Thursday, 26 May 2011 08:15 The "free speech zone," despite being anathema to the U.S. Constitution, has been used intermittently since the Vietnam War protests. When their use was expanded to actually hide protesters during both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 2004, free speech zones were quickly written off by the mainstream media as either no big deal, or essential to protect participants from dangerous activists. Many in the alternative media warned that this was a dangerous precedent to set; after all, America itself is considered by the Constitution to be a free speech zone, with laws that were created to prosecute crimes when they are committed and not before. These zones have now become a political tool used to alter the perception of media coverage, as supporters are allowed a front-row seat in full view of cameras, while protesters are housed in cages sometimes blocks away from the actual event.' Read more: 'Free Speech Zones' Killing Free Speech Across Orwellian America Thursday, 26 May 2011 08:07 'But General Hamid Gul, a retired three-star general who headed the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) from 1987-1989 and has been criticised by the US for his links with the Taliban, told Channel 4 News "there is absolutely no doubt that this was a US operation." He insisted: "The Karachi incident was clearly an operation by special forces, it must have taken months to plan, and the level of intelligence gathered is far too sophisticated for it to have been a raid by al-Qaeda or the Taliban," he said. "The reconnaissance and the surveillance to target three or four planes is far too advanced".' Thursday, 26 May 2011 07:48 'It is when, not if. Financial markets merely aren’t sure whether it’ll be tomorrow, a month’s time, a year’s time, or two years’ time (it won’t be longer than that). Given that the ECB has played the “final card” it employed to force a bailout upon the Irish – threatening to bankrupt the country’s banking sector – presumably we will now see either another Greek bailout or default within days. What happens when Greece defaults. Here are a few things: - Every bank in Greece will instantly go insolvent. - The Greek government will nationalise every bank in Greece. - The Greek government will forbid withdrawals from Greek banks. - To prevent Greek depositors from rioting on the streets, Argentina-2002-style (when the Argentinian president had to flee by helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace to evade a mob of such depositors), the Greek government will declare a curfew, perhaps even general martial law.'
Thursday, 26 May 2011
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