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(Thanx Sander!)

Bin Laden death: 'CIA doctor' accused of treason

A Pakistani commission investigating the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden says a doctor accused of helping the CIA should be tried for high treason.

Dr Shakil Afridi is accused of running a CIA-sponsored fake vaccine programme in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was killed, to try to get DNA samples.
He was arrested shortly after the 2 May US raid that killed the al-Qaeda chief.
The commission has been interviewing intelligence officials and on Wednesday spoke to Bin Laden family members.
Pakistan, which was deeply embarrassed by the raid, has described the covert US special forces operation as a violation of its sovereignty.
A government commission, headed by a former Supreme Court judge, has been charged with discovering how the US military was able to carry out the raid deep within Pakistan without being detected.
It is also investigating how Bin Laden was able to hide in Abbottabad, a garrison town, for several years.
DNA sought After questioning Dr Afridi, the commission said that in view of the record and evidence it was "of the view that prima facie, a case of conspiracy against the State of Pakistan and high treason" should be launched against him.
Washington has been arguing that Dr Afridi should be freed and allowed to live in the US.
In the weeks after the Bin Laden raid, reports emerged that Dr Afridi, a senior Pakistani doctor, had been recruited by the CIA to organise the phoney vaccine drive.
After having tracked down a Bin Laden courier to a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, the CIA wanted to confirm Bin Laden's presence by obtaining a DNA sample from the residents.
It is not clear if any DNA from Bin Laden or any family members was ever obtained.
After the raid, Pakistani authorities took three of Bin Laden's widows and two of his daughters into custody.
The commission said on Thursday that statements had been taken from them and they were no longer required for its investigation.
@'BBC'

Steve Jobs Was Not God

mckenziewark McKenzie Wark

Operation Invade Wall Street (canceled, but a great video) youtube.com/watch?v=lsLuYn…

Seemingly Bogus Website Uses 'Occupy Party' Name... To Sell Ads

Registered here in Australia!
(Thanx Sander!)

Gruen Planet | The Pitch - Trust Murdoch

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruenplanet What happens when your name is your brand and that name has become, well, a little bit toxic. We've challenged our agencies to come up with a campaign to re-establish "Murdoch as a name everyone can trust."

Syria's electronic army

While the battles between the opposition and the Syrian regime are waged on the ground, a different battle is emerging online.
In the midst of a virtual blackout on the city of Hama, citizen videos - often shaky and unverifiable - document the brutality of the Syrian military's crackdown on the city, ongoing since July 31 - the day before the start of Ramadan - while online campaigns, hosted on Facebook and Twitter, aim to draw attention to events on the ground. The narrative: Syrians are suffering and want the world to take notice.
At the same time, and often on the same networks, a different story can be seen, as Syrians in favour of the Assad regime stake out online ground in attempt to shift the narrative in their favour. And though there are individuals who post supportive sentiments about Assad, the overwhelming majority of pro-regime content online appears well-coordinated; the work of organised groups coming together to support the beleaguered president.
The Syrian electronic army
Tunisia's Ben Ali promised a more open internet just one day before he was ousted. In Egypt, Mubarak sought a different strategy, shutting down the majority of the internet for a week in the hopes of disabling activist networks. Syria has taken a different approach to the internet altogether, first unblocking popular social networking sites, then throwing support to pro-regime hackers in the hopes of countering opposition forces online.
As Helmi Noman has documented, the Syrian Electronic Army - a cabal of hackers, acknowledged as a positive force by Assad himself in a June 20 speech - has overtaken certain Facebook pages, such as those belonging to French and US presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama, TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey, and the page for ABC News and flooding them with comments like "we love Bashar al-Assad" and "I live in Syria, stop lying, nothing is happening in Syria".
More recently, the group has targeted the US Department of Treasury, in light of US government plans to impose further sanctions on the Syrian regime.
In addition to flooding Facebook pages, it has coordinated hacking attempts from their own Facebook page, and have defaced or disabled a number of websites. Although Facebook has removed a number of their pages, a quick search of the site brings up numerous new ones, suggesting a strong sense of determination.
Though the "electronic army" doesn't seem to have much of a presence on Twitter, other groups vie for influence there by flooding popular hashtags with largely irrelevant content, such as photographs of the Syrian landscape, often accompanied by other, unrelated hashtags...

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Jillian C. York @'Al Jazeera'

UK government plotted with Israel lobby to ban Salah

The Dandy Warhols wade into the Primal Scream Tory row

The Dandy Warhols have followed Primal Scream's lead in attacking the Conservatives for using their music at the Tory party conference.
Yesterday (October 5), in a case of mistaken identity, Primal Scream believed the Tories had used their track 'Rocks' during Home Secretary Theresa May's speech, causing them to write a furious missive saying they were "totally disgusted" by the news.
But the song actually played was The Dandy Warhols' 'Bohemian Like You', and the Portland, Oregon band are just as unimpressed to discover they were the real soundtrack to the event.
Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor took to the band's website to launch his own tirade against the Conservatives, saying he was so angry, "I wanna puke". He wrote:

Why don't these assholes have right-wing bands make them some right-wing music for their right-wing jerkoff politics? Oh, because right-wing people aren’t creative, visionary or any fun to be around.

It wasn't just the right wing that came under fire, though, as Taylor-Taylor went on to rant: "Jesus, I tend to really dislike ANY people who take sides in politics. It is the single greatest contributor to getting nothing done. Fuck 'politics'."
@'NME'
Hmmm! that last sentence really negates all you said before Mr Asshat!