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Author: Kit

Kit is a gonzo journalist from Austin, Texas.

Booz Allen Hamilton: NSA’s ‘Digital Blackwater’ A Sign Of Deep Ties Between US Gov’t & Private Spies

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Booz Allen Hamilton, a powerful government contractor at the heart of multiple leaks of classified material from the NSA, also spends big on D.C. lobbying, and its employees have given generously to presidential campaigns this election cycle.

In light of Booz Allen Hamilton’s role in two major leaks of government surveillance secrets, the corporation’s lobbying efforts and its employees’ campaign contributions reflect the deep ties between private corporations and the U.S. government and its national intelligence apparatus.

In August, the FBI quietly arrested Harold Thomas Martin, a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor, for stealing classified documents. News of his arrest finally surfaced last week. Martin may have been responsible for the leak of a suite of malware tools that the NSA uses to secretly access computers.

Noam Chomsky: US Had A ‘Pretty Supportive Attitude’ Toward Fascism In 1930s

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

While the typical narrative of American history positions the United States as a supporter of democracy and opponent of fascism which helped to defeat the Nazis, key figures in Washington also supported dangerous dictators in Italy and Germany in their early days of power.

Noam Chomsky, the renowned political philosopher, historian and scholar, examined the flip side of U.S. opposition to dictatorship in a conversation with Zain Raza, a senior editor at the independent media outlet acTVism Munich. An excerpt from the conversation was published Sept. 30 as part of acTVism Munich’s “Reexamining History” series.

Speaking to Raza about Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Chomsky said President Franklin Roosevelt was “pretty supportive of Mussolini’s fascism.”

Poking The Bear: Dems & Reps Court War With Russia By Supporting Syrian No-Fly Zone

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Republican nominee Gov. Mike Pence called for a no-fly zone in Syria, a sign of growing bipartisan support for a measure that military experts have warned could ultimately provoke war with Russia.

It’s an alarming prospect that comes amid rising tensions between the two superpowers, and some suggest it could even lead to a devastating exchange of nuclear weapons.

“The United States of America needs to be prepared to work with our allies in the region to create a route for safe passage [for humanitarian aid] and then to protect people in those areas, including with a no-fly zone,” Pence saidduring a discussion of the crisis in Syria and a proposal for creating humanitarian “safe zones.”

DEA Delays ‘Unprecedented’ Ban On Kratom Amid Popular Protest & Government Pushback

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

The Drug Enforcement Agency has delayed the implementation of its ban on kratom, a plant-based treatment for depression, anxiety, chronic pain and addiction that originated in Southeast Asia but has gained widespread popularity in the United States.

Although the DEA has abandoned the emergency scheduling decision announced on Aug. 30, the agency says it still plans to classify kratom as a Schedule I drug, alongside substances like heroin, cocaine, and even marijuana, which the federal government claims have no medical benefits.

“We have determined that it represents an imminent hazard, so we’re not going to drag our feet very long,” DEA spokesman Russ Baer said on Sept. 30, the day the ban was supposed to go into effect. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when.”

From Facebook To The DEA, Industrial Hemp Industry Growth Stumped By War on Drugs

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

America’s burgeoning hemp industry faces significant barriers that can only be torn down by the full legalization of this potentially lucrative crop.

Hemp was once one of America’s essential crops, grown by presidents and cash croppers alike, and wars were fought over access to this valuable commodity. It became illegal to grow hemp in the United States with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The federal law bans all forms of the cannabis plant, even though industrial hemp has very low levels of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis that’s grown for recreational or medicinal use.

The 2014 Farm Bill reopened the door to legal hemp cultivation by allowing states which had legalized industrial hemp to license farmers to grow the plant for research purposes, including market research. But many aspects of federal regulation and law surrounding hemp remain “opaque” and confusing, according to John Ryan, founder and director of Ananda Hemp. A subsidiary of the Australian hemp company EcoFibre Industries, Ananda Hemp is growing hundreds of acres of hemp in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Why Veterans With PTSD Are Turning To Cannabis

Posted in Journalism, and The Establishment

When Dr. Sue Sisley, a lifelong Republican, was just beginning her residency at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix, she refused to believe her patients when they told her about the healing potential of cannabis.

“I’ve always been interested in cannabis as a social justice issue and a matter of public policy, but I was never able to embrace it as medicine until these veterans really taught me how,” Sisley told me.

Sisley was “highly dismissive and judgmental” of marijuana at first but, over time, as more and more veterans shared their experiences, she started to accept its therapeutic potential.

Now, not only does she regularly treat multiple conditions by prescribing legal medical cannabis as an Arizona-based family physician, she’s part of a team involved in the first government-funded study to examine the effectiveness of cannabis in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in vets.