The
United States is starting a second phase of training of the Ukrainian
army and is planning to train and equip six army battalions, including
one special operations unit
MOSCOW,
November 26 /TASS/. The United States has launched a new phase of
training of Ukrainian servicemen, a fact, which may have negative
consequences for the future of the Donbas truce, Russian Foreign
Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
She
recalled that 300 US instructors from the 173rd US airborne brigade had
trained three battalions - 780 people - for Ukraine’s National Guard in
a period from April to November. "It is noteworthy that the training
completed at a time when the situation on the line of contact in Donbas
started getting worse and the newly trained people were apparently sent
there," Zakharova said.
"Now the Americans and their NATO
colleagues, including the Lithuanians and Canadians, will train a new
group of Ukrainian troopers. It is clear that such preparations are
unlikely to deescalate tensions and may have a negative impact on the
fragile truce in the country’s southeast," the Russian diplomat
stressed.
“Since
I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me
privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of
commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of
something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so
subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that
they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in
condemnation of it.” – Woodrow Wilson, American academic, politician and the 28th president of the United States (source)
What
are politics today, and how do they relate to what’s happening on the
planet? On the surface, it seems to be nothing more than the ‘political
leaders’ of one country using their media outlets to ‘bash’ the
‘political leaders’ of another country.
A great example right now
is the ongoing situation between the United States and Russia. Here in
Canada, newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently called
Putin, Russia’s President since May of 2012, a bully, and the United
States did the same. HERE is what Putin had to say after Russia was accused of being a bully.
On
the other side of the pond, you have millions of people listening to
Russian and Chinese media outlets saying something completely different.
Apart
from mass propaganda that’s dished out to us regarding political issues
via the mainstream media, where are we to turn to get more information
on this subject when global media outlets are basically supporting the
interests of their own country? On some issues it seems a little
clearer, for example, what is the United States doing with regards to
their infiltration of so many countries across the world? Why have they
established so many military bases? What is going on here?
That
being said, are these matters really in the hands of these politicians,
or are they governed by a hidden hand that’s rocking the cradle mixed
with corporate influence?
Canada to include the North Pole in its claim for Arctic territory, resources
Published time: December 10, 2013 00:27
Canadian officials confirmed Monday that the nation
is preparing to include the North Pole as part of its Arctic Ocean
seabed claim in the multi-country push to prove jurisdiction over
further territory in the resource-rich area.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Arctic Council
chair Leona Aglukkaq officially announced Monday Canada’s claim
to the extended continental shelf in the Arctic. It was reported
by The Globe and Mail last week that Prime Minister Stephen
Harper requested a government board charged with assessing
Canada’s claims beyond its territorial waterways, per United
Nations rules, to seek a more expansive stake of Arctic area to
include the North Pole.
"We have asked our officials and scientists to do additional
work and necessary work to ensure that a submission for the full
extent of the continental shelf in the Arctic includes Canada's
claim to the North Pole," Baird said during a press
conference at the House of Commons.
Pursuant to its status as a signatory to the UN Convention on the
Law of the Sea, Canada submitted Friday only a partial
application to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental
Shelf showing scientific evidence that it should be able to
assert its privileges over territory and resources - namely oil
and gas rights - within waterways well beyond its borders. Under
the Convention, a nation can claim up to 200 nautical miles of
seabed beyond its territorial markers. A country can demand 350
nautical miles if it can prove a natural extension of its land
area. The UN requires comprehensive mapping evidence to justify
any declaration of rights.
The preliminary application outlines complete scientific evidence
regarding Canada’s Atlantic Ocean requests and a portion of its
Arctic claim all while reserving the nation’s right to make
further submissions at a later date.
Canada’s application was due based on UN requirements that a
country that has ratified the Convention make its claim within
ten years. Canada ratified the UN Convention in 2003.
The North Pole is 817 kilometers north of Canada’s - and the
world’s - northernmost settlement, Alert, Nunavut. The town is
home to a Canadian Forces station and Environment Canada station.
"Fundamentally, we are drawing the last lines of Canada. We
are defending our sovereignty," Aglukkaq said, according to
CBC News.
Resources bring competition
Canada has spent nearly US$200 million on the
scientific-discovery process of the area, including dozens of
icebreaker and helicopter trips for teams of scientists. An
unmanned submarine was used to collect data below the frigid
Arctic water. The United States, which is also expected to claim
further seabed territory, aided Canada in the research phase,
though the US has not ratified the UN Convention yet.
"If the US doesn't ratify, then we don't know what happens if
there's a dispute," Rob Huebert, associate director of the
Center for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of
Calgary, told The Verge. "What do you do about a contested
area with the US if there isn't an agreement that governs how
that dispute is resolved?"
The US isn’t the only country Canada may clash with its
territorial and resource claims. About 90 billion barrels of oil
and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie in the largely
untapped 18-million-square-mile Arctic region, according to the
US Geological Survey, making up about 10 percent of the world's
petroleum resources. The dominant portion of these resources are
hidden beneath the ice that is shared between five nations
bordering the Arctic: Canada, Denmark, Norway, the Russian
Federation and the US.
"It's a dangerous and difficult region to drill, but the idea
of profits seem to exceed those risks for governments,"
Huebert said of the volatile Arctic. "We're not seeing anyone
pull away."
A Canadian ranger
making a patrol on Ellesmere Island, part of the country's existing
Arctic territories. Photograph: Jess Mcintosh/AP
Canada plans to make a claim to the north pole in an effort to assert its sovereignty in the resource-rich Arctic, the country's foreign affairs minister has said.
John
Baird said the government had asked scientists to work on a future
submission to the United Nations arguing that the outer limits of the
country's continental shelf include the pole, which so far has been
claimed by no one.
Canada last week applied to extend its seabed
claims in the Atlantic Ocean, including some preliminary Arctic claims,
but wants more time to prepare a claim that would include the pole.
Asserting
Canada's rights in the Arctic has been a popular domestic issue for the
prime minister, Stephen Harper, though at least one expert on the issue
has described the planned claim as a long shot.
Baird said: "We
are determined to ensure that all Canadians benefit from the tremendous
resources that are to be found in Canada's far north."
Countries
including the US and Russia are increasingly looking to the Arctic as a
source of natural resources and shipping lanes. The US Geological Survey
says the region contains 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas
and 15% of oil. If Canada's claim is accepted by the UN commission it would dramatically grow its share.
Snowden document shows Canada set up spy posts for NSA
By Greg Weston, Glenn Greenwald, Ryan Gallagher, CBC News Posted: Dec 09, 2013 9:03 PM ET Last Updated: Dec 10, 2013 3:59 PM ET
►
Canada spying for the NSA 4:09
NSA also working with Britain 2:37
A
top secret document retrieved by American whistleblower Edward Snowden
reveals Canada has set up covert spying posts around the world and
conducted espionage against trading partners at the request of the U.S.
National Security Agency.
The leaked NSA document being reported
exclusively by CBC News reveals Canada is involved with the huge
American intelligence agency in clandestine surveillance activities in
“approximately 20 high-priority countries."
Much of the document contains hyper-sensitive operational details which CBC News has chosen not to make public.
Sections
of the document with the highest classification make it clear in some
instances why American spymasters are particularly keen about enlisting
their Canadian counterparts, the Communications Security Establishment
Canada.
"CSEC shares with the NSA their unique geographic access to areas unavailable to the U.S," the document says.
The
briefing paper describes a "close co-operative relationship" between
the NSA and its Canadian counterpart, the Communications Security
Establishment Canada, or CSEC — a relationship "both sides would like to
see expanded and strengthened.
"The intelligence exchange with CSEC covers worldwide national and transnational targets."
'CSEC offers resources for advanced collection, processing and analysis, and has opened covert sites at the request of NSA'- NSA memo retrieved by Edward Snowden
The
four-page missive is stamped “Top Secret” and dated April 3, 2013. That
makes it one of the freshest documents Snowden was able to walk away
with before he went public in June.
The briefing notes make it
clear that Canada plays a very robust role in intelligence-gathering
around the world in a way that has won respect from its American
equivalents.
Wesley Wark, a Canadian security and intelligence
expert at the University of Ottawa, says the document makes it clear
Canada can take advantage of its relatively benign image internationally
to covertly amass a vast amount of information abroad.
"I think
we still trade on a degree of an international brand as an innocent
partner in the international sphere," Wark said. "There's not that much
known about Canadian intelligence.
"In that sense, Canadian
operations might escape at least the same degree of notice and
surveillance that the operations of the U.S. or Britain in foreign
states would be bound to attract."
The intimate Canada-U.S. electronic intelligence relationship dates back more than 60 years. Most recently, another Snowden document reported by CBC News showed the two agencies co-operated to allow the NSA to spy on the G20 summit of international leaders in Toronto in 2010.
But
what the latest secret document reveals for the first time is just how
expansive Canada's international espionage activities have become.
CSEC set up 'covert sites at the request of NSA'
The
NSA document depicts CSEC as a sophisticated, capable and highly
respected intelligence partner involved in all manner of joint spying
missions, including setting up listening posts at the request of the
Americans.
"CSEC offers resources for advanced collection,
processing and analysis, and has opened covert sites at the request of
NSA," the document states.
Edward
Snowden, a former NSA contractor, has leaked top-secret documents into
the U.S. spy agency's activities over the past few months. (The
Guardian/Associated Press)
Thomas Drake, a former NSA
executive turned whistleblower, says it's no surprise Canada would
accede to the U.S. agency's requests: "That's been the case for years.
"Just
think of certain foreign agreements or relationships that Canada
actually enjoys that the United States doesn't, and under the cover of
those relationships, guess what you can conduct? These kinds of secret
surveillance or collection efforts."
Although TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has received the lion's share of media attention, another key border-crossing pipeline benefitting tar sands producers was approved on November 19 by the U.S. State Department.
Like Keystone XL, the pipeline
proposal requires U.S. State Department approval because it crosses the
U.S.-Canada border. Unlike Keystone XL - which would carry diluted tar
sands diluted bitumen ("dilbit") south to the Gulf Coast - Kinder Morgan's Cochin pipeline would carry the gas condensate (diluent) used to dilute the bitumen north to the tar sands.
"The decision allows Kinder
Morgan Cochin LLC to proceed with a $260 million plan to reverse and
expand an existing pipeline to carry an initial 95,000 barrels a day of
condensate," the Financial Post wrote.
"The extra-thick oil is
typically cut with 30% condensate so it can move in pipelines. By 2035,
producers could require 893,000 barrels a day of the ultra-light oil,
with imports making up 786,000 barrels of the total."
"Total US natural gasoline
exports reached a record volume of 179,000 barrels per day in February
as Canada's thirst for oil sand diluent ramped up," explained a May 2013 article appearing in Platts. "US natural gasoline production is forecast to increase to roughly 450,000 b/d by 2020."
VIDEO: Becky Big Canoe: Become sustainable in food and housing with EnviroNative Training Initiatives
WATCH ON YOU TUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0clxix...
VANCOUVER,
B.C. - In an interview with Alfred Lambremont Webre, Becky Big Canoe of
Ontario, Canada describes becoming sustainable in food and housing with
EnviroNative Training Initatives.
EnviroNative Training
Initiatives, which Becky Big Canoe founded, is a not-for-profit
organization set up to design and deliver training programs in food
security, entrepreneur skills and natural building. Their target
clientele is First Nations women and at risk youth.
You can support this initiative in self sufficiency by voting at:
NEWBURYPORT — Pat Vaillancourt went on a trip last week that was intended to showcase some of America’s greatest treasures.
Instead,
the Salisbury resident said she and others on her tour bus witnessed an
ugly spectacle that made her embarrassed, angry and heartbroken for her
country.
Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found
themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went
into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included
senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United
States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed
guard.
The tourists were treated harshly by armed park employees,
she said, so much so that some of the foreign tourists with limited
English skills thought they were under arrest.
When finally
allowed to leave, the bus was not allowed to halt at all along the
2.5-hour trip out of the park, not even to stop at private bathrooms
that were open along the route.
“We’ve become a country of fear,
guns and control,” said Vaillancourt, who grew up in Lawrence. “It was
like they brought out the armed forces. Nobody was saying, ‘we’re
sorry,’ it was all like — ” as she clenched her fist and banged it
against her forearm.
Vaillancourt took part in a nine-day tour of
western parks and sites along with about four dozen senior citizen
tourists. One of the highlights of the tour was to be Yellowstone, where
they arrived just as the shutdown went into effect.
Rangers
systematically sent visitors out of the park, though some groups that
had hotel reservations — such as Vaillancourt’s — were allowed to stay
for two days. Those two days started out on a sour note, she said.
The
bus stopped along a road when a large herd of bison passed nearby, and
seniors filed out to take photos. Almost immediately, an armed ranger
came by and ordered them to get back in, saying they couldn’t
“recreate.” The tour guide, who had paid a $300 fee the day before to
bring the group into the park, argued that the seniors weren’t
“recreating,” just taking photos.
“She responded and said, ‘Sir, you are recreating,’ and her tone became very aggressive,” Vaillancourt said.
The
seniors quickly filed back onboard and the bus went to the Old Faithful
Inn, the park’s premier lodge located adjacent to the park’s most
famous site, Old Faithful geyser. That was as close as they could get to
the famous site — barricades were erected around Old Faithful, and the
seniors were locked inside the hotel, where armed rangers stayed at the
door.
Five
years ago this month, the firm TransCanada submitted a permit request
to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would bring tar sands oil
from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The project has sparked one
of the nation's most contentious environmental battles in decades. The
Obama administration initially appeared ready to approve Keystone XL,
but an unprecedented wave of activism from environmentalists and
residents of the states along its path has forced several delays. Among
those pressuring Obama for Keystone XL's approval is the Canadian
government, which recently offered a greater pledge of reduced carbon
emissions if the pipeline is built.
We’re joined by one of
Canada’s leading environmental activists, Tzeporah Berman, who has
campaigned for two decades around clean energy, and is the former
co-director of Greenpeace International’s Climate Unit. She is now
focused on stopping tar sands extraction as a member of the steering
committee for the Tar Sands Solutions Network. Berman is also the
co-founder of ForestEthics and is the author of the book "This Crazy
Time: Living Our Environmental Challenge." Berman discusses how the
Canadian government is muzzling scientists speaking out on global
warming, quickly changing environmental laws, and why she believes the
push for tar sands extraction has created a "perfect storm" of
grassroots activism bring together environmentalists, indigenous
communities and rural landowners.
She
recalled that 300 US instructors from the 173rd US airborne brigade had
trained three battalions - 780 people - for Ukraine’s National Guard in
a period from April to November. "It is noteworthy that the training
completed at a time when the situation on the line of contact in Donbas
started getting worse and the newly trained people were apparently sent
there," Zakharova said.
