Money from thin air: British breezes sells for £80 a pop in China

There was a time when basic necessities of life were free for all, Then, healthy food became something to be purchased. Then, rather recently, clean drinking water became the next necessity of life to be sold & purchased, & now, bottled Air from UK & Canada going to cities that are suffering from pollution & smog.

Result of this: cheap food lacks proper nutrients & hence, increases the likelihood of illnesses like obesity, diabetes, heart problems, etc.; polluted & dirty water is available for free, but full of pollutants & harmful carcinogens in some cases, & now, poor people who lack enough money to buy bottled air, will be inhaling polluted air full of carcinogenic materials.

Next thing up for sale: life. If you want more life, buy more life.

Essentially, poor people will keep fighting for the mere scraps -- the necessary scraps to live -- while, the wealthy people will be able to buy everything to live; food, water, air, life ...

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https://www.rt.com/uk/331438-bottled-british-air-china/

A UK businessman is making a fortune selling British air to wealthy Chinese buyers for £80 ($115) a bottle.

Leo De Watts, 27, harvests fresh air from rural locations across the UK, including Dorset, Somerset, Wales, Wiltshire and Yorkshire.

His team use specially adapted fishing nets and run through fields to collect the breeze. The nets are left for 10 minutes to absorb the local aroma, before being bottled in 580 ml containers.

De Watts, who is from Dorset but now lives in Hong Kong, described his product as the “Louis Vuitton or Gucci” of fresh air.

Commenting on the difference between the areas where English air is harvested, he said: “I would say on the whole that Dorset air seems to pick up a few more scents of the ocean, as the breeze flows up the Jurassic Coast and over the lush pastures.

“Whereas air from the Yorkshire dales tends to filter its way through much more flora, so the scent captures the subtle tones of the surrounding fields, giving different qualities to the collection. We go up to a hilltop, for example, and collect all the products there which are all packaged and bottled up, sent to Dorset and then directly to China.”

De Watts said the Chinese demand for Great British gusts stems from the country’s terrible pollution problem, especially in urban areas.

“Our customers all have high disposal incomes and want to buy gifts for someone or someone wants to use it,” he said.

“There is a serious point to this though as Beijing, Zhuhai, and Shanghai are the major places where pollution is quite bad, whether it is the fault of the rest of the world or its China’s responsibility, we have a case of people living in smog.”

De Watts’ company Aethaer – the Greek word for pure fresh air – is one of at least two companies selling bottled air to China. A company from Canada is already selling bottled Rocky Mountain air to smog sufferers in Beijing and elsewhere.

De Watts admits he originally dismissed the idea as ridiculous.

“I saw a few reports of people importing bottles of air and thought it was a bit ridiculous myself, and then I thought about it,” he said.

“When someone bottled water everyone thought it was ridiculous, now you have Evian and Volvic – why not bottle air?”

Holding a mirror to the US - on exceptionalism, double standards & global police supra-state

A great opinion piece on American actions all around the world, all the while, boasting of its moral superiority over others. That moral superiority, which US achieves through its military might & forcing others (notably Europe) to follow, has gained US & its citizens more of hateful scorns from around the world than grateful praises.

The so-called "independent" media & journalism all over the world follows the US command of showing the Western Europe, Australia, & North America (US & Canada only) as the beacon of hope, honesty, fairness, law & order, & freedom & independence. That same "independent" media also shows how their own countries are worthless pieces of lands where anarchy & chaos apparently rules & people have nothing else to do but fight each other. As I have said multiple times before in my blog posts that Global North's polished image is like the Snow White's poisoned polished apple.

As the Chancellor correctly points out in movie, "V for Vendetta," that fear is the best way to control populations, American politicians have resorted to the same tactic. Donald Trump isn't the first one resorting to lies & false news stories to increase divisiveness & fear, & rile up its followers. Every American President from Second World War onwards has done the exact same thing; Germans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cubans, Russians, Muslims have already been targeted, or are being targeted, & the Chinese are the next in the American & its European crosshairs.

As an aside, I love the Star Trek series; "Star Trek: The Next Generation". I always wonder while watching this TV series that if American & European politicians learn how to lead & govern from this TV series, the world would become a far better place by itself.

The right to lead can never be earned through military might & covert backroom agendas but by leading by example. America wants to be considered exceptional because it thinks it has those noble qualities of honesty, fairness, hope, justice etc., & hence, it thinks it has the right to lead the world towards a better place, but then it institutes double standards & injustices to put in place policies (sanctions, wars etc.) to control people & information, even at the expense of innocent lives. In some respect, what is going on in US right now; the violence being borne out of racial fears among its own American citizens, is a direct result of its actions on other nations, countries, & people around the world.
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https://www.rt.com/op-edge/315076-us-democracy-syria-war/

As the Middle East continues to descend into madness, wrecked by wars & convulsed by human tragedies, America stands at the center of it all - the grand engineer of instability, the architect of a world system which cornerstone is profoundly ademocratic.

For well over a decade now the world has been force-fed American exceptionalism; taught to believe that America knows best what the world needs, how it needs to be organized & more importantly under whose leadership countries should be allowed to function.

Any challenge to Washington's authority & its supra-national moral legitimacy have systematically been met by furious media slander & threats of sanctions - Russia, more than any other country knows what it cost to stand up to this new American political deity.

The self-appointed political world police, the US has run, dominated & of course dictated the world's media narrative, playing democratic mind games with a gullible public while pursuing violent covert agendas. The Middle East of course has stood at the epicenter of this grand play for regime change & race for control.

If you thought America' s military interventions in Afghanistan & Iraq in the wake of 9/11 only exacerbated tensions, adding more fire to the predetermined narrative of perpetual war, then what of the destruction which has rained on Libya, Syria & now Yemen? Where exactly will the drones & tanks stop? How many communities will have to be laid waste before this prodigal democratic era US politicians have so fervently talked about actually manifests itself?

We have gone so far down the rabbit hole that people have become desensitized to human rights violations, breaches in privacy laws & blatant disregard for international law, all in the name of evasive national security.

With US politicians running the rationale of fear on all platforms available, reason & logic have been labeled under temporary insanity & conspiracy. According to Washington, the world needs direction - the type of righteous direction only America can give since its very constitution stands the perfect expression of all things fiercely democratic & freedom perfect. In this Orwellian play we find ourselves stuck in, all countries have been made-to-measure to Washington's political standards & expectations. Democratic devolution you say?

I would argue this train has already left the station. We have now entered the uncharted territories of a US-run supra-national police state system, where globalism rhymes with authoritarianism. A brave new world indeed.

So Arab leaders are dictatorial & despicably abusive toward their own people, or so the US says. Well in most cases that's true enough, but that never stopped the US or other Western capitals for that matter to develop close economic & political ties with them. Funny how dutiful America only woke up to the horrors of Arab fascism when nations began clamoring for independence.

From Muammar Gaddafi to Saddam Hussein & the Shah of Iran, Washington's friends & allies have not exactly been choir boys - more the who's who of the world most violent tyrants.

But that's not even the point. The point is, when a country decides to drop names & list offenses it better make sure that its own government is not committing the very crimes it finds so revolting in others.

US officials today have justified their intervention in Syria by arguing terror militants need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency to protect Western democracies. Those same officials have, in the same breath, argued that "moderate" radicals should be used to depose Syrian President Bashar Al Assad as the latter no longer holds popular legitimacy. The rationale here is that a democratically elected head of state should be actively brought down by way of terrorism to help promote stability. I have to say, I'm confused here.

More confusing still, in recent weeks Russia was slammed for allegedly planning to actively oppose ISIS militants in Syria. You would think that Western powers would actually hail counter-terrorism efforts. Wrong! As far as Washington is concerned only it can wield military force to oppose terror - anyone else's efforts are illegal.

Commenting on the matter on September 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed, “As we are facing unfounded accusations that we are doing something illegal and reinforcing the ISIL, I'd recommend watching the coalition's actions.” He added, "I am convinced that coordinated efforts are quite possible if double standards are rejected."

And indeed, double standards stand at the core of all the world's problems.

For example, when asked why President Assad lost all legitimacy officials & analysts have intermittently advanced that his rule was forfeited the second he began targeting his own people for political advancement. The same rhetoric has held for Libya, Yemen, Iraq & everything in between.

Since 9/11 America has moved in a higher plane of morality, on account of its political, economic & military might.

But let's turn the mirror around for a second & see what reflects back.

Wasn't it America which gifted the world with such things as renditions, institutionalized surveillance, black sites, systematic tortures, ethno-religious profiling & other niceties?

Wasn't it America again which opened an illegal black hole when its leaders decided that unmanned drones should enter the military fray as murdering weapons of choice?

America has no lesson to give when it comes to democracy building & legitimacy … & it certainly cannot claim to any form of exceptionalism; not when it has so much blood on its hands & not when it has committed so very few funds to humanitarian aid.

If anything Washington officials have mastered the art of terror-propping & radical-funding - from Ukraine to Syria, America has some of the world most despicable characters on its payroll … All for the greater good of course.

 Catherine Shakdam is a political analyst, writer and commentator for the Middle East with a special focus on radical movements and Yemen. A regular pundit on RT and other networks her work has appeared in major publications: MintPress, the Foreign Policy Journal, Mehr News and many others. Director of Programs at the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, Catherine is also the co-founder of Veritas Consulting. She is the author of Arabia’s Rising - Under The Banner Of The First Imam

When it comes to war in space, US has the edge

This article gives us a little taste of how the world's major powers, financially & militarily, are in a race to spend trillions upon trillions to conquer their global rivals in space & show to the world how they "won" the race. Ironically, those trillions are coming from people taxes; the same taxes people of a country pay, voluntarily or involuntarily, to receive basic necessities to fulfill their basic human needs.

Trillions of those taxes are being spent on something which most of the world's population will never use. All these space military hardware is not helping anyone improve billions of lives right here on Earth.

We humans want to take a giant leap towards Moon settlement & Mars colonization, but we forget very easily that billions of humans are living a miserable & wretched life right in our backyard, right here on this very planet.

Our fellow humans are dying of thirst because water is becoming a shortage, but trillions are not being spent to come up with cheap technologies to solve this impending crisis.

Our fellow humans are dying of hunger or suffering from eating unhealthy foods because feeding everyone in the world a healthy diet would require billions in funding, but billions are not being spent on research to improve agriculture & food accessibility for billions of poor.

Our fellow humans are living without a roof over their heads & homelessness is only increasing. But billions are not being spent on building affordable housing to provide a decent living space to our own fellow human beings.

Similarly, there are thousands more issues where trillions can be spent easily to improve human & animal lives; fatal diseases, climate change, animal welfare, sustainable energy etc. & make our little planet a living utopia for all. But, instead of improving lives for billions on this little planet of ours, trillions are being spent, of people's own money, on advancing technologies to destroy more lives & wreck more havoc on this little planet.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS224889314220150810

Quietly & without most people noticing, the world’s leading space powers — the US, China & Russia — have been deploying new & more sophisticated weaponry in space.

Earth’s orbit is looking more & more like the planet’s surface — heavily armed & primed for war. A growing number of “inspection” satellites lurk in orbit, possibly awaiting commands to sneak up on & disable or destroy other satellites. Down on the surface, more & more warships & ground installations pack powerful rockets that, with accurate guidance, could reach into orbit to destroy enemy spacecraft.

A war in orbit could wreck the delicate satellite constellations that the world relies on for navigation, communication, scientific research & military surveillance. Widespread orbital destruction could send humanity through a technological time warp. “You go back to World War Two,” Air Force General John Hyten, in charge of US Space Command, told 60 Minutes. “You go back to the Industrial Age.”

It’s hard to say exactly how many weapons are in orbit. That’s because many spacecraft are “dual use.” They have peaceful functions & potential military applications. With the proverbial flip of a switch, an inspection satellite, ostensibly configured for orbital repair work, could become a robotic assassin capable of taking out other satellites with lasers, explosives or mechanical claws. Until the moment it attacks, however, the assassin spacecraft might appear to be harmless. And its dual use gives its operators political cover. The US possesses more space weaponry than any other country, yet denies that any of its satellites warrant the term.

When 60 Minutes asked the Air Force secretary whether the United States has weapons in space, Secretary Deborah Lee James answered simply: “No, we do not.”

Still, it’s possible to count at least some of the systems that could disable or destroy other satellites. Some of the surface-based weaponry is far less ambiguous & so easier to tally. Even taking into account the difficulty of accurately counting space weaponry, one thing is clear: The US is, by far, the world’s most heavily armed space power.

But not for a lack of trying on the part of other countries.

New Cold War in space

Earth’s orbit wasn’t always such a dangerous place. The Soviet Union destroyed a satellite for the last time in an experiment in 1982. The US tested its last Cold War anti-satellite missile, launched by a vertically flying F-15 fighter, in 1985.

For the next 3 decades, both countries refrained from deploying weapons in space. The “unofficial moratorium,” as Laura Grego, a space expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists, described it, put the brakes on the militarization of space.

Then in 2002, President George W. Bush withdrew the US from a treaty with Russia prohibiting the development of antiballistic-missile weapons. The move cleared the way for Bush to deploy interceptor missiles that administration officials claimed would protect the US from nuclear attack by “rogue” states such as North Korea. But withdrawing from the treaty also undermined the consensus on the strictly peaceful use of space.

5 years later, in January 2007, China struck one of its own old satellites with a ground-launched rocket as part of a test of a rudimentary anti-satellite system. This scattered thousands of potentially dangerous pieces of debris across low orbit. Beijing’s anti-satellite test accelerated the militarization of space. The US, in particular, seized the opportunity to greatly expand its orbital arsenal.

US companies & government agencies have at least 500 satellites — roughly as many as the rest of the world combined. At least 100 of them are primarily military in nature. Most are for communication or surveillance. In other words, they’re oriented downward, toward Earth.

But a few patrol space itself. The US military’s Advanced Technology Risk Reduction spacecraft, launched into an 800-mile-high orbit in 2009, is basically a sensitive infrared camera that can detect the heat plumes from rocket launches &, presumably, maneuvering spacecraft. It then can beam detailed tracking data to human operators on the ground.

The risk-reduction satellite works in conjunction with other spacecraft & Earth-based sensors to keep track of Earth’s approximately 1,000 active satellites. The telescope-like Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite, launched in 2010, “has a clear and unobstructed view,” according to an Air Force fact sheet, “of resident space objects orbiting Earth from its 390-mile-altitude orbit.”

“Resident space object” is military speak for satellites.

A network of around 30 ground radars & telescopes complements the orbital sensors. Together, these systems make “380,000 to 420,000 observations each day,” Space Command explains on its Website.

Observing & tracking other countries’ satellites is a passive & essentially peaceful affair. But the US military also possesses at least 6 spacecraft that can maneuver close to enemy satellites & inspect or even damage them.

In 2010, the Air Force launched its first X-37B space plane. A quarter-size, robotic version of the old Space Shuttle, the X-37B boosts into low orbit — around 250 miles high — atop a rocket but lands back on Earth like an airplane.

The two X-37Bs take turns spending a year or more in orbit. Officially, the Air Force describes the maneuverable mini-shuttles as being part of “an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform.” But they could also attack other spacecraft.

The X-37Bs “could be used to rendezvous and inspect satellites, either friendly or adversarial, and potentially grab and de-orbit satellites,” the Secure World Foundation, a space advocacy group, pointed out. The group stressed that the feasibility of the X-37Bs as weapons is low because the mini-shuttles are limited to low orbits & because the US operates at least 4 other maneuverable satellites that are probably far better at stalking & tearing up enemy spacecraft.

These include 2 Microsatellite Technology Experiment satellites that the military boosted into low orbit in 2006. The MiTEx satellites are small, weighing just 500 pounds each. This makes them harder for enemy sensors to detect — giving them the advantage of surprise in wartime.

The two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites are much bigger & higher up. From their stationary positions 22,000 miles above Earth, these spacecraft — in orbit since July 2014 — monitor other satellites & can, according to the Air Force, “maneuver near a resident space object of interest, enabling characterization for anomaly resolution and enhanced surveillance.”

Maneuverable space planes & satellites are one way of attacking enemy spacecraft. But there’s an older, less subtle method — blasting them out of space with a rocket.

In late 2006, an US spy satellite malfunctioned shortly after reaching low orbit. In early February 2008, the Pentagon announced it would shoot down the dead spacecraft. Officially, Washington insisted that the anti-satellite operation was a safety measure, to prevent the defunct craft’s toxic fuel from harming someone when the satellite’s orbit decayed & it tumbled to Earth.

But it appeared to more than one observer that China’s 2007 anti-satellite test motivated Washington’s own satellite shoot-down. A new Cold War was underway, this time in space.

On Feb. 20, 2008, the Navy cruiser Lake Erie, equipped with a high-tech Aegis radar, launched a specially modified SM-3 antiballistic-missile interceptor. The rocket struck the malfunctioning satellite at an estimated speed of 22,000 miles an hour, destroying it.

Today, the US has dozens of Aegis-equipped warships carrying hundreds of SM-3 missiles, more than enough to quickly wipe out the approximately 50 satellites apiece that Russia & China keep in low orbit.

“Aegis ships could be positioned optimally,” Grego of the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in a 2011 paper, “ to stage a ‘sweep’ attack on a set of satellites nearly at once.”

As an anti-satellite backup, the US Army & the Missile Defense Agency also operate 2 types of ground-launched missile interceptors that have the power to reach low orbit — & the accuracy to strike spacecraft.

Against this huge arsenal, Russia & China possess few counterweights. China’s 2007 anti-satellite test, & a similar trial in early 2013, proved that Beijing can hit a low satellite with a rocket. In 2010, the Chinese space agency launched a cluster of small space vehicles, including 2 named SJ-6F & SJ-12, that slammed into each other in orbit, seemingly on purpose. In July 2013, China deployed a small inspection spacecraft, designated SY-7, in low orbit.

Like the US fleet of maneuverable inspection spacecraft, the tiny SY-7 with its remote-controlled claw could be orbital repair or inspection vehicle — or it could be a weapon.

“One could dream up,” Brian Weeden, a technical & space adviser at the Secure World Foundation, told the War Is Boring Website in 2013, “a whole bunch of dastardly things that could be done with a robotic arm in close proximity.”

But China lacks the space- & ground-based sensors to accurately steer these weapons toward their targets. Compared to the US space-awareness system, with its scores of radars & telescopes, China possesses a relatively paltry system — one consequence of Beijing’s diplomatic isolation.

Where the US can count on allies to host parts of a global sensor network, China has few formal allies & can only deploy space-awareness systems inside its own borders, on ships at sea or in space. The Chinese military can watch the skies over East Asia, but is mostly blind elsewhere.

By contrast, Russia inherited an impressive space-awareness network from the Soviet Union. Russia’s allies in Europe — in particular, the former Soviet & Eastern Bloc states — extend the network’s field of view. As a result, Moscow possesses “a relatively complete catalog of space objects,” the Secure World Foundation concluded.

But Russia is still far behind the US & China as far as space weaponry is concerned. There was a 31-year gap between the Soviet Union’s last anti-satellite test & Russia’s first post-Soviet orbital-weapon experiment. On Christmas Day in 2013, Russia quietly launched a small, maneuverable inspection spacecraft into low orbit, hiding the tiny spacecraft among a cluster of communications satellites.

2 more space inspectors followed, one in May 2014 & another in March 2015. Moscow hasn’t said much about them, but amateur satellite spotters have tracked the vehicles performing the kinds of maneuvers consistent with orbital attack craft. “You can probably equip them with lasers,” Anatoly Zak, the author of Russia in Space: Past Explained, Future Explored, said of the Russian craft. “Maybe put some explosives on them.”

They join a growing number of space weapons guided by expanding networks of Earth-based & orbital sensors on a new, distant battlefront of a so far bloodless neo-Cold War.

"Biggest Arms Exporters" by Rainer Hachfeld

"Biggest Arms Exporters" - Rainer Hachfeld, Neues Deutschland, Berlin, Germany

"China as Banker" by Paresh Nath

"China as Banker" - Paresh Nath, India

Japanese nationalism: Decoy for American imperialism?

wow ... another great piece from Andre Vltchek. Left me speechless. All I can say that Japan is digging a hole for itself by isolating itself from its Asian neighbours.

As always, with these kinds of articles, I ask one question: Is this democracy? Would you consider Japan a democratic country when you come to know that a sizable majority of Japanese are against militarization of Japan & want nothing to do with America?

I specially loved the quotation from a Japanese philosopher, Tenshin Okakura, that “the average Westerner, in his sleek complacency, will see in the tea-ceremony but another instance of the thousand-and-one oddities which constitute the quaintness & childishness of the East to him. He was wont to regard Japan as barbarous while she indulged in the gentle arts of peace: he calls her civilized since she began to commit wholesale slaughter on Manchurian battlefields.”

That's always been the way for the West. You are a disease to the world as long as you are doing something good for your own people & which might be going against the wishes of the West, but you are civilized & appreciated profusely, if you are slaughtering thousands, as per the wishes of the West. Current case in point is full American support for Saudi Arabian war against Yemen. Past examples include American & British support of Saddam Hussein when he waged war against Iran, or the full support of Uganda's Idi Amin.

And there are many, many more examples of the West's full support of terrorists & despots around the world as long as the actions of those terrorists & despots support the vision of the West. As soon as those "terrorists" stop being subservient to the West, they are removed from power & replaced with another thug.
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http://www.rt.com/op-edge/261693-japan-us-dangerous-right-wing/

Japan is ready to change its post-war pacifist constitution; it is rapidly arming itself to the teeth, building battleships & purchasing fighter jets. Recruitment posters are everywhere. Meanwhile, Japan is standing - obediently & loyally - by its occupier & closest ally, the United States.

In light of the situation, one has to wonder what is really ‘nationalist’ about Abe? His loyalties appear to lie towards the West, particularly the US. Definitely not towards his own country & the Asian continent.

All that the US desires, Japan supports. Washington is dreaming about a ‘Pacific Century’, in which it would play a decisive role; it is relentlessly promoting its ‘Pivot to Asia’ doctrine, which envisions Japan firmly by its side, militarily & demagogically; it is pushing for 12-nations Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), & Japan claps.

Kuril Islands dilemma

In Wakkanai - the northernmost city in Japan from which the Russian island of Sakhalin can be seen - military radars & surveillance systems are humming & coastguard ships are standing by in the historic harbor, ready for action.
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From the window of my hotel I can see Sakhalin, if weather allows. During the summer, two mighty sea vessels are shuttling Japanese tourists between Wakkanai & the Russian town of Korsakov, situated on Sakhalin Island. Russian fishing boats regularly visit Hokkaido Island, where there are cultural exchanges & even some trade.

In the Pechika restaurant, delicious Russian food is served, beer flows & Russian songs are sung (a popular tune is ‘A million red roses’). Across from the parking lot, the Fukakō-ichiba complex proudly displays old black-and-white photos from the days when Sakhalin, & in fact all of the Kuril Islands, belonged to Japan.

The islands constitute an issue that has never been resolved. Japanese propaganda is constantly repeating the claim that the Soviet Union grabbed the Kurils at the end of WWII. For decades Japan has been demanding their return.

But even in Wakkanai, not everyone is convinced that Russia should be compromising on the issue. A captain of a small Japanese fishing vessel explains:

“We have an extreme-right-wing prime minister here in Japan. He is very close to the US, a country that is antagonizing, & in fact most likely wants to destroy, both Russia & China. If the Kuril Islands & Sakhalin go back to Japan, they would be immediately converted into another Okinawa; full of US Air Force & naval bases, very near the Russian mainland.”

Some 3,000km away, the former ancient kingdom of Okinawa is living a continuous nightmare of occupation & consequent militarization. From here, thousands of US & Japanese aircraft regularly provoke China & North Korea. At the same time, local residents are outraged at the occupation as massive demonstrations shake the islands; people are demanding an end to the US military presence & want the US bases dismantled. But Abe’s government wants more US hardware, more runways & more war games.

I worked in Okinawa on 2 occasions. The last time was in 2013/14 when I was involved with a documentary film about the American bases, ‘Battle of Okinawa’, for South American network TeleSUR.

Douglas Lummis, an ex-US Air Force pilot who is now a writer & professor, explained the situation to me in the city of Nahu:

“Okinawa hosts about 75% of the American troops & American facilities in Japan. It's out of sight & out of mind of most of the Japanese people on the mainland. Okinawa is a thousand miles away from Tokyo, from the capital. If you talk to Okinawans they're angry & disappointed that for over 60 years now they’ve been asked to essentially shoulder the American-Japanese military alliance. The military alliance with America is also accompanied by what critics would say a subservient attitude towards Washington in general. Japan rarely balks against what Washington wishes on foreign policy.”

The bases are now expanding even to pristine parts of Okinawa, like Haneko Bay.

Okinawan scholar Masaki Tomochi has expressed alarm by what he perceives to be the imperialist tendencies of both the US & Japan. He is well aware of the suffering of local people:

“We think that US imperialism uses Japanese colonialism against us. The Japanese government made a security treaty with the US, & then the United States used Japan to force us, Okinawans, to accept the US military bases,” he explained.

There is no doubt that the bases are there to antagonize, to provoke China & North Korea, as well as Russia. Many believe that the WWIII could easily begin from Okinawa.

Geoffrey Gunn, a leading Australian historian & Professor emeritus at Nagasaki University, is concerned about Japan’s increasingly aggressive role in the region:

“All changed when the Abe government nationalized the Senkaku/Diaoyu [Islands]. The status quo changed because now Japan declares that there is actually no dispute over these so-called disputed islands. Therefore the Tokyo government has angered China. China is indignant with this change of the status quo.”

Japan, land of contradictions

For many years, Japan was able to boast of the smallest disparities between rich & poor anywhere in the world, as well as developing an incredibly compassionate social model. No matter how right wing some its rulers may have been, in many ways, Japan could easily pass as a ‘socialist’ country.

But there is one essential problem: It is ‘socialist’ only for its own people.

For decades, Japanese corporations have been behaving like colonialist thugs all over East Asia. For instance, I was told repeatedly that Japanese car manufacturers had destroyed many cities, corrupting local governments, forcing them not to build comprehensive public transportation systems. Now numerous megalopolises like Jakarta or Surabaya, which are choking on car & scooter fumes, lack a single subway line or light rail system.

The reason for this is largely explained by Japan’s efforts at indoctrinating Asian peoples with a pro-Western worldview. For decades, Japanese universities had been offering ‘scholarships’ to students from poor Southeast Asian nations. They would indoctrinate these students with pro-Western dogmas, breaking the revolutionary spirit, while converting young people to behave as servants of the Empire; essentially doing to other Asians what was done to the Japanese.

After being defeated in WWII, Japan eventually became loyal to its Western masters. Many Asian leaders, including former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, demanded that “Japan return to Asia.” It never did. It became rich during the Korean War, manufacturing goods & equipment for the Western military might. It continued doing the same during the Vietnam War. It is on the same course now.

David McNeill, Irish professor at the prestigious Sofia University in Tokyo, also works for the NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster. He is increasingly critical of the new, militarized & indoctrinated Japan:

They are rewriting text books; they skip through WWII, dedicating to it only 8 pages... Nationalism is rising. Naoki Hyakuta, a comedy writer, published a novel about Kamikaze fighters, entitled ‘Forever Zero’… The novel sold 5 million copies! You know that nothing sells 5 million copies in Japan!

“Abe read the book & loved it. He put him on board of directors of NHK! And the director of NHK is another right-wing thug. There is so much self-censorship in Japanese media, now. And the government is issuing ‘guidelines’, so called ‘Orange Book’, for instance: how to treat anything that is ‘contagious’... or anything related to history. There are instructions to writers & translators. For instance: ‘never use words like Nanking Massacre, except when you quote foreign experts’. Or ‘Yasukuni Shrine – never use word “controversial” in connection to it.’ We cannot write about ‘sexual slaves’ from WWII.”

I am also told that the Japanese public is given a one-sided interpretation of current affairs. When it comes to topics like Russia, Syria & China, Japanese people are made to consume Western propaganda exclusively.

“And they actually believe what the NHK says,” says David.

As we are implementing images from Hong Kong’s ‘Umbrella Revolution’ into my film with Noam Chomsky, my film editor, Hata Takeshi, smiles:

“In Japan, people will not understand that the West is behind those ‘color revolutions’ & recent events in Hong Kong. Here, there is total consensus that HK was a movement for freedom & democracy. It is because there are hardly any alternative sources of information available.”

Even in the places like Abu Dhabi & Beirut, television channels like RT are available in every major hotel. Not in Japan. In all big international chains, it is mainly a diet of local channels, plus CNN, BBC & Fox.

Discontent with politics as usual

It appears that dissatisfaction with Japan’s present political course is visible everywhere, and not only in some small, anti-establishment circles. Former vice-president of a major civil engineering company, Segi Sakashi, 79 years old, recently expressed his outrage to me:

With an extremely close relationship with the US, & an antagonist approach towards Russia, China & others, Prime Minister Abe appears to be highhandedly bringing the country into military conflict with its neighbors, namely Korea & China, while the population is completely ignorant of this & stuck with ever shrinking social services.

“What is absurd & ridiculous about all this is that there does not exist any need whatsoever to antagonize our neighbors. China is one of the main trading partners of Japan. So is Korea. We have been growing (or shrinking) economically, through mutual gains & losses. Honestly, Abe is playing a very stupid game thinking that because of the 1960 Security Treaty with the US, we should be behaving like this.”
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... Japan is working hard to support the West at the very moment when the West is pushing the world towards a possibly fatal confrontation with peaceful but mighty nations, like China & Russia.

For this, Japanese leaders are facing fury in many parts of Asia, but great support & admiration in the West. It is timely to recall the words of the great Japanese philosopher, Tenshin Okakura, who wrote more than 100 years ago in his work, ‘The Book of Tea’:

“The average Westerner, in his sleek complacency, will see in the tea-ceremony but another instance of the thousand-and-one oddities which constitute the quaintness & childishness of the East to him. He was wont to regard Japan as barbarous while she indulged in the gentle arts of peace: he calls her civilized since she began to commit wholesale slaughter on Manchurian battlefields.”

The Asian continent would be delighted if Japan would stick to its tea ceremonies, especially after sending Prime Minister Abe to his ideological adopted homeland across Pacific Ocean.


Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker & investigative journalist. His latest books are: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” & “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”. Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. "Point of No Return" is his critically acclaimed political novel. Andre is making films for teleSUR & Press TV. Vltchek presently resides & works in East Asia & the Middle East.

Three years of confronting Western propaganda

wow ... a great piece ... on Western (North American & European) imperialism & pro-Western propaganda on spreading lies about the regions of the world it doesn't like. The writer's books might be amazing, too.

Although, I haven't yet visited many of the places he mentioned in the opinion piece, I definitely agree with the parts that most residents of the West are completely ignorant & live in their own little bubble.

People around the world think Western countries became such developed countries because of their hard work & discipline. Heck no !!! They weren't even developed nations until the second world war. Sustainable development takes decades upon decades, sometimes, even centuries. Islamic empires in Middle East, Spain, North Africa, & South Asia were around from 700 AD to 1920s. That's almost 1200 years of Islamic rule on a big chunk of the world. On the other hand, if you may recall, the whole European continent was destroyed to ground during the second world war. Before then, several prominent business & political elites, in the West, became rich on the back-breaking slave labour of thousands & thousands of African-American slaves. Heck, even now, "slaves" are "employed" in the form of minimum wages, which is unsustainable for people to live on, in every industry, from agriculture to hospitality to restaurant to manufacturing. British, French, & Spanish soldiers looted whichever countries they invaded or controlled, from Africa to Asia.

What people forget to see is that how America & its allies in NATO, UN, G8 etc. started to play political games around the world, after 1945, to keep the developing world in constant chaos; for example:

a. foreign wars & invasions on lies, for example, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Vietnam, Korea (one country divided up & still at war).

b. supporting civil wars & dictators, for example, US supporting dictators of Middle Eastern countries (even Saddam Hussein was a friend of US at one time) & dictators of South American countries (Nicaragua, Chile, Panama etc.).

c. pushing weapons in developing countries like a drug dealer pushes drugs on people, for example, from South America to Africa to Middle East, countries are encouraged to buy more & more weapons to fight anyone, domestically & internationally, to the point that the leaders of those developing countries start seeing every problem as a nail to be solved by a hammer (weapons).

Whichever countries didn't / don't go along with the West, those countries were / still are politically & economically blocked (Venezuela, Cuba, Iran) & Western media go into hyperdrive spreading lies about those countries, all over the world.

If you think developing countries are inhabited by savages, please ask yourself:

1. How many countries did Brazil invade to develop itself?
2. How many countries did China invade or waged war upon to develop itself?
3. How many countries did Iran or Cuba or Venezuela or Zimbabwe or South Africa or even Libya (during the reign of Gaddafi) invade, or waged war, or caused civil wars in other countries?
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http://www.rt.com/op-edge/260821-propaganda-book-west-lies/

After my two days marathon discussion with Noam Chomsky, (at MIT in 2012), a bestselling book was born. Later this year a film will hit the cinemas.

Noam & I discussed Western imperialism, & the terror it has been spreading around the world. After WWII, at least 50 million lives were lost. Lives of those whom Orwell used to call “unpeople”; lives brutally interrupted as a result of Western-led & orchestrated wars, invasions, coups & proxy-conflicts.

We discussed at length the Western propaganda, which, for centuries, worked extremely hard to justify everything from the colonialist insanity, to supremacist & exceptionalist theories.

After my encounter with Chomsky, I decided to dedicate at least 2 years of my life to visiting most parts of the world, where the Empire had been striking; where it was attempting to bulldoze all opposition that was standing on its way to the absolute control over the planet.

My goal was Quixotic - a monster, 1000-page book, exposing & confronting techniques & dogmas utilized by the Empire in all corners of the globe, for purposes of destabilizing “rebellious” nations, overthrowing “unruly” governments, or simply grabbing natural resources.

As a philosopher & investigative journalist, I was aiming at both defining how the Western dogmas & propaganda work, & at giving concrete examples of the horror into which our planet was once again descending.

In the past, I have lived & worked on all continents, from Oceania to South America, North America, Africa, Europe, Asia & the Middle East. Throughout the years, I became convinced that the natural development of the human race was interrupted, derailed & forced into dark alleys by extremely selfish, perverse group of people & the states, which I call The Empire.

The Empire is “fundamentalist”; it believes, religiously, in its cultural & racial superiority. It is convinced that dominating the world is its sacred right. To achieve its goal, it is using imperialism, colonialism & savage neoliberalism. It is willing to sacrifice millions, tens of millions of human lives to achieve its goals.

I witnessed its crimes on all continents. And I finally realized that it is my duty to define its actions & deceits.

Soon I decided on the title of my book: “Exposing Lies of The Empire”.

It is clear that the Empire lies & that it uses some of its best brains to spread fabrications, as well as billions of dollars in cold cash. It is because the arrangement of the world is grotesque & thoroughly absurd. And only propaganda, shaped to perfection, can guarantee that status quo is maintained. Propaganda & submissiveness of a brainwashed population (in the West), which accepted such propaganda in exchange for at least relatively privileged position in the world.

I talked to Westerners in Paris, London & New York, & I was stunned how little “freedom” there really is, how intellectually cowardly the citizens of the Empire are. In hundreds of art galleries of Paris, I encountered almost no political art, nothing that would make people dream of a better world. In Europe, the level of knowledge about the ‘surrounding world’ (that very same world which basically feeds the continent) was close to zero. Very little was known about the crimes that the Empire is committing.

Europeans are self-promoters, defining themselves as educated & refined, but well over 99% of those I challenged could not name even one Korean writer, or Japanese painter, of Chinese classical musicians. Any elementary school kid in Beijing or Tokyo can produce dozens of names of Western cultural icons from the top of their head.

China is different. It is obsessed with knowledge! I spent days in Beijing & Shanghai theatres, opera houses & galleries. I spoke at Tsinghua University (they ran a 2-day seminar on my work) in order to understand Chinese students better. I drove some 5,000 kilometers all around China. I always knew that the Western media has been openly & shamelessly spreading lies about the PRC, trying to shout loudly & continuously, that China is not a socialist country, anymore. In fact, anybody who knows it well can testify that it is socialist & its tremendous success derives from this very fact.

I visited North Korea, as it was celebrating its 60th anniversary of victory. I spent time talking to North Korean citizens, from farmers & workers, to artists, even to the Vice President. I was enormously impressed – by the housing, public transportation, culture. People were cool. My interpreter was devouring mountains of potato chips, picking my brain about South American music, while asking me for advice on how to deal with her cautious boyfriend. It was all very “normal”. I saw more propaganda all over South Korea, than in the North. Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun interviewed me on the subject, but no Western mainstream publication would run such a story.

I was writing my book as I went: each country smeared by the Empire & “rehabilitated” by me – one chapter. A story about some outrageous lie – another chapter...

Zimbabwe – I read in the Economist & on the BBC site that crime there is endemic, that there are no functioning operation theatres in Harare’s hospitals, that Harare is “the worst city on earth”. I went. All lies. There were dozens of operation theatres in several hospitals. After Nairobi where I was then living, & after Kampala & Kigali where I was often working - three darlings of Western imperialism, as Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya have been plundering & ravishing the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan & Somalia on behalf of Washington, Paris & London - Harare felt safe, beautiful, cultural; the capital of the country with the highest literacy rate in Africa. While in Nairobi, more than half of the people live in appalling slums & misery, I found only about one square kilometer of slums in Harare.

South Africa, struggling to shake off its terrible legacy of apartheid, is another target of negative Western propaganda. It is because the country is, despite many hindrances, still marching forward, inspired by the left-wing ideology.

Parallel to writing my book, I was filming several documentary films for TeleSur & PressTV, to keep afloat. I went all “around Syria”, where NATO trained & financed “Syrian opposition”, including ISIS, in the refugee camps of Jordan & Turkey. I travelled to Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The West destabilized, ravished one of the greatest countries of the Middle East, as it ravished the entire region.

I worked in Bahrain & Iraq where, at some point I stood on the bridge blown up by ISIS, looking at two villages bombed to the ground by the US, the city of Mosul only 6 kilometers away. All actors of this bloody, nightmarish drama were actually related or produced by the Empire’s “foreign policy”, or were part of the Empire themselves.

Lies of the Empire are piling on top of each other. “India, the largest democracy”! Anyone who knows this country, even my luminous Indian friends like writer Arundhati Roy (author of The God of Small Things) & documentary film-maker Sanjay Kak, feel unwell hearing this cliché. India is free only for the elites. It is built on the “ideals” of British colonialism. I call it “securistan”.

In my book, I am showing examples how the Empire tries to destroy Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Eritrea, China, South Africa, & Iran – through outrageous propaganda & through manufacturing of the “opposition movements”. Last year I spent 2 weeks in Hong Kong trying to understand how the brains of local students work, how they were indoctrinated, & made to fall for the Western dogmas, how they are made to antagonize China. The parallel with the strategy that the Empire is using in order to destabilize & smear Cuba, Venezuela & Russia was striking.

I drove all around Ukraine, realizing how close most of the people there felt towards Russia. I talked to workers at the city of Krivoi Rog, to grandmas in the countryside, to students in Kharkov & Odessa: the West created the conflict in Ukraine & pushed it to complete absurdity, dividing 2 great nations with virtually the same culture.

I also studied environmental destruction in Oceania & Indonesia. In Micronesia, entire nations may have to be soon evacuated because of the global warming. I wrote entire book on the topic, several years ago, but “Exposing Lies of the Empire” is also touching this shocking subject. All over the Oceania, the Empire created “culture of dependence”, & destroyed enormous old & fascinating civilization.

“Exposing Lies of The Empire” is now in print, but I do not feel that the journey is over. 822 pages ... is actually very little, comparing to thousands of horrendous stories that the Empire is triggering all over the world.

There is no time to take a break. Pseudo-reality & outright lies of the Western imperialism have to be confronted.

My work on the second volume of “Exposing Lies of The Empire” has already began. The book will keep expanding. It is “the process”, which will never end, as long as the imperialism reigns.


Andre Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker & investigative journalist. He has covered wars & conflicts in dozens of countries. His discussion with Noam Chomsky "On Western Terrorism" is now going to print. His critically acclaimed political novel "Point of No Return" is now re-edited & available. "Oceania" is his book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about post-Suharto Indonesia & the market-fundamentalist model is called “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. He has just completed the feature documentary, “Rwanda Gambit” about Rwandan history & the plunder of DR Congo. After living for many years in Latin America & Oceania, Vltchek presently resides & works in East Asia & Africa. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.

Emperor movie quote

A great line from 2012 movie, Emperor, neatly summarizes the past 100 years or so, & the current international chaos UK, US, & other European countries have caused in the world. These countries cause an uproar when one country, e.g. Japan in World War 2 or any other country (Iraq "invading" Kuwait in 1991, Saudi Arabia in Yemen, Russia annexing parts of Ukraine etc.) does the exact same thing which they themselves (US, UK, & other European countries) have been doing for the past several decades.

US goes into Iraq & kills thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians & then says, "oops, my bad ... I thought Iraq had WMDs." No criminal prosecution against American leaders. Russia takes parts of Ukrainian territory & North America to European leaders are up in arms.

**Disclaimer: I am not favouring any one country over another or one country's aggression over another. I am saying that international law, if it is being applied, then should be applied equally over everyone.

Why NSA surveillance is worse than you've ever imagined

A few thoughts on this piece, which is a good one:

1. The so-called icon of democracy around the world, United States of America, spies on its citizens & non-citizens, around the world, in the name of "national security."

All the known dictatorships around the world; pretty much all of the Arab countries in Middle East (for example, Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt), also strictly control their citizenry & spy on their citizenry in the name of "national security."

US usually berates China & Russia for abusing human rights, which includes, spying on their citizens. But government of those countries say that they are doing it in the name of "national security." See some similarities there?

2. We know how Chinese, Russian, & residents & citizens of dictatorial Middle Eastern countries are dealt with, by their own governments, after they are caught with their "dissident" thoughts. But what's surprising, which I learned from this opinion piece, is that NSA shares its data, collected on Palestinian-Americans, for example, with Israeli "NSA".

Palestinian-Americans must've come to America, thinking it's a democratic, free, & just country & they will be protected here. What they didn't know that they are not only being spied upon but the data collected on them are being shared with the country, which made them a refugee in the first place.

3. People in Western countries usually think that how do people who are living in dictatorships accept those dictatorial governments & live in those countries. Well, the question can be turned around for Americans now. How can Americans keep living in such a country where their own government doesn't trust them & spies on them & will keep spying (regardless of how much Senate & Congress allow NSA to be intrusive or not) for the foreseeable future?

The answer lies in the public's fatigue of being bombarded of NSA's spying & now it's more of an accepted situation by Americans that "it's ok to be spied upon by our government, " & "since, we can't really do anything about it, we might as well accept government's spying & live our own lives." It's safe to assume that that's exactly a Saudi Arabian, a Kuwaiti, a Bahraini, a Chinese, or a Russian thinks; "save my own skin & quietly live my own life, regardless of what my government does against me."

4. Role of media & journalism has become to work with whatever government lets them do. They are spreading news of NSA spying to create that fatigue in the Americans, to the point, that Americans & other people around the world are starting to tune these stories out now, & at the same time, those same media outlets are being selective about what news they publish. Anything new about NSA's spying capabilities is ignored & same stories of email & phone spying are repeated on end.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/11/idUS279995049320150511

... A PEW survey in March revealed that 52% of the public is now concerned about government surveillance, while 46% is not.

Given the vast amount of revelations about NSA abuses, it is somewhat surprising that just slightly more than a majority of Americans seem concerned about government surveillance. Which leads to the question of why? Is there any kind of revelation that might push the poll numbers heavily against the NSA’s spying programs? Has security fully trumped privacy as far as the American public is concerned? Or is there some program that would spark genuine public outrage?

Few people, for example, are aware that a NSA program known as TREASUREMAP is being developed to continuously map every Internet connection — cellphones, laptops, tablets — of everyone on the planet, including Americans.

“Map the entire Internet,” says the top secret NSA slide. “Any device, anywhere, all the time.” It adds that the program will allow “Computer Attack/Exploit Planning” as well as “Network Reconnaissance.”

One reason for the public’s lukewarm concern is what might be called NSA fatigue. There is now a sort of acceptance of highly intrusive surveillance as the new normal, the result of a bombardment of news stories on the topic.

I asked Snowden about this. “It does become the problem of one death is a tragedy & a million is a statistic,” he replied, “where today we have the violation of one person’s rights is a tragedy & the violation of a million is a statistic. The NSA is violating the rights of every American citizen every day on a comprehensive & ongoing basis. And that can numb us. That can leave us feeling disempowered, disenfranchised.”

In the same way, at the start of a war, the numbers of Americans killed are front-page stories, no matter how small. But 2 years into the conflict, the numbers, even if far greater, are usually buried deep inside a paper or far down a news site’s home page.

In addition, stories about NSA surveillance face the added burden of being technically complex, involving eye-glazing descriptions of sophisticated interception techniques & analytical capabilities. Though they may affect virtually every American, such as the telephone metadata program, because of the enormous secrecy involved, it is difficult to identify specific victims.

The way the surveillance story appeared also decreased its potential impact. Those given custody of the documents decided to spread the wealth for a more democratic assessment of the revelations. They distributed them through a wide variety of media — from start-up Web publications to leading foreign newspapers.

One document from the NSA director, for example, indicates that the agency was spying on visits to porn sites by people, making no distinction between foreigners & “U.S. persons,” US citizens or permanent residents. He then recommended using that information to secretly discredit them, whom he labeled as “radicalizers.” But because this was revealed by The Huffington Post, an online publication viewed as progressive, & was never reported by mainstream papers such as the New York Times or the Washington Post, the revelation never received the attention it deserved.

Another major revelation, a top-secret NSA map showing that the agency had planted malware — computer viruses — in more than 50,000 locations around the world, including many friendly countries such as Brazil, was reported in a relatively small Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, & likely never seen by much of the American public.

Thus, despite the volume of revelations, much of the public remains largely unaware of the true extent of the NSA’s vast, highly aggressive & legally questionable surveillance activities. With only a slim majority of Americans expressing concern, the chances of truly reforming the system become greatly decreased.

While the metadata program has become widely known because of the numerous court cases & litigation surrounding it, there are other NSA surveillance programs that may have far greater impact on Americans, but have attracted far less public attention.

In my interview with Snowden, for example, he said one of his most shocking discoveries was the NSA’s policy of secretly & routinely passing to Israel’s Unit 8200 — that country’s NSA — & possibly other countries not just metadata but the actual contents of emails involving Americans. This even included the names of U.S. citizens, some of whom were likely Palestinian-Americans communicating with relatives in Israel & Palestine.

An illustration of the dangers posed by such an operation comes from the sudden resignation last year of 43 veterans of Unit 8200, many of whom are still serving in the military reserves. The veterans accused the organization of using intercepted communication against innocent Palestinians for “political persecution.” This included information gathered from the emails about Palestinians’ sexual orientations, infidelities, money problems, family medical conditions & other private matters to coerce people into becoming collaborators or to create divisions in their society.

Another issue few Americans are aware of is the NSA’s secret email metadata collection program that took place for a decade or so until it ended several years ago. Every time an American sent or received an email, a record was secretly kept by the NSA, just as the agency continues to do with the telephone metadata program. Though the email program ended, all that private information is still stored at the NSA, with no end in sight.

With NSA fatigue setting in, & the American public unaware of many of the agency’s long list of abuses, it is little wonder that only slightly more than half the public is concerned about losing their privacy. For that reason, I agree with Frederick A. O. Schwartz Jr., the former chief counsel of the Church Committee, which conducted a yearlong probe into intelligence abuses in the mid-1970s, that we need a similarly thorough, hard-hitting investigation today.

“Now it is time for a new committee to examine our secret government closely again,” he wrote in a recent Nation magazine article, “particularly for its actions in the post-9/11 period.”

Until the public fully grasps & understands how far over the line the NSA has gone in the past — legally, morally & ethically — there should be no renewal or continuation of NSA’s telephone metadata program in the future.