Tag: Murder

The Khashoggi Affair

The world is talking about the alleged death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi….I have been told that there is no proof he was killed since there was no body (I guess that means that Jimmy Hoffa is still alive and living in Akron)……the problem with that theory is that it is the 21st century and electronics…..

Turkish authorities claim to have audio and video recordings that prove Saudi agents tortured and then murdered Jamal Khashoggi:

The recordings show that a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi in the consulate after he walked in on Oct. 2 to obtain an official document before his upcoming wedding, then killed him and dismembered his body, the officials said.

The audio recording in particular provides some of the most persuasive and gruesome evidence that the Saudi team is responsible for Khashoggi’s death, the officials said.

“The voice recording from inside the embassy lays out what happened to Jamal after he entered,” said one person with knowledge of the recording who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive intelligence.

“You can hear his voice and the voices of men speaking Arabic,” this person said. “You can hear how he was interrogated, tortured and then murdered.”

(antiwar.com)

Really how could they have such recordings?  Ever hear of an Apple Watch?

Turkish officials have an audio recording of the alleged killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the Apple Watch he wore when he walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul over a week ago, a pro-government Turkish newspaper reported Saturday. The new claim was published by the Sabah newspaper, through which Turkish security officials have leaked much information about the case. Authorities recovered the audio from Khashoggi’s iPhone and his iCloud account, the newspaper said. The journalist had given his phones to his fiancée before entering the consulate. The newspaper also alleged Saudi officials tried to delete the recordings first by incorrectly guessing Khashoggi’s PIN on the watch, then later using the journalist’s finger. However, Apple Watches do not have a fingerprint ID unlock function like iPhones, notes the AP.

An Apple Watch can record audio and can sync that later with an iPhone over a Bluetooth connection. The newspaper’s account did not elaborate on how the Apple Watch synced that information to both the phone and Khashoggi’s iCloud account. Saudi Arabia has maintained the allegations against it are “baseless,” though an official early Saturday acknowledged for the first time some believe Khashoggi was killed by the kingdom. Turkish officials say they believe a 15-member Saudi “assassination squad” killed Khashoggi at the consulate; a Saudi-owned satellite news channel has begun referring to the 15-man team as “tourists,” without providing evidence to support the claim.

Funny how these apologists for the Saudis try to make light of the death of this man…..so sad.

Further Reading into the death of a journalist:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/12/the-khashoggi-incident-trumps-special-relationship-with-the-saudi-monarchy/

Can the Trump stumble bum policies do anything?

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-10-11/jamal-khashoggi-case-trump-has-options-with-saudi-arabia

Trump and his family may not be quick to try and make the Saudis accountable for barbaric behavior…..the rest of the world has stepped up while the US waffles…..

The Future Investment Initiative conference scheduled for later this month in Saudi Arabia looks to be in serious peril at this point, as the international backlash against Saudi Arabia over the disappearance, and presumptive killing, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has soured many on having anything to do with the kingdom.

That isolation has meant that most of the major media partners meant to cover this conference have already withdrawn. The World Bank has also withdrawn, and a growing number of top business figures and financiers are pulling out as well.

Khashoggi disappeared earlier this month after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say they have video evidence that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, explaining why he never was seen again.

Though the Saudis have denied any wrongdoing, there is growing backlash internationally, by both governments and private entities, over what is believed to have happened.

(antiwar.com)

This is how the Saudi butt boy responds to this situation……

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/donald-trump-jr-jamal-khashoggi-terrorism#.W8HzDfgnXsQ

Idle words from a privileged little prick.

The question has been asked…..Is this the end of the US-Saudi alliance?

The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi last Tuesday is threatening to upend the terms of the decadeslong alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia. In the nine days since Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian resident of Virginia and a Washington Post columnist, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, politicians, media figures, and foreign policy elites — even those who have fawned over the authoritarian Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — have grown increasingly critical of the U.S.-Saudi alliance.

The U.S. has long given the Saudis a blank check, politically and militarily, and there have been voices advocating for a rethinking of that decades-old relationship for nearly as long as it has lasted. But the widespread belief that the Saudis assassinated Khashoggi inside their consulate has brought those voices squarely into the center. Suddenly, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States is being called into fundamental question.

https://theintercept.com/2018/10/11/is-this-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-us-saudi-alliance/

My thought is that very little can break the financial bonds that the US depends on for the profits of our M-IC.

And the beat goes on……

There will be more to come…….

Turn The Page!

Iraq: Mercenaries And Murder

While Americans were breathing a sigh of relief over their waning fear of Ebola…..BAM!  We have something else to clog the airways with endless hours of trivial bullshit…..the armed attack on Canada’s Parliament building…..the shooting was horrific….what followed afterwards is trivial filler.

But while you were sitting on the edge of your seat there was another news item that will be little reported.

The murder of Iraqi civilians by American mercenaries, oh my bad….American security consultants in 2007…….

.Four former Blackwater security contractors were convicted today in federal court for a 2007 mass shooting in Baghdad that left Iraqi civilians dead, the AP reports. (Some accounts cite an original death toll of 14, but the BBC notes that an Iraqi investigation later raised the total to 17; about the same number were injured.) Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder, while Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and gun charges. The defense had claimed its clients were acting in self-defense after insurgents and Iraqi cops shot at them, while prosecutors painted a picture of the guards having a “low regard and deep hostility toward Iraqi civilians,” as the AP describes it.

The defendants were ordered to jail immediately. Slatten faces life in prison and the others long stretches, but all are expected to appeal. On the day of the Sept. 16, 2007, shootings in Nisur Square, Blackwater guards were trying to clear the way for a State Department convoy before shots rang out, Reuters reports. There was “gunfire coming from the left, gunfire coming from the right,” as hundreds of Iraqi people in the square fled, a prosecutor said in closing arguments. The case incited Iraqi outrage and anti-American feelings around the world and made some question what rules government-employed security contractors had to follow overseas, Reuters notes. (Not surprisingly, Blackwater isn’t known as Blackwater anymore.)

I have been a very vocal opponent of these so-called private security companies, which in reality is a bunch of highly paid mercenaries….who act like they are not to be held accountable….that they are above the law.

There should be NO need for private security firms……it is solely to drive large profits to private hands.

These, especially Blackwater, are private armies…I am sure there should be some sort of constitutional thing concern this situation….

Anyway….did anyone see the movie 7 Days in May?  Maybe you read the book?  If not may I suggest that you do so and see what I am talking about…..okay?

“Jack Da Rippa”

We all have to have our getaways, right?  I spend so much time dealing with news, politics and economics that I need the 2 days of the weekend to cleanse my mind…….

Movie after movie has been made about the killer of White Chapel in London in the late 1800’s…..Jack the Ripper as he was tagged……..my fav movie dealing with this killer is “From Hell” starring Johnny Depp….an excellent version and telling of the story….many TV shows have been produced trying to determine just who the Hell was this person and why all the blood?

Newser) – Trevor Marriott, a former Bedfordshire detective, has been investigating the Jack the Ripper murders for 11 years—and he’s come to the conclusion that the Ripper doesn’t exist, or at least not as he’s traditionally portrayed. Though Jack was supposedly responsible for five grisly murders, Marriott has uncovered 17 unsolved murders between 1863 and 1894, all of which bear Ripper-like signs; some of them took place in America and Germany. He believes German sailor Carl Feigenbaum (who was caught fleeing a Ripper-like murder in New York and was executed in 1896) carried out some of those crimes, but he says the murders would never have gotten the attention they did were it not for one booze-loving journalist. Thomas Bulling forged a letter about the murders from “Jack the Ripper” and sent it to Scotland Yard in 1888, hoping for a sensational story, Marriott tells the Express.

“It was the most ingenious piece of journalism that has kept this mystery alive for 125 years,” Marriott says. “The reality is there was just a series of unsolved murders and they would have sunk into oblivion many years ago, but for … Bulling.” Many of the popular ideas about the Ripper have been disproved—for instance, the victims weren’t disemboweled; their organs were removed in a mortuary. “There just isn’t a Jack the Ripper as such,” says Marriott, who used forensic analysis and other modern-day police techniques to carry out his investigation. “You have to ask yourself if ‘Jack’ is an urban myth. … The facts of this case have been totally distorted over the years.” But if Feigenbaum is enough of a Ripper for you, the Huffington Post has more on why he’s the perfect suspect: His ships were often docked near where many of the murders took place, and the time between killings suggests the murderer may have been a traveler. Click for more theories on the Ripper.

Could this story be finally closed or will this just open more lines of thought?  What are your thoughts, please.

Will There Be An Insanity Defense?

From the VOMITORIUM

For all those that follow the sensationalism in the media…you know those pea brains that cannot live with Britney or Lindsey or Kate and her 8 or any of the gossipy crap that floods the media….you know…if you are one of those……

I personally hate gossipy crap….but I will admit that one and a while there comes a story that I cannot pass up….and van der Sloot is one of those stories…..

You know that sleazoid a couple of years ago was the prime suspect in the death of the Alabama blonde….he was arrested more times than I have hairs on my butt and released because there was no case…no body….no witness….NOTHING!  And now this same little rich turd is being accused of killing a 21 year old Peruvian woman……

He was arrested in Chile and sent back to Peru to face the charges….first he confessed to the crime and then he retracted and then he said it was a burglar and then confessed again and …….the show continues.

But that is not what I want to talk about…….unless you are a complete moron or in a coma then you pretty much know the story….what I want to address is his defense.

My guess is they his attorneys are going to go for an insanity plea.  Why?  Easy!  All the games this Sloot dude is playing…..confessing then retracting then confessing and all the antics he is pulling in police custody.  And then games he has been playing trying to make hay out of the blond’s disappearance in Aruba a couple of years ago….trying to get money for the location of her body and the confessing to that and then not knowing anything other than he left her on the beach.  But now his Moma is involved in a recent interview she stated:

CBS News correspondent Betty Nguyen reported on “The Early Show” Monday that van der Sloot’s mother, Anita van der Sloot, has spoken to a Dutch newspaper and says her son suffers from mental problems and needs psychiatric help. But even more shocking is that she is quoted in the same report saying that he may have had something to do with the death of Stephany Flores.

Anita van der Sloot told the paper, “I now believe that Joran may have indeed done something to Stephany in Peru. Maybe in a burst of anger? I don’t know.”

She said the two spoke on the phone just after Flores’ murder. She told him, “You’re being searched. A girl is dead. Where are you?”

Joran van der Sloot reportedly replied, “It’s not Stephany, is it? No, not Stephany.”

My first thought was, “if not Stephany, then who is dead?”

All this theatrics smell like the set up for an insanity plea.  I do not know what the insanity laws are in Peru, but I would bet that it would be better to be judged insane than to spend 25 years in a Peruvian prison.

IMO, this arrogant tool is a murder….he is just playing games trying to somehow beat the rap.

More Societal Sickos

I recently wrote an opinion on a pstory about the the killing of a baby by her mother who ate parts of the child.  I was immediately attacked by some who say that post partem was nothing to bitch about…I asked for any link that would confirm that it was the case…so far I have nothing.

Also asked the question of what type of society breeds that type pf mental sickness…well still no answer to that question either.  Then I read this story of the 13 year old girl in Wisconsin on the AP website:

A long-simmering feud between a 13-year-old girl and her step-grandfather erupted after the man allegedly poured her milk down the drain, prompting the girl to fatally stab him in the neck, court documents said.

The Milwaukee girl is charged as an adult with first-degree reckless homicide, which carries a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison. At an initial appearance Tuesday in Milwaukee County Children’s Court, she was ordered held on $150,000 cash bond.

Her mother and grandmother declined to speak with The Associated Press after the hearing.

Public defender Joy Sherard told the AP that county officials had intervened in the household on several occasions in the past but she declined to elaborate, citing concern for the family’s privacy.

In their criminal complaint, prosecutors said the confrontation began Saturday after Brown went shopping with her mother and Moon’s stepdaughter, Denitra Aldridge, and brought groceries back to the house.

Aldridge and Brown poured bowls of cereal, but when they tried to add milk Moon sarcastically told Brown she could have some only after Aldridge’s child was served, authorities said.

Aldridge told investigators Brown responded with a profane outburst, adding “Next time I’m going to bust you.”

Prosecutors said the 48-year-old Moon dumped what was left of the milk down the drain and turned his back, taking a glass of milk into the living room, apparently to prepare it for the baby.

Aldridge told authorities Brown grabbed a paring knife with a 2- to 3-inch handle from the sink and charged after Moon. Aldridge told investigators she previously had seen Brown threaten Moon with knives but never use them.

Brown knocked the milk out of Moon’s hand, and when he turned, she swung at him, according to the complaint. Aldridge said she thought Moon had been punched in the face, but then saw he was covered in blood.

State law mandates that children older than 10 accused of first-degree intentional or reckless homicide be charged in adult court, said district attorney John Chisholm. He said the case should remain in adult court, although he expected the defense would seek to have the case returned to juvenile court.

Okay there maybe some history of discontent between the two, but wasd this something to kill another person over?  I continue to ask, what type of society do we have that this type of thing is becoming common place?

One could argue that it seems more common because of the 24 hoour news cycle and this type of thing has been going on for some time and we are just now being exposed to it my readily.  Even it that is true…what type of society are we leaving for our children?

The Story That Is Blackwater

They are baaaack!  You know that “security” firm that hires mercenaries, oh sorry…my bad….ex-soldiers to work as security across the world…..mostly in the armed conflict areas like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two ex-employees of the company have turned into whistle blowers for the government.  In a report by Scott Horton some of the allegations against Blackwater, oh my bad…name change…Xe, as reported by Scott Horton:

  • Both men requested anonymity to avoid mortal threats. “It appears that Mr. Prince or his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities,” said John Doe #1. John Doe #2 says he received personal threats after leaving Blackwater.
  • Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.” He “intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis.”
  • Blackwater “employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms of Iraqis and other Arabs, such as ‘ragheads’ or ‘hajis.’”
  • Blackwater deployed to Iraq individuals who (a) made “statements about wanting to… ‘kill ragheads’ or achieve ‘kills’ or ‘body counts,’” (b) drank excessively, (c) used steroids, and (d) failed to follow safety and other instructions governing the use of lethal weapons. Mental-health professionals who raised concerns about deployment of such individuals were fired.
  • Prince obtained “illegal ammunition… designed to explode after penetrating within the human body” and smuggled it into Iraq for use.
  • Prince distributed other illegal weapons for use in Iraq.
  • Prince was aware of the use of prostitutes, “including child prostitutes,” at Blackwater’s “Man Camp” in Iraq, which he visited.
  • Will be interesting to see how far this will go considering that Prince and his family are heavily in the pocket of the Bush dynasty.