THIS WEEK IN REVIEW
THIS WEEK IN REVIEW
Nevada/Idaho border: Two drug traffickers who were moving 20-pounds of marijuana from Las Vegas to Montana sampled their wares on the way and became paranoid. Convinced that they already had been spotted by police, they decided to end the imaginary pursuit by pulling off the road and calling 911 to turn themselves in. You can hear the incredible 911 phone call here. Fox News 2016 Jan 22 (Story)
Davos, Switzerland: UN Leader Ban Ki-Moon, speaking at the World Economic Forum, urged nations to adopt the Paris climate treaty. Laurent Fabius, the French Foreign Minister, said that adopting the climate treaty was a necessary first step before it would be possible to address other issues, such as national security and war. EuroNews 2016 Jan 21 (Story)
London: A British inquiry concluded that Russian President Putin ‘probably’ ordered the 2006 assassination of former KGB spy, Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium-210, a radioactive element that was added to his tea. Litvinenko had accused Putin of engineering a false-flag terrorist attack on an apartment building in order to gain public acceptance of increasing government power. Litvinenko also said that Putin was a pedophile. The Russian government says the inquiry is merely a political attack to discredit its leader. CNN 2016 Jan 21 (Story)
US: The day after Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for President, her 26-year old son was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a woman and carrying a gun while intoxicated. Palin then criticized the current administration for not taking better care of its veterans. Obama responded with criticism of Palin for taking domestic violence lightly, etcetera. Reuters 2016 Jan 21 (Story) (Cached)
Lead contamination of the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, has triggered a classic example of politicians and bureaucrats scrambling to escape responsibility. Governor Rick Snyder provided hundreds of pages of emails to prove that the responsibility rests with the county and city, but the former mayor says a full year of emails is missing and that crucial communications with state, county and city officials have been omitted. CBS News 2016 Jan 21 (Story)
Michigan: Contamination of the Flint River may be responsible for the deaths of ten people who succumbed to Legionnaire’s disease during 2014 and 2015. PrisonPlanet 2016 Jan 21 (Story)
Palestinians are planning to appeal to the UN to prevent Israel from confiscating 380 acres of agricultural land from the West Bank. The US has condemned Israel’s plan. Euronews 2016 Jan 21 (Story)
The price of oil has slumped to a 12-year low and now is almost half the price of milk. Crude oil is 62¢ per gallon, and milk is $1.18 per gallon. NextNewsNetwork 2016 Jan 21 (Story)
The US Drug Enforcement Agency recruited a TSA bag-checker to help seize cash from passengers’ luggage, promising the agent a ‘cut of the proceeds’. This legalized theft, called a Civil Asset Forfeiture, allows thieves in uniform to steal cash, cars, jewelry, and even houses without obtaining a conviction or even charging the owner with a crime. Huff Post 2016 Jan 20 (Story) (Cached)
Mexico: A .50-caliber rifle, powerful enough to take down a helicopter, was found at Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in Mexico. The serial number showed that it was one of many such weapons knowingly sold to Mexican drug cartels by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in an operation known as Fast and Furious. Numerous murders have been traced to this program, but the officials responsible have not been held responsible. Truth In Media 2016 Jan 20 (Story) (Cached)
Saudi Arabia and China signed a memorandum of understanding to build a high energy nuclear reactor that will use gas instead of water for cooling. Gulf News 2016 Jan 19 (Story) (Cached)
US: Fearz is a hacker with the so-called teen hacking group ‘Crackas With Attitude’ which is infamous for breaking into government-employee email accounts. Fearz recently broke into the account of White House Science Adviser John Holdren and pulled a prank that re-routed all of Holdren’s telephone calls to the Free Palestine Movement. [We suspect that CWA likely is a group of sophisticated hackers embedded in the CIA or NSA that specializes in keeping government employees in line with not-so subtle warnings that they are constantly being monitored. Also, news stories of hacking into government systems are helpful in creating public enthusiasm for more government power over the Internet, supposedly to prevent hacking.] InfoWars 2016 Jan 19 (Story) (Cached)
Nigeria: The Information Minister says that 55 people, including former governors, Cabinet ministers and bankers have stolen $9-billion dollars from Nigeria’s treasury. More than $2 billion was diverted into the campaign chest of former President Goodluck Jonathan who lost the election. The new president Muhammadu Buhari, who once was the country’s military dictator, vows to end corruption, but critics say that is merely rhetoric to gain political power. AP 2016 Jan 18 (Story) (Cached)
Burkina Faso, a small country in West Africa, was the scene of another terrorist attack by members of al-Qaeda. Four terrorists, including two women, were killed after they murdered at least 23 people during a 12-hour siege near a hotel that caters to Westerners. EuroNews 2016 Jan 18 (Story)
One of the five missing Hong Kong bookstore employees who were critical of the Chinese government appeared on Chinese television. He said that he voluntarily went to China so he could visit his aging mother. He asked the Hong Kong protesters and the Swedish government to stop trying to save him, but his voice and facial expressions betray that he is under duress. CNN 2016 Jan 17 (Story)
Donald Trump called Ted Cruz a ‘hypocrite’ for hiding two loans each worth $500,000, one from Goldman Sachs and one from Citibank. Trump says that Cruz wants to hide the fact that now he is owned by the big banks. The Hill 2016 Jan 16 (Story) (Cached)
Shocker! An American chicken farmer, Craig Watts, blows the barn doors off the chicken industry. He shows that chicken coops are loaded with unhealthy bacteria, and that the birds would die if they didn’t receive antibiotics – in spite of the fact that labels claim they are antibiotic free. So-called cage-free chickens are crammed together so closely in large pens that it is even worse than being in cages. Watts says the FDA does not monitor these things, and that the industry writes its own rules. RT 2016 Jan 16 (Story)
US: The government has confirmed that GMOs are contaminating alfalfa, a perennial plant, exactly as predicted by critics years ago. Researchers found that 27% of fields tested in California, Washington, and Idaho were contaminated by GMO seeds. It is now unlikely that this can ever be reversed. Natural Society 2016 Jan 16 (Story) (Cached)
A recently released email from Hillary Clinton’s private server reveals the Western attack against Libya was launched primarily to thwart President Gaddafi’s plans to establish a united African currency backed by gold and by a desire to control the region’s oil. ZeroHedge posted 2016 Jan 16 (Story) (Cached)