Obama silent on reports outlining Chinese plans for nuclear attacks on U.S.

Posted by
November 4, 2013

Washington Free Beacon

The Obama administration declined to comment on Sunday on provocative state-run Chinese media reports outlining Beijing’s nuclear war plans, including land-based and submarine-launched missile strikes on U.S. cities that would kill up to 12 million people.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf and Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith would not respond when asked about the highly unusual Chinese reports published Oct. 28 in numerous major Communist Party-controlled television and newspaper outlets.

The Chinese reports included maps showing nuclear strikes on Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest, along with the resulting radiation plumes stretching thousands of miles across the western United States.

Chinese map showing nuclear strikes on Los Angeles 

Chinese map showing nuclear strikes on Los Angeles

Global Times, viewed as China’s most xenophobic anti-U.S. media outlet, stated in its report that “the 12 JL-2 [submarine-launched ballistic missile] nuclear warheads carried by one single Type 094 SSBN can kill and wound 5 million to 12 million Americans.” The newspaper is a subsidiary of the People’s Daily, the organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Harf referred questions about the attack scenarios to the Pentagon, where Smith would not comment directly, despite the fact that a key mission of the Pentagon is to deter nuclear attacks like those outlined in the Chinese press.

Smith said annual Pentagon reports to Congress documented what she called China’s “long-term modernization of strategic nuclear forces featuring the introduction of road-mobile, solid propellant ICBMs and continued development on ballistic missile submarine, the Type 094 and an accompanying new submarine launched ballistic missile, JL-2.”

“We continue to monitor these development very closely,” she said.

The Chinese nuclear saber rattling is expected to complicate the administration’s push for a new round of strategic arms cuts with Russia. President Barack Obama in June repeated his call for ultimately eliminating all nuclear weapons and called for a one-third cut in the projected New START arms treaty warhead level of 1,550 warheads.

However, Russia has balked at further cuts and is developing a new medium-range nuclear missile partly as a result of China’s growing arsenal of nuclear missiles.

China is rapidly expanding its nuclear forces with new missiles, submarines, and warheads. At least one of the warheads is based on warhead designs stolen from U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories in the 1990s, U.S. officials have said.

The Chinese reports last week stated that the nuclear forces revelations were the first time Chinese media had discussed detailed plans to counter U.S. nuclear deterrence in the Pacific.

Previously, details of China’s nuclear forces were among the most closely guarded secrets in the Chinese military.

In addition to Global Times, the reports also appeared in other Party organs, including China Central TV, People’s Daily, PLA Daily, China Youth Daily, and Guangmin Daily newspapers.

The reports also coincided with China’s first official disclosure of new ballistic missile submarine capabilities, described by Global Times as “secrets of our first-generation underwater nuclear force.”

The reports were unique due to the level of threatening rhetoric and rare public discussion of plans for nuclear attacks, including plans to fire road-mobile DF-31A road-mobile long-range missiles over the North Pole to attack U.S. cities. The missile has a range of up to 7,500 miles.

“If we launch our DF-31A ICBMs over the North Pole, we can easily destroy a whole list of metropolises on the East Coast and the New England region of the U.S., including Annapolis, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Portland, Baltimore, and Norfolk, whose population account accounts for about one eighth of America’s total residents,” Global Times stated.

For submarine-launched nuclear missiles, the Chinese plan to target key west coast cities.

“Because the Midwest states of the U.S. are sparsely populated, in order to increase the lethality, [our] nuclear attacks should mainly target the key cities on the West Coast of the United States, such as Seattle, Los Angles, San Francisco, and San Diego,” Global Times said.

One graphic showed eight warheads hitting Washington state and Oregon and the nuclear radiation spreading as far east as Chicago. Another map shows five nuclear warhead destruction radii in downtown Los Angeles.

The Chinese nuclear war stories were first disclosed by the Washington Times on Thursday.

Former State Department official and China hand John Tkacik said the threatening Chinese reports are “wholly orchestrated by the Central Propaganda Department for well-planned strategic purposes.”

“While there’s no doubt Beijing’s media coverage of China’s nuclear missile submarines is aimed at psyching out Washington, the real targets of this new nuclear propaganda are Japan, India, and the South China Sea states, all of which place heavy reliance on their relations with the United States in balancing China,” Tkacik said.

The failure to respond to the threats is undermining the confidence among U.S. allies and friends in Asia concerned with the American commitment to protecting Asia.

“These stories should be a fire bell in the night for Washington to step up America’s cooperation with allies in anti-submarine warfare.”

However, Beijing appears to be calculating that U.S. war weariness will lead to further slashed budgets for counter-nuclear programs, anti-submarine warfare, and missile defense, he said.

“Even with deliberately provocative articles like this series of reports on China’s nuclear missile submarines and targeting American cities, the general inclination inside the beltway is to treat China as a friend. I just don’t understand it,” Tkacik said.

Richard Fisher, a Chinese military affairs expert, also said the propaganda highlighting nuclear strikes on the United States appears part of Beijing’s calculated strategy to stoke nationalism and military worship in China.

The Global Times report, in particular, “is most provocative when it speculates about the possible damage that a JL-2 missile strike would cause against the West Coast of the United States.”

“Official and semi-official U.S. threat assessment publications usually are not so indelicate as to speculate on the potential for millions of Chinese or Russian deaths in a nuclear war,” Fisher said. “We usually leave that up to the imagination of their governments.”

One of the graphics published showed patrol areas southeast of Taiwan where new Type 094 ballistic missile submarines will conduct patrols.

Fisher said China’s large-scale Maneuver 5 war games last week included submarine, surface ship, and bomber exercises.

“Could the PLA Navy be starting to practice [missile submarine] operations to support the deployment of their nuclear missiles submarines [set to begin next year]?” Fisher said.

Fisher also said the nuclear war reports and estimates of killing Americans may be linked to Chinese pique at the United States over the late-night ABC comedy show “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” A recent unscripted segment on the show featured children answering questions and one boy suggested that the U.S. response to China should be to “kill all the Chinese.” ABC later apologized for the segment.

Also last week, China’s military released a feature-length film that accused the U.S. government of subverting China’s communist system and imposing American values.

The military film said the Pentagon was using military-to-military exchanges for those ends and to corrupt Chinese military officers who take part in the exchanges.

The film, titled “Silent Contest” also criticized western non-governmental groups, exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and Uighur human rights activist Rebyia Kadeer.

Groups singled out as subversive included the Carter Center, the Asia Foundation, the International Republican Institute and the Ford Foundation who are behind an “America’s cultural invasion” of China.

The New York Times first reported on the film Oct. 31

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Scandal as hundreds of MPs get energy bills paid on expenses to heat second homes

express_logo_poppy
 

Published: Sun, November 3, 2013            

SHAMELESS MPs have used taxpayers’ money to pay their energy bills while millions of Britons struggle to cope with rising costs

Nadhim Zahawi pictured here with David Cameron claimed over 5 000 in just one year

Nadhim Zahawi, pictured here with David Cameron, claimed over £5,000 in just one year [GETTY]   

An investigation by the Sunday Mirror has revealed that 340 MPs used their expenses to cover the cost of heating their second homes.

Nadhim Zahawi, a Tory millionaire, claimed £5,822 in just one year to power and heat his £1m constituency home.

The Stratford-upon-Avon MP also owns a £5m detached home in London.

To make matters worse he brags on his website of his achievements in improving “energy efficiency measures to homes and businesses” while serving on the Energy Bill Committee.

MPs, Heating bills, Energy crisis,

The news comes as the “Big Six” energy firms announce huge hikes in UK energy bills [GETTY]

The Conservative politician claimed back £4,557 for electricity and £1,265 in heating oil in the year to March.

Mr Zahawi and fellow MPs like International Development Minister Alan Duncan, who claimed back £2,750 for electricity bills and £1,250 for heating oil at his second home, are not in violation of any Commons rules.

However with millions of people up and down the UK struggling to cope with rising energy prices these revelations will be hugely damaging to the reputation of MPs involved.

Dave Prentis, from the UNISON union, told the Sunday Mirror: “It’s disgraceful that well-paid MPs should make these claims as thousands of families are struggling to pay to turn the oven on to cook dinner.

MPs, Heating bills, Energy crisis,

David Cameron and Ed Miliband have frequently clashed over the cost of energy bills [GETTY]

“These are the same hypocritical MPs who have failed to get a grip on soaring fuel and energy costs, rising food bills and pay freezes.

“But in the end it’s a moral decision down to them and their consciences.”

The battle over energy prices has been headline news ever since Labour leader Ed Miliband promised to instigate a 20-month prize freeze if Labour win the next general election.

Prime Minister David Cameron and his government have consistently branded the Labour policy a “price con” due to fears it would lead to the “Big Six” energy providers simply hiking their prices before and after the freeze was put in place.

Before the latest round of price hikes, the average energy bill for UK householders was a record £1,320.

Estimates suggest that figure will rise to £1,465 as the energy firms hikes come into effect.

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Why is it SO IMPORTANT to know where Obama was born and who his real father is?

Fukushima: There may be no more time

Intrepid Report.com

By Wayne Madsen

Posted on November 4, 2013

fukushima-daiichi-nuke-plantIn the movie classic “On the Beach,” the end scene shows a banner flapping in the breeze over a radioactive and dead Melbourne, Australia, proclaiming, “THERE IS STILL TIME . . BROTHER.

” For the people of the fictional Earth, there was no time left in Nevil Shute’s classic novel and Stanley Kramer’s epic film. And there may not be any time left for the people of the actual Earth if authoritative warnings about the dire effects of the Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Fukushima, Japan turn out to be correct.

Explosion from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Naoto Kan was the Prime Minister of Japan at the time of the now confirmed partial meltdowns of three nuclear reactors following the March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Kan assured the press that the evacuation order for a 20-mile radius around the stricken plant would be sufficient. However, Kan’s statement was based on assurances and reassurances from Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission that the evacuation zone was sufficient. It turned out that the commission was packed with shills for the nuclear plant operator, the politically-powerful Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). In addition, the powerful General Electric, the manufacturer of the nuclear reactors, mobilized its army of lobbyists and public relations flacks to pepper the broadcast and web media with propaganda and “sock puppet” comments on blogs posted by paid trolls criticizing any suggestions that Fukushima represented a major disaster.

Recently, Kan recently totally shed his past support for nuclear power by writing the following: “The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was the most severe accident in the history of mankind.” Kan revealed that the situation at Fukushima was more dire than what he reported to the media on March 25, 2010. Kan wrote: “At Unit 1, the fuel rods melted down in about five hours after the earthquake, and molten fuel breached and melted through the reactor pressure vessel. Meltdowns occurred in Units 2 and 3 within one hundred hours of the accident. At around the same time, hydrogen-air blasted in the reactor buildings of Units 1, 3 and 4.”

Kan, apologizing for his past support for nuclear power, admitted that he almost ordered the evacuation of 50 million Japanese from the Greater Tokyo region as a result of the multiple nuclear core meltdowns at Fukushima. Kan wrote: “Before the Fukushima accident, with the belief that no nuclear accident would happen as long as the safety measures were followed properly, I had pushed the policy of utilizing nuclear power. Having faced the real accident as Prime Minister, and having experienced the situation which came so close to requiring me to order the evacuation of 50 million people, my view is now changed 180 degrees.”

Kan, a member of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, is now opposed to nuclear power generation. Kan’s words are powerful. “The most severe accident in the history of mankind” are words not to be taken lightly. The current Liberal Democratic Party Prime Minister, the far right-wing Shinzō Abe, favors restarting Japan’s 54 working nuclear reactors, shut down in the wake of Fukushima. Abe is supported by multinational companies, including TEPCO and GE, that put profits ahead of people.

Abe is so far outside the mainstream on nuclear power in Japan that his own political mentor, former Liberal Democratic Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the Elvis Presley fan who maintained close ties to President George W. Bush, recently stunned an audience of Liberal Democratic Party faithful with the following speech:

“I wonder if human beings can really control nuclear energy. I have now become an advocate calling for zero nuclear plants and urge politicians to make that decision as quickly as possible.”

Like Kan, Koizumi made a 180 degree turn in announcing his opposition to nuclear power plants. It is obvious that these two former Japanese Prime Ministers of opposing political parties know something that has been slow to be conveyed to the general public. The world is in trouble as a result of the Fukushima melt downs. And it isn’t a question of there still being time left but how much time is left.

The debate over the Affordable Care Act in the United States may soon shift from whether one wants to participate or not to one of triaging medical care for those with short-term effects of terminal cancer from the effects of Fukushima radiation to those with medium- and long-term effects. If the worst-case scenarios play out, there will also be a debate over whether government or private health care plans will cover euthanasia for those who will die a painful death from the effects of airborne and seaborne radiation from Fukushima.

Although Prime Minister Kan doesn’t believe that the most critically-effected reactors at Fukushima have melted through the bottom containment vessel, other nuclear power specialists are not so sanguine. Dean Wilkie is a nuclear plant engineer at the Department of Energy’s Idago National Laboratory. In an interview with WERU-FM in Bangor, Maine on August 7, Wilkie said he believes some of the Fukushima reactors melted completely through the base of the reactor building and that highly radioactive water is saturating the ground soil.

Canadian nuclear expert Gordon Edwards concurs.

In an August 12 interview, Edwards stated that Units 1, 2, and 3 at Fukushima have either melted through the reactors’ buildings into the ground or are in the process of doing so.

This scenario sets up the “China Syndrome” popularized by another motion picture with the same name. The syndrome is that if cold water is not constantly pumped onto the molten cores, they will descend into the earth’s crust, creating a molten radioactive mass that will melt right down to our planet’s core and, eventually emerge on the other side of the Earth. In the “China Syndrome,” a melted down core in the United States was to have melted through to China.

But TEPCO is covertly pumping seawater from the Pacific Ocean to cool down the molten reactors. This highly-radioactive seawater is seeping back into the ocean.

map

The nuclear energy industry, led by Exelon, General Electric, Duke Energy, and Westinghouse, are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to place bogus news stories in the media and attack nuclear industry critics by playing down the adverse effects of the Fukushima disaster on the world’s population of humans and other living creatures. Those who warn of the dangerous after-effects of Fukushima are being referred to as doomsayers and kooks by the Brooks Brothers suit-clad PR flacks of Washington’s K Street and New York’s Madison Avenue.

The power of the nuke industry was on full display when it pressured the resignation of Gregory Jaczko as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission because of his criticism of his own agency for not fully appreciating the lessons of Fukushima. Appearing on a panel with Kan this past summer in California, Jaczko criticized the safety of the GE nuclear reactors sold by GE to TEPCO. Jaczko noted the GE reactors at Fukushima came from the U.S. and the disaster in Fukushima put to rest the notion that “severe accidents wouldn’t happen.”

The fact that President Barack Obama, who has received tons of campaign cash from Exelon, would not stand by his own NRC chairman, provides full evidence of the power of the nuke industry in framing the debate and defeating its opponents.

But the face savers for the nuclear industry cannot explain the complete reversals of two Japanese Prime Ministers from opposing political parties on nuclear power and Kan’s apocalyptic statement that Fukushima is the worst accident in the history of mankind.

And the nuclear energy apologists and paid shills cannot convince people to avoid Pacific Ocean seafood, including blue fin tuna caught off the U.S. west coast and seaweed, which are now registering high and unsafe levels of radiation. The nuclear industry lackeys are even pushing the inane meme that one receives more radiation from eating a banana than from eating Pacific seafood.

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Cheney unplugged

Intrepid Report.com

By Missy Comley Beattie

Posted on November 4, 2013

b2ff7-dick-cheneyI’ve said it often, written it: “How do they sleep at night?” Seriously, I’m sure I posed the question in plenty of articles during the Cheney-Bush reign and then after Barack Obama took the oath. How incredibly naïve I was.

After a year of “seeing” a sociopath, a man who charmed and lied his way into and through my life, I now know that those who lack empathy sleep just fine—unless they’re worried about their own interests. Totally self-focused, they have an insatiable need for attention. Conversations that veer away from them, towards anyone or anything else, must be redirected back to the center of the universe—the sociopath. For them, it’s “me, me, me, me, me.”

Consider Dick Cheney. Wherever he went, his mobile hospital followed. He must’ve loved all that assistance, service, sustenance. I can recall examples like this about my personality disordered “friend.” The time he slipped, fell, and cut his chin. The stitches. You’d have thought he’d survived a shark attack. Then when he got that bee sting, went into anaphylactic shock, and drove himself to the hospital, just in time. He loved talking about his troubles, his health, texting to report his blood glucose level most mornings. Whoa, it just occurred to me that these illustrations might have been fabrications. The man is incapable of honesty.

But back to Cheney, the architect of the War of Terror, enhanced interrogation (such an inventive euphemism), and NSA wiretapping—he’s been in the news this week. I admit to feeling a little satisfaction in knowing Cheney didn’t sleep well for a while in 2007. When he had the realization that someone, a “terrorist” perhaps might possibly tinker with his ticker. Might use a remote-control gadget on the defibrillator implanted in his chest, the little computer capable of shocking his cold, faltering heart to its proper rhythm if necessary. Yes, Cheney was aware that someone could reprogram the device, zap him. He’d seen it on TV, an episode of Homeland. It makes sense that he was frightened. Understanding that this could be executed and why it is not incompatible with an appreciation of and enthusiasm for torture, Cheney’s specialty—hypothermia, stress positions, waterboarding. “I signed off on it,” he’d said, about the “alternative set of procedures”—another euphemism.

Imagine the perspiration. Imagine the furtive glances, the hand, reaching up to pat the flaccid flesh concealing the apparatus. Could he trust anyone? Even his entourage? He’d shot Harry Whittington, an attorney who accompanied him on a quail hunt, for god’s sake. So many enemies, even in red states.

Cheney made a decision—to have the wireless feature disabled. Of course, this was risky. The wireless feature has a function. It alerts the doctor that something’s wrong, broken.

The probability of a security breach was blaring red though. I’m sure Cheney could feel it, like a thunderclap headache. He opted to disable the wireless feature, a decision the ordinary, well-liked individual never would have to make. Cheney wasn’t Mr. Popularity. Hell-bent on basking in his legacy of carnage, he HAD to eliminate the risk of a terror attack on his defibrillator. It was “me, me, me, the neocons/Zionists need me.” He’d profited handsomely from war and knew he’d be at the top of the heart transplant list with the snap of a threat. Color would return to his cheeks. He’d be himself again, snarling power. And he’d use this power to criticize Obama’s presidency even though he knew it would align with his/Bush’s. Eventually, he’d praise Obama for his drone program, one sociopath giving a nod to another.

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Obama brag, in new book: I’m ‘really good at killing people’ with drones

The Washington Times

By Cheryl K. Chumley

Monday, November 4, 2013

obama-us-pakistanjpeg-01536_s640x491President Obama was overheard bragging to administration aides about  his  ability to kill people with drones, a new book about the 2012  campaign season  that’s due for release on Tuesday claimed.

The president’s specific words: I’m “really good at killing people,”  authors  Mark Halperin and John  Heilemann write in “Double Down: Game  Change 2012,” The Daily Mail  reported. They get their claim from a  Washington Post report that buries the  statement as a brief anecdote in  an article, in which the president is  described as speaking to aides  about the drone program and then making the  claim.

The White House hasn’t responded to the  book — but a spokesman did  indicated on Sunday talk shows that the president  hates information  leaks.

“I haven’t talked to him about the book,” said adviser Dan  Pfeiffer  on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “I haven’t read it. He  hasn’t read it.  But he hates leaks.”

Mr. Obama’s reported statement comes at a time of increasing  criticism for  his use of drones in Pakistan and Yemen. The Bureau of  Investigative Journalism  in London reports that Mr. Obama has given  approval for 326 drone strikes. And  since 2004, drones have killed  between 2,500 and 3,600 — 950 of whom are  considered civilians, the  organization claims, The Daily Mail reported.

The White House says those figures are  incorrect, but has not released their own statistics.

The book’s claims are even more interesting when it’s remembered that  Mr.  Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his  “extraordinary efforts”  to bolster democracy around the world, The Daily  Mail said.

 

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Obama and Hillary Knew About Benghazi Attack Months In Advance; And Did Nothing

American Patriot

Posted by:

Posted date:  November 04, 2013

benghazi-blood-300x225Last week, on a special episode of 60 Minutes, CBS revealed that the Obama administration knew for months in advance that the attacks on Benghazi of last year were eminent, yet they still chose to do nothing.

Following is the transcript between CBS’s Lara Logan and U.S. Army Green Beret Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Andy Wood. Wood was one of the top American security officials in Libya. He was based in Tripoli and he met with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens every day. Ambassador Stephens and three other Americans were murdered in the attack. The conversation picks up after Wood tells Logan that the terrorists posted online that they were going to attack the Red Cross, then the British, and then the Americans at Benghazi.

Andy Wood: We had one option: “Leave Benghazi or you will be killed.”

Lara Logan: And you watched as they–

Andy Wood: As they did each one of those.

Lara Logan: –attacked the Red Cross and the British mission. And the only ones left–

Andy Wood: Were us. They made good on two out of the three promises. It was a matter of time till they captured the third one.

Lara Logan: And Washington was aware of that?

Andy Wood: They knew we monitored it. We included that in our reports to both State Department and DOD. I made it known in a country team meeting, “You are gonna get attacked. You are gonna get attacked in Benghazi. It’s gonna happen. You need to change your security profile. Shut down operations. Move out temporarily. Ch– or change locations within the city. Do something to break up the profile because you are being targeted. They are– they are– they are watching you. The attack cycle is such that they’re in the final planning stages.”

Lara Logan: Wait a minute, you said, “They’re in the final planning stages of an attack on the American mission in Benghazi”?

Andy Wood: It was apparent to me that that was the case. Reading, reading all these other, ah, attacks that were occurring, I could see what they were staging up to, it was, it was obvious.

We have learned the U.S. already knew that this man, senior al Qaeda leader Abu Anas al-Libi was in Libya, tasked by the head of al Qaeda to establish a clandestine terrorist network inside the country. Al-Libi was already wanted for his role in bombing two U.S. embassies in Africa.

So there you have it. Proof, straight from the mouth of a man in charge of security. Obama and Hillary Clinton knew the attack was imminent, yet they still chose to do nothing.

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Your Rights to Record the Police – (Without Their Say So)

October 20, 2013

Always-Video-The-Police

If you are ever stopped or spoken to by the police; if they pay a visit to your home, detain you on the street or interact with you in any way, it is YOUR RIGHT to video record them for your own protection.

In fact, even if they do not speak to you and yet you see them in a public or private place, you have the RIGHT to capture their actions on camera.

The police are fully aware that the public have the right to record them on duty. However this does not stop many of them from using threats, intimidation and even assault until innocent members of the public agree to shut off their cameras.

What should you do if you wish to record the police but the officers concerned become hostile and threatening?

Understanding your rights, and communicating them is essential to ensure that the police do not unlawfully stop you from recording and that you can secure a permanent record of events should you later need it for a legal defence or to make an official complaint against the officers concerned.

Below we have compiled a Q&A of the most frequently encountered issues when recording the police.

We would recommend that you bookmark this page on so you have quick access to it on a mobile device, should you need to show it to any officer who is trying to prevent you from filming.

 

DO I NEED A POLICE OFFICER’S PERMISSION TO RECORD OR PHOTOGRAPH THEM?

No. In fact, you do not require ANY member of the public’s permission to record or film then in a public place. If this were the case, then Paparazzi would not even exist.

There is no law that says you cannot record someone in a public place without their permission., and you do not require any permit to do so.

 

DO I NEED TO GIVE A POLICE OFFICER A REASON AS TO WHY I AM FILMING THEM?

If a police officer approaches you and asks why you are filming, you are NOT obliged to answer them. You do not have to tell them who you are or what you are doing. If asked, you should only tell them that you have every right to record the police for your own personal records, and that if they obstruct you from doing so you will pursue a misconduct charge against them.

 

CAN THE POLICE ASK TO SEE WHAT IT IS I HAVE PHOTOGRAPHED OR RECORDED AND IF SO, CAN THEY DELETE ANY OF THE INFORMATION?

No they cannot. They would need a warrant under RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) to access the contents of your device – and would have to arrest you to obtain one.

If an officer asks to see what you have recorded or photographed, tell them that they have no authority to make such a request and if they wish to examine the device they should obtain the necessary warrant.

Any officer attempting to delete recordings or photographs from a device is committing a criminal offence, as this constitutes the destruction of evidence. Remind the officer (or security guard) that such an action could result in serious charges being brought against them.

 

WHAT DO I DO IF THE POLICE THREATEN TO TAKE MY CAMERA OR PUT THEIR HAND UP TO THE LENS?

Tell them that if they continue to obstruct you, then you will make an official complaint of misconduct against them. Tell them that you will report them for harassment, intimidation and assault. Further your threats by insisting that any misconduct charges that may be dismissed by their superiors will be furthered in a civil court.

Any police officer that manhandles you or your camera, uses threatening language or intimidation is acting unlawfully. If they force you to stop recording against your will, and you are not under arrest, then you should take a note of the officers collar number and name, contact the Professional Standards Department of the relevant police force and pursue a complaint against them.

 

WHAT IF THE POLICE ARGUE THAT I AM INFRINGING THEIR RIGHTS BY RECORDING THEM?

The British Police are public servants and should expect to be placed under more scrutiny than any passing member of the public. However police officers commonly make outlandish claims of breached rights when trying to convince a member of the public to stop filming them.

Do the police object to the thousands of CCTV cameras that scrutinise us daily, without our permission or knowledge? Of course they do not. And yet there is no difference between you recording members of the public with a mobile phone and local authorities recording us all with CCTV.

If you hear an officer complaining that “you are infringing their human rights”, “acting suspicious” or “harassing them”, do not allow it to intimidate you into switching off your camera. A police officer claiming he is being harassed whilst performing his duties is like a dustman complaining of a bad smell.

Police officers often make unreasonable and unlawful demands of the public simply because they are used to people doing EXACTLY what they are told, regardless. Like most bullies, the police often back down when stood up to.

Stand your ground.

 

THE POLICE TELL ME IF I DON’T STOP FILMING THEY CAN SEARCH AND ARREST ME UNDER THE ANTI-TERRORISM ACT, IS THS TRUE?

Next to the Public Order Act, the Anti-Terrorism Act is the most abused piece of legislation when it comes to the police using threats of arrest to force people to comply with unlawful commands. Fortunately, Section 44 of the Terrorism Act – which allowed officers to stop and search without any reasonable suspicion – was repealed and no longer applies.

The police now need very good reason to suspect that your actions are linked to terrorism before they can search you or arrest you. Your refusal to stop recording them when asked IS NOT a valid reason.

Most importantly, your refusal to tell them what you are recording, or to refrain from filming cannot be used in itself as reason to search or arrest you, under the guise of “acting suspiciously.” However, this does not stop scores of bullying cops from unlawfully harassing members of the public until they surrender to the police officers will.

If this should happen to you then you have strong cause to sue the police for unlawful detention or unlawful arrest.

 

WHAT IF THEY THREATEN ME WITH OBSTRUCTION, INTIMIDATION OR HARASSMENT?

As long as you are not obstructing an officer from performing his duties, blocking a public right of way, following people against their will or just generally causing a public nuisance, then the police have no grounds to move you on.

A common tactic used by police is to claim that ‘members of the public’ have been complaining and feeling intimidated. If the police make such a claim you should ask them for the incident number that was logged when such members of the public called in. The police are required to give it to you when asked.

If they do not, you can be certain that the police are lying. Make a note of their collar numbers and complain about them, or at the very least insist that you will make a complaint if they do not leave you alone.

Remember, the general rule with the police is that they expect people to be ignorant of the law and to automatically do as they are told, regardless.

DON’T MAKE IT YOU.

 

IS THERE ANY OFFICIAL POLICY ON RECORDING THE POLICE I CAN SHOW TO THEM?

Yes. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) issued a nationwide memo which laid out guidelines to officers on the rights of members of the public to record them. Should you find yourself in a situation where the police argue against your right, then use this as your trump card:-

26 August 2010

Dear Colleagues

Guidance for Photographers

I am writing to you in my capacity as Chair of the ACPO Communications Advisory Group which sits in the Presidential Business Area.

There have been a number of recent instances highlighted in the press where officers have detained photographers and deleted images from their cameras. I seek your support in reminding your officers and staff that they should not prevent anyone from taking photographs in public. This applies equally to members of the media and public seeking to record images, who do not need a permit to photograph or film in public places. ACPO guidance is as follows:

• There are no powers prohibiting the taking of photographs, film or digital images in a public place. Therefore members of the public and press should not be prevented from doing so. • We need to cooperate with the media and amateur photographers. They play a vital role as their images help us identify criminals. • We must acknowledge that citizen journalism is a feature of modern life and police officers are now photographed and filmed more than ever. • Unnecessarily restricting photography, whether for the casual tourist or professional is unacceptable and it undermines public confidence in the police service. • Once an image has been recorded, the police have no power to delete or confiscate it without a court order.

If you require further guidance please refer to the ACPO website or contact my Staff Officer Robin Edwards atrobin.edwards@btp.pnn.police.uk.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Trotter Chief Constable Chair of ACPO Communication Advisory Group

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3 Alternative Solutions for Multiple Sclerosis Mainstream Medicine Refuses to Consider

Paul Fassa

by
November 2nd, 2013

multiple_sclerosis-263x170Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease that directly affects the  central nervous system and limits one’s ability to use the body – all while  coping with odd sensations and pains. Unfortunately very much like the Cancer  Industry, the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) and its  fundraising network the National Multiple Sclerosis Society collects  donations to find the “cure” while ignoring several existing natural  treatments.

They are shilling for Big Pharma and the AMA to make sure MS remains  “incurable” with prolonged ineffective costly “treatments”. But as mentioned, a  number of natural  treatments for multiple sclerosis do exist, from upping  vitamin D intake to utilizing  the oh-so-terrible plant marijuana.

Here are 3 more alternative solutions for MS.

1) Dr. Terry Wahls and Her Nutritional Self-Recovery Story

Dr. Wahls was a very active female martial arts athlete who later became a  physician with a family. Then she was diagnosed with progressive MS, which lived  up to its name by getting worse, despite of the expert mainstream medical  treatment she received.

Around the time she was almost completely disabled, she decided to research  on her own, using the internet. She realized that the mitochondria  in her cells, especially in the brain and nervous system, were damaged from lack  of nutrition. She started supplementing accordingly and got positive  results.

But that wasn’t enough. She decided to research more to determine which  nutrients were in which foods and created a complete dietary approach to help  her recover from MS. She had anticipated that there were other nutrients within  a whole food approach to improve her health even more. Witness  her TED talk here.

2) A Different Version of the Same Fundamental Philosophy

Donna McFarland found her MS solutions with an obscure, marginalized  physician in Oregon, Dr. Roy Swank, MD, Ph.D, the head of neurology at the  Oregon Health Sciences University.

Dr. Swank’s decades-old commitment to reversing MS had led to nutritional  solutions. From this new doctor/patient relationship, Donna did reverse her MS  to lead a normal life, as Dr. Swank had promised.

After Dr. Swank passed away at 98 years of age, Donna got involved with  another doctor using Dr. Swank’s nutritional philosophy. Dr. John McDougal had  even met Dr. Swank before he passed away, and he started his own Health  and Medical Clinic based on nutrition for all diseases and ailments.

3) The Orthomolecular Approach

Andrew Saul, Ph.D, is the editor of the Orthomolecular Medicine News  Service and author of several books including Doctor Yourself and  Fire Your Doctor. He offers a short MS tale  from his experience.

Orthomolecular medicine was initiated primarily by Linus Pauling, the  unde-appreciated, often medical mafia-maligned biochemist who championed vitamin  C. Orthomolecular medicine does champion vitamin C mega-dosing by IV as well as  many other supplements.

Take advantage of Andrew Saul’s offer, a free download of an orthomolecular  guide for several diseases, including MS, written from clinical experiences by  orthomolecular pioneer Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. here.

Nutritional approaches have slight variations, but the essential fact  remains: you don’t need toxic chemicals and harsh surgeries to treat  most diseases. While not nearly as pricey as most mainstream  procedures, mega-dose IV C is difficult to find, and is usually not  covered by insurance.

However, you can easily approximate mega-dose IV C with a relatively  inexpensive unique new oral system, liposomal C. Find  out more about that here. When you get to the Alan Smith story section in  that article, click the blue embedded hyperlink words “that presentation” and be  amazed.

 

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Prosecutor: Hacking Reporters Targeted UK Princes

Associated Press

by Jill Lawless

Nov 02, 2013

87-19mX68_AuSt_55LONDON – A prosecutor gave jurors juicy details of tabloid misbehavior at Britain’s phone hacking trial on Friday, describing how journalists targeted celebrities, government ministers and even Princes William and Harry.

The never-ending demand for royal stories at Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids led employees to hack voicemail messages left by the princes, target senior aides and pay thousands of pounds for a photo of Prince William in a bikini, prosecutor Andrew Edis said.

Journalists at Murdoch’s News of the World routinely used phone hacking to back up tips and find evidence for stories, he said – using a “perfectly rational but entirely illegal system.”

In three days of opening statements, Edis has taken the jury at London’s Central Criminal Court on a methodical journey through the “dog-eat-dog” tabloid battle for scoops.

Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, both 45; Brooks’ husband Charles and five former staff of Murdoch’s British newspapers are on trial in the first major criminal case spawned by the revelation in 2011 that employees of the tabloid eavesdropped on the voice mails of celebrities, politicians, top athletes and even crime victims.

The eight defendants deny a variety of allegations related to phone hacking, bribing officials and obstructing a police inquiry.

Coulson and Brooks have said they were not aware that hacking was going on when they were in charge of the News of the World – she from 2000 to 2003 and he between 2003 and 2007.

But prosecutors say they and other senior staff must have known that illegal activity was taking place at the popular paper.

Edis said one email from Coulson to a subordinate, referring to hacking target Calum Best – a minor celebrity and son of the late soccer star George Best – contained the instruction: “Do his phone.”

Other targets, the prosecutor said, included actors Jude Law and Sienna Miller; Paul McCartney and his then-wife, Heather Mills; politicians Tessa Jowell, John Prescott and David Blunkett; and aides to royals William and Harry.

One message left by Harry for his private secretary asking for help on an essay while he was a cadet at Sandhurst military academy in 2005 was hacked by Glenn Mulcaire, a private eye working for the News of the World.

In the transcript, Harry asked for information on a 1980 siege at the Iranian embassy in London, “because I need to write an essay quite quickly on that but I need some extra info. Please, please email it to me or text me.”

The resulting News of the World story was headlined “Harry’s aide helps out on Sandhurst exams.”

Royal exclusives were a News of the World specialty during Coulson’s tenure. Edis said he was “a very hands-on editor … interested in getting good, exclusive royal stories.”

Coulson is charged, in addition to phone hacking, with agreeing to pay palace police officers for two private royal phone directories. Some of the numbers in the phone books were then hacked, Edis said.

Prosecutors say Brooks, too, was hands-on, both at the News of the World and at The Sun, which she edited between 2003 and 2009. Among the charges against her is that she paid a member of the armed forces and a senior defense official tens of thousands of pounds for stories – including a 4,000-pound payment for a picture of William “dressed as a Bond girl” in a bikini, the prosecutor said.

Friends and families of celebrities were targeted, Edis said, and sometimes people were even caught up at random. A hairdresser named Laura Rooney was hacked “because they thought she was related to Wayne Rooney,” the Manchester United soccer star. She wasn’t.

Private eye Mulcaire and News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman were both briefly jailed in 2007 for hacking the phones of William and Harry’s aides, but Murdoch’s company insisted the law-breaking had been limited to the pair.

That claim dissolved when a rival newspaper reported in 2011 that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the phone of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old kidnapped in 2002 and later found murdered.

The public outcry led Murdoch to shut down the 168-year-old paper and pay out millions in compensation to hacking victims. It also spawned criminal investigations in which dozens of journalists and officials have been arrested.

It has heaped pressure on Britain’s freewheeling press – and on Prime Minister David Cameron, who had close ties to both Brooks, his friend, and Coulson, his communications chief between 2007 and 2011.

The trial’s bombshell revelation so far has been that Brooks and Coulson had a secret affair lasting at least six years and covering much of the alleged hacking time period.

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