United Nations Declaration (Articles 1 - 30):

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Incoming UN chief names three women to top posts

Incoming UN chief names three women to top posts
Nigerian Minister of the Environment Amina Mohammed, seen in 2015, will be the UN's number two official (AFP Photo/Mireya ACIERTO)

Sustainable Development
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -
"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."
"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


The Declaration of Human Freedom

Archangel Michael (Via Steve Beckow), Feb. 19, 2011

Every being is a divine and eternal soul living in a temporal body. Every being was alive before birth and will live after death.

Every soul enters into physical life for the purpose of experience and education, that it may, in the course of many lifetimes, learn its true identity as a fragment of the Divine.

Life itself is a constant process of spiritual evolution and unfoldment, based on free choice, that continues until such time as we realize our true nature and return to the Divine from which we came.

No soul enters life to serve another, except by choice, but to serve its own purpose and that of the Divine from which it came.

All life is governed by natural and universal laws which precede and outweigh the laws of humanity. These laws, such as the law of karma, the law of attraction, and the law of free will, are decreed by God to order existence and assist each person to achieve life’s purpose.

No government can or should survive that derives its existence from the enforced submission of its people or that denies its people their basic rights and freedoms.

Life is a movement from one existence to another, in varied venues throughout the universe and in other universes and dimensions of existence. We are not alone in the universe but share it with other civilizations, most of them peace-loving, many of whom are more advanced than we are, some of whom can be seen with our eyes and some of whom cannot.

The evidence of our five senses is not the final arbiter of existence. Humans are spiritual as well as physical entities and the spiritual side of life transcends the physical. God is a Spirit and the final touchstone of God’s Truth is not physical but spiritual. The Truth is to be found within.

God is one and, because of this, souls are one. They form a unity. They are meant to live in peace and harmony together in a “common unity” or community. The use of force to settle affairs runs contrary to natural law. Every person should have the right to conduct his or her own affairs without force, as long as his or her choices do not harm another.

No person shall be forced into marriage against his or her will. No woman shall be forced to bear or not bear children, against her will. No person shall be forced to hold or not hold views or worship in a manner contrary to his or her choice. Nothing vital to existence shall be withheld from another if it is within the community’s power to give.

Every person shall retain the ability to think, speak, and act as they choose, as long as they not harm another. Every person has the right to choose, study and practice the education and career of their choice without interference, provided they not harm another.

No one has the right to kill another. No one has the right to steal from another. No one has the right to force himself or herself upon another in any way.

Any government that harms its citizens, deprives them of their property or rights without their consent, or makes offensive war upon its neighbors, no matter how it misrepresents the situation, has lost its legitimacy. No government may govern without the consent of its people. All governments are tasked with seeing to the wellbeing of their citizens. Any government which forces its citizens to see to its own wellbeing without attending to theirs has lost its legitimacy.

Men and women are meant to live fulfilling lives, free of want, wherever they wish and under the conditions they desire, providing their choices do not harm another and are humanly attainable.

Children are meant to live lives under the beneficent protection of all, free of exploitation, with unhindered access to the necessities of life, education, and health care.

All forms of exploitation, oppression, and persecution run counter to universal and natural law. All disagreements are meant to be resolved amicably.

Any human law that runs counter to natural and universal law is invalid and should not survive. The enactment or enforcement of human law that runs counter to natural and universal law brings consequences that cannot be escaped, in this life or another. While one may escape temporal justice, one does not escape divine justice.

All outcomes are to the greater glory of God and to God do we look for the fulfillment of our needs and for love, peace, and wisdom. So let it be. Aum/Amen.


Pope Francis arrives for historic first US visit

Pope Francis arrives for historic first US visit
Pope Francis laughs alongside US President Barack Obama upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, on September 22, 2015, on the start of a 3-day trip to Washington (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)


Today's doodle in the U.S. celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech on its 50th anniversary (28 Aug 2013)

'Love is love': Obama lauds gay marriage activists in hailing 'a victory for America'

'Love is love': Obama lauds gay marriage activists in hailing 'a victory for America'
The White House released this image, of the building colored like the rainbow flag, on Facebook following the supreme court’s ruling. Photograph: Facebook

Same-sex marriage around the world

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Merkel says Turkey media crackdown 'highly alarming'

Merkel says Turkey media crackdown 'highly alarming'
Reporters Without Borders labels Erdogan as 'enemy of press freedom'

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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Secret US court's actions mired in controversy

Deutsche Welle, 10 July 2013


In the US, a special court decides in secret on government requests to monitor alleged terrorists. But some lawyers are concerned that post-9/11 reforms have undermined the judges' ability to keep state power in check.

Although the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was originally designed to buttress US citizens' constitutional rights, the secret judicial body has repeatedly sanctioned a broad expansion of domestic snooping by the federal government in the past five years.

Traditionally, the court ruled on government applications that targeted specific individuals suspected of being foreign agents. But last month, former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed that domestic spying by the intelligence community has become increasingly indiscriminate.

Snowden leaked to the Guardian newspaper a secret court order, which had forced the telecom giant Verizon to open the phone records of its customers to the NSA. He later revealed the PRISM surveillance program, which collects and stores Internet communications in NSA databases in the hunt for terrorism suspects.

The NSA's surveillance programs
 increasingly pick up domestic
 communications
"The FISA court today spends a lot of time signing off on these general government surveillance programs, and for better or worse they're not in a position to look at individual cases to decide whether there is individualized suspicion," Stephen I. Vladeck, an expert on national security law with American University in Washington D.C., told DW.

Bulwark against abuse

In the 1970s, the Senate convened a committee to investigate illegal spying by US intelligence agencies on American citizens. Called the Church Committee, the investigation led to the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978.

Under that act, a court composed of seven judges would review executive branch requests to spy on suspected foreign agents operating in the United States. Acting in secret, the FISA court would protect sensitive national security information while at the same time acting as a check on government abuse.

"The purpose of the court was to provide a judicial branch check on authorized surveillance that had previously been done by the executive branch on its own authority," William C. Banks, director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism at Syracuse College of Law , told DW.

Post-9/11 amendments

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, history's pendulum has swung toward more aggressive intelligence gathering in the United States. Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, passed by Congress shortly after the attacks, expands the government's authority to seize business records. The recent FISA court order forcing Verizon to hand over the phone records of its customers was justified under this provision.

For a period, the Bush administration sought to abandon the FISA system altogether, secretly conducting wiretapping without court order for some five years. The New York Times exposed the program in 2005. Ultimately, public pressure forced the White House to discontinue warrantless wiretapping two years later.

President Bush signed the FISA
Amendments act in 20
08
In lieu of its warrantless program, the Bush administration proposed a stopgap measure called the Protect America Act (PAA), which Congress passed in 2007. In addition to traditional FISA court orders targeting individuals, the legislation also gave the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) the authority to conduct broader surveillance activities for up to a year, focusing primarily on communications between the US and foreign countries.

After the PAA expired, the FISA Amendments Act was passed in 2008, which contained similarly broad provisions. And in 2012, President Obama reauthorized the FISA Amendments Act for another five years, essentially claiming ownership of the program.

"The idea was this would give them the ability to collect broader amounts of information and then they would follow minimization procedures (All data is first collected and then minimized, i.e irrelevant material is tossed out - the ed.)," Laura Donohue, director of the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law, told DW. "They would basically exclude information that did not really specifically relate to the investigation underway."

'End run around fourth amendment'

But these broad surveillance activities have raised constitutional concerns. Last February, Amnesty International USA filed a complaint in federal court. Amnesty argued that the government's expanded surveillance powers violate the fourth amendment of the US constitution, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.

In response, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper argued that Amnesty did not have the standing to sue, because the human rights group could not demonstrate that it had been a target of surveillance. The Supreme Court agreed with Clapper and threw out the case.

Clapper argued that Amnesty had no
standing to challenge the government
"The problem is that the minimization procedures include using any information about criminal activity they may uncover," Donohue said of the surveillance programs. "So now what it's become is an end run around the fourth amendment, where there is no warrant required to collect the information, to find criminal behavior and then to prosecute."

Accountability and independence

There are also questions about the court's accountability and independence. The judicial body was expanded from seven to 11 judges by the Patriot Act. They are chosen by a single person, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and serve for a term of seven years. The FISA court judges are selected from federal district courts. Twelve of the 14 judges who have served this year were originally appointed to the federal bench by Republican administrations, according to Reuters news agency.

"One can reasonably ask whether that's a process that lends itself to an independent court," Vladeck said. "And whether the chief justices who have put judges on the FISA court have made the right kind of determinations."

Legal experts have also raised concerns about whether the FISA court proceedings are adversarial enough. The government's applications before the court are rarely turned down. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the executive branch submitted 1,856 applications to the court in 2012. Not a single application was rejected.

Vladeck recommends attaching a special advocate to the court, whose sole job would be to challenge the government's applications. But he doubts that Congress has the stomach to reform the court.

"This is the very same Congress that reauthorized the FISA Amendments Act last year without batting an eye," he said. "So it's hard for me not to be skeptical."

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