a serious crime

Just over a week after Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief, Can Dündar, represented the Turkish daily news outlet in receiving a press freedom award, he and another top editor were arrested and jailed on charges of espionage. In question was a controversial article exposing arms shipments from Turkish intelligence to Syrian extremist rebels.

“We have been arrested,” tweeted Dündar on Thursday. “Don’t worry, these are medals of honor for us.”

He explained further: “We are accused of ‘spying.’ The president said ‘treason.’ We are not traitors, spy [sic], or heroes; we are journalists. What we have done here is an act of journalism,” said Dündar before testifying on Thursday. “Of course, this prosecution will help enlighten how these incidents took place, rather than how we covered this story.”

Now a third Turkish journalist has been arrested, according to local reports. Ertuğrul Özkök, a reporter for Turkish daily Hüriyet, has been arrested for a slanderous criticism of who is presumed to be Erdoğan — even though the president wasn’t explicitly named anywhere in Özkök’s article. As if more evidence of Turkey’s quashing free press and free speech were needed , Özkök potentially faces five years and four months in prison for expressing this opinion.

Dündar and Ankara correspondent, Erdem Gül, if found guilty on charges of spying, as well as aiding a terrorist organization, could spend the rest of their lives in a Turkish prison — for doing their job. There is a painfully ironic undercurrent in the charges considering the subject of the article is the Erdoğan administration’s complicity in arming Syrian extremists (read: terrorists).

Erdoğan himself sued Dündar and accused Cumhuriyet of releasing false information and spying when the story first exploded, stating at the time the journalist responsible would “pay a heavy price,” as the Wall Street Journal reported.

Despite Cunhuriyet’s recent honor from Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF, or Reporters Without Borders), under the paranoid, watchful eye of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, journalists — and dissenters — have faced sweeping general censorship. Dündar and Gül might be the most prominent recent examples of Erdoğan’s attempt to keep “state secrets” concealed from public scrutiny, but they’re not the first journalists to poke this particular sore spot.

Sirte

Even as foreign powers step up pressure against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the militant group has expanded in Libya and established a new base close to Europe where it can generate oil revenue and plot terror attacks.

Since announcing its presence in February in Sirte, the city on Libya’s Mediterranean coast has become the first that the militant group governs outside of Syria and Iraq. Its presence there has grown over the past year from 200 eager fighters to a roughly 5,000-strong contingent which includes administrators and financiers, according to estimates by Libyan intelligence officials, residents and activists in the area.
...
This burgeoning operation in Libya shows how Islamic State is able to grow and adapt even as it is targeted by Russian, French and U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria as well as Kurdish and Iraqi ground assaults in Iraq.

In Libya, Islamic State has fended off challenges from government-aligned militias, crushed an uprising in Sirte and called for recruits who have the technical know-how to put the nearby oil facilities into operation.

Libyan officials said they are worried that it is only a matter of time before Islamic State attempts to take over more oil fields and refineries near Sirte to boost its revenue—money that could fund attacks in the Middle East and Europe.

Sirte is a gateway to several major oil fields and refineries farther east on the same coast and Islamic State has targeted those installations over the last year.

“They have made their intentions clear,” said Ismail Shoukry, head of military intelligence for the region that includes Sirte. “They want to take their fight to Rome.”

NY Times

Of those, by far the most important is based in Surt, a Libyan port city on the Mediterranean about 400 miles southeast of Sicily. Western officials familiar with intelligence reports say it is the only affiliate now operating under the direct control of the central Islamic State’s leaders. In Libya, residents of Surt and local militia leaders say the transformation of the Islamic State group here has been evident for months.

“Libya is the affiliate that we’re most worried about,” Patrick Prior, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s top counterterrorism analyst, said at a recent security conference in Washington. “It’s the hub from which they project across all of North Africa.”

The leadership of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is now clenching its grip on Surt so tightly that Western intelligence agencies say they fear the core group may be preparing to fall back to Libya as an alternative base if necessary, a haven where its jihadists could continue to fight from even if it was ousted from its original territories.
...
In Libya, where a NATO bombing campaign helped overthrow Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi four years ago, there is no functional government. Warring factions are far more focused on fighting one another than on taking on the Islamic State, and Libya’s neighbors are all too weak or unstable to lead or even host a military intervention.

The Islamic State has already established exclusive control of more than 150 miles of Mediterranean coastline near Surt, from the town of Abugrein in the west to Nawfaliya in the east. The militias from the nearby city of Misurata that once vowed to expel the group completely have all retreated. Only a few checkpoints manned by one or two militiamen guard the edge of the Islamic State’s turf, where its fighters come and go as they please.

Berlin, Germany:
[video:https://youtu.be/DkwdSVQI1EI?list=PLeIzHhBSrVIbNscLEr3RbB7BhK2iYWqgb]
Cameroon: Wow, that makes me happy and hopeful ...

Hey! #climatemarch in Cameroon, Mostar Bosnia, and Amsterdam. Remarkable unity! pic.twitter.com/DnVcwcxUST

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) November 29, 2015

Washington DC:

#HappeningNow #ClimateMarch in front of White House! pic.twitter.com/j9hKd02aca

— Lee Camp [Redacted] (@LeeCamp) November 29, 2015

And I sit here like an idiot in front of the "puter"...

Yes, it lives on

Although Congress then trimmed the bill down to $607 billion, the cuts did not affect the $300 million aid to the Ukrainian government, or the “zombie” surveillance blimp program that has cost nearly $3 billion so far. It also left almost $500 million dedicated to arming and training “moderate rebels” in Syria – a program the Pentagon had already abandoned.

News and Blues on the Rocks

are

SaneAsylum

BreadCrumbsandBlueRoses

ThinkingFreely

ice99

strangebedfellows

WakeUp99

Second Thought Special

Route99Blues

Juke Joint News and Blues ? hummm nah

As you can see the blue is a turn off for me. However as much as I love the Evening Blues I'm not really a blues fan. Rhythm and blues is a whole other matter. So either way you cut the blue's musically or politically I feel it's a limiting description of what this site is about. Just my 2 cents I'll be happy with whatever it's called . A rose by any other name ..... say there's a good name. arosebyanyothername.com lol quite a mouthful.

About trying to make the name avoid the spook filters and people who are too chicken to go to a site that might be on the 'list' what a crock. Too late now folks! 'You better run run run away from my bullet.' Paranoia is nothing I care to cater to. How about 99%Leaks. Face it's published on the public side of the internet even with joining up etc. your under the big spooky eyeball. Personally anyone who is that tied into being safe and secure is just useless. I realize you want to grow the site but at what price? I've learned the hard way it's better to be what you are and fuck them if they can't take a joke. Even in marketing it's better to stand and be creative behind what you are instead of trying to be safe and harmless.

I'm not interested in participating in some kind of blog that wants to alter it's content or name so that it appeals to an audience that is afraid to speak out. Seems kind of like defeating the whole point of blogging if your not buying it. The world online needs more bogs and sites willing to buck the intimidation from the spooks. Look at FB at least there you have your choice stay safe or pick your own poison. Lets face it it's all poison to the 'filters' unless you hide your intent behind some useless camouflage. Who wants new members who are too afraid to embrace the 99% or any other keyword that wakens the spooks of intimidation?

Sorry for the rant but paranoia runs deep and it only empowers the evil fucks. I come here to read unfiltered news from diverse sources, to hear great music and to chat with open minded unafraid people of good spirit.

So what ever name you and Joe pick keep in mind that anyone who can't come here because it's name might set off the spooks or is too radical is nobody I have any interest in talking to. I had enough of dealing with this shit. For me this site is an oasis of sanity where I can hear voices that differ from mine but are above all not afraid. I also have come to hate the blue and red breakdown. I don't want a site that is uselessly rad but I do want this site to remain a place where paranoia of the spooks filters is not even considered. It's absurd they already have our number and most of us are on lists that date back to the Bushies.

There that's my rant and I hope you take it in the spirit it was intended. Sure your the boss you can do whatever you want. Trying to fool the fucking machine the spooks use seems silly. They already have our number. Once again who want's to converse with paranoid idiots too afraid to set off word filters that just might just what ????? come and getcha? Wreck your life? WTF? Better to go down talking some truth. I have no interest in convincing the keepers of the gates or the fearful that everything is secure because it's not. Get a grip. People need to stop being intimidated from free speech because of the filters of Big Brother. Let it rip!

Lawrence Davidson on Rob Kall's OpEdNews:
          Who is right in Syria? An analysis
          (posted originally to Davidson's own website)

Robert Parry on Consortium News, back on April 15:

Did Money Seal Israeli-Saudi Alliance?

Special Report: The odd-couple relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel may have been sealed with more than a mutual desire to kiss-off Iran. According to an intelligence source, there was a dowry involved, too, with the Saudis reportedly giving Israel some $16 billion.

I am going to try to narrow this down. In no particular order, here are my favorites.

lasthouseontheleft
Route99Blues*
planet99
SaneAsylum*
ditching demockery
ICE99*
ThinkingFreely*
Juke Joint News and Blues

I have listed eight. The ones with the * are my top four favorites among those eight.