Obama Signs Global Internet Treaty Worse Than SOPA

White House bypasses Senate to ink agreement that could allow Chinese companies to demand ISPs remove web content in US with no legal oversight

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com

Months before the debate about Internet censorship raged as SOPA and PIPA dominated the concerns of web users, President Obama signed an international treaty that would allow companies in China or any other country in the world to demand ISPs remove web content in the US with no legal oversight whatsoever.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was signed by Obama on October 1 2011, yet is currently the subject of a White House petition demanding Senators be forced to ratify the treaty. The White House has circumvented the necessity to have the treaty confirmed by lawmakers by presenting it an as “executive agreement,” although legal scholars have highlighted the dubious nature of this characterization.

The hacktivist group Anonymous attacked and took offline the Federal Trade Commission’s website yesterday in protest against the treaty, which was also the subject of demonstrations across major cities in Poland, a country set to sign the agreement today.

Under the provisions of ACTA, copyright holders will be granted sweeping direct powers to demand ISPs remove material from the Internet on a whim. Whereas ISPs normally are only forced to remove content after a court order, all legal oversight will be abolished, a precedent that will apply globally, rendering the treaty worse in its potential scope for abuse than SOPA or PIPA.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Chris Hedges, Sues Obama Over NDAA

Infowars.com

Alex talks with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author and Middle East expert Chris Hedges about his lawsuit challenging the legality of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Obama signed at the end of 2011. Hedges is the author of The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress, Collateral Damage, American Fascists and other titles.

Cocaine mistakenly sent to UN headquarters in UN bags

AFP

UNITED NATIONS — A 16 kilo (35.5 pounds) consignment of cocaine that Mexican drug traffickers recently lost has turned up in an unlikely place — the United Nations in New York.

Police and UN officials Thursday described how two fake UN bags containing the drugs — which experts said had a street value of about $2 million — set off a security alert when they were delivered, apparently by accident, to the the global body’s headquarters.

The bags, which had the UN symbol printed on them, were shipped from Mexico through the DHL delivery company’s center in Cincinnati, Ohio, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne of the New York Police Department told AFP.

Read More

VIDEO: Military Helicopters Conduct Covert Exercises Over U.S. Bank Building In Los Angeles

Five black helicopters conduct special ops in LA

Steve Watson
Infowars.com

Video was captured last night of five military helicopters buzzing over downtown LA, conducting what the LAPD has described as a special ops urban warfare drill.

The footage, captured by CBS Los Angeles, shows a huge Black Hawk helicopter hovering over the US bank building along with four other OH-6 choppers, known as “Little Birds”.

CBS reporters noted seeing the Black Hawk conduct a drop off in a nearby park before taking to the sky above LA again.

The helicopters, staged at Dodger Stadium throughout the exercise, were later spotted flying low over the Staples Center as the LA Lakers played inside.

Watch the footage here.

Former U.S. Army aviator David Duran was told CBS affiliate KCAL9 News that the training is likely a dry run for a future mission.

“They do a lot of mockup training,” said Duran. “But it’s always best to get the closest terrain layout to what the objective is.”

“If it’s a mountainous terrain, they go to the mountains; if it’s a desert terrain, they use the desert; if they’re in a coastal terrain, they use the coast,” said Duran. “If it’s an urban terrain, you know, whatever’s needed.”

As we highlighted Wednesday, a statement issued Monday by the LAPD,  says that the exercises, closed to the public, are “designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements.”

FBI seeking social media monitoring tool

AFP

WASHINGTON — The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a tool to mine social media for intelligence tips.

The US domestic law enforcement agency is asking information technology contractors about the feasibility of building a tool that would “enhance its techniques for collecting and sharing ‘open source’ actionable intelligence.”

The January 19 open request was published on a website offering federal business opportunities and was first reported by New Scientist magazine.

3-D Facial Scans Being Sold To The Public Under The Guise That It Could Help Children

AP

Related: Museum visitors asked to scan faces in 3D

Capturing tens of thousands of people’s face, all to help the children of course.

Gingrich promises ‘permanent US base on moon’ if he’s elected

Mail Online

Newt Gingrich promised last night to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2020 if he’s elected as U.S. president.

Gingrich, the former House speaker, told a packed room that he wanted to develop a robust commercial space industry in line with the airline boom of the 1930s, leading to a permanent base on the moon.

On a campaign stop ahead of the Florida primary next Tuesday, the GOP presidential hopeful told an audience in Cocoa, on Florida’s space coast, his plan would benefit ‘science, tourism and manufacturing’. Gingrich, a long-time space enthusiast, also said he wanted to expand exploration of Mars, saying NASA could pay for ambitious plans by teaming up with the private sector.

The claims appeared to thrill the 700-strong crowd. The region is primarily known for NASA and was still suffering from a round of federal cuts to the space program last year.

Read more

Apple surpasses Exxon as most valuable US company

AP/Washington Post

Apple briefly surpassed Exxon as the most valuable U.S. company after an excellent quarter, though the oil company has regained the lead at the market’s close.

… Exxon Mobil Corp.’s stock closed up 4 cents at $87.22 for a market capitalization of $418 billion. Apple’s increased 6 percent to $446.66 for a market cap of about $415 billion.

… Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple first topped Exxon in August, then fell back to second place. Irving, Texas-based Exxon had held the top spot since 2005.

Apple overtook Microsoft Corp., now in the No. 3 slot, in 2010.

Read full report here

Soros: Not much difference between Obama and Romney

Reuters

Billionaire investor George Soros explains why there wouldn’t be much difference for Wall Street between President Obama and Mitt Romney. He also tells Chrystia Freeland why his billionaire constituents see him as a traitor to his class.

Fox Attempts to Discredit Ron Paul with “Oklahoma Inside Job” Newsletter

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com

On the heels of Ron Paul’s South Carolina promise to continue forward with his quest to gain the Republican nomination and the presidency, Fox News has dredged up an yet another newsletter attributed to him in an effort to sabotage the Paul campaign.

“Full of racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic statements, not to mention a variety of quack science and conspiracy theories, the newsletters have once again become an issue as Paul seeks to stay in the Republican presidential primary for the long haul,” Fox Nation reported on Monday in a repost of a BuzzFeed article.

The newsletter in question mentions the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and puts the event in a light that questions the official government generated narrative: “We’re far from knowing everything, or even many things, about the horrific bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building,” Fox Nation quotes.

“Some people even think that the government itself could have been responsible. The government would not use its own agents, these people say. Spy agencies frequently use ‘false-flag’ recruitment. That is, the crazed men recruited into a ‘right-wing’ terrorist cell would not know they were actually working for the BATF, for example.”

The newsletter does not claim that the Oklahoma terror event was an inside job. It merely mentions that some people have questioned the official story, an act that is heretical to the government and its propaganda tools, including Fox News. Anything less than unquestioning acceptance of the government narrative is permissible.

Fox, of course, does not bother to mention the fact the government’s investigation of the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was not only deeply flawed, but obviously a thinly veiled cover-up.