Meet the “Dirty Brigades” – The U.S. Trained and Funded Iraqi Soldiers Accused of War Crimes

Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 11.13.23 AMU.S.-trained and armed Iraqi military units, the key to the American strategy against ISIS, are under investigation for committing some of the same atrocities as the terror group, American and Iraqi officials told ABC News. Some Iraqi units have already been cut off from U.S. assistance over “credible” human rights violations, according to a senior military official on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

The U.S. is shipping almost $1 billion in weapons, as well as providing U.S. military trainers to instruct new Iraqi recruits. A special operations official in Baghdad, however, said it’s the government of Iraq that decides — not the Pentagon — which Iraqi units get U.S.-donated weapons, such as 43,000 M4 rifles and thousands of other light infantry weapons Congress approved for shipment in December.

“Ministry of Interior officials tortured detainees to death, according to reports from multiple government officials and human rights organizations,” read the annual report. The Bureau explicitly fingered the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces and Interior Ministry’s special police units — which the U.S. established, trained and armed from 2003-2011, and whose troops are seen in many of the atrocities images.

From the ABC News article: ‘Dirty Brigades’: US-Trained Iraqi Forces Investigated for War Crimes

This is another one of those “you can’t make this stuff up” articles, which perfectly highlights the complete idiocy and incompetence of American foreign policy. It’s no wonder nothing gets better, considering the corrupt status quo continues to merely rotate the same empty suits between various positions of power (see:Jeb Bush Exposed Part 1 – His Top Advisors Will Be the Architects of His Brother’s Iraq War). It’s literally like giving people with the mental capacity and wisdom of an infant, nuclear weapons and telling them to go crazy.

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IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office

I’d like to say that the following is unbelievable, but it’s not.  Unfortunately, it is all too believable.  From ABC:

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

USA! USA!

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

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Court Decided it’s OK to Not Hire Cops with High IQs

I heard about this case a while ago, but never got around to posting it previously.  Amazingly, back in September 2000 the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York decided it is lawful for the New London, Connecticut Police Department to not hire Robert Jordan on the basis that he is too intelligent for the job. Unfortunately, I’m not making this up.  While this is more than a decade old, I think everyone should be aware of it.  From ABC News:

A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

“This kind of puts an official face on discrimination in America against people of a certain class,” Jordan said today from his Waterford home. “I maintain you have no more control over your basic intelligence than your eye color or your gender or anything else.”

Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.

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Political Activists May be Banned from San Francisco’s Public Transportation System

This article seems innocuous enough…until you keep reading.  At first it appears entirely reasonable that the BART system (Bay Area Rapid Transit) might look to ban riders for a year who act violently while using the service. However; as is becoming increasingly typical these days, what sounds reasonable at first tends to be awful upon deeper inspection.  For example, according to ABC News in San Francisco:

AB 716 won’t only target violent behavior. It can be applied to protestors who have been arrested during free-speech movements.

I mean this is beyond outlandish and absolutely unacceptable in a free society. It seems to open up a Pandora’s box to punish anyone who publicly expresses dissent against the oligarch controlled society we live in.  Why should anyone who gets into trouble at a protest have their right to public transportation stripped?  It’s one thing if BART wants to ban someone for a year if they cause problems on the BART system itself, it is a whole other issue to ban them from it because of protest activity that has nothing to do with the public transportation system.  If this report is accurate, it is an awful development and a surreptitious attack on free speech.

From ABC News:

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — BART is rolling out a new plan that will allow it to ban passengers who don’t behave. The process started more than a year ago, when state legislators passed a law giving BART that power.

BART already has something called a “stay-away” order that the transit agency can issue, but that needs to go through local prosecutors’ offices and can take a long time. This new plan gives BART the power to make a decision and act right away.

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Teen Arrested at Middle School for Wearing a Pro-Gun T-Shirt

This story perfectly demonstrates what a totally sad society we have become.  We can’t arrest a single banker or political crook, but heaven forbid a 14 year old wears a shirt that expresses support for the Second Amendment.  Arrest that infidel immediately!  We discover that:

A West Virginia teen arrested and accused of nearly inciting a riot after a confrontation with a teacher over his National Rifle Association t-shirt has inspired dozens of students across his county to wear similar apparel in solidarity.

Jared Marcum, 14, had a confrontation Thursday with a Logan Middle School teacher over his NRA t-shirt, which bears the organization’s logo, along with an image of a hunting rifle and the phrase, “Protect your right.”

Marcum’s lawyer, Ben White, said that when the teen was told to remove the shirt or turn it inside out, he attempted to engage the teacher in a debate.

“Jared respects firearms and has training to use them, and believes in the Second Amendment,” White told ABCNews.com. “He believes it’s being threatened by current legislation. He wore [the shirt] as an expression of political speech and the need to protect the Second Amendment.”

Marcum was eventually arrested and taken away by police after refusing to remove the shirt.  White said that when police told the teen they were going to arrest him, he stuck his hands out and said, “Fine.”

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New Study Shows: Food Fraud Soared 60% Last Year

So what is food fraud anyway?  Well, it’s sort of what you would expect.  It’s when companies label food one way, but the truth turns out to be completely different.  I have been predicting an escalation in this trend for years, since it was obvious that as inflation led to increases in food prices, companies would resort to this type of behavior to keep margins inflated.

So in their latest study, the non-profit food fraud detectives at the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) show us the extent of this extremely dangerous trend.  From ABC News:

It’s what we expect as shoppers—what’s in the food will be displayed on the label.

But a new scientific examination by the non-profit food fraud detectives the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), discovered rising numbers of fake ingredients in products from olive oil to spices to fruit juice.

In a new database to be released Wednesday, and obtained exclusively by ABC News today, USP warns consumers, the FDA and manufacturers that the amount of food fraud they found is up by 60 percent this year.

So what are the most commonly faked products?

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