General Electric Pays No US Taxes, CIA Director's Approval of Tape Destruction, More

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Key News: General Electric Pays No US Taxes, CIA Director's

Approval of Tape Destruction, More

 

 

 

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:08:24 +0200

 

 

 

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Dear

friends,

Below

are key excerpts of important news articles which include revealing

information on General Electric and other large corporations paying no

US taxes, the approval by CIA Director Porter Goss of the destruction

of tapes revealing torture of detainees, the new, more deadly "Obama

Doctrine" of kill rather than capture, and more. Each excerpt is taken

verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If

any link fails to function, The most important sentences

are highlighted for those with limited time. By choosing to

educate ourselves

and to spread the word, we can and will build a brighter future.

With

best wishes,

Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team

Special

note: To watch a rich 22-minute interview of Fred Burks

discussing government mind control programs and global transformation, For a fascinating article presenting

evidence that many medical procedures are much less effective than is

generally believed,

 

 

 

 

How can it be that you pay more to the IRS

than General Electric?

April 1, 2010, Forbes magazine

http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corporate-taxes.html

Some

of the world's biggest, most profitable corporations enjoy a far lower

tax rate than you do--that is, if they pay taxes at all. The most

egregious example is General Electric. Last year the conglomerate

generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to

Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion. How did

this happen? It's complicated. GE in effect consists of two divisions:

General Electric Capital and everything else. The everything

else--maker of engines, power plants, TV shows and the like--would have

paid a 22% tax rate if it was a standalone company. It's GE Capital

that keeps the overall tax bill so low. Over the last two years, GE

Capital has displayed an uncanny ability to lose lots of money in the

U.S. (posting a $6.5 billion loss in 2009), and make lots of money

overseas (a $4.3 billion gain). Not only do the U.S. losses balance out

the overseas gains, but GE can defer taxes on that overseas income

indefinitely. The timing of big deductions for depreciation in

GE Capital's equipment leasing business also provides a tax benefit, as

will loan losses left over from the credit crunch. But it's the tax

benefit of overseas operations that is the biggest reason why

multinationals end up with lower tax rates than the rest of us.

Note:

Can you believe that GE not only pays no taxes, they actually get

credit from the US government? For a wealth of reports from

media sources on the hidden manipulations of major financial

corporations,

 

 

 

 

C.I.A. Document Details Destruction of

Tapes

April 16, 2010, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/16tapes.html

Porter

J. Goss, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in

2005 approved of the decision by one of his top aides to destroy dozens

of videotapes documenting the brutal interrogation of two detainees,

according to an internal C.I.A. document released [on April 15]. Shortly

after the tapes were destroyed at the order of Jose A. Rodriguez Jr.,

then the head of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service, Mr. Goss told Mr.

Rodriguez that he “agreed†with the decision, according to the

document. He even joked after Mr. Rodriguez offered to “take the heatâ€

for destroying the tapes. “PG laughed and said that actually,

it would be he, PG, who would take the heat,†according to one

document. A number of documents released Thursday provide the most

detailed glimpse yet of the deliberations inside the C.I.A. surrounding

the destroyed tapes, and of the concern among officials at the spy

agency that the decision might put the C.I.A. in legal jeopardy. The

documents detailing those deliberations, including two e-mail messages

from a C.I.A. official whose name has been excised, were released as

part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. According to one

of the e-mail messages released Thursday, Mr. Rodriguez told Mr. Goss

that the tapes ... would make the C.I.A. “look terrible; it would be

devastating to us.â€

Note:

For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror",

 

 

 

 

Whistleblowers on US ‘massacre’ fear CIA

stalkers

April 11, 2010, The Times

(One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7094234.ece

Activists

behind a website dedicated to revealing secret documents have

complained of harassment by police and intelligence services as they

prepare to release a video showing an American attack in which 97

civilians were killed in Afghanistan. Julian Assange, one of the

founders of Wikileaks, has claimed that a restaurant where the

group met in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, came under surveillance

in March and one of the group’s volunteers was detained for 21 hours by

police. Assange, an Australian, says he was followed on a flight from

Reykjavik to Copenhagen by two American agents. The group has riled

governments by publishing documents leaked by whistleblowers. Assange

claims surveillance has intensified as he and his colleagues prepare to

put out their Afghan film. It is said to concern the so-called “Granai

massacreâ€, when American aircraft dropped 500lb and 1,000lb bombs ...

in Farah province on May 4 last year. Assange complained of

“covert following and hidden photography†by police and foreign

intelligence services. There have been thinly veiled threats, he says,

from “an apparent British intelligence agent†in a car park in

Luxembourg. “Computers were also seized,†another member of Wikileaks

said ..., raising alarm among supporters: “If anything happens to us,

you know why ... and you know who is responsible.â€

Note:

It's not surprising that US intelligence agencies are intimidating

Wikileaks activists reporting on the atrocities committed in the wars

of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As explained by Marine Corps General Smedley Butler in this excellent summary, modern US wars are the ruling

elite's "get rich quick" scheme, and they don't want you to know.

 

 

 

 

Banks Making Big Profits From Tiny Loans

April 14, 2010, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/world/14microfinance.html

In

recent years, the idea of giving small loans to poor people became the

darling of the development world, hailed as the long elusive formula to

propel even the most destitute into better lives. Actors like Natalie

Portman and Michael Douglas lent their boldface names to the cause. Muhammad Yunus, the economist who pioneered the

practice by lending small amounts to basket weavers in Bangladesh, won

a Nobel Peace Prize for it in 2006. The idea even got its very own

United Nations year in 2005. But the phenomenon has grown so popular

that some of its biggest proponents are now wringing their hands over

the direction it has taken. Drawn by the prospect of hefty profits from

even the smallest of loans, a raft of banks and financial institutions

now dominate the field, with some charging interest rates of 100

percent or more. “We created microcredit to fight the loan

sharks; we didn’t create microcredit to encourage new loan sharks,†Mr.

Yunus recently said at a gathering of financial officials at the United

Nations. “Microcredit should be seen as an opportunity to help people

get out of poverty in a business way, but not as an opportunity to make

money out of poor people.†The noisy interest rate fight has

even attracted Congressional scrutiny, with the House Financial

Services Committee holding hearings this year focused in part on

whether some microcredit institutions are scamming the poor.

Note:

An excellent introduction to the power of microloans to pull people out

of poverty is available here. For key news reports on the

exciting prospects of microlending,

 

 

 

 

Spying, Civil Liberties and the Courts

April 16, 2010, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/opinion/16fri2.html

 

Succumbing to the politics of fear during the 2008 campaign, Congress

seriously diluted the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Americans by

changing the 1978 law that governs electronic surveillance. In addition

to supplying retroactive approval for President George W. Bush’s

warrantless wiretapping, the FISA Amendments Act vastly expanded the

government’s ability to eavesdrop without warrants in the future. It

gave the National Security Agency authority to monitor the

international phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans who are not

engaged in criminal activity and pose no threat to national security.

The measure weakened judicial supervision of how these powers are

exercised, making abuse far more likely. An important case

being argued [April 16] in New York City will help determine the extent

of the damage. At issue is a constitutional challenge to the 2008 law

filed on behalf of human rights, labor, legal, and news media

organizations whose work requires sensitive telephone and e-mail

communication with people abroad. Embracing the Bush administration’s

approach, the Obama administration has sought to block the suit,

contending that the plaintiffs lack the requisite “standing†to bring

the challenge because they cannot show with certainty that they have

been spied on. (Of course, any attempt to prove spying would likely be

met by a flimsy claim of state secrecy.)

Note:

For lots more from reliable sources on government threats to civil

liberties,

 

 

 

 

The 'Obama doctrine': kill, don't detain

April 11, 2010, The Guardian

(One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/apr/11/obama-national-security-drone-guantanamo

Extrajudicial

killings and targeted assassinations will soon become the main point of

contention that Obama's administration will need to justify. The

extensive use of drones under Obama have taken the death count well

beyond anything that has been seen before. The legal justifications put

forward by [the Obama administration] are reminiscent of the arguments

that were used by John Yoo and others in their bid to lend legitimacy

to unlawful practices such as rendition, arbitrary detention and

torture. The laws of war do not allow for the targeting of

individuals outside of the conflict zone, and yet we now find that

extrajudicial killings are taking place in countries as far apart as

Yemen, the Horn of Africa and Pakistan. From a legal and moral

perspective, the rationale provided by the State Department is bankrupt

and only reinforces the stereotype that the US has very little concern

for its own principles. The hope that came with the election of Barack

Obama has faded as his policies have indicated nothing more than a

reconfiguration of the basic tenet of the Bush Doctrine – that the US's

national security interests supersede any consideration of due process

or the rule of law. The only difference – witness the rising civilian

body count from drone attacks – being that Obama's doctrine is even

more deadly.

Note:

For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror",

 

 

 

 

George W. Bush 'knew Guantánamo prisoners

were innocent'

April 9, 2010, The Times (One

of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7092435.ece

George

W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of

innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they

feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the

broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The

Times. The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide

to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed

declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. He

claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that

the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002

were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to

release themâ€. Colonel Wilkerson, a long-time critic of the Bush

Administration’s approach to counter-terrorism and the war in Iraq,

claimed that the majority of detainees — children as young as

12 and men as old as 93 — never saw a US soldier when they were

captured. He said that many were turned over by Afghans and Pakistanis

for up to $5,000. Little or no evidence was produced as to why they had

been taken. He also claimed that one reason Mr Cheney and Mr

Rumsfeld did not want the innocent detainees released was because “the

detention efforts would be revealed as the incredibly confused

operation that they wereâ€.

Note:

For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror",

 

 

 

 

Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again

April 11, 2010, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html

Scientists

are taking a new look at hallucinogens, which became taboo among

regulators after enthusiasts like Timothy Leary promoted them in the

1960s with the slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out.†Now, using rigorous

protocols and safeguards, scientists have won permission to study once

again the drugs’ potential for treating mental problems and

illuminating the nature of consciousness. Researchers from around the

world are gathering this week in San Jose, Calif., for the largest

conference on psychedelic science held in the United States in four

decades. They plan to discuss studies of psilocybin and other

psychedelics for treating depression in cancer patients,

obsessive-compulsive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, post-traumatic

stress disorder and addiction to drugs or alcohol. Scientists

are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic

experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout

history by religious mystics and those who meditate. These

similarities have been identified in neural imaging studies conducted

by Swiss researchers and in experiments led by Roland Griffiths, a

professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins. In one of Dr.

Griffiths’s first studies, involving 36 people with no serious physical

or emotional problems, he and colleagues found that psilocybin could

induce what the experimental subjects described as a profound spiritual

experience with lasting positive effects for most of them.

Note:

For key reports on health issues from reliable sources,

 

 

 

 

The 'Long War' quagmire

March 28, 2010, Los Angeles Times

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/28/opinion/la-oe-hayden28-2010mar28

Without

public debate and without congressional hearings, a segment of the

Pentagon and fellow travelers have embraced a doctrine known as the

Long War, which projects an "arc of instability" caused by insurgent

groups from Europe to South Asia that will last between 50 and 80

years. According to one of its architects, Iraq, Afghanistan and

Pakistan are just "small wars in the midst of a big one." Consider

the audacity of such an idea. An 80-year undeclared war would entangle

20 future presidential terms stretching far into the future of voters

not yet born. The American death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan

now approaches 5,000, with the number of wounded a multiple many times

greater. And if the American armed forces are stretched thin today, try

to conceive of seven more decades of combat. The costs are unimaginable

too. According to economists Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda

Bilmes, Iraq alone will be a $3-trillion war. Those costs, and

the other deficit spending of recent years, yield "virtually no room

for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors,"

according to a New York Times budget analysis in February.

Continued deficit financing for the Long War will rob today's younger

generation of resources for their future.

Note:

Many people don't even know why the US is fighting in Iraq and

Afghanistan. The arguments about national security border on

ridiculous. For a highly revealing essay by a top US general exposing

the real reasons for war, For lots more on the realities of the

"war on terror",

 

 

 

 

For Two Grieving Families, Video Reveals

Grim Truth

April 7, 2010, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/middleeast/07baghdad.html

The

women of Saeed Chmagh’s family wept, but the men did not as they

watched a video of him being shot to death by a gunner on an American

Apache attack helicopter. “I saw the truth,†Samir Chmagh, 19,

son of the dead man, said Tuesday in his family’s living room in

Baghdad. “They saw clearly that they were journalists and that they

were holding cameras. It was painful when we saw this movie.†In

July 2007 on the streets of Baghdad ... American troops gunned down men

they identified as insurgents. The attack left 12 people dead,

including Namir Noor-Eldeen, a 22-year-old Reuters photographer, and

Mr. Chmagh, 40, a driver and assistant for the news agency. A video

from the cockpit of an Apache helicopter was released on Monday by WikiLeaks.org, an online organization that said it

had received the video from a whistle-blower in the military. The video

has become an Internet sensation, with defenders saying the soldiers

believed they were under threat and critics denouncing what they said

were callous and bloodthirsty comments by the soldiers as they killed

about a dozen people. “At last the truth has been revealed, and I’m

satisfied God revealed the truth,†Noor Eldeen, the photographer’s

father, said in Mosul. “If such an incident took place in America ...

what would they do?â€

Note:

To view this disturbing video which shows how some soldiers consider

this kind of killing to be a fun game,

 

 

 

 

Edible RFID microchip monitor can tell if

you take your medicine

March 31, 2010, BusinessWeek

http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-03-31/edible-rfid-microchip-monitor...

Researchers

at the University of Florida have combined RFID, microchips and printed

nano-particle antennas to make pills that communicate with cell phones

or laptops to tell doctors whether patients are taking their medicine.

Still a prototype, the inventors hope their tattletale technology can

be applied commercially to a range of medications in clinical trials

and in treatment of patients with chronic diseases in which it is

essential that the doses are taken and taken on time. The pill is a

white capsule with a microchip embedded and with an antenna printed on

the outside with ink containing silver nanoparticles. A device

worn by the patient energizes the microchip via bursts of low-voltage

electricity. The chip signal confirms the pill is in the stomach and

the device sends a signal that the pill has been swallowed. The

messages can go to cell phones or laptops to inform doctors or

family members.

Note:

For lots more on microchips from reliable sources,

 

 

 

 

U.S. Court Curbs F.C.C. Authority on Web

Traffic

April 7, 2010, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/technology/07net.html

A

federal appeals court ruled on [April 6] that regulators [have] limited

power over Web traffic under current law. The decision will

allow Internet service companies to block or slow specific sites and

charge video sites like YouTube to deliver their content faster to

users. The court decision was a setback to efforts by the

Federal Communications Commission to require companies to give Web

users equal access to all content. The F.C.C. will now have to

reconsider its strategy for mandating “net neutrality,†the principle

that all Internet content should be treated equally by network

providers. One option would be to reclassify broadband service

as a sort of basic utility subject to strict regulation, like telephone

service. Telephone companies and broadband providers have already

indicated that they would vigorously oppose such a move.

“You can’t have innovation if all the big companies get the fast lane,â€

said Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, which advocates for consumer

rights on digital issues. “Look at Google, eBay, — none of those

companies would have survived if 15 years ago we had a fast lane and a

slow lane on the Internet.â€

 

 

 

 

Food, Inc.

April 2010, PBS Point of View

http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/

In

"Food, Inc.", filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's

food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been

hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's

regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is

now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead

of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety

of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted

chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds,

even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E.

coli — the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000

Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity,

particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among

adults. Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser Fast Food Nation, Michael Pollan The Omnivore's Dilemma along with forward

thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg

and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, "Food, Inc." reveals surprising — and

often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it's produced, who we

have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Note:

For reviews of this important documentary,

 

 

 

 

‘Green Gone Wrong’: Can Capitalism Save

the Planet?

April 4, 2010, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/business/energy-environment/04shelf.html

The

global economic collapse pushed the rise of green capitalism off

business magazine covers, but it will surely resurface. Now, along

comes Heather Rogers, who warns about the dangers of buying into this

mind-set with Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining

the Environmental Revolution. She says green capitalism is

actually undermining ecological progress. She says corporate America

has led us into thinking that we can save the earth mainly by buying

things like compact fluorescent light bulbs, hybrid gas-electric cars

and carbon offsets. Green Gone Wrong ... doesn’t just go

after easy targets like big corporations that she says are clearly more

interested in making money than saving the earth. Some of the most

poignant moments come when Ms. Rogers visits organic farmers in upstate

New York. She laments that they can’t make a living because it is so

expensive for them to comply with the federal certification

requirements for organic foods. “What isn’t being talked about

is that many of the small organic producers who are expected to lead

the reinvention of the food system can barely make ends meet,†she says.

[The book] would have been better had Ms. Rogers delved more deeply

into another of her suggestions: instead of buying green, we simply

need to buy less stuff. She seems reluctant to push this too hard

because it’s a truly radical idea that flies in the face of capitalism

— green or not.

Note:

Heather Rogers is an established investigative journalist who is also

the author of the acclaimed book Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage.

 

 

 

 

Croatian teenager wakes from coma speaking

fluent German

April 12, 2010, The Telegraph

(One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/croatia/7583971/Croatian-teenager-wakes-from-coma...

A

13-year-old Croatian girl who fell into a coma woke up speaking fluent

German. The girl, from the southern town of Knin, had only just started

studying German at school and had been reading German books and

watching German TV to become better, but was by no means fluent,

according to her parents. Since waking up from her 24-hour coma

however, she has been unable to speak Croatian, but is able to

communicate perfectly in German. Doctors at Split's KB Hospital claim

that the case is so unusual, various experts have examined the girl as

they try to find out what triggered the change. Hospital director

Dujomir Marasovic said: "You never know when recovering from such a

trauma how the brain will react." Psychiatric expert Dr Mijo Milas

added: "In earlier times this would have been referred to as a miracle,

we prefer to think that there must be a logical explanation – its just

that we haven't found it yet. There are references to cases

where people who have been seriously ill and perhaps in a coma have

woken up being able to speak other languages – sometimes even the

Biblical languages such as that spoken in old Babylon or Egypt

– at the moment though any speculation would remain just that –

speculation – so it's better to continue tests until we actually know

something."

 

 

 

 

 

Key Articles From Years Past

 

 

 

 

 

On the Biodiesel Bandwagon

July 10, 2005, San Francisco

Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/10/CMGI8D65IU1.DTL

Economists

have predicted that 2005 is the year of the "global oil- production

peak," when the world produces the most oil it will ever produce. And

so ends the era of cheap fossil fuels, taking with it everything we've

associated with modern American living: cheap groceries, cheap

electricity, cheap construction, cheap beer, cheap everything. Because

without cheap fossil fuel, nothing is cheap; and without cheap stuff,

our society will soon be a very, very different place. A better place.

At least for Ben Jordan. "The sooner we get rid of fossil fuels,"

explains Jordan, "the sooner we can have alternatives like biodiesel."

Using vegetable oil as fuel isn't new; in fact, it's what the diesel

engine was originally intended to run on.

When Rudolf Diesel first showcased his engine at the 1900

World's Fair in Paris, he used peanut oil. Diesel engines -- operating

solely on vegetable oils -- got an average of 30 percent more miles per

gallon than traditional combustion engines, and soon became the standard

for buses, trucks, freightliners and marine craft. In the 1920s,

impressed by the efficiency of the engine and eager to control the

diesel market, oil companies forced car manufacturers to modify diesel

engines to run off their huge supplies of cheap, low-grade petroleum

diesel. And the world's cities have been clogged with sooty, black,

highly polluting diesel exhaust ever since.

Note:

For many promising reports on new energy developments,

 

 

 

 

 

 

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