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This evening's music features bluesman John Lee Hooker. Enjoy!

"The CIA is made up of boys whose families sent them to Princeton but wouldn't let them into the family brokerage business."

-- Lyndon B. Johnson

News and Opinion

Military prosecutor: Senate report on CIA interrogation program is accurate

The chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has stipulated in a filing yet to be made public that the executive summary of a scathing Senate report on the CIA’s former interrogation program is accurate.

The prosecutor’s statement puts him at odds with CIA Director John Brennan, former senior agency officials and congressional Republicans who have said the Senate Intelligence Committee document, released in December 2014, is strewn with errors and flawed in its conclusions.

Brig. Gen. Mark Martins made the declaration in a lengthy motion filed Friday in the military commission case against five suspects accused of carrying out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including self-declared mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

The declaration, a portion of which was seen by The Washington Post, states, “While the opinions and conclusions of the [Senate report] are irrelevant to these proceedings, the factual recitations of what occurred to the accused are gleaned from the very same Executive Branch documents the Prosecution has reviewed, or is in the process of reviewing, in its own holdings.”

“As such, the Prosecution will stipulate that the facts contained within the Executive Summary occurred,” Martins stated.

The report, based on a years-long Senate investigation, described brutal treatment of prisoners held at CIA “black sites” around the world, including high-value detainees such as Mohammed.

Barbara Lee: Post-9/11 Vote Should Not Be Used as Blank Check to Keep Waging Perpetual War

Obama Intensifies Wars and Threats of War

The Obama Administration is expanding its military power and threats against Russia and China as well as increasing its war efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria while preparing to restart Washington’s old war in Libya.

Most of this has been revealed in the first six weeks of the 2016 election year and President Barack Obama’s last full year in office without any significant new provocations against the United States. At least part of the White House motive must be to undercut right wing Republican campaign rhetoric alleging Obama and the Democrats are “soft on defense,” and creating a more robust martial entry into the president’s legacy.

The United States spends far more annually on military matters than the combined war budgets of the eight other highest spenders, including China and Russia, and this doesn’t include non-Pentagon war and national security spending. While there may be a need for increasing spending for the Obama Administration’s several ongoing wars, where there have been setbacks and surprises, nothing remotely justifies the warlike rhetoric and war spending aimed at China and Russia. The U.S., NATO and other allies are inestimably more powerful in combination than these two countries — not that Beijing and Moscow have provided any evidence of an intention to eventually attack Washington.

Saudis Goad Obama to Invade Syria

The Russian-backed Syrian Army’s encirclement of Aleppo, the battle that could determine the outcome of the five-year-old war, has sparked a Saudi plan with allied Arab nations to hold a war maneuver next month of 150,000 men to prepare for an invasion of Syria.

Saudi Arabia’s desire to intervene (under the cover of fighting Islamic State terrorists but really aimed at ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) has been welcomed by Washington but dismissed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander and some Western analysts as a ruse.

Iranian Maj. Gen. Ali Jafari told reporters in Tehran, “They claim they will send troops, but I don’t think they will dare do so. They have a classic army and history tells us such armies stand no chance in fighting irregular resistance forces.” ...

But I don’t believe it is a bluff or a ruse and here’s why: It appears instead to be a challenge by the Saudis to get President Barack Obama to commit U.S. ground troops to lead the invasion. The Saudis made it clear they would only intervene as part of a U.S.-led operation. ...

Riyadh knows better than anyone that it doesn’t have the military capability to do anything beyond pounding the poorest Arab country into dust, that would be its neighbor Yemen. And it can’t win that war either. But when Saudi Arabia’s ambitions outsize their capabilities, who do they call? The “indispensable nation,” the United States.

Iraq PM says sending ground troops to Syria would be 'dangerous escalation'

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned on Wednesday of a "dangerous escalation" if ground troops were deployed to Syria, comments aimed at Sunni Arab countries that have said they are prepared to enter the fray.

The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday his country would be willing to commit special forces to the fight. ... The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Sunday it was also willing to supply ground troops to help support and train an international military coalition against Islamic State in Syria provided such efforts were led by the United States.

One of Iraq's most powerful Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias, which has already sent fighters to support Assad's troops, warned earlier this week that Arab forces sent to Syria or Iraq would "open the gates of hell".

"Homeland: Iraq year zero" film shows life for Iraqis before and after US invasion

US Won't Intervene in Syrian-Russian Assault on Aleppo: Pentagon

The U.S. military has no current plans to intervene against the Syrian regime and Russian assault on Aleppo or provide air drops to the starving civilians, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said Wednesday.

"The situation in and around Aleppo has, in our view, become dire" but "our focus really is to defeat ISIL, so that's where our focus remains," Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, referring to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, also known as ISIL.

Warren echoed the policy of the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon that has rejected to date the pleas of human rights groups for the creation of a safe zone or a no-fly zone along the Turkish border to protect thousands of refugees fleeing Aleppo in northeastern Syria.

The U.S. has also rejected calls to protect a safe route for aid columns to reach Aleppo. "The United Nations and other humanitarian organizations really have the lead for moving humanitarian relief," Warren said.

Rebels Feel ‘Abandoned’ by US in Face of Syrian Offensive

While the US has spent years eagerly throwing arms at various Syrian rebel factions, those rebels have had a mixed record on the ground. As losses mount in Aleppo Province, in the face of a Syrian military offensive, they were expecting the US to bail them out, and now that they’re not, they complain of being “abandoned.”

This isn’t the rebels’ only gripe. Earlier in the war, the US was suggesting complete support for the rebels as the eventual government of Syria, and backed their refusal to negotiate. As they’ve shifted to get behind a Russian proposal for a settlement of the war and free elections, the rebels have viewed it as a “betrayal” of their goal of unconditional regime change.

Report on Syria conflict finds 11.5% of population killed or injured

Syria’s national wealth, infrastructure and institutions have been “almost obliterated” by the “catastrophic impact” of nearly five years of conflict, a new report has found. Fatalities caused by war, directly and indirectly, amount to 470,000, according to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR) – a far higher total than the figure of 250,000 used by the United Nations until it stopped collecting statistics 18 months ago.

In all, 11.5% of the country’s population have been killed or injured since the crisis erupted in March 2011, the report estimates. The number of wounded is put at 1.9 million. Life expectancy has dropped from 70 in 2010 to 55.4 in 2015. Overall economic losses are estimated at $255bn (£175bn). ...

Of the 470,000 war dead counted by the SCPR, about 400,000 were directly due to violence, while the remaining 70,000 fell victim to lack of adequate health services, medicine, especially for chronic diseases, lack of food, clean water, sanitation and proper housing, especially for those displaced within conflict zones. ...

The SCPR was based until recently in Damascus and research for this and previous reports was carried out on the ground across Syria. It is careful not to criticise the Syrian government or its allies – Iran, Hezbollah, Russia. And with the exception of Islamic State, it refers only to “armed groups” seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. But despite the neutral tone the findings are shocking.

State Department says Russia's claims of US air strikes in Aleppo are 'false'

The US State Department on Thursday dismissed Russian claims that it had carried out air strikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo. ...

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday that two US aircraft bombed the Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday, and that Russian planes had not been operating in the area.

Eastasia North Korea edges out Iran as the US' number one nuclear worry.

North Korea says South's pullout from Kaesong complex is 'declaration of war'

North Korea has ordered a military takeover of an industrial complex that was the last significant symbol of cooperation with South Korea, calling Seoul’s withdrawal from the jointly run plant a “dangerous declaration of war”.

In the latest escalation of tensions between the two countries, Pyongyang said was it pulling its workers from the Kaesong complex and deporting South Koreans. Seoul had already announced the suspension of its operations there following North Korea’s long-range rocket launch on Sunday. ...

The closure is thought to be one of the most powerful non-military options open to the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, as she formulates a response to the recent rocket launch and last month’s nuclear test. South Korea and its allies believe the launch was a covert test of missile technology that could potentially be used to target the US mainland with nuclear warheads. ...

The US national intelligence director, James Clapper, warned on Tuesday that North Korea had expanded its production of weapons-grade nuclear fuel, and said the US now regarded Pyongyang, rather than Iran, as the world’s most worrying nuclear threat.

Obama Proposes Removing Human Rights Conditions on Aid to Egypt

The budget proposal released by the Obama administration Tuesday seeks to roll back restrictions Congress has placed on foreign aid to Egypt’s military regime and the sale of crowd control weapons to “emerging democracies.”

Under current law, 15 percent of aid to Egypt is subject to being withheld based on human rights conditions — although even that can be waived if it is deemed to be in the national security interest of the United States, as it was last year.

Cole Bockenfeld, deputy director for policy at the Project on Middle East Democracy, says the administration probably doesn’t want to go to the trouble of justifying its waiver this year. “They had to basically do an assessment. … Here’s how they’re doing on political prisoners, here’s how they’re doing on freedom of assembly, and so on,” Bockenfeld explains. Last year’s report “infuriated the Egyptians … it was a pretty honest assessment of how things had deteriorated in Egypt.”

Bill Would Ban State Efforts to Weaken Encryption

Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, are challenging state-level proposals to restrict Americans’ ability to encrypt their phones. They say states shouldn’t preempt Congress and the White House by legislating against encryption while a national debate is ongoing.

Lieu, one of four members of Congress with a computer science degree, partnered with Farenthold, a member of both the House Oversight and House Judiciary committees, to introduce a bill on Wednesday — the “ENCRYPT Act of 2016” — that would stop states from individually trying to make companies change their technology to suit law enforcement needs. ...

Lieu, in an interview, said law enforcement should be more concerned about its own cybersecurity practices than about limiting what’s available to the public. “When the Department of Justice and FBI were hacked, it put to rest the notion of having a backdoor in encryption,” Lieu said, referring to this week’s hacker release of DOJ and DHS employee records.

New Survey Suggests U.S. Encryption Ban Would Just Send Market Overseas

Bruce Schneier, a cryptologist and fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Kathleen Seidel, an independent researcher, and Saranya Vijayakumar of Harvard — compiled a list of at least 865 hardware and software encryption products available in 55 different countries. More than 500 of them come from outside of the United States.

“The report calls into question the efficacy of any U.S. mandates forcing backdoors for law-enforcement access. Anyone who wants to avoid U.S. surveillance will have 546 competing products to choose from,” Schneier wrote in a press release.

“Any U.S.-only restrictions will adversely affect U.S. companies in this worldwide market,” he continued.

“Criminals and terrorists will switch to more secure foreign alternatives, and the people who will be most affected are the innocent Internet users who don’t know enough to use non-backdoored alternatives,” he wrote.

Cliven Bundy Is Arrested as Remaining Oregon Occupiers Prepare to Stand Down

Cliven Bundy, the leader of a 2014 Nevada ranch stand-off with federal agents, was arrested on Wednesday at the same time the remaining four anti-government militants still holed up at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon decided they would finally turn themselves in.

Bundy, who is the father of the jailed leader of the Oregon stand-off, Ammon Bundy, was arrested on Wednesday when he arrived at Portland International Airport on his way to the wildlife refuge to support the militants, according to the Oregonian newspaper.

The 74-year-old — whose 2014 stand-off over grazing rights ended with federal agents backing down in the face of about 1,000 armed militiamen — faces conspiracy and weapons charges, the paper reported.

The last few occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge say they have been surrounded by authorities

The FBI surrounded the last four occupiers of a wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon as they yelled at law enforcement officers in armored vehicles to back off, prayed with supporters over an open phone line, and said later they would turn themselves in Thursday morning.

Perhaps next Cleveland will charge the Rice family for the bullets that were used to kill their kid.

Tamir Rice: Cleveland says family owes $500 for EMS after fatal police shooting

The city of Cleveland wants the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy killed by police, to pay hundreds of dollars to the government to cover “emergency medical services” for the child’s “last dying expense”, according to records.

The city’s attorneys filed a claim on Wednesday against Rice’s estate alleging that the family owes $500 for an unpaid EMS bill from the boy’s death, sparking outrage from Ohio supporters of the family who described it as a particularly cruel legal maneuver.

“The callousness, insensitivity, and poor judgment required for the city to send a bill after its own police officers killed a 12-year-old child is breathtaking,” Subodh Chandra, the family’s attorney, said in an email. “This adds insult to homicide.”

Justice Dept. Sues Ferguson, Missouri, to Force Police Reforms

Ferguson Just Got Slapped With a Civil Rights Lawsuit From the Department of Justice

The US government has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Ferguson, Missouri, after the town's City Council sought to revise a deal with the Department of Justice (DOJ) that would have forced it to change its policing and court practices.

The Ferguson Police Department had previously been the focus of two DOJ investigations, which found a pattern of civil rights violations within its police and court system. ...

After the release of the report and several months of negotiations, the city announced a deal with the DOJ in January that would have mandated changes to its policing practices and overhauled its municipal court system. But on Tuesday, the City Council voted to revise the agreement, called a consent decree, which led the government to respond with the lawsuit Wednesday.

"The residents of Ferguson have waited nearly a year for their city to adopt an agreement that would protect their rights and keep them safe," US Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in a statement announcing the lawsuit Wednesday. ... "They have waited decades for justice," Lynch added. "They should not be forced to wait any longer."

Obama Celebrates Nine Years of Doing Nothing About Money in Politics

President Barack Obama returned to Springfield, Illinois, on Wednesday, nine years to the day after he kicked off his first presidential campaign there, and, just like in 2007, spoke passionately about his desire to reduce the influence of big money in politics.

On Wednesday, Obama told the Illinois legislature, “We have to reduce the corrosive influence of money in our politics that makes people feel like the system is rigged.”

This time, of course, Obama is president and could actually do something about it. There are many actions he could take on his own, without approval from Congress or the courts. ...

In retrospect, Obama’s speech nine years ago was full of foreshadowing. “I understand the skepticism,” he said. “After all, every four years, candidates from both parties make similar promises. … But too many times, after the election is over, and the confetti is swept away, all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and the special interests move in, and people turn away, disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own.”

Vermin Supreme Finishes 4th Among Democrats in N.H. Primary

Pony-loving, boot wearing Vermin Supreme finished fourth among Democrats in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton in a rout. Martin O'Malley, who dropped out of the race after the Iowa Caucus, finished a distant third.

But the fourth place finisher was a name familiar to many New Hampshire voters: Massachusetts resident Vermin Supreme, the perennial candidate best known for his campaign platform to provide free ponies to every American.

With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Supreme received 257 votes, only slightly less than half of the 622 votes O'Malley received.

Keiser Report: Conditions for Anger

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the reason that Americans are so angry and the role played by former President Bill Clinton on creating the conditions for their anger. In the second half, Max talks to Ellen Brown, author of “Web of Debt,” about the populist revolution, from Bernie and beyond, and about the citadel being breached as Congress taps the Fed for infrastructure spending.

Bernie Sanders meets with Al Sharpton in effort to court black voters

Over mugs of tea in Sylvia’s Restaurant, Bernie Sanders met with the Rev Al Sharpton on Wednesday morning as a crowd of fans and reporters lined Malcolm X Boulevard outside.

Fresh off his commanding victory in New Hampshire and en route to campaign in South Carolina, Sanders made time for the civil rights figure, who stopped short of an endorsement but said there would be more meetings with the presidential candidate ahead. ...

While Sharpton declined to issue an official endorsement, other black leaders on hand for the meeting were more vocal.

“There’s no candidate in this race as fearsome in standing up for those who need allies in the struggle than Bernie Sanders,” said Ben Jealous, the former president and CEO of the NAACP. Jealous offered Sanders his endorsement last week.

Bill Perkins, the New York state senator who represents Harlem, was also present, and offered a resounding vote of support to Sanders, who has struggled so far in the campaign to make inroads with black voters who have historically been loyal to the Clintons.

“Harlem represents the black community and communities of color in general and we’re going to make sure he’s in all those communities so they can all feel the Bern!” Perkins said. The state senator officially endorsed Sanders in December.

He said the senator’s woes in finding a black audience have to do with exposure, and that once black voters find out more about who Sanders is, support will follow.

As Congressional Black Caucus PAC Prepares to Back Clinton, Barbara Lee Withholds Endorsement

Is Hillary Clinton Running the Most Cynical Campaign in Recent History?

After Clinton’s stunning loss in New Hampshire tonight, the campaign is getting a facelift:

Staffing and strategy will be reassessed. The message, which so spectacularly failed in New Hampshire where she was trailing by 21 points when she appeared before her supporters to concede to Sanders, is also going to be reworked – with race at the center of it.

Clinton is set to campaign with the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, unarmed African-Americans who died in incidents involving law enforcement officers and a neighborhood watch representative, respectively. And the campaign, sources said, is expected to push a new focus on systematic racism, criminal justice reform, voting rights and gun violence that will mitigate concerns about her lack of an inspirational message.

In 1992, the Clintons also ran a campaign with race at the center of it. Only then, the point was to get as far away from African American voters as possible.

Two Prominent Black Intellectuals Just Delivered More Bad News for Clinton

After a crushing loss in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton may be having an even worse morning. As her campaign turns to South Carolina, where she hopes to win the primary with the support of African American voters on February 27, two prominent black intellectuals issued forceful statements Wednesday morning that could boost her rival, Bernie Sanders.

"I will be voting for Sen. Sanders," Ta-Nehisi Coates, a correspondent for The Atlantic and the author of the 2015 National Book Award winner Between the World and Me, said Wednesday in an interview on Democracy Now! Coates has written critically of Sanders recently for not embracing reparations for African Americans as part of his economic and social justice platform.

A much stronger rebuke of Clinton came from Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, who blasted the former secretary of state in an essay published Wednesday on the website of The Nation titled "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote." In it, Alexander argued that the economic and criminal justice policies of the Bill Clinton administration, from the 1994 crime bill to welfare reform in 1996, were devastating to African Americans—and that Hillary Clinton was a force in that administration whose role should be scrutinized and whose current positions on criminal justice and racial equality are not strong enough. ...

Comments from Coates and Alexander Wednesday are a sign that the degree of support Clinton is counting on from the black community might be slipping away, and that she may not be able to sew up the black vote in South Carolina, as her supporters have long predicted.

TRNN in New Hampshire: Can Change Come From Within the Democratic Party?

Paul Jay and journalist Chris Hedges debate the significance of Bernie Sanders' campaign in the 2016 presidential race

Amid Flint Water Crisis, Obama Wants to Gut Public Water Funds

President Barack Obama's 2017 budget, released Tuesday, includes a proposal to cut more than a third of a billion dollars from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) state water funding program, just weeks after the president declared a state of emergency over Flint, Michigan's water crisis.

The budget proposes slashing $370 million, or 11 percent, from the EPA's Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CW SRF)—which support water quality improvement projects like treatment plants—and reallocating the money to the Drinking Water (DW) SRF, which supports clean water systems and infrastructure.

Despite claims that the change would "boost water sustainability and reduce the price and energy costs of new water supply technology," watchdog groups warn that it does nothing to remedy the urgent water crises facing chronically underfunded communities like Flint.

But as Mae Wu, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), wrote in a blog post on Tuesday, that method is akin to "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

"Cutting funds that help keep pollution out of our water (CW SRF) and moving the money to remove pollution once it's already in our drinking water (DW SRF) is no solution at all," Wu wrote, noting that there is no guarantee the funds will ever even reach Flint.

Flint officials ask US Congress for $55m to replace city's old lead pipes

Officials from the embattled city of Flint, Michigan, testified to Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday to reiterate their call for urgent upgrades to the midwestern city’s basic services. ...

Now, Flint officials are hoping members of Congress can find millions to replace the city’s old lead pipes and attend to the health and education needs of children exposed to the heavy metal.

“I implore you, on behalf of the city of Flint, to help us restore our city,” said mayor Karen Weaver, one of several local officials to testify before the US House Democratic Steering and Policy committee headed up by Democrat Nancy Pelosi. “I submit to you that we are not disposable people,” Weaver said.

On Tuesday, Weaver called for $55m to replace an estimated 15,000 lead service lines running to homes in the city. The same day investigators looking into the state’s role in causing, and potentially worsening the crisis, told reporters that the investigation could turn criminal with potential charges of manslaughter or misconduct in office.

Climate change may have helped spread Zika virus according to WHO scientists

The outbreak of Zika virus in Central and South America is of immediate concern to pregnant women in the region, but for some experts the situation is a glimpse of the sort of public health threats that will unfold due to climate change.

“Zika is the kind of thing we’ve been ranting about for 20 years,” said Daniel Brooks, a biologist at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “We should’ve anticipated it. Whenever the planet has faced a major climate change event, man-made or not, species have moved around and their pathogens have come into contact with species with no resistance.”

It’s still not clear what role rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns have had on the spread of Zika, which is mainly spread by mosquitos; the increased global movement of people is probably as great an influence as climate change for the spread of infectious diseases. But the World Health Organization, which declared a public health emergency over the birth defects linked to Zika, is clear that changes in climate mean a redrawn landscape for vector and water-borne diseases.

According to WHO, a global temperature rise of 2-3C will increase the number of people at risk of malaria by around 3-5%, which equates to several hundred million. In areas where malaria is already endemic, the seasonal duration of malaria is likely to lengthen. Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries Zika and other diseases, is expected to thrive in warmer conditions.

As climate change reaches almost every corner of the Earth’s ecology, different diseases could be unleashed. Increased precipitation will create more pools of standing water for mosquitos, risking malaria and rift valley fever. Deforestation and agricultural intensification also heightens malaria risk while ocean warming, driven by the vast amounts of heat being sucked up by the oceans, can cause toxic algal blooms that can lead to infections in humans.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

New Hampshire Students Say They Were Illegally Turned Away From The Polls

After Sanders' Big Win in New Hampshire, Establishment Figures Want to Scare You with Superdelegates. Here's Why It's Bullshit

Lobbyists, Consultants Fret Over Bernie Sanders Victory

Bill Clinton, David Brock & the Kitchen Sink

On Bill and Hillary Clinton’s First Date in 1971, They Crossed a Picket Line

Turkey’s Revival of a Dirty ‘Deep State’
Libya Epitomizes Clinton's Not-So-Smart Power

“Where to Invade Next” Is the Most Subversive Movie Michael Moore Has Ever Made

Will the Flint Water Crisis Really Result in Manslaughter Charges?

Flint crisis reminds us: profit motive has no place when it comes to necessities

The high court halted Obama's climate change plan. This doesn't bode well

A Little Night Music

John Lee Hooker - Hobo Blues

John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen

Bonnie Raitt & John Lee Hooker - I'm In The Mood

The Doors and John Lee Hooker - Roadhouse Blues

John Lee Hooker + Van Morrison - Gloria

John Lee Hooker - The Motor City is Burning

John Lee Hooker For President