The Appearance of Disappearance: The CIA’s Secret Black Sites

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Twelve years ago, in a village on the edge of a pine forest not far from Lithuania’s elegant capital Vilnius, workmen constructed an unusual warehouse. It was the size of an Olympic swimming pool with no windows, many air vents and no stated purpose. The site had formerly been a riding stables and a paddock. It had also served as a local watering hole — a welcome one since the village lacked a bar or restaurant. The new building was shiny and modern, incongruous amid the tumbledown farm buildings and Soviet-era housing blocks. The convivial atmosphere of the riding club was replaced, in the words of one local inhabitant, by “this certain emptiness”.

Naturally, the neighbours were curious. They speculated about the new building’s function. Was it a military listening post? A drug factory? A clandestine organ transplant lab? None of them guessed that it might be a key facility in the US Central Intelligence Agency’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation programme, one of a secret network of “black sites”, set up in half a dozen countries to house undisclosed prisoners out of reach of lawyers, the Red Cross or other branches of the US government. Why should they? Lithuania was a long way from the front lines of the war on terror, and the village of Antaviliai, although only 20 minutes by car from the capital, was known for summer lake swims rather than for covert operations.

The secret detention programme, as it was gradually uncovered, stretched across the globe. The network of sites we have documented encompasses Antaviliai and Kabul, North Carolina and Skopje, Columbia County, Milan, Tripoli and Bucharest. In our journeys through this material, we have sought to portray the appearance of disappearance.

Sceptics like to invoke the power of photography, its ability to show what is real. Three years ago, at a hearing for a European Parliament civil liberties committee inquiry into complicity in illegal detentions, one MEP asked if he could see a photograph of a prisoner on a plane. Failing that, he would remain convinced of the fictional world in which it didn’t happen. In the same way, Valdas Adamkus, a former president of Lithuania, when asked during a visit to London in 2011 about CIA prisoners being held in his country, stated firmly that: “Nobody proved it, nobody showed it.” (Read more from “The Appearance of Disappearance: The CIA’s Secret Black Sites” HERE)

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Woman Behind Viral ‘Angry Splash Mountain Lady’ Meme Says the Photo Was Posed

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A woman dubbed ‘Angry Splash Mountain Lady’ by the internet has come forward to explain why she looks so upset while riding the Disney World ride.

Jordan Alexander, from Syracuse, New York, took the internet by storm after a photo of her on Splash Mountain emerged of her sitting alone, with her arms crossed, looking angry.

The photo quickly went viral and turned into a meme, where internet users photo shopped her face on to famous works of art and added celebrities like John Travolta into the Splash Mountain picture.

And as it turns out, the photo was completely posed.

Jordan’s husband, Steven, said when the photo was taken, the couple already been at the park all day with their baby and Jordan’s parents. (Read more from “Woman Behind Viral ‘Angry Splash Mountain Lady’ Meme Says the Photo Was Posed” HERE)

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Saddle up, Folks, It’s Time to Become a Prepper

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Here is one of the most recent reasons why you should prepare. Use this article as an example of why your family and friends should also become preppers:

There is only one major reason governments all across the world have either already begun, or are planning to remove, higher-denomination paper currency from circulation. It has nothing to do with stopping drug deals or hampering terrorism. Surprisingly – at this point anyway – it also isn’t about actually gaining further control over the citizenry.

It’s about economics. For all intents and purposes, every government on earth is at best broke, or more likely saddled with massive debt. So aside from printing more money, what’s a hungry oligarchy to do?

Simple: force everyone into a cashless society … and then take the money they need directly from your bank account rather than picking your pocket . . .

Having supplies, food, guns and ammo is fantastic … assuming you know how to use them. However, if you never do figure out how to clean that gun, start that fire, fix that wound, purify that water or grow that crop, don’t worry. It’s still pretty sweet … for the folks who will be using all that stuff after you head off to the pearly gates to yell at St. Peter. (Read more from “Saddle up, Folks, It’s Time to Become a Prepper” HERE)

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FDA Admits That Nearly 70% of U.S. Chickens Contain Cancer Causing Arsenic

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(Editor’s note: Snopes contests this MSN article’s conclusion, stating that at one time chicken contained arsenic but that the sale of the arsenic-laced food additive was discontinued by Pfizer in 2011) I don’t know about the rest of you, but lately my poultry purchases at my local market have become more and more of a ‘hit-and-miss’ situation, with more ‘misses’ if I’m being honest. As I bite into my homemade chicken nuggets or Coq au Vin (when I’m feeling fancy) I can’t help but feel that the chicken just tastes weird, stringy, just…funny. So a few days ago when I turned on the tube and saw the news headlines stating that the FDA has finally confirmed that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, my head, and stomach, nearly hit the roof. This cancer-causing toxic chemical, that in high doses could kill you, is actually being added to chicken feed on purpose, giving store-bought chicken the illusion of healthy coloring and plump appearance. Shockingly, this is the case with more than 70 percent of all U.S. chickens! That is just awful! . . .

So, the next time you’re out buying chicken (if you’re not totally put off by it at this point) make sure you look out for the following:

-If the chicken meat is bright pink in color, like in an unnatural way, avoid it at all costs.

-Make sure that the fat content on the chicken is white to deep yellow, not gray or pasty.

(Read more from “FDA Admits That Nearly 70% of U.S. Chickens Contain Cancer-Causing Arsenic” HERE)

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Scientific Paper Says the Human Hand Was Designed by a Creator

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A recent scientific paper on the movement of the human hand has faced strong criticism for referring to a ‘Creator’ throughout.

The paper, titled: ‘Biomechanical characteristics of hand coordination in grasping activities of daily living’ was written by a team of four researchers, three from Huazhong University in China, and one from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

Published in the PLOS ONE journal, the fairly conventional study looked at the mechanics of how we grasp things, and involved the measurement of the hand movements of 30 participants.

However, members of the scientific community have demanded the paper be retracted, for its several perceived references to the pseudoscientific theory of intelligent design and a possibly divine ‘Creator’.

In the opening sentences of the study, it claims the link between muscles and hand movements is the product of “proper design by the Creator.” (Read more from “Scientific Paper Says the Human Hand Was Designed by a Creator” HERE)

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Cause of Recurring Booms Remains a Mystery

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By Nathan Ellgren. Unexplained loud booms have been affecting residents around Grundy County [in Missouri] for weeks, and the cause has yet to be determined.

“It’s weird because it’s unlike most booming noises you hear,” said Glen Briggs, the emergency management director of Grundy County. “If you hear a car crash or something like that, you can pretty well tell which direction it came from. When I heard it, I couldn’t identity which direction it came from. It resembled thunder, but there were no thunderstorms in the area.”

Trenton residents began reporting their experiences of these booms after they heard it for the first time Feb. 14.

“I instantly made a post on our emergency management Facebook page and asked if anyone else heard it,” Briggs said. “We had close to 100 people comment saying they heard it. Several people said they felt it. They described a loud thud, rattling, some saw flashes of light and smoke.”

Trenton police arrived in a matter of minutes to the area where residents were affected, but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. (Read more from “Cause of Recurring Booms Remains a Mystery” HERE)

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Strange Radio Bursts From Space Come in Clusters

By Marlowe Hood. Mysterious and powerful radio waves from deep space are coming in clusters, scientists revealed on Wednesday, having only discovered their existence a decade ago.

The repeated pulses emanate from well beyond the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

It was previously thought that these so-called fast radio bursts (FRBs) — which can emit as much energy in a millisecond as the Sun emits in 10,000 years — were one-off phenomena.

Less than 20 have been detected since 2007, though more than 10,000 are suspected to occur every day.

Their origins remain unknown. Up to now, astronomers speculated that they were produced by cataclysmic events such as stars exploding into a supernovas, or neutron stars collapsing into black holes. (Read more from “Strange Radio Bursts From Space Come in Clusters” HERE)

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CDC Warns of ‘Healthy’ Food Outbreaks

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Ironically, all of the CDC’s outbreak warnings on its homepage are currently for items on the so-called “healthy” foods list.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is warning of five potentially fatal, multi-state outbreaks – all victimizing people who eat foods typically considered healthful:

Alfalfa Sprouts (two outbreaks),

Organic Shake and Meal Products,

Packaged Salads, and

Cucumbers

Nine people in either Minnesota or Wisconsin who ate alfalfa sprouts have been diagnosed with the outbreak strain of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 (STEC O157), which can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, a potentially-fatal type of kidney failure. The CDC has linked the infections to sprouts produced by Jack & the Green Spouts . . .

Fans of organic shakes and meals are being warned to avoid those products sold by RAW Organic Shakes & Meal products made by Garden of Life, LLC (CDC’s “likely” suspect). Eighteen cases of Salmonella Virchow from 15 states have been reported as of Feb. 17, 2016. The suspected products, sold nationally, have been voluntarily recalled. (Read more from “CDC Warns of ‘Healthy’ Food Outbreaks” HERE)

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GOP Congressmen to UN: Don’t Use Zika to ‘Overturn Laws of Many Nations Protective of Life at All Stages of Development’

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Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and 50 other House Republicans sent a letter to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein Thursday requesting that he clarify that the U.N. is not “calling for changes to laws protecting the human rights of unborn children” in a statement the commissioner made calling for wider access to “reproductive health services” in response to the Zika virus affecting several Latin American countries.

The congressmen wrote that they were “troubled to read the United Nations Commission on Human Rights February 5, 2016 press release on the recent spread of the Zika virus and its implications for abortion practices.”

The statement from Zeid’s office emphasized that in light of the Zika outbreak “laws and policies that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services in contravention of international standards, must be repealed…”

The members wrote that they are “concerned” by what the commissioner’s statement “may suggest.”

“We believe the Zika virus should be a time for thoughtful deliberation as local and national governments determine the best policies to curb the spread of this disease,” they wrote. “It should not be an occasion to exploit a genuine public health crisis to advance a political agenda to overturn laws of many nations protective of life at all stages of development.” (Read more from “GOP Congressmen to UN: Don’t Use Zika to ‘Overturn Laws of Many Nations Protective of Life at All Stages of Development'” HERE)

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US Army Will Have Laser Weapons by 2023 as Research Bosses Say Killer Technology Is ‘Very Close’

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The US Army is planning to deploy the first laser weapons in 2023, it has been revealed.

Mary J. Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, told the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities ‘I believe we’re very close,’ when asked how close the Army is to developing offensive and defensive directed-energy weapons.

She said the programmes would be extensively tested as the Army wants to understand the lasers’ full capabilities ‘before we offer it to a Soldier’ . . .

‘We have to make sure the lasers work and do the full set of scopes against the threats we project. And those threats include the counter-rockets, counter-artillery and counter-mortar as well as [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] and cruise missile threats.’

Miller explained that the Army wants to understand the lasers’ full capabilities ‘before we offer it to a Soldier.’ (Read more from “US Army Will Have Laser Weapons by 2023 as Research Bosses Say Killer Technology Is ‘Very Close'” HERE)

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Apple’s Tech Allies Oppose the FBI, but Still Want Your Data

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In its fight with the FBI, Apple insists it’s defending the privacy and safety of all iPhone users by resisting government calls to help unlock an extremist’s iPhone. And now other big tech companies such as Google and Facebook are rallying to Apple’s side.

Wait just a minute: Aren’t those the same companies that Apple has previously criticized by lobbing veiled accusations that they exploit your personal information – to sell ads – and effectively endanger your privacy?

Some might argue that Apple’s allies are hypocrites when it comes to privacy, much like the fraternity brothers in “Animal House” who declared: “He can’t do that to our pledges. Only we can do that to our pledges.” (Read more from “Apple’s Tech Allies Oppose the FBI, but Still Want Your Data” HERE)

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