's earliest adopters of new technology," Head of Emerging Products and Innovation for Visa in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, George Lawson said.

Visa is currently looking at how its payments tech can be integrated with wearable devices and is working with UTS to figure out how it might be adopted by the next generation of shoppers.

"New technology like tokenisation makes it possible to turn any device into a secure vehicle for commerce. We're already seeing smartphone payments take off in Australia. Partnering with UTS gives us the opportunity to explore what our next device might be," Lawson said.

North Atlantic Terrorist Organization; The US’s Bastard Child

The West has continually forced its "values" upon other sovereign nations. For Western "think-tanks", it is a foregone conclusion that Russia is the threat, and NATO is the "good guy" on the bloc. Russia has to "westernize" by becoming more "democratic". But, who is to say that the evasive terms like "western values" and "democracy" are the best for Russia, Iraq, or other areas of the world?

After all, the U.S. and NATO are not spreading "democracy" to Saudi Arabia. Why is that? What about South Korea, Israel, or any other nation that plays by U.S., British, and ultimately NATO's rules? All of these countries are guilty of massive human rights violations. Why is the MSM ignoring this reality? The truth regarding U.S. and Western "crimes against humanity" should also be exposed, because who makes the United States and the West arbitrators of morality?

The West also seems to forget that Russia is not considered a major aggressor in the eyes of the world; rather, the U.S. is the biggest threat to world peace, which is why U.S.-led NATO is a threat to Russia, and peace in Europe. One only needs to look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Egypt and now Ukraine. And that's just from the last 10 years. Let's not forget what happened to the Native Americans, South and Central America, and the Philippines. This is not to mention the multitude of other failed states, coups, and illegal invasions ignited by the United States since its inception. Russia does not need U.S. "democracy". Nobody does.

How many conversations does it take to get this simple concept through thick imperialist skulls? The United States is not a country that promotes peace, and NATO is not an alliance that guarantees world security.

It has been stated many times, by those who reject western exceptionalism, expansionism, and imperialism, that if Russia or any other country had acted the way the U.S. has in Ukraine, or other areas around the world, it would be considered an act of war. The only American politician that seems to understand this, in recent years, is Ron Paul, but the western media always downplays his importance, ignores him completely, or paints him as a loon. In reality, he is the only leader who sees the problems the U.S. has caused around the world with its destructive foreign policy. It is unfortunate Ron Paul's son does not seem to follow his father's brilliant leadership.

The rest of the politicians in the U.S., whether Democrat or Republican, liberal or 'conservative'; or in England, with the Tories and the Liberal Democrats — . When will Europe wake up and realize that Russia is not the threat? From the time of the American Indians to present day, the U.S. has been the destroyer of peace, and this is not going to change if the people do not change. The United States must fix their own country rather than destroying others to justify its existence.

Legislative efforts intended to reform aspects of the United States Intelligence Community's surveillance operations have cleared Congress and are expected to be signed into law imminently by President Obama.

The Senate voted 67-32 on Tuesday in favor of the USA Freedom Act, adopting the same version of the bill that had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last month by 338-88.

Backers of the USA Freedom Act say the bill ends the bulk collection of telephone call records by the National Security Agency as revealed in 2013 by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, as well as brings reform to the secret court that oversees surveillance requests and increases transparency.

Passage of the bill signals "the first major overhaul of government surveillance laws in decades," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said on the Senate floor following Tuesday's vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), an adamant critic of the bill up until the moment Tuesday's vote occurred, had unsuccessfully tried earlier in the day to tack on amendments that opponents said would have weakened efforts to reform the nation's surveillance operations. Had McConnell's amendments been accepted by the Senate, then the new version of the USA Freedom Act would have had to go back to the House to be voted again, further delaying passage.

With the Senate's passage of the "clean" reform bill that's already cleared the House, the USA Freedom Act is expected to soon end up on the desk of President Barack Obama and be signed into law.

McConnell called passage of the bill on Tuesday "a resounding victory for Edward Snowden," who two years earlier had provided the press with top-secret documents concerning the NSA's surveillance programs.

Earlier this week on Sunday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued a statement urging the Senate to act swiftly in passing the USA Freedom Act because the administration had determined the latest edition of the bill "struck a reasonable compromise balancing security and privacy—allowing us to continue to protect the country while implementing various reforms, including prohibiting bulk collection through the use of Section 215, FISA pen registers and National Security Letters."

Section 215 of the Patriot Act - the post-9/11 counterterrorism legislation signed by Pres. George W. Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks - had up until recently authorized the NSA to collect telephone call records in bulk of millions of American citizens regardless of whether or not they've been suspected of any wrongdoing. Sec. 215 authorities expired on Monday without being renewed, days after a federal appeals court said that it did not think the Patriot Act was ever intended to let the intelligence community collect data on innocent citizens.

In what has become a common refrain in all security circles, the elimination of privacy is a necessary tool needed to provide a solution.

China is invoking the threat of financial fraud to usher in a new system of facial recognition ATMs that not only will link to an "identity database" but also will scan cash for counterfeit currency.

The facial recognition ATM won't let people withdraw cash unless their face is matched with their IDs. The ATM machine has a camera installed on it which does the task by comparing people's face with their photo which is stored in its database.

[...]

According to reports the machine allows currency exchanges. It also records the serial number of every note deposited by clients to identify fake bank notes. (emphasis added)

Perhaps it would seem appropriate that China would take first place in implementing a centralized ID database with a link to financial transactions, but the development of biometric IDs for transacting business and monitoring movements is a global initiative a long time in the making.

Julie Beal has been reporting for years about the move toward a full-spectrum Smart World that will be organized through a range of biometric identifiers. As she has highlighted, it's big business:

A recent report, Next Generation Biometric Technologies Market Global Forecast & Analysis (2012-2017), predicts the global market for biometrics to reach $13.89 billion by 2017, reasoning that,

The existing methods of human identification such as identification documents and PIN are not able to cope up with the growing demand for stringent security, which gives a high growth opportunity for the use of biometric technology. This technology is very popular also because biometric characters like face, fingerprint, hand, etc. cannot be lost, stolen, or easily forged.

From iris recognition to fingerprint authentication, biometrics is becoming the choice method for secure identity checks.

And it has indeed. Poland became the first European country to introduce finger vein scanning ATMs in 2010. Most disturbing in that development was the link that those banks created to state benefits. But even their system was derivative. Since 2006 Japan has linked up tens of millions to their biometric system of banking that was introduced after the country imposed liability on the banks for false withdrawals and identity theft. Since then, various forms of banking biometrics have been introduced around the world.

Brandon Turbeville has also written extensively about the various methods being employed as a stated goal of corporations, as well as various globalist foundations. I would point you to the following articles for a comprehensive overview of how we are likely to see disparate systems join together and become a global requirement:

Indeed, it's certainly not only happening at the ATM, but is targeted for general purchases as well. As I highlighted late last year, a new system called Zwipe was developed for imminent rollout in a partnership with Mastercard. It promises the first fully biometric credit card, which will dispense with a PIN and instead use a fingerprint sensor for verification.

Meanwhile, the US has so far rejected nationwide systems as such, but the move toward biometrics is happening in more subtle ways, and all signs point to a widening array of compliance mechanisms that are now being rolled out.

The FBI has established a facial recognition database called The Next Generation Identification system. Supposedly designed as an investigative tool to quickly access mug shots and arrest records, it already has come under attack for being a dragnet full of innocent people. It is also just the type of database that could easily merge with the banking system at some point in the future if not properly corralled.

While such federal measures have indeed sparked outrage, even at the most mundane local level, systems are expanding. Many schools have imposed biometrics for access to food, clearly demonstrating the limits of what is expected to be tolerated. Introduction to amusement parks also trains the next generation to accept privacy invasion and full-time tracking as a normal consequence of living in a "secure" environment.

And, naturally, the virtual space will be the next, perhaps final step toward completing this tracking grid. We have seen Apple introduce Touch ID for the iPhone 5 and tie it into store purchases, while Microsoft's coming Windows 10 will be adding facial recognition, iris scans and a fingerprint reader, potentially linking to mobile banking apps, as well as provide general online access and tracking.

Ironically (or coincidentally) it seems that an ever expanding list of government intrusions and hacks in the real and virtual world only serves to enhance the reasoning behind the need for a biometric takeover. It is a lesson we should have already learned about the nature of a burgeoning worldwide business of making us safer.

Source:
http://bit.ly/1HJe9Ep

The Raw Story

A non-profit news blog, focused on providing independent journalism.

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Muslim chaplain refused can of coke by United Airlines so she wouldn't weaponize it

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Renowned pianist Lisita, who condemned Kiev war against E. Ukraine, to perform concert in Donbas

A quarter of all Australians interested in having implanted chip used for payments

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USA Freedom Act passed by Senate

China's biometric ATMs have world-wide implications

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