11 November 19
I already donate $15/month but I just gave another $10. Wish I could do more but Im on Social Security. Thank God you survived the fire!
Beth, RSN-Reader Supporter
If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts
CA 95611
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts
CA 95611
10 November 19
Juan Cole | Saudis Spied on American Soil to Penetrate Twitter to Bust Critics
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman was behind a Saudi intelligence operation wherein they bribed Twitter employees (now ex-employees) to gain access to anonymous accounts tweeting criticism of the Saudi regime inside the kingdom."
READ MORE
Nikki Haley at the United Nations. (photo: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images)
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman was behind a Saudi intelligence operation wherein they bribed Twitter employees (now ex-employees) to gain access to anonymous accounts tweeting criticism of the Saudi regime inside the kingdom."
READ MORE
Nikki Haley at the United Nations. (photo: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images)
Nikki Haley Says Tillerson, Kelly Tried to Recruit Her to Subvert Trump to 'Save the Country'
Anne Gearan, The Washington Post
Gearan writes: "Two of President Trump's senior advisers undermined and ignored him in what they claimed was an effort to 'save the country,' former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley claims in a new memoir."
READ MORE
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon delivers remarks during the Value Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., Oc. 14. (photo: Mary F. Calvert/Reuters)
Anne Gearan, The Washington Post
Gearan writes: "Two of President Trump's senior advisers undermined and ignored him in what they claimed was an effort to 'save the country,' former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley claims in a new memoir."
READ MORE
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon delivers remarks during the Value Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., Oc. 14. (photo: Mary F. Calvert/Reuters)
Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters
Lynch writes: "President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign CEO Steve Bannon delivered potentially damaging testimony on Friday against Roger Stone, describing communicating with Trump's longtime adviser about WikiLeaks despite Stone's later denials and saying he believed Stone 'had a relationship' with the website's founder."
resident Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign CEO Steve Bannon delivered potentially damaging testimony on Friday against Roger Stone, describing communicating with Trump’s longtime adviser about WikiLeaks despite Stone’s later denials and saying he believed Stone “had a relationship” with the website’s founder.
Bannon testified that he had viewed Stone as the “access point” between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which disclosed numerous stolen Democratic emails in the months before the 2016 election that were damaging to Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton.
After testifying, Bannon - a prominent conservative political strategist and former senior White House adviser to Trump - told reporters he appeared as a prosecution witness in Stone’s trial in federal court only because he was subpoenaed.
U.S. intelligence agencies and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller determined that the emails were stolen by Russian state-backed hackers as part of Moscow’s efforts to meddle in the election and boost Trump’s candidacy.
“I was led to believe he had a relationship with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange,” Bannon said of Stone, referring to the WikiLeaks founder.
Stone - a self-described “dirty trickster” and “agent provocateur” - has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing justice, witness tampering and lying to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in its investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election. The veteran Republican operative, a friend and ally of Trump for some four decades, faces a possible decades-long sentence if convicted.
The Trump campaign relished the release of the hacked emails and was eager to learn about future releases but the president and his campaign team have denied conspiring with Russia.
Stone told the House committee in sworn testimony that he had never communicated with any members of Trump’s campaign about WikiLeaks or Julian Assange.
Bannon, appearing on the third day of testimony in the trial, said he and Stone had discussed WikiLeaks on several occasions before and after Bannon joined Trump’s campaign in August 2016. These included an Oct. 4, 2016, exchange in which Bannon emailed Stone after an Assange news conference had failed to produce damaging information on Clinton as expected.
“He told me he had a relationship” with Assange, Bannon said, when asked by the prosecution why he chose to email Stone to ask why Assange’s news conference had been a dud. “It would be natural for me to reach out to him.”
Stone also is accused of denying the existence of certain emails and texts related to Assange or Wikileaks, and falsely telling the committee that a radio host and comedian named Randy Credico was his “intermediary” with Assange in July 2016.
‘I WAS COMPELLED’
Bannon answered questions by prosecutor Michael Marando without argument. After leaving the courthouse, Bannon told reporters that “I was compelled to testify” and was forced to testify earlier to the grand jury in the case, to Congress and to Mueller’s investigators.
Bannon appeared at least twice to contradict his grand jury testimony about the frequency with which he and Stone discussed WikiLeaks and about whether Stone was considered the campaign’s “access point.” In cross examination by Stone’s attorney Robert Buschel, Bannon acknowledged he was unaware of anyone in Trump’s campaign ever formally dispatching Stone to learn when Assange might release more emails.
Only blocks away from the federal courthouse, the Democratic-led House is pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Trump over the Republican president’s request that Ukraine investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden.
The prosecution has accused Stone of pressuring Credico to cover up lies and of seeking to prevent the radio host from cooperating with the government, and noted that Stone had made threats toward his little white dog.
Credico, who finished his testimony earlier in the day, denied that he was an intermediary with WikiLeaks. Credico testified that he did not believe that Stone’s threats to kidnap his dog were sincere, saying under cross-examination by Stone’s defense attorney, Buschel, that “it was hyperbole by him.”
Stone sent various intimidating texts and emails, including one in which he told Credico, “You are a rat. A stoolie. ... My lawyers are dying to rip you to shreds. I am going to take that dog away from you.”
Credico’s statement may undercut the prosecution’s claim of criminal intent to tamper with a witness, but the jury will also weigh many other comments and threats by Stone including one in which he said, “Prepare to die.”
A second member of Trump’s 2016 campaign team, Rick Gates, is expected to take the witness stand for the prosecution when the trial resumes next Tuesday.
Mexican soldiers walk next to the site of the incineration of 23.5 tons of cocaine in Manzanillo in 2007, a week after the Mexican and US governments announced a joint security plan that included a Mexican pledge to step up the fight against organized crime, especially drug trafficking. (photo: Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images)
'US Creates Monsters': Trump Talk of War on Mexico Cartels Echoes Past Failures
Jo Tuckman, Guardian UK
Tuckman writes: "After nine members of a Mormon family with US/Mexican citizenship were slaughtered by gunmen, Donald Trump reacted by urging his Mexican counterpart to let him sort out the drug cartels."
READ MORE
Last year, 19 black women were elected to judicial seats in Houston, Texas. Now Republican lawmakers are considering changing the way judges are chosen in urban areas. (photo: www.harrisblackgirlmagic.com.)
Jo Tuckman, Guardian UK
Tuckman writes: "After nine members of a Mormon family with US/Mexican citizenship were slaughtered by gunmen, Donald Trump reacted by urging his Mexican counterpart to let him sort out the drug cartels."
READ MORE
Last year, 19 black women were elected to judicial seats in Houston, Texas. Now Republican lawmakers are considering changing the way judges are chosen in urban areas. (photo: www.harrisblackgirlmagic.com.)
Texas Considers Ending Judicial Elections as Democrats Gain Ground
Billy Corriher, Facing South
Corriher writes: "Voters in Houston, Texas, elected 19 black women to local judgeships last year. The new judges, all Democrats, have instituted wide-ranging reforms to the county's bail system. Voters also sent Democratic judges to the state appeals court."
READ MORE
Billy Corriher, Facing South
Corriher writes: "Voters in Houston, Texas, elected 19 black women to local judgeships last year. The new judges, all Democrats, have instituted wide-ranging reforms to the county's bail system. Voters also sent Democratic judges to the state appeals court."
READ MORE
The new oilfield could become Iran's second-largest (photo: Official Presidential website/Reuters)
Iran Announces Discovery of New Oilfield With 53 Billion Barrels
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Iran has discovered a new oilfield with 53 billion barrels of crude oil, President Hassan Rouhani has said, a find that could boost the country's proven 150 billion barrel reserves by a third."
READ MORE
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Iran has discovered a new oilfield with 53 billion barrels of crude oil, President Hassan Rouhani has said, a find that could boost the country's proven 150 billion barrel reserves by a third."
READ MORE
A guard tower at the United States Penitentiary, Big Sandy, stands as a sentinel along Kentucky Route 3 in Martin County. (photo: Roger May)
The Phantom Promise: How Appalachia Was Sold on Prisons as an Economic Lifeline
Alison Stine, YES! Magazine
Stine writes: "Big Sandy hides on a big hill. If you're not looking for the federal prison, you'll miss it easily. At first, all that can be seen above the soaring Kentucky cliffs, jagged granite dotted with green scruff, are lights. They look like the lights for a high school football field, or maybe a mall. Then the guard towers loom into view. You can't see the razor wire from the road."
Alison Stine, YES! Magazine
Stine writes: "Big Sandy hides on a big hill. If you're not looking for the federal prison, you'll miss it easily. At first, all that can be seen above the soaring Kentucky cliffs, jagged granite dotted with green scruff, are lights. They look like the lights for a high school football field, or maybe a mall. Then the guard towers loom into view. You can't see the razor wire from the road."
EXCERPTS:
In the scramble to “save” Appalachia as the coal industry collapsed, prisons—many housing incarcerated individuals transferred from distant states—have been presented as an antidote to the joblessness and poverty plaguing parts of the region, especially the more isolated rural areas. Prisons are big projects with hefty price tags, and they bring pledges of “jobs, jobs, jobs.” But more often, prisons do not deliver promised local employment, at least not initially, and carry with them a host of other issues.
Inez, Kentucky, the town nearest Big Sandy, has a population of less than 900. Multiple storefronts on East Main Street are empty, one with large pane windows covered in flaking white paint. There’s a hardware store, a rural health clinic. The pawn shop at the edge of town has a row of ATVs parked out front, near a stack of tires and a few old wagon wheels. A sign says “We Buy Gold.” It’s unclear how many locals work at the prison. Despite Big Sandy’s promise of local jobs, the largest industry employing people in Inez is still oil and gas extraction, and less than a third of the town’s total population is employed anyplace at all.
Kentucky has 12 state prisons, plus five federal prisons. The Virginia state prison in Big Stone Gap is just across the state line. In March 2019, the number of people under the jurisdiction of the Kentucky Department of Corrections reached more than 24,000, though there were not enough beds for all of them.
Kentucky has the ninth-highest incarceration rate in the nation, so much so that Kentucky radio station WMMT began producing a radio show, “Calls from Home,” in the early 2000s. The program reaches into seven prisons, broadcasting messages from inmates’ families. WMMT is housed within Appalshop, Kentucky’s media, education, and arts center within Letcher County.
A prison is not like a factory. Its massive size doesn’t automatically mean jobs, especially not for a local workforce without the specialized training needed to be a corrections officer, or CO—and especially not in a federal prison, which has additional qualifications. Work as a federal corrections officer requires a college degree, or three years of work experience.
Appalachian prisons have overwhelmingly been built in remote places, a fact that family members of incarcerated individuals lament in Up The Ridge, Appalshop’s 2006 documentary about the prison industry, which focuses on the then-new Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Lisa Richardson, traveling to Virginia from Connecticut to see an incarcerated loved one, asked, “Why would you build a prison so far up here and so secluded?”
Federal prisons house inmates from all over the country—often, inmates are transferred without warning—requiring family to make these costly and difficult journeys to visit their loved ones, if they can visit at all.
Comments
Post a Comment