The Morning Roar: Wikileaks Names U.S. Cellphone Spy Target, Obama Close To Authorizing Military Training of Syrian Rebels, Texas State Trooper Pleads Guilty in Cavity Search Case
Welcome to your Wednesday edition of The Morning Roar!WikiLeaks Names Afghanistan As U.S. Cellphone Spy TargetLast week at The Intercept, in a story from Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras of Edward Snowden fame, it was reported that the U.S. was recording the full contents of ever single cell phone call to, from, and within the Bahamas. In that story, it was also mentioned that there was "one other country" in which this was occurring, but the Intercept declined to name that country due to "specific, credible concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence."Not to be outdone by their fellow document-leakers, Wikileaks responded by promising to reveal that country within 72 hours, and they have done just that, naming Afghanistan as the "country X" in question. The statement from Wikileaks:
The National Security Agency has been recording and storing nearly all the domestic (and international) phone calls from two or more target countries as of 2013. Both the Washington Post and The Intercept (based in the US and published by eBay chairman Pierre Omidyar) have censored the name of one of the victim states, which the latter publication refers to as country “X”.Both the Washington Post and The Intercept stated that they had censored the name of the victim country at the request of the US government. Such censorship strips a nation of its right to self-determination on a matter which affects its whole population. An ongoing crime of mass espionage is being committed against the victim state and its population. By denying an entire population the knowledge of its own victimisation, this act of censorship denies each individual in that country the opportunity to seek an effective remedy, whether in international courts, or elsewhere. Pre-notification to the perpetrating authorities also permits the erasure of evidence which could be used in a successful criminal prosecution, civil claim, or other investigations.
It must be difficult to have the kinds of documents that Greenwald and Poitras received from Edward Snowden, and be faced with the task of deciding what information to unveil and when. Surely, the revelation that the cellphone calls of every single Afghani are being recorded is not going to help the already tenuous relationship that U.S. troops have with the citizens of that country. The occupation of Afghanistan, unsurprisingly, is rather unpopular with the majority of the people within that country, and this will certainly do no favors to troops on the ground.At the same time, if a journalistic aim is for truth, and you have two countries where literally the entire population is being spied upon in horrendously egregious manner, how can one pick and choose which country gets to find out about it? I have no reason to believe that Greenwald and his associates have any intention of protecting the U.S. government, that much is clear from the countless documents that have been released in relation to NSA spying. But in this instance, the editorial staff of The Intercept favored the side of "playing it safe" over relentless pursuit of the truth. Let's hope this is an isolated incident and not a sign of things to come at The Intercept. Sadly, listening to cellphone calls is probably still the least of U.S. offenses in that country. To this day there are constant roadside bombings, drone attacks, and other assorted violence related to the occupation of Afghanistan. The United States should not only cease it's spying operations, but remove it's troops from that country all together, once and for all. Obama Close To Authorizing Military Training of Syrian RebelsOn the subject of the U.S. Empire spreading its tentacles where they don't belong, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that President Obama is "close" to authorizing the training of Syrian rebels by the U.S. military. The article whimsically states that:
A new military training program, if implemented, would supplement a small train-and-equip program led by the Central Intelligence Agency that Mr. Obama authorized a year ago. U.S. officials don't discuss the CIA's limited training program because it is covert.In a commencement address at the United States Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday, officials said Mr. Obama will signal backing for the new training effort by saying he intends to increase support to the armed opposition to fight the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including by providing them with training.Mr. Obama isn't expected to provide details about how, or where, that training would be done.
You know the old saying "If you can't bomb 'em, train-and-equip 'em." After a failed attempt to rally the U.S. public last year to support a full-scale military intervention in Syria, the Obama Administration has been openly (yet covertly!) intervening anyway through support of the Syrian rebels against the Assad regime.Considering that even the United Nations has accused the Syrian rebels of committing war crimes on a massive scale, it's hard to make an argument that the Syrian rebels are anything but the worst kind of terrorists out there. Beheadings, mutilations, terror campaigns, you name it!With Obama's open support for known terrorists, I have to ponder once again the question I asked last year, "Should President Obama Be Indefinitely Detained?"Texas State Trooper Pleads Guilty in Cavity Search CaseTwo years ago, a Texas state trooper was accused of sexual assault by two victims who claimed the trooper gave them a roadside cavity search - a 4th amendment violation of the most grotesque kind. The facts seemed firmly on the side of the accusers, as the trooper's own car video captured the entire incident. Warning: This may be disturbing to some (and it should be to all).A small amount of justice was done in this case, as the officer has plead guilty to criminal charges. CBS Dallas / Forth Worth reports:
Kelly Helleson, 34, admitted that she is guilty of two charges of official oppression. As part of her deal with the Dallas County District Attorney’s office, prosecutors dropped sexual assault charges against her.
In a more just system, the victim would be the one to decide whether a charge would be "dropped" against someone, not some third-party prosecutor that wasn't a victim of any crime in the first place. But at the very least, Ms. Helleson will be off the street, and hopefully keeping her hands out of the cavities of everyday citizens.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
