Government Demands Inventory of All VFW Weapons

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
June 9, 2009

An Infowars reader has passed along an email sent to VFW commanders by the Assistant Adjutant of the Department of Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars indicating the U.S. Army TACOM (Tactical Army Command) is demanding an inventory of all weapons held by VFW posts.

	Email sent to VFW commanders Inventory form

“While you may have had possession of this equipment for 20, 40, 60 or 100 years,” the email states, “it still belongs to the U.S. Military.”

The email arrived with an inventory attachment where all weapons are to be listed and the document sent to the Department of Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars. “This form will then be bounced off of the central database of all Texas VFW Posts at U.S. Army TACOM to verify serial numbers of each item that has been issued. This is a very extensive list and goes back to before the VFW was founded. So if you have a cannon from the Spanish-American War — it’s on the list.”

Many VFW halls around the country have decommissioned military weapons on their properties along with uniforms, statues and flags from every era. It is a common practice for VFW honor guard units to use M-1 rifles made into blank firing devices for salutes at parades and funerals. Weapons held by VFW posts are generally kept under lock and key in storage rooms.

TACOM is not simply interested in blank firing devices and antique rifles and pistols, however. “Weapons and Equipment consist of but is not limited to, Rifles, Pistols, Mortars, Artillery, Tanks, Vehicles, Aircraft, Missiles, Aircraft Carriers (sic), etc, from any period.”

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According to the email, any attempt “hide” the items will be dealt with severely. “Please do not try and hide this as all weapons and equipment not accounted for will be reported to the FBI and BATF as stolen military equipment,” writes Dan West, retired Sgt. USMC. “I am hopeful that I need not remind anyone of the severity of punishment that can be administered or the legal bills resulting from individuals or elected officers of the Post having possession of stolen military weapons.”

The inventory of weapons at VFW posts is further evidence the government does not trust veterans, even with antiquated and non-functioning military equipment used primarily for display and historical purposes.

Last month the government took the unprecedented step of requiring soldiers at Fort Campbell in Kentucky to disclose all of their privately owned weapons and gun licenses.

“Military officials insist the policy is not connected to a recent controversial Department of Homeland Security report that warned disgruntled veterans could pose a national security threat. Rather, the inventory of private guns is aimed at stemming what the Army claims is an increasing number of accidental discharges by gun-toting soldiers,” NewsMax reported on May 5.

On June 5, WorldNetDaily reported that Fort Bliss in Texas had informed soldiers who live off the premises to provide descriptions, serial numbers, calibers, makes and models of any of the guns they own privately.

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/government-demands-inventory-of-all-vfw-weapons/

Pakistan Hotel Suicide Blast Kills 11, Including UN Aid Worker

Peter S. Green and Ryan Flinn
Bloomberg
June 9, 2009

A United Nations worker and as many as 10 other people were killed in a bomb attack on a hotel popular with foreigners and well-to-do Pakistanis in Peshawar, in the country’s northwest, said media reports and the UN.

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Television pictures showed the front of the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel a shattered wreck of twisted steel and collapsed concrete slabs, as bloodied guests and workers staggered to waiting ambulances.

Suicide attackers in a pickup truck entered the hotel compound spraying security guards with gunfire before slamming the vehicle into the building and detonating the charge, Agence France-Presse reported. No one claimed immediate responsibility for the blast, according to news agency reports.

The attack is the seventh deadly bombing in Peshawar in a month, as fears grow that Taliban militants are exacting revenge for a punishing six-week military offensive against them in three northwest districts, AFP said.

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URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/pakistan-hotel-suicide-blast-kills-11-including-un-aid-worker/

What a “Jobless Recovery” Really Means: A Massive Redistribution of Wealth from the Little Guy to the Big Boys

Washington’s Blog
June 9, 2009

Everyone from the Fed bank of San Francisco to Kiplinger’s is saying that we may have a “jobless recovery”.

The meaning of the phrase jobless recovery itself is simple:

A jobless recovery or jobless growth is a phrase used by economists to describe the recovery from a recession which does not produce strong growth in employment. The phrase originated in the early 1990s in the United States, to describe the economic recovery at the end of President George H.W. Bush’s term; it came back into use during the early 2000s.

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But what is the deeper meaning of a jobless recovery now?

The government has spent more than $12 trillion dollars responding to the financial crisis. But the overwhelming majority of that money has gone to big banks and big corporations.

Obama’s stimulus plan calls for $787 billion dollars in spending. That amounts to less than 7% of the government’s crisis spending.

The fact that much of the stimulus bill is really pork reduces that number still further. And while Obama might throw more stimulus money into the system, independent experts say that total government spending could rise to $20 trillion dollars, so the percentage might substantially decline.

What these figures show is that the government has given well over 90% of the taxpayers’ money to the richest companies and well under 10% for job-creation programs.

Therefore, the “jobless recovery” is really a massive redistribution of wealth from the little guy to the big boys (see this and this).

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/what-a-jobless-recovery-really-means-a-massive-redistribution-of-wealth-from-the-little-guy-to-the-big-boys/

White House had long planned GM and Chrysler bankruptcies

Jerry White
Global Research
June 9, 2009

While the Obama administration publicly claimed it was seeking to avoid bankruptcy filings by Chrysler and General Motors, behind the scenes the White House was determined to throw the two Detroit automakers into the bankruptcy courts.

Steven Rattner

Documents filed with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York make it clear that Obama’s Auto Task Force—headed by millionaire private equity manager Steven Rattner—had decided as early as Inauguration Day that a court-ordered restructuring of GM and Chrysler was needed.

The administration saw this as the most effective means for the companies to jettison unprofitable factories, brands and dealerships, gut the jobs and living standards of current auto workers and escape obligations owed to hundreds of thousands of retirees.

In the aftermath of the two bankruptcy declarations, both GM and Chrysler have announced nearly two dozen plant closings, massive layoffs and the elimination of more than 3,000 car dealerships.

Under the terms of Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code, the two automakers’ most profitable assets are being sold to “new” auto companies. This legal fiction will allow them to sidestep state laws protecting dealerships from the violation of franchise agreements and other legal liabilities, including court cases involving unsafe vehicle claims and asbestos exposure. These liabilities, along with other assets deemed to be unprofitable will languish in the courts for years until they are wound down and liquidated.

In the case of GM, the US Treasury will take a controlling share of the new company in exchange for nearly $50 billion in public assets. President Obama has made it clear the government will not interfere with the prerogatives and interests of private investors and will leave it to a corporate board, made up of proven cost-cutters, to return the company to profitability.

“The federal government will refrain from exercising its rights as a shareholder,” Obama said last week, “In short, our goal is to get GM back on its feet, take a hands-off approach, and get out quickly.”

The government plan involves handing the company—once it is reduced to a fraction of its size and freed from the “legacy costs” of decent wages and retiree benefits—to private investors as soon as possible, at a bargain basement price. This is why Wall Street celebrated the GM bankruptcy last week with a 221-point rally on the New York stock exchange.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that GM will use a portion of the public assets from the US Treasury to subsidize a private equity firm’s buyout of the bankrupt auto parts supplier Delphi. GM will provide more than $2.5 billion of the $3.6 billion necessary for Beverly Hills, California-based buyout firm Platinum Equity to gain control of Delphi, the Journal reported. The newspaper added, “Such transactions can prove hugely profitable for a buyer, depending largely on financing costs and the buyer’s ability to turn around the business.”

Obama’s Auto Task Force has focused on one thing from the beginning: how to exploit the crisis of the auto industry to create conditions for Wall Street to reap huge profits. Its leading figures—Secretary Treasurer Timothy Geithner and White House economic advisor Lawrence Summers—played a key role in the Wall Street bailout, opposing the slightest restrictions on compensation paid to banking executives receiving public money. When it has come to the auto industry, however, they have demanded the most brutal job cuts and wage and benefit concessions from auto workers.

Task force advisors include Wall Street investors Rattner and Ron Bloom. Another advisor, Brian Deese, was described in a recent New York Times article, entitled, “The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling G.M.” The “not-so-graduate of Yale” who “never set foot in an auto plant” until this year has pushed for a court restructuring of the two auto makers from the earliest days of the Obama administration.

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After the Auto Task Force’s first meeting with Rick Wagoner, GM’s former chief executive said publicly that bankruptcy was not a viable option. However, the Times article noted, “from before Inauguration Day, few in Mr. Obama’s circle saw any other choice.”

In late March the Obama administration would fire Wagoner—who continued to oppose bankruptcy—and made it clear it would withhold any additional funding unless the company imposed far more “painful” cuts than outlined in its initial plan. That plan called for the elimination of 47,000 jobs worldwide, including 21,000 hourly workers in the US.

Despite its claims to the contrary, the administration was putting its plans into motion for the forced bankruptcy of Chrysler on April 30 and the century-old GM on June 1.

In his affidavit to the bankruptcy court, Frederick Henderson, who took over from Wagoner as GM’s CEO, made it clear the government left GM no choice but to file for bankruptcy. In the months leading up to the bankruptcy filing, GM had sought desperately to raise cash, cut costs and seek a potential partner. This was taking place in the face of what Henderson said were deteriorating economic conditions, “which can only be described as the worst economic downturn and credit market environment since the Great Depression,” including a fall in per capita vehicle sales to the lowest levels in half a century.

Given the company’s massive debt burden, Henderson said, the US Treasury was the only entity with the financial wherewithal and willingness to purchase the company. The US Treasury made it clear, Henderson said, that it was “only willing to proceed in the context of an expedited sale process authorized and approved under the bankruptcy code.”

The same was true for Chrysler. As late as April 29, the automaker’s executives reportedly still hoped to avoid bankruptcy after extracting concessions from the United Auto Workers and achieving an agreement with most bondholders. According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, “Reluctantly, however, the leaders were recognizing the harsh decision Rattner made weeks earlier: Chrysler was filing for Chapter 11, no matter what.”

Basing itself on correspondence recently released during the Chrysler bankruptcy proceedings, the Free Press continued, “Rattner had met with Ron Kolka, Chrysler’s chief financial officer, and told him how it would go. ‘We need a deal with Fiat today. We were told to pretty much take it,’ Kolka wrote in an e-mail to [Chrysler CEO Bob] Nardelli, Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda and Robert Manzo, a financial consultant Chrysler hired in November. Rattner and his colleague Ron Bloom ‘will call the union in and tell them what will happen. Then they’ll tell the banks, ‘Here’s the deal: take it or liquidate it.’”

Rattner, too, has no knowledge or experience in the auto industry. His major qualifications seem to be his Wall Street connections and an aptitude for raising millions on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, an accomplishment which has earned him the moniker of the “ATM of the DNC.” Rattner, whose net worth is estimated at $600 million, owns a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, a private jet and horse farm. This is the man who has demanded that retired auto workers and their dependents go without dental care and optical benefits.

The forced bankruptcies and dismantling of GM and Chrysler demonstrate the massive influence Wall Street exerts over economic and political life in the US generally and the Obama administration in particular. While the White House officials lambasted auto executives for poor economic decision-making and made any government assistance contingent on massive givebacks from workers, they have treated the financial masters of the universe with nothing but deference, and handed them trillions in public cash.

The outcome of the dismantling of the auto industry will mean that the industrial base of the US will shrink even more and the economy will be further dominated by the type of reckless and socially destructive speculation that is responsible for the worst economic and social crisis since the 1930s.

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/white-house-had-long-planned-gm-and-chrysler-bankruptcies/

Paulson’s Secret Talking Points Reveal Banks Were Forced to Surrender Ownership Stakes to Government

Monica Gabriel
CNSNews
June 9, 2009

Last October, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ordered nine banks that the Treasury Department described as “healthy” financial institutions to surrender ownership interests to the government or else face regulatory action that would force them to surrender ownership interests to the government, according to an internal Treasury Department document.

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Paulson’s extraordinary threat culminated in one of the most sweeping government intrusions into the free-enterprise system in the history of the United States.

Judicial Watch, a nonpartisan watchdog organization, used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the internal Treasury Department “talking points” that were prepared for Paulson to use at his Oct. 13, 2008 meeting with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the nine banks.

At the meeting–to which the bankers were called at short notice–Paulson made a conspicuous display of potential government regulatory power.

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URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/paulsons-secret-talking-points-reveal-banks-were-forced-to-surrender-ownership-stakes-to-government/

Ron Paul Talks Foreign Policy: New Face, Same Policy

Kathleen Wells
The Huffington Post
June 9, 2009

Kathleen Wells: As a member of the U. S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, what is your take on this issue of torture?

Congressman Ron Paul: Well, it’s against the law – both our law and international law. So, we shouldn’t do it. And I’m against it for personal, moral reasons. I think it’s horrible. And for practical reasons, I think it’s absolutely worthless. And if we are serious about getting information, if we use other techniques, we actually get more information.

Kathleen Wells: So, you do believe that we were committing torture in our interrogations in Guantanamo?

Congressman Ron Paul: I don’t think the pictures I’ve seen were fictitious – the ones that were released a year or two ago. And, obviously, there are some more pictures of torture that they draw more attention to because they refuse to release them, which means that it must be a true indictment of what they were doing.

Kathleen Wells: What are your thoughts on President Obama’s decision to release the torture memos?

Congressman Ron Paul: I think he is purely political. I think he has backed down on what he said. He was elected for change and it is the same old stuff and he is as much of a neo-con now as Bush was with this issue and other issues. The war has been expanded. He continues with not closing down Guantanamo. There is probably, for as most [sic] as we can tell, there is still secret rendition going on. We just moved some of this process overseas. We are not going to be aware of it in detail.

Kathleen Wells: You feel President Obama is a neo-con like Bush? You don’t see a distinction between the two administrations?

Congressman Ron Paul: The tone is different, but the policies don’t change. We are spreading the war. The war is expanding. We are not prosecuting those that committed torture. Guantanamo is not going to be closed down. So, no, I don’t see [a distinction between Bush and Obama].

He [Obama] increased the DOD [Department of Defense] budget. We surely could spend some of that money at home where people are really hurting. But we increased the DOD budget, I think, by 10-percent. I can’t see any significant change in foreign policy. The pretense in leaving Iraq was a mild pretense and I’m predicting that’s not going to happen. There are going to be troops in Iraq throughout this administration, I’m convinced.

Kathleen Wells: Why are you convinced?

Congressman Ron Paul: Because I don’t think anyone wants to face the difficulties that might ensue. The problems came from us being there and when we leave, the problems will probably accelerate a bit. And then they will blame leaving for [causing] the problems and, yet, the real problem was going in. So, I think the international pressure that we get from various allies will be so great that we won’t leave. And just don’t expect the policies to change.

It just goes along with what I have said for years. Foreign policy does not change with Republicans or Democrats. Overall, there is very little policy that changes. There is a lot of debate and a lot of rhetoric, but things continue as they do.

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When Clinton was in, the Republicans condemned his Somalia problem. Bush said he wasn’t going to be a nation builder and a policeman of the world and he gets in and he is worse. Obama says Bush is terrible and gets in and all of a sudden, guess who is cheering Obama on right now? People like [Senator] Lindsay Graham. The real hawks of the Republican Party are sorta enjoying this right now. They figure they are winning these fights.

Kathleen Wells: Can you give me your thoughts on former Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent speech on interrogation techniques and national security?

Congressman Ron Paul: I [didn’t] expect anything brand new. He … just [tried] to defend what he had been doing and his involvement over the years. He’ll keep saying that he saved many lives by torturing – which I don’t believe for a minute.

I’m more likely to believe Matthew Alexander and his position on torture. Matthew Alexander was an official that was involved. He was in the Air Force, but he was over there and he carried out over 300 interrogations over there and was very, very successful. But [he] refused orders to ever participate in anything violent or anything that hinted of torture. That is the evidence – you can get more information, rather than less [without using torture].

I think the evidence is now coming out of people saying that the torture wasn’t intended to get information. They got a lot of information from these individuals – these few, these three that are well known now. They got a lot of information from them before they were tortured. They were trying to get them to say that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein in order to justify this illegal war.

Kathleen Wells: Elaborate on why you believe there is no difference between the Obama Administration and the Bush Administration?

Congressmen Ron Paul: In style, they are different. The tone is different and I think there is a benefit to that. But his policies don’t change. Ultimately, policies win out. The strong statements against Iran are still there. And, right now, going through our committee (the Congressional International Relations Committee/the Foreign Affairs Committee), stronger sanctions will be put on Iran – just looking for another fight. And we have taken the position we will not allow them to proceed on any nuclear testing, even if it is within the law and even if it is done peacefully. We are not going to permit that. So no, that position hasn’t changed.

Like I said before, the war is not winding down in Iraq. The violence is increasing. And war is expanding into Afghanistan, sending more troops there. And now we are taking on Pakistan. And, actually, the whole Pakistan thing is just a reflection of a very, very flawed foreign policy of ours. Because we chase the Taliban around and some go into Pakistan and we urge the public government there to do this and that, we are just working very hard to have another war in Pakistan.

Kathleen Wells: What would you be doing differently if you were President? I know you were a Presidential primary candidate.

Congressman Ron Paul: I would bring the troops home. I’d just bring them all home. I’d bring them home from Korea. I’d bring them home from Germany. Save hundreds of billions of dollars and that would be a real boost. In order to stimulate the economy, I would immediately suspend the income tax for everybody.

The money we get into the hands of the people – that would cost less money than these hundreds of billions of dollars of bailouts that go into the pockets of the privileged who then get to take their retirement benefits and all their bonuses. I would do it a lot differently.

Foreign policy, though, would be the big thing. Just move away from that. Take off the sanctions and start trading with Cuba. Not just talk about it, but go ahead and do it.

Kathleen Wells: And Iran?

Congressman Ron Paul: I would treat them like we treated the Soviets. We talked to them. The Soviets had 30,000 nuclear weapons. Iran is not going to bomb anybody. They deserve a little bit of protection for themselves. They have nuclear weapons to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west and all they do is get beat up. There are a bunch of bad people over there, but there are a bunch of bad people all over the world.

Khrushchev wasn’t exactly the nicest guy in the world and he claimed he was going to bury us, too. Even guys like Ronald Reagan talked to him and we worked things out. Their economic system collapsed.

What we ought to do is pay more attention to the goals of Osama Bin Laden. He said, “We will bring you to your knees through your bankruptcy because we are going to drag you over here and we will drain you and we will eventually bring on an economic crisis in your country.” Right now he is winning. Right now the Iraqis are closely aligned with the Iranians. The Shiites are winning. The Sunnis are on the run. We’ve weaponized the whole area. More guns sent over there by the American taxpayer. The Sunnis are all armed. It’s just a very, very ridiculous foreign policy.

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-talks-foreign-policy-new-face-same-policy/

WHO getting close to declaring H1N1 pandemic

Reuters
June 9, 2009

The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday it was getting close to declaring a full-blown pandemic caused by the H1N1 virus, which has infected more than 26,500 people in 73 countries.

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Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director-general, voiced concern at the sustained spread of the new strain in countries including Australia following major outbreaks in North America. Confirmed community spread in a second region would trigger moving to phase 6 from phase 5 on its 6-level pandemic alert scale.

Fukuda, asked whether there was any doubt that a pandemic was under way, told a weekly teleconference: “We are really getting very close to that.” (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay:editing by Andrew Dobbie)

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/who-getting-close-to-declaring-h1n1-pandemic/

Alex Jones Calls for Aid to Expand the Infowar Against the Global Elite

Infowars
June 8, 2009

Pledge your shield in the Infowar and donate this June 11th!
http://infowars.com/moneybomb/

Alex Jones appeals to patriots and truth seekers to support the Infowar and help us expand in the fight against the global elite. By donating, you help us combat the trillions of elite dollars spent on New World Order propaganda and eugenics programs with mere hundreds of thousands aimed at expanded coverage online and on-air. With these funds, the fire of liberty will spread, and freedom can prevail.

Alex tours through the studio and offices to show firsthand what he was able to do with the funds from the first ever moneybomb last year. Alex hopes to match the $250,000 raised last year that enabled the office to grow; with these new funds, he will ramp up the video production facilities and square foot available to fight full-force. With your help, Alex will reawaken millions more to liberty and resistance against the control of the New World Order.

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Like it or not, Alex Jones has become our biggest weapon of resistance against the New World Order. We have a duty to get the message out and stop what is happening; Alex has proven that through the websites, films and his daily radio broadcast, we can reach millions of listeners and gain the critical mass that is needed for victory. Help Alex raise the capital necessary to become a true worldwide beacon of freedom that can penetrate enemy resistance and reach the people in time.

Spread the word and do your part to push tyranny back yet again! Calling all arms to the moneybomb; donate this June 11th!
http://infowars.com/moneybomb/

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/alex-jones-calls-for-aid-to-expand-the-infowar-against-the-global-elite/

The depression quietly deepens

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Telegraph
June 9, 2009

Those of us who still question whether the world has purged its toxins are reduced to the same tiny band of moaning Druids from early 2007, when we shook our heads in disbelief as the carry trade swept Iceland to fresh madness and bankers laughed off sub-prime rot at Bear Stearns.

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We learned then to thicken our skins with walnut juice, lie down in dark rooms, and dissent from Goldman Sachs. Such seclusion is called for once again as Goldman replays its BRIC anthem and raises its oil forecast to $85 a barrel this year, betting that the world will roar back on a tidal wave of liquidity.

It is perhaps unkind to mention that Goldman issued a $200 call at the top of the speculative frenzy last year, just before oil crashed, but they have broad shoulders.

Note that Total’s Jean-Jacques Mosconi said markets are awash with so much crude that almost 100m barrels (a near record) are stored on tankers at sea. Note too that May electricity use fell 10pc in China’s industrial hub of Guangdong from a year earlier. This is revealing, given that China’s fiscal boost has reached peak and will fade later this year.

For guidance on where we are in this long-drawn saga, I look to Berkeley’s Barry Eichengreen, author of the Great Depression classic Golden Fetters – which avoids the error of viewing the 1930s through a US prism.

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URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/the-depression-quietly-deepens/

Silence on North Korea Detainments Causes Concern Among Current TV Staff

Brian Stelter
The New York Times
June 9, 2009

The detainment of two Current TV employees, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, have been shrouded in secrecy by the television channel.

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The start-up cable channel, co-founded by Al Gore, the former vice president, has steadfastly refused to comment about Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee since the two journalists were detained in North Korea on March 17. On Monday the two journalists were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

The dearth of information from Current has left some employees of the cable channel feeling deeply uncomfortable, according to two employees who requested anonymity because they were instructed to refrain from commenting about the situation.

At the cable channel, which programs a mix of news, short films, viral videos, and other segments for young viewers, Ms. Ling is the vice president of vanguard journalism, a department that conducts original reporting around the world. Ms. Lee is an editor with about a decade of film and TV experience. The North Korea story was Ms. Lee’s first overseas assignment in her four years at Current, according to one of the employees, who noted that she speaks Korean.

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URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/silence-on-north-korea-detainments-causes-concern-among-current-tv-staff/