Evidence EPA Colluded With Monsanto to Dismiss Cancer Concerns Grows Stronger

ORIGINAL LINK

By Dr. Mercola

Glyphosate — the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup and other herbicides — is the most widely used agricultural chemical in the world, and testing suggests a large portion of the global population now has glyphosate in their system.

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the "gold standard" in carcinogenicity research, glyphosate is a "probable human carcinogen" (Class 2A).^1,2

Research scientist Anthony Samsel has also reported he has evidence showing Monsanto is well aware glyphosate promotes cancer, and that they've had this knowledge since 1981.

Publicly, the company has insisted glyphosate is harmless to both environment and human health, but recent revelations are beginning to unravel Monsanto's carefully orchestrated plot to deceive the public.

The evidence in question suggests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has in fact colluded with Monsanto to protect the company's interests by manipulating and preventing key investigations into glyphosate's cancer-causing potential.

What we have here is really the most dangerous situation possible. Taxpayers' money has essentially been used to help shield companies from liability and obstruct consumers' ability to prove damages.

Environmental Protection Agency Accused of Colluding With Monsanto

But first, some background: Based on the IARC's classification of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) followed suit, declaring glyphosate a carcinogen under Proposition 65.

As a result, all glyphosate-containing products must carry a cancer warning. Monsanto attempted to overturn the OEHHA's decision, but Fresno County Superior Court Judge Kristi Kapetan ruled against it.^3,4,5 More than 60 plaintiffs are also suing Monsanto claiming Roundup caused or contributed to their non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

One of them is Yolanda Mendoza,⁶ who has battled stage 4 non-Hodgkin's for over a year. She believes her cancer was caused by Roundup, which she would spray on her lawn every weekend, using a backpack sprayer. She has lost sensation in her fingers and jaw due to nerve damage.

Monsanto has defended Roundup's safety in court by leaning on a 2016 EPA report that found glyphosate is "not likely to be carcinogenic" to humans.⁷ At the time, Jess Rowland was the associate director of the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs, Health Effects Division,⁸ and Rowland was a key author of that report.

The EPA's conclusion, which runs counter to the IARC's determination, met with severe criticism — so much so, a scientific advisory panel was recently convened to evaluate the strength of the EPA's decision.

According to some of the members on this panel, the EPA indeed appears to have violated its own guidelines by discounting and downplaying data from studies linking glyphosate to cancer.⁹

Next, attorneys for plaintiffs suing Monsanto found email correspondence between EPA toxicologist Marion Copley and Rowland suggesting Rowland may have colluded with Monsanto to find glyphosate non-carcinogenic.^10,11

In one email Copley cites evidence showing glyphosate is toxic to animals, adding "It is essentially certain that glyphosate causes cancer." She directly accuses Rowland of playing "political conniving games with the science" to help Monsanto and other pesticide manufacturers.

According to court records, Rowland also warned Monsanto of the IARC's determination months before it was made public,¹² giving the company time to plan its defense strategy.

New Bombshell — Evidence for EPA-Monsanto Collusion Grows Stronger

Then came the next bombshell. Email correspondence showed Rowland helped stop a glyphosate investigation by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Monsanto's behalf.

In an email, Monsanto regulatory affairs manager Dan Jenkins recounts a conversation he'd had with Rowland, in which Rowland said, "If I can kill this I should get a medal,"^13,14 referring to the ATSDR investigation.

Jenkins also noted that Rowland was planning to retire in a few months and "could be useful as we move forward with ongoing glyphosate defense."¹⁵ This is about as damaging as it gets.

By colluding with Monsanto to declare glyphosate safe and stopping toxicology evaluations by other federal offices, the EPA has used taxpayers' money to hide the truth about a dangerous toxin and prevent consumers harmed by the chemical from being able to effectively prove their case in court.

Without the EPA, Monsanto would have a tougher time arguing Roundup is harmless, and the company has gone to great lengths to get the court to discount the IARC's determination that glyphosate is carcinogenic, insisting the EPA is a far superior agency, referring to the IARC as an "unelected, undemocratic, unaccountable and foreign body."

Instead of protecting public health, the EPA basically gave the finger to all those who may have been harmed or killed by Roundup by providing Monsanto with the "evidence of innocence" they so desperately need to defend themselves. But now the truth is bubbling out. As reported by Bloomberg:¹⁶

"The plaintiffs' lawyers say Rowland's communications with Monsanto employees show the regulator who was supposed to be policing the company was actually working on its behalf.

The unsealing of the court documents 'represents a huge development in public health,' said Tim Litzenburg, one of the lawyers suing Monsanto.

Regulatory agencies, scientists, consumers and physicians 'can see some of what Monsanto was actually engaging in behind the scenes, and how they have manipulated the scientific literature to date. That's important to their decision-making, not just our lawsuits."

Jenkins went on to write, "I doubt EPA and Jess can kill this, but it's nice to know they're going to actually make the effort." His pessimism was overblown.

Another Monsanto memorandum notes the ATSDR "agreed, for now, to take direction from EPA," showing Rowland did in fact succeed in his mission to thwart the ATSDR's glyphosate investigation. Whether Monsanto fashioned him a medal for his feat remains unknown. How Rowland sleeps at night is yet another mystery.

Did Monsanto Ghostwrite EPA Reports on Glyphosate?

Attorneys for the plaintiffs also claim Monsanto employees ghostwrote EPA reports on glyphosate,^17,18,19,20 which were then included in the evidence base the EPA relied on to conclude glyphosate is not likely carcinogenic to humans. Monsanto denies the allegations,²¹ yet some of the correspondence seems incriminating enough. Bloomberg recounts a 2015 email by Monsanto toxicologist Bill Heydens:²²

"'A less expensive/more palatable approach' is to rely on experts only for some areas of contention, while 'we ghost-write the Exposure Tox & Genetox sections,' Heydens wrote to a colleague. The names of outside scientists could be listed on the publication, 'but we would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names so to speak,' according to the email, which goes on to say that's how Monsanto handled the 2000 study."

Other emails suggest Monsanto colluded with Syngenta and Dow to publish favorable studies on glyphosate. Monsanto argues that plaintiffs are "cherry-picking" emails among some 10 million pages of documents. But if a killer writes a million emails in his lifetime and admits his crime in one, that singular instance could hardly be written off as cherry-picked evidence. As noted by The New York Times:²³

"The disclosures are the latest to raise concerns about the integrity of academic research financed by agrochemical companies. Last year, a review by The New York Times showed how the industry can manipulate academic research or misstate findings. Declarations of interest included in a Monsanto-financed paper on glyphosate that appeared in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology said panel members were recruited by a consulting firm.

Email traffic made public shows that Monsanto officials discussed and debated scientists who should be considered, and shaped the project. 'I think it's important that people hold Monsanto accountable when they say one thing and it's completely contradicted by very frank internal documents,' said Timothy Litzenburg of the Miller Firm, one of the law firms handling the litigation."

Office of Pesticide Programs Disagrees With EPA Ruling on Glyphosate

Adding fuel to charges of malfeasance at the EPA is an internal memo by the EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) dated December 14, 2015, which makes it clear the ORD disagrees with the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs' (OPP) determination that glyphosate is "unlikely to be carcinogenic." The OPP's opinion was originally published in April 2016. This, according to the OPP, was done in error since the report was not yet finalized, and it was promptly taken down.

However, this did not stop Monsanto from using the report to defend glyphosate's safety. The ORD memo reveals the department is closely aligned with the IARC's view on glyphosate, and that ORD scientists raised strong objections against the OPP's findings, noting the OPP did not follow established international conventions when reviewing glyphosate. As reported by GM Watch:²⁴

"'Frameworks for data analysis and determination of causality [between exposure to a substance and cancer] that are currently in effect at the EPA and in the risk assessment community include gradations,' wrote the ORD in its memo. 'The preliminary opinion of the OPP appears not to follow this approach,' adds the latter …

[T]he OPP appears to have abandoned the rules for the evaluation of the dangers of a substance to 'use a yes/no approach which could only lead to describe the substances only as 'carcinogenic' or 'unlikely to be carcinogenic' for humans. The criticism is very technical, but nonetheless crucial. The EPA classification actually includes, in theory, five different grades:

• Carcinogenic

• Probably carcinogenic

• Showing suggestive signs of carcinogenicity

• Insufficiently documented for carcinogenicity analysis

• Unlikely to be carcinogenic

Thus there are many nuances that, according to the memorandum of the ORD, disappeared from the preliminary analysis conducted by the OPP."

No Consensus on Glyphosate Carcinogenicity Among EPA Scientists

The ORD memo admits the evidence of cancer in humans is limited, but stress that animal studies show strong correlation between exposure and cancer, noting that "glyphosate has been tested in several two-year studies in rats or mice. A wide range of tumors have been observed in these studies. Tumors have been observed in the thyroid, liver, skin, pancreas, lymph, testis, mammary gland, kidneys and lung."

That said, depending on the statistical methods used, the incidence of cancer may be significant or insignificant, and this is a main point of contention. The OPP claims they did not find statistically significant evidence that glyphosate causes cancer, but they didn't specify which statistical method they used to reach their conclusion. According to the ORD's memo:

"[T]he category ''unlikely to be carcinogenic to humans' can without doubt be thrown out. We can discuss whether the level of evidence is sufficiently high for the category 'probable carcinogen' … But this classification cannot be rejected."

As noted by GM Watch:

"Several questions remain: how will the ORD memo … be taken into account in the EPA's final opinion? Why was the OPP's preliminary notice published on the agency's website before being removed a few hours later?

The EPA states that a discussion paper jointly drafted by the two departments was forwarded in September 2016 to a third group of federal experts, whose opinion is expected to be published on 16 March. This new opinion will in turn be revised prior to publication of the EPA's final official notice."

Turns out this third group of federal experts —the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) — remain equally split over the issue. On March 16, the report from the SAP meeting was published²⁵ showing a wide range of opinions within the panel. Some feel the "not likely to be carcinogenic" designation should be changed to "suggestive signs of carcinogenicity," while others argue there's "no credible evidence of carcinogenicity."

It still remains to be seen what the EPA's final and official decision on glyphosate will be, but evidence clearly shows serious collusion between EPA officials and Monsanto has occurred, thereby tainting the entire process and making any determination in glyphosate's favor highly suspect.

Pesticide Companies Kill Hundreds of Thousands of Children Each Year — Time to End the Massacre!

The EPA carries a tremendous burden. According to two recent reports,²⁶ pesticides like Roundup are taking a major toll on health and life across the globe, and by colluding with pesticide makers to shield them from that liability, the EPA has committed a serious crime against humanity.

According to a recent United Nations (UN) report, pesticides are responsible for 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year, and chronic exposure has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, hormone disruption, developmental disorders and sterility.²⁷

The report specifically highlights the pesticide industry's "systematic denial of harms" and "aggressive, unethical marketing tactics," noting the industry is spending massive amounts of money to influence policymakers and contest scientific evidence showing their products do in fact cause great harm to human and environmental health.

The report also firmly denies the idea that pesticides are essential to ensure sufficient amounts of food for a growing world population, calling the notion "a myth,"²⁸ while highlighting developments in sustainable and regenerative farming showing biology can completely replace chemicals, delivering high yields of nutritious food without detriment to the environment.

The second report, this one by the World Health Organization (WHO), notes environmental pollution — which includes but is not limited to pesticides — kills 1.7 million children each year. A full quarter of all children's deaths and diseases could be prevented by reducing environmental risks!

Both of these reports offer the same recommendations in regard to agricultural chemicals — reduce or get rid of them altogether. In fact, the UN report goes so far as to propose a global treaty to phase out toxic pesticides and transition to a more sustainable agricultural system.

Donations to Organic Consumers Association TRIPLE-Matched During GMO Awareness Week

During this annual GMO Awareness Week, I strongly encourage you to give the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) your financial support. We are making great headway in promoting organics and fighting for a cleaner, safer food supply, but we cannot do it without your help. This week, you can seriously maximize the impact of your generosity, because I will match each and every dollar you donate to the OCA with $3, up to $250,000.

>>>>> Donate Today <<<<<

As noted by OCA in an article commenting on the latest evidence showing what appears to be serious betrayal of consumer trust on behalf of the EPA:²⁹

"Please help keep the pressure on corporations like Monsanto that poison with impunity. We need to raise $200,000 by midnight, March 31, to meet our quarterly online fundraising goal … According to the NYT, while farmers and children exposed to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide were dying from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a high-level EPA official was colluding with Monsanto behind the scenes to hide the truth. And he actually bragged about it …

The only way we will stop Monsanto, and other corporations, from this kind of ruthless disregard for public health is to keep the pressure on — through boycotts, through relentless demands for accountability, and through the courts. We may have lost the battle to label GMOs. But make no mistake — the years of educating consumers about the risks of GMO foods, and the poisons used to grow them, are paying off …

Just this week, a California judge ruled that the state can require Monsanto to label Roundup sold in retail stores as a "possible carcinogen" … OCA, along with another organization, will soon file our own lawsuit against Monsanto — details to be made public soon …"

Related Articles:

  Legal Filing Accuses EPA of Unfairly Protecting Monsanto

  Smoking Gun on EPA's Secret Collaboration With Monsanto

  Monsanto Mayhem

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Global Warming Is Real Say the Academies of Sciences of All of the Major Countries, But a Handful of my Readers Know Better

ORIGINAL LINK

by Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Craig Roberts:

I am fortunate in having readers who look after me. Some have offered me refuge in their countries and their homes from what they expect otherwise will inevitably be the midnight knock on my door. Others correct my mistakes from typos to content. As I have never considered myself infallible, I carefully read what they have to say.

Usually those who want to straighten me out on a subject are polite and respectful. However, among those corrections brought in by my reporting on the dangers implied by the warming of the poles and melting of the ice were a few not merely ignorant and uninformed, but also condescending and rude. One even accused me of selling out to the climate change hoax in order to buy my way off the lists of Russian agents and fake news purveyors.

I thought this was a bit much. Of course, the reader could have been a polluting industry troll. I also detected in the comments of some a good brainwashing by carbon industry-funded climate science.

It is difficult for those of us who are not climate scientists to form an opinion with confidence. Even climate scientists have honest disagreements. However, as far as I can tell, it is the carbon industry-funded scientists and think tanks that deny global warming, and it is independent scientists who say it is occurring and who are concerned with the implications.

I always ask the Roman question, who benefits? Some libertarians and free market advocates explain what they dismiss as the “global warming hoax” as a plot against capitalsim by left-wing climate scientists. So where are the right-wing or conservative or merely honest climate scientists? Are all or most independent climate scientists left-wing? Do all honest ones work for the carbon industry?

I find it difficult to believe that the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency, The University of Bremen’s Institute of Physical Analysis, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Danish National Space Center, The Russian Academy of Sciences, the UK Royal Society, the US National Academy of Sciences, the Science Council of Japan, the Accademia dei Lincei of Italy, the French Academie des Sciences, the Academia Brasiliera de Ciencias, Canada’s Royal Society, the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy are in a conspiracy against capitalism. “Climate change is real” declares the Joint Science Academies’ statement. http://nationalacademies.org/onpi/06072005.pdf

Climate change deniers make much of a Russian scientist’s claim that we are all about to freeze to death, but the Russian Academy of Sciences agrees with all the other countries’ academies of science that global warming is real.

Now, compare this impressive group with the Koch and carbon industry funded climate change deniers. What interest do scientific organizations all over the world have in orchestrating a false issue? There is no obvious answer to this. However, the interest of polluters is obvious. To avert potentially cataclysmic consequences of global warming implies a reduction in the use of carbon-based energy. This reduction adversely affects the profits of carbon-based energy producers.

My article, which is mainly about the road we are on to thermo-nuclear war, reports as a second cataclysmic or apocalyptic event, the sudden release of massive methane locked in Arctic ice and permafrost. That such a thing could happen seems not to be controversial. The corrections I received from my readers focused on the melting Arctic ice. There is nothing unusual, I am assured, about the ice melt in summer. It always melts and then it refreezes.

Yes, of course, this is true. But what those setting me straight seem not to know is that each year more of the ice melts, but less refreezes and is much thinner. Moreover, the former impenetrable Arctic Northwest Passage has now thawed so much that the passage is open to cruise ships and freighter traffic.

So, if there is no global warming, why is the Arctic ice cap receding, which it most definitely is doing? Indeed, unambigious evidence shows that both North and South poles are losing ice. Apparently, in the Arctic this is because as the ice, which reflects the sunlight, recedes, the darker areas of the sea, which hold the sun’s heat, take its place. In the Anarctic, the ice appears to be melting because warmer water is melting the ice from below. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stable-antarctic-ice-is-suddenly-melting-fast/

Below is a sample of various real news reports on the shrinkage of Arctic ice in the 21st century. The shrinkage is unprecedented in recorded history.

For what appears to be the first time in recorded history, a direct seagoing route from Europe to Asia, around the north side of Canada, is ice free.

The opening of the Northwest Passage is among the most conspicuous results of global warming and average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere.

Until 2009, the Arctic pack ice prevented regular marine shipping throughout most of the year. Arctic sea ice decline has rendered the waterways more navigable.

The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet. The extent of Arctic sea ice, which melts to its low each September, has steadily declined over the past three decades, as the chart below illustrates. The years 2007–2012 saw the six lowest levels since satellite imaging began in 1979. The trend is likely unmatched in recent human history, reported a UN panel on climate change in 2013.

We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3 million sq km which is about 1 million sq km less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006. There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100 000 sq km per year on average, so a drop of 1 million sq km in just one year is extreme.

Beyond surface area, recent data indicate that Arctic sea ice is also younger and thinner, and hence more inclined to melt. Less white ice and more dark sea means that more solar radiation is absorbed, accelerating the thaw.

Of course, we could dismiss these facts, as a few of my readers do, on the basis of faith that it will all turn around. But we should at least have a basis for our faith.

The thawing of the Northwest Passage was predicted in 2002. No doubt the scientists who predicted the thawing were ridiculed for their fake news and plot against capitalism. The thawing actually occurred three years before the predicted date.

Whereas I am proud that my readers show their willingness to protect me from threats and error, I am saddened to learn that a few of them read me in order to have their prior beliefs confirmed and that when my columns do not confirm their prior beliefs, they kiss me good-bye with rude, aggressive, and condescending words.

The reason to read me is to learn to notice and think for yourself. If you read me, or anyone, for confirmation of your prior beliefs, you are not doing yourself a favor. Uninformed prior beliefs are part of The Matrix. So is carbon industry brainwashing.

Read More @ PaulCraigRoberts.org

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The FBI Has Secretly Gathered Millions Of “Faceprints” For Biometric Database For Years

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by Derrick Broze, Activist Post:

A representative of the FBI was grilled by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding the agency’s growing biometric database.

Washington D.C. – On Wednesday the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform questioned Kimberly Del Greco, Deputy Assistant Director at the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division, about why the bureau broke the law by failing to file a privacy impact statement acknowledging the collection of millions of Americans’ faces for the agency’s new biometric identification system. The FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system is made up of fingerprints, iris scans, faceprints, and other facial recognition data. The NGI organizes Americans’ biometric data into a single file that includes personal and biographic data like name, home address, ID number, immigration status, age, race, etc.

The Committee reports that nearly half of all adult Americans’ photographs are in the database. The 2013 U.S. Census Bureau estimated that there are over 242 million adults living in the U.S. If the Committee’s numbers are correct, over 121 million adults are in the FBI’s database. Other revelations include that 18 states have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the FBI to share photos with the federal government, including from state departments of motor vehicles (DMV). According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center:

With NGI, the FBI will expand the number of uploaded photographs and provide investigators with ‘automated facial recognition search capability.’ The FBI intends to do this by eliminating restrictions on the number of submitted photographs (including photographs that are not accompanied by tenprint fingerprints) and allowing the submission of non-facial photographs (e.g. scars or tattoos).

The FBI also widely disseminates this NGI data. According to the FBI’s latest NGI fact sheet, 24,510 local, state, tribal, federal and international partners submitted queries to NGI in September 2016.

Committee Chairman Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R- Utah) scolded Ms. Del Greco for the FBI’s failures. “The failure here is years after you were supposed to make it public,” Chaffetz stated. “You were using it in real world circumstances, you were actually using it and didn’t issue the statement.” Chaffetz also asked Del Greco whether the FBI had plans to gather faceprints via social media. “Are you collecting that information that is available on social media?,” the chairman demanded. “We do not have any other photos in our repository.”

Alvaro Bedoya, Executive Director, Center on Privacy and Technology Georgetown Law, questioned the FBI’s claim, stating that the bureau has access to driver’s license photos. “We have access to that data but we do not use it,” Del Greco answered. Jennifer Lynch, Senior Staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation also stated that the FBI has access to “civil photos” in the NGI database.

Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI) also questioned Del Greco regarding the FBI’s activities. “I think the issue goes beyond the First Amendment concerns that were expressed. . .and is broader,” Mitchell stated during the panel. “I don’t want to just protect someone if they’re in a political protest from being identified, the reality is we should protect everybody unless there is a valid documented criminal justice action. Why should my photo. . .be subject because I get a driver’s license, to access?” Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) expressed similar fear regarding the possibility that the expectation of privacy is quickly fading. Duncan worried that Americans looking at the information, “would wonder if were ending up in a federal police state that’s gotten totally out of control, and has far too much power.”

Duncan is not far off. The databases include photos those of people who aren’t suspected of any criminal activity that come from driver’s license and passport and visa photos. Other issues with the FBI database include misidentifying females and blacks at a higher rate. The FBI is currently facing a lawsuit from EPIC regarding the database. EPIC is asking a judge to force the FBI to release records about its plan to share the biometric data with the U.S. Department of Defense. EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2015, but the FBI has so far refused to release the 35 pages of responsive records.

Read More @ ActivistPost.com

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"They're Like The Praetorian Guard" - Whistleblower Confirms NSA Targeted Congress, The Supreme Court, & Trump

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Authored by Chris Menahan via InformationLiberation.com,

NSA whistleblower William Binney told Tucker Carlson on Friday that the NSA is spying on "all the members of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, both House and Senate, as well as the White House."

Binney, who served the NSA for 30 years before blowing the whistle on domestic spying in 2001, told Tucker he firmly believes that Trump was spied on.

"They're taking in fundamentally the entire fiber network inside the United States and collecting all that data and storing it, in a program they call Stellar Wind," Binney said.

 

"That's the domestic collection of data on US citizens, US citizens to other US citizens," he said. "Everything we're doing, phone calls, emails and then financial transactions, credit cards, things like that, all of it."

"Inside NSA there are a set of people who are -- and we got this from another NSA whistleblower who witnessed some of this -- they're inside there, they are targeting and looking at all the members of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, both House and Senate, as well as the White House," Binney said.

 

"And all this data is inside the NSA in a small group where they're looking at it. The idea is to see what people in power over you are going to -- what they think, what they think you should be doing or planning to do to you, your budget, or whatever so you can try to counteract before it actually happens," he said.

"I mean, that's just East German," Tucker responded.

Rather than help prevent terrorist attacks, Binney said collecting so much information actually makes stopping attacks more difficult.

"This bulk acquisition is inhibiting their ability to detect terrorist threats in advance so they can't stop them so people get killed as a result," he said.

 

"Which means, you know, they pick up the pieces and blood after the attack. That's what's been going on. I mean they've consistently failed. When Alexander said they'd stop 54 attacks and he was challenged to produce the evidence to prove that he failed on every count."

Binney concludes ominously indicating the origin of the deep state...

"They are like the praetorian guard, they determine what the emperor does and who the emperor is..."

Who's going to stop them?

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America's retail apocalypse: How 3,500 stores are set to close across the country in just the next two months

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Thousands of US retail stores are set to close across the country in the next two months.

More than 3,500 shops are expected to shut down due to the rise in online shopping, in what is becoming one of the biggest retail closures in decades.

Chains like Abercrombie & Fitch, American Apparel and Guess are shutting down branches, as well as major department stores like Macy's, JCPenney, Sears, and Kmart.

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Despite Ag Industry Efforts, First Bee Species Listed As Endangered

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The rusty-patched Bumble bee (Bombus affinis) has become the first bee species to be officially placed on the endangered species list (Photo: Dan Mullen/Flickr)

MINNEAPOLIS – While proposals to place honeybees on the endangered species list have been in speculation for months, some have argued that the population of the world’s most important pollinator could still make a comeback. However, that has proven not to be the case, as the first bee species has now been officially placed on the endangered species list by the United States Department of the Interior.

The rusty patched bumblebee, once one of the most prominent insects in the Midwest, has officially been recognized as endangered by the federal government, owing to a 90-percent decrease in its population in just the past few years. This rapid decline has sparked concern over the potential collapse of the entire national bee population – a collapse that would have drastic implications for both the U.S. economy and environment.

The decline has indeed been rapid, as well as drastic, with 40 to 60 percent of the U.S. honeybee population disappearing just in 2015. The situation has since worsened, with more than half of all bee species in decline and 347 species “spiraling toward extinction,” according to a recent report released by the Center for Biological Diversity.

But like all major environmental crises facing the U.S., there is plenty of disagreement as to what is responsible for the massive decrease in the bee population, which has an estimated economic value of 3.5 billion dollars. However, several studies has shown that the large-scale use of pesticides in the agricultural industry has played a major role in the pollinator’s worrisome decline.

Beginning in 2012, major studies began to reveal a link between certain classes of pesticides – neonicotinoids, specifically – and colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon in which bees abandon their hives and die as a result. These findings prompted the European Food Safety Authority to deem neonicotinoid use an “unacceptable” danger to bee populations.

Subsequent studies, including one conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health in 2014, replicated these results. A year later, researchers at the University of St. Andrews found that neonicotinoids directly impair bee brain function, resulting in the poor performance of bee colonies. Last year, a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that neonicotinoids reduced male bee sperm counts by up to 40 percent.

Despite the growing scientific consensus linking the declining bee population to pesticide use, industry-funded scientists and agrochemical producers are evidently intent on defending the safety and usefulness of their products. It is in their economic interest to do so, as neonicotinoids represent 40 percent of the entire insecticide market, generating billions in global sales annually.

These same corporations and interest groups have strongly criticized the government’s decision to place the rusty patched bumblebee on the endangered species list, calling it a “hasty listing decision” with consequences that “are difficult to overstate.”

One group opposing the decision is the American Petroleum Institute, which is likely interested in the issue because petroleum derivatives are key ingredients in pesticides. The National Cotton Council in America has also voiced opposition – likely because the cotton industry accounts for 24 percent of global insecticide sales.

While defending their products may be in the short-term interest of pesticide companies and other industry beneficiaries, the disappearance of the bee population is a concern for the long-term survival of not just the agricultural industry, but entire ecosystems. It remains to be seen if official recognition of the dwindling bee population will be enough to override industry lobbying efforts among scientists and politicians.

The post Despite Ag Industry Efforts, First Bee Species Listed As Endangered appeared first on MintPress News.

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Wikileaks Releases “NightSkies 1.2”: Proof CIA Bugs “Factory Fresh” iPhones

ORIGINAL LINK

from ZeroHedge:

A new WikiLeaks Vault 7 leak titled “Dark Matter” claims that the Central Intelligence Agency has been bugging “factory fresh” iPhones since at least 2008 through suppliers. The documents are expected to be released after a 10 a.m. EDT “press briefing” that WikiLeaks promoted on its Twitter.

RELEASE: CIA #Vault7 "Dark Matter" https://t.co/pgnfeODXVB pic.twitter.com/vkI16f3vMD

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 23, 2017

Here is a live stream of the pending press briefing with Julian Assange:

LIVE: WikiLeaks press briefing in some minutes: CIA #Vault7 "darkmatter" ask questions with #AskWL https://t.co/ldG78exSsu

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 23, 2017

And here is the full press release from WikiLeaks:

Today, March 23rd 2017, WikiLeaks releases Vault 7 “Dark Matter”, which contains documentation for several CIA projects that infect Apple Mac Computer firmware (meaning the infection persists even if the operating system is re-installed) developed by the CIA’s Embedded Development Branch (EDB). These documents explain the techniques used by CIA to gain ‘persistence’ on Apple Mac devices, including Macs and iPhones and demonstrate their use of EFI/UEFI and firmware malware.

Among others, these documents reveal the “Sonic Screwdriver” project which, as explained by the CIA, is a “mechanism for executing code on peripheral devices while a Mac laptop or desktop is booting” allowing an attacker to boot its attack software for example from a USB stick “even when a firmware password is enabled”. The CIA’s “Sonic Screwdriver” infector is stored on the modified firmware of an Apple Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter.

“DarkSeaSkies” is “an implant that persists in the EFI firmware of an Apple MacBook Air computer” and consists of “DarkMatter”, “SeaPea” and “NightSkies”, respectively EFI, kernel-space and user-space implants.

Documents on the “Triton” MacOSX malware, its infector “Dark Mallet” and its EFI-persistent version “DerStake” are also included in this release. While the DerStake1.4 manual released today dates to 2013, other Vault 7 documents show that as of 2016 the CIA continues to rely on and update these systems and is working on the production of DerStarke2.0.

Also included in this release is the manual for the CIA’s “NightSkies 1.2” a “beacon/loader/implant tool” for the Apple iPhone. Noteworthy is that NightSkies had reached 1.2 by 2008, and is expressly designed to be physically installed onto factory fresh iPhones. i.e the CIA has been infecting the iPhone supply chain of its targets since at least 2008.

While CIA assets are sometimes used to physically infect systems in the custody of a target it is likely that many CIA physical access attacks have infected the targeted organization’s supply chain including by interdicting mail orders and other shipments (opening, infecting, and resending) leaving the United States or otherwise.

Read More @ ZeroHedge.com

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There Is Something Seriously Wrong With The World When…

ORIGINAL LINK

by Katherine Frisk, The International Reporter:

There is something seriously wrong with the world: 

When a country, a government as well as individuals from that country fund, arm and train terrorists who have murdered thousands, tortured them, rounded up women and children and sold them on sex slave markets or used their bodies to harvest organs and yet the king of that same country flies all over the world in a disgusting display of wealth and opulence and gets to ride on golden escalators.

Those who pander to Saudi Arabia, bow and scrap before them and their arrogant princes, accept millions into their private bank accounts and ensure a steady stream of military hardware to this country, are the same people who demand that a duly elected President by the people of that country, not someone who considers himself the ultimate, infallible and unquestionable ruler due to his birth, must go.

Assad throughout the last six years has stood by Syria and the people of Syria in their time of desperate need. Although he is not a Christian he has shown support for Christians and even attended their church services. Unlike Saudi Arabia where Christians are not allowed to set foot in that country. Assad, like everyone else in Syria is fully aware that at anytime he might lose his life. And yet he has not fled to another country and taken his wealth with him as so many so-called world leaders do after they have lined their own pockets and the going has got too rough for them.

There is something seriously wrong with the world:

When thousands of people die, their families are broken up and their lives ruined due to heroin addiction and yet Afghanistan which is the world’s largest producer of opium is guarded by American military and uses NATO bases to fly out their very lucrative cargo of illegal narcotics. There is no war on drugs, it is a war for drugs.

The same can be said for the CIA who for many years now has been neck-deep in shipping cocaine out of South American countries and has infested the whole of American society to the point where cocaine usage is now considered the norm as opposed to the exception. Between heroin and cocaine it is no wonder that Western Nations have completely lost their minds, their moral compass and any semblance of integrity and real justice has been replaced by mafia criminal gangs, going by the names of the Federal Reserve Bank, the Council On Foreign Relations, Open Society Foundations,  Davos, the Bilderberg Group, the P2 lodge and so many others that now control every sector of society.

There is something very wrong with the world:

When a proper investigation is done into the political situation in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza strip and the person who presents this report to the United Nations is forced to resign and the investigation is suppressed as opposed to being presented to the so-called world leaders whose job it is to prevent wars, human rights abuses and promote just and equitable political governance in all countries.

This, while at the same time condemning Russia, falsely accusing it of invading Eastern Ukraine and declaring the internationally observed referendum in Crimea to be null and void even though the large majority of people living in Crimea no longer wanted to be part of Ukraine, which they never were in the first place until only very recently in their history, and that decision was not of their choosing in the first place.

Glaringly obvious is the lack of reporting in Western media about the over 1 million people from Eastern Ukraine who have fled to Russia since the start of the civil war in 2014. Or that it is Russia who has continuously supplied humanitarian aid to the traumatized, starving and penniless people in the Donbass region ever since the Kiev Nazi junta has taken it upon themselves to constantly grad rocket the whole region, this because the people of Donetsk and Lughansk both voted in internationally observed referendums for independence from Ukraine and a government whose policies they neither voted for nor support thanks the coup in Ukraine engineered and directed by Victoria Nuland, Joe Biden, Lindsey Graham, John McCain and George Soros’s “colour revolution” courtesy of yet another one of his Open Society foundations.

Read More @ Theinternationalreporter.org

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BOMBSHELL: CIA Whistleblower Leaked Proof Trump Under "Systematic Illegal" Surveillance Over Two Years Ago: FBI Sat On It

ORIGINAL LINK

The same day House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes gave a press conference disclosing that President Trump had been under "incidental surveillance," Attorney and FreedomWatch Chairman, Larry Klayman, sent a letter to the House Committee on Intelligence imploring them to pursue the claims and evidence presented under oath at a Washington DC FBI Field Office by his client - CIA / NSA Whistleblower Dennis Montgomery - who Klayman claims "holds the keys to disproving the false claims...   ...that there is no evidence that the president and his men were wiretapped"

When Montgomery attempted to deliver this information through the appropriate channels two years ago, the former CIA and NSA contractor wasn't given the time of day:

[W]hen Montgomery came forward as a whistleblower to congressional intelligence committees and various other congressmen and senators, including Senator Charles Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who, like Comey, once had a reputation for integrity, he was “blown off;” no one wanted to even hear what he had to say.

As a result, Montgomery went to attorney and FreedomWatch founder Larry Klayman - who then approached the FBI: 

Under grants of immunity, which I obtained through Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Curtis, Montgomery produced the hard drives and later was interviewed under oath in a secure room at the FBI Field Office in the District of Columbia. There he laid out how persons like then-businessman Donald Trump were illegally spied upon by Clapper, Brennan, and the spy agencies of the Obama administration.

Montgomery left the NSA and CIA with 47 hard drives and over 600 million pages of information, much of which is classified, and sought to come forward legally as a whistleblower to appropriate government entities, including congressional intelligence committees, to expose that the spy agencies were engaged for years in systematic illegal surveillance on prominent Americans, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, other justices, 156 judges, prominent businessmen such as Donald Trump, and even yours truly. Working side by side with Obama's former Director of National Intelligence (DIA), James Clapper, and Obama's former Director of the CIA, John Brennan, Montgomery witnessed “up close and personal” this “Orwellian Big Brother” intrusion on privacy, likely for potential coercion, blackmail or other nefarious purposes. 

 

He even claimed that these spy agencies had manipulated voting in Florida during the 2008 presidential election, which illegal tampering resulted in helping Obama to win the White House.

Given the fact that the FBI had Montgomery's testimony and evidence for over two years, Klayman traveled to Washington DC last Thursday to meet with Committee Chairman Devin Nunes in the hopes that he would ask FBI Director Comey why the FBI hadn't pursued Montgomery's evidence. When Klayman arrived to speak with Nunes, he was "blown off" and instead shared his information with committee attorney Allen R. Souza - who Klayman requested in turn brief Nunes on the situation.

During my meeting with House Intelligence Committee counsel Allen R. Sousa I politely warned him that if Chairman Nunes, who himself had that same day undercut President Trump by also claiming that there is no evidence of surveillance by the Obama administration, I would go public with what would appear to be the House Intelligence Committee’s complicity in keeping the truth from the American people and allowing the FBI to continue its apparent cover-up of the Montgomery “investigation.”

 

And, that is where it stands today. The big question: will House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nunes do his job and hold FBI Director Comey’s feet to the fire about the Montgomery investigation?

Klayman has detailed all of this in a NewsMax article, followed up with an official letter to Chairman Nunes today, requesting that he question Comey on Montgomery's evidence. Perhaps this explains Nunes' impromptu press conference today admitting that Trump's team was under "Incidental Surveillance" before making his way to the White House to discuss with the President.

So - we know that evidence exists from a CIA / NSA contractor turned whistleblower, detailing a massive spy operation on 156 judges, the Supreme Court, and high profile Americans including Donald Trump. See the letter below:

Freedom Watch bombshell letter to Rep. Devin Nunes1/4 https://t.co/CZ4haCVauK pic.twitter.com/NnKogSytSC

— ZeroPointNow(@ZeroPointNow) March 23, 2017

Freedom Watch bombshell letter to Rep. Devin Nunes2/4 https://t.co/CZ4haCVauK pic.twitter.com/6Ls9a9kXAQ

— ZeroPointNow(@ZeroPointNow) March 23, 2017

Freedom Watch bombshell letter to Rep. Devin Nunes3/4 https://t.co/CZ4haCVauK pic.twitter.com/90KUdW9eH1

— ZeroPointNow(@ZeroPointNow) March 23, 2017

Freedom Watch bombshell letter to Rep. Devin Nunes 4/4 https://t.co/CZ4haCVauK pic.twitter.com/l29p9JzBsU

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) March 23, 2017

 

Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com * Follow on Twitter @ZeroPointNow

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Emails between the EPA & Monsanto now revealed (The contents are sickening!)

Emails between the EPA & Monsanto now revealed (The contents are sickening!): "These documents show what many of us have known and suspected for quite some time… Monsanto is manipulating scientific research and has gotten some EPA officials on their side who seem to be helping them cover-up the health dangers of Roundup so they can keep it on the market."



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