Family Survival Protocol - Microcosm News: March 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

Russian Senator seeks to strip President Obama of Nobel over double standards

Published time: March 24, 2014 10:49

US President Barack Obama (AFP Photo/Jewel Samad)

A Russian senator has asked the Nobel Committee to annul the award given to the US President last year claiming Barack Obama’s double standard policy has helped develop the political crisis in Ukraine.
“The double standard policy is incompatible with the title of Nobel Peace Prize laureate. I think the Nobel committee must take an objective look at the situation and consider the possibility of taking the title from Barack Obama,” Senator Lyudmila Bokova (Saratov Region) was quoted as saying by the Izvestia daily.
“The latest statements and activities of Mr. Obama are clearly aimed against the non-violent solution of the Ukrainian crisis. Besides, the US President is pursuing the objective of world domination and the interests of the Ukrainian people is the last thing to be taken into consideration by him,” the Russian politician said.
Bokova added she had thoroughly studied Barack Obama’s Nobel speech and everything in it was right, but the US President’s own actions now contradict his position.

Read More Here

.....

RT Facebook Page

“The double standard policy is incompatible with the title of Nobel Peace Prize laureate. I think the Nobel committee must take an objective look at the situation and consider the possibility of taking the title from Barack Obama,” Russian Senator Lyudmila Bokova said.

Russian Senator seeks to strip President Obama of Nobel over double standards

rt.com

A Russian senator has asked the Nobel Committee to annul the award given to the US President last year claiming Barack Obama’s double standard...

1,266 shares
Gerard Peter DepøyanThat "prize" was already tainted since the early 1970's when Kissinger got it for bombing the shit out of Cambodia...

359 · March 25 at 11:36am

14 Replies

Neil NoCareGive it to Snowden instead

659 · March 25 at 11:30am

23 Replies

Mahan RiazatiI love America, but the criminal U.S government is becoming a threat to both international security and of it's own citizens.

48 · March 25 at 11:32am

4 Replies

NostraDamz TuvilyizjhaStrip him of his color. He is a disgrace to the race of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

35 · March 25 at 11:37am

4 Replies

Dan JohnHe never deserved it to begin with, give it to a TRUE hero, Edward Snowden

29 · March 25 at 11:35am

2 Replies

Grace BillieI support Russian senator on this." Obomba" is not worth it

25 · March 25 at 11:36am
John HugillNot even Gandhi got a Nobel peace prize...yet Obama gets one?? Crazy!!!!

20 · March 25 at 12:02pm

Abhishek BhardwajNobel is too puny a thing for Gandhiji.

1 · March 25 at 7:55pm

Jeannot MwangalaVLADIMIR PUTIN deserves a PRIX NOBEL for sure

19 · March 25 at 11:42am
James Simmondsthey should, then they should give it to Putin for his excellent work in Syria, and showing true democracy in Crimea

18 · March 25 at 11:47am

Kader BenkadaNo they should give it to Obama for his expelle work in Syria. Don't be dump it's crystal clear America it's the bigest terrorist state on earth they can't live in peace coz peace for the American is no business

1 · March 25 at 12:56pm

A Debate on Torture: Legal Architect of CIA Secret Prisons, Rendition vs. Human Rights Attorney

Part 1

Published on Mar 28, 2014

http://www.democracynow.org - As the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence feuds with the CIA over the declassification of its 6,000-page report on the agency's secret detention and interrogation programs, we host a debate between former CIA acting general counsel John Rizzo and human rights attorney Scott Horton. This comes as the United Nations Human Rights Committee has criticized the Obama administration for closing its investigations into the CIA's actions after September 11. A U.N. report issued Thursday stated, "The Committee notes with concern that all reported investigations into enforced disappearances, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment that had been committed in the context of the CIA secret rendition, interrogation and detention programmes were closed in 2012 leading only to a meager number of criminal charges brought against low-level operatives." Rizzo served as acting general counsel during much of the George W. Bush administration and was a key legal architect of the U.S. interrogation and detention program after the Sept. 11 attacks. He recently published a book titled, "Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA." Attorney Scott Horton is contributing editor at Harper's Magazine and author of the forthcoming book, "The Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America's Stealth Foreign Policy."

Watch and share the full debate uninterrupted:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/28...

Part 2

Part 3

North And South Korea Exchange Live Fire

Sky News Live

Anxious islanders on the front line are evacuated as both countries exchange fire across their disputed western maritime border.

7:15am UK, Monday 31 March 2014

A North Korean soldier looks on at the South side

Video: North And South Korea Exchange Live Fire

Enlarge

South Korea says it has fired shells into North Korean waters in response to live fire drills carried out by Pyongyang.

Residents of a South Korean island on the front line were evacuated as both countries exchanged fire across their disputed western maritime border.
Anxious residents sought refuge in shelters on Yeonpyeong island, where in 2010, North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans.
One islander, Kang Myeong-sung, said he did not see any fighter jets but could hear the boom of the shells.
North Korea had announced it was going to conduct some military drills.

South Korea and the US conduct a joint military exercise in Pohang

Sky's Asia Correspondent Mark Stone said: "These are worrying developments ... but no one has been injured, no one has been killed and indeed none of these rockets or missiles landed on any military installations or any land, so this is effectively both sides showing their strength."

Read More Here

.....

Channel News Asia

N Korea announces live-fire drill, driving up tensions

North Korea announced a live-fire drill Monday near its disputed maritime border with South Korea, further ratcheting up tensions a day after threatening a "new form" of nuclear test.

PHOTOS

File photo: North Korean soldiers ride in vehicles during a military parade marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean war armistice in Pyongyang. (AFP/Ed Jones)

SEOUL: North Korea announced a live-fire drill Monday near its disputed maritime border with South Korea, further ratcheting up tensions a day after threatening a "new form" of nuclear test.
The South's Yonhap news agency, citing an unnamed government official, said the exercise began around 12:15pm (0315 GMT), with artillery shells landing in North Korean waters, north of the South-controlled Baengnyeong island.
There was no immediate official confirmation that the drill was under way, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) warned of immediate retaliation if any ordinance landed on the South side of the border.
The Yellow Sea border is an extremely sensitive region that has been the scene of brief but bloody clashes in the past.
In November 2010, North Korea shelled a South Korean island near the border, killing four people and triggering concerns of a full-scale conflict.
It is not unusual for North Korea to carry out a live-fire exercise, but it does not normally notify the South in advance.
"The fact that they have sent such a message to us indicates their hostile intention," said South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Wi Yong-seop.
"The aim is to threaten us and rack up tension on the Yellow Sea border and the overall Korean peninsula," Wi said, adding that Seoul was closely monitoring the situation.
The North's notification designated seven areas close to the border and said all South Korean vessels should be kept away from them.
"We notified the North that we would strongly respond with fire if it fires across the border," a JCS official told reporters.
Monday's announcement came a day after North Korea threatened to carry out a "new form" of nuclear test -- seen as a possible reference to efforts to build a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile.

Channel News Asia

Two Koreas trade fire across maritime border: military

North and South Korea traded fire across their disputed maritime border on Monday, with the South's military saying it had responded to shells landing in its waters from a North live-fire drill.

PHOTOS

File photo: South Korean army soldiers on a military truck move during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea in Pocheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. (AP/Ahn Yong-joon)

SEOUL: North and South Korea traded fire across their disputed maritime border on Monday, with the South's military saying it had responded to shells landing in its waters from a North live-fire drill.
"Some of the shells fired by North Korea dropped in our area and our side responded with fire," a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.
There was no indication that either side was firing at any particular target.
On South-Korea-controlled Baengnyeong island, close to the maritime boundary, officials said residents had been taken to shelters as a precaution.
"We are urging all residents to evacuate to shelters right now, and some have already done so," a town hall official on the island told AFP.
North Korea earlier announced a live-fire drill Monday near its disputed maritime border with South Korea, further ratcheting up tensions a day after threatening a "new form" of nuclear test.

South Korea returns fire after North Korean shells land in disputed waters

Tania Branigan in Beijing
theguardian.com, Monday 31 March 2014 02.57 EDT

North and South Korea exchange fire after military drill – video

South Korean islanders fled to shelters as their country’s forces returned the North’s fire near a disputed sea boundary on Monday, amid renewed tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The skirmish in the Yellow or Western Sea came a day after Pyongyang warned that it could carry out a “new kind” of nuclear test , and followed multiple missile tests by the North. Experts have also warned that it could be harder to predict the country’s actions given the recent political turbulence which saw its youthful leader Kim Jong-un purge his uncle Jang Song-taek.
No shells from either side were fired at any land or military installations, an official with South Korea's joint chiefs of staff told Associated Press. Unusually, the North warned in advance that it planned to hold a live-fire drill; when a shell landed south of the disputed boundary, the South, which had warned it would respond, returned fire into North Korean waters.
Tensions are common at this time of year because of the North’s anger at annual joint military exercises by the South and the US, but the exchange of fire was the most dramatic incident near the northern limit line since 2010.
The South scrambled F-15 fighters to patrol its side of the border and authorities evacuated the residents of five frontline islands to shelters. Kang Myeong-sung, a resident speaking to AP from a shelter on Yeonpyeong, said he did not see any fighter jets, but he could hear the boom of artillery fire. In 2010, North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong; Pyongyang said it was responding to the South’s exercises.

Read More Here

.....

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Financial Sanctions Against Russia: The Nuclear Option

Epoch Times

By Valentin Schmid | Economic Sense | March 29, 2014

Different MasterCards at the Sentry Center in New York, Sept. 15, 2011 (Brian Ach/Getty Images for MasterCard)

So far, the West’s reaction to Russia’s annexation of Crimea has been rather chivalrous. Freeze a few assets here, travel restrictions for a dozen people there, and of course have Visa and MasterCard stop providing services for a few Russian banks.
Putin then said Russia will explore launching its own credit cards, similar to Japan’s JCB and China’s UnionPay. Nice try. While these two companies have pretty good traction in their home market, they are dwarfed by American plastic.
According to research by Nilson, MasterCard processed more than $8 trillion of the world’s credit card transactions in 2011. Visa came second at around $3 trillion and UnionPay third with a little more than $2 trillion. The reason: MasterCard and Visa are accepted everywhere in the world, where the other two are pretty much local only.
Either way, banning a few Russian banks from processing Visa or Master for a while or Russia launching its own alternatives won’t change a lot in the grand scheme of things. However, the direction where this conflict is going is interesting.
The Nuclear Option
International payments between banks are processed via the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a little known member-owned cooperative based in Belgium.
If you have ever sent an international wire transfer, you will likely have entered a so-called Business Identifier Code, or BIC in short. It is part of SWIFT’s system for processing payments.

Read More Here

Turkey has started an espionage investigation after a discussion between top officials on potential military action in Syria was leaked on YouTube

Voice Of America

Turkey Begins Espionage Investigation After Syria Leak

...

YouTube logos displayed on a laptop screen partially covered with Turkey's national flag in this photo illustration taken in Ankara, March 27, 2014.

Reuters

March 29, 2014

ANKARA — Turkey has started an espionage investigation after a discussion between top officials on potential military action in Syria was leaked on YouTube, heralding a possible government crackdown on its political opponents after elections on Sunday.
The recording of the meeting between Turkey's intelligence chief, foreign minister and deputy head of the military was by far the most serious breach in weeks of highly sensitive leaks, a scandal which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has cast as a plot to sabotage the state and topple him.
Erdogan and his aides have blamed the Hizmet movement of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally whose followers have influence in the police and judiciary, of running a "dirty campaign" of espionage to implicate him in corruption ahead of crucial nationwide municipal elections on Sunday.
"Tomorrow we will teach those liars and slanderers a lesson," Erdogan told a jubilant crowd of supporters in Istanbul's working class Kartal district on Saturday, vowing his ruling AK Party would triumph at the polls.
Gulen has vociferously denied orchestrating the leak scandal, but those close to his network have said they fear a heavy crackdown once the local elections have passed.
Police overnight briefly detained Onder Aytac, a prominent writer and journalist known to be close to the Hizmet movement, on suspicion of having information about the bugging of the foreign ministry meeting, the Hurriyet newspaper said.
CNN Turk meanwhile reported Erdogan's lawyers asked prosecutors to take precautionary measures to stop both Aytac and Emre Uslu, a newspaper columnist, academic and former senior anti-terrorism police official, from fleeing abroad.
Aytac said in a statement on the Hizmet-affiliated Samanyolu news website that he had been asked whether he was a spy and how he had known so much about the content of the leaked recording, after he discussed it on a television program.
"I made my assessment as an academic in that program. They are trying to intimidate people who think like me in this election process," he said in the statement.

Pages

Monday, March 31, 2014

Russian Senator seeks to strip President Obama of Nobel over double standards