How the Pentagon Is Trying to Cover Up the Toxic Effects of Its Deadly Burn Pits

America’s military adventures — and, just as often, its misadventures — have inspired thousands upon thousands of books. But the military isn’t just in the business of inspiring books: Sometimes it bans them, too.

The Pentagon recently announced that it was refusing to carry a new book by journalist (and veteran) Joseph Hickman in the stores on U.S. military bases. It’s called The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers.

Rahm Emanuel Denies Laquan McDonald Cover-Up In Op-Ed

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel strongly denied accusations that he covered up the police shooting death of Laquan McDonald and reiterated his commitment to reforming police practices in an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune on Friday.

Emanuel rebutted charges that he suppressed the police dashcam video from October 2014 showing a white officer firing 16 rounds into McDonald, a 17-year-old African American, so as not to harm his chances in a tough re-election a few months later.

Analysts Accuse CENTCOM of Covering Up Cooked ISIS Intelligence

Allegations are mounting that senior intelligence officials at Central Command not only skewed findings on the ISIS war to please D.C., but tried to hide what they did.

In July, a group of intelligence analysts at the U.S. military’s Central Command accused their bosses of distorting and selectively editing intelligence reports about the fight against ISIS in order to portray that campaign as more successful than it really was. As a result of those complaints, the Pentagon’s inspector general opened an investigation.

Ontario Gas Plants Report Is Liberal 'Whitewash': Opposition

TORONTO - A legislative committee report into the deletion of government emails on two cancelled gas plants is nothing but a Liberal "whitewash," Ontario's opposition parties charged Tuesday.

"This was a cover up of a cover up," said New Democrat Jagmeet Singh. "The deletion of emails was covering up the truth, and now the report that's been tabled further covers up that truth."

The committee began hearings into the destruction of gas plant documents in February 2013 when the Progressive Conservatives and NDP controlled the agenda because the Liberals were in a minority government.

Health Ministry Firings: Government Overkill or Deliberate Purge?

Is the government involved in a cover-up on why in Sept. 2012 it fired seven employees, cancelled two worker's contracts and halted valuable research?

Were the firings a ham-fisted response to well-intentioned employees who were trying to expedite their work by cutting corners on red tape, or were they a laser-guided response that exploited a complaint so as to purge workers that proved too troublesome for the tastes of some pharmaceutical companies? That is a theory mentioned by drug policy researcher Alan Cassels.

Information commissioner probing why PCO failed to disclose Wright-Duffy emails

The federal Information Commissioner has assigned an investigator to probe why the Privy Council Office, which reports to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, failed to disclose thousands of emails involving the deal for Nigel Wright to pay Sen. Mike Duffy’s ineligible expenses.

Liberal MP Ralph Goodale had filed an access request for all emails in June, but the PCO replied that no such emails existed.

Cell Phone Radiation: Health Canada Is Manipulating Review, Say Critics

OTTAWA - A safety advocacy group says Health Canada is ignoring science that shows some Canadians are getting sick from using cell phones and other wireless technology.

Canadians for Safe Technology says they've obtained documents showing the government is controlling a so-called independent review of radiation from cellphones, cell towers and Wi-Fi.

Did U.S. Gov’t Lie about TWA Flight 800 Crash? Ex-Investigators Seek Probe as New Evidence Emerges

Seventeen years ago, TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island, killing all 230 people aboard. The official government investigation blamed mechanical failure, but now a group of former investigators are petitioning the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen the probe, saying the original report was falsified. Was the plane accidentally shot down by the U.S. Navy conducting a nearby exercise, or was it a terrorist attack? We speak to the filmmakers behind a new documentary on the crash, "TWA Flight 800," former CBS News producer Kristina Borjesson and Tom Stalcup, a physicist and co-founder of Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization. We also play an extended excerpt of the film "Shadows of Liberty," which also explores the controversy.

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State Department memo reveals possible cover-ups, halted investigations

(CBS News) CBS News has uncovered documents that show the State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal and inappropriate behavior within their ranks.

The Diplomatic Security Service, or the DSS, is the State Department's security force, charged with protecting the secretary of state and U.S. ambassadors overseas and with investigating any cases of misconduct on the part of the 70,000 State Department employees worldwide.

High-profile senator with ties to Harper denies interference with Duffy report

OTTAWA - A high-profile Conservative senator who worked inside the Prime Minister's Office says she's upset about allegations that she sought to whitewash a report into the expenses claimed by colleague Mike Duffy.

And Carolyn Stewart Olsen is also drawing a distinction between her living arrangements and Duffy's: Both Maritime-born Tories claimed expenses on their longtime homes in Ottawa after being named to the Senate, but Stewart Olsen said she immediately made New Brunswick her primary residence.

Biased, lapdog investigations mean cover-up of Senate scandal likely, public inquiry needed

Biased, lapdog investigations mean cover-up of Senate scandal most likely outcome and public inquiry will be needed – Wright, Duffy should be found guilty of violating ethics rules, and possibly other laws

Ethics Commissioner has covered up twice already for Nigel Wright, Senate Ethics Officer is controlled by a Senate committee, Auditor General is failing to do audit, Elections Canada has secret, questionable enforcement record, and even the RCMP’s independence is questionable

Tory-dominated committee deleted tough parts of Duffy report: document

OTTAWA - The Tory-dominated, closed-door Senate committee studying Mike Duffy's improper housing expenses deleted a specific reference to his failure to co-operate with auditors before releasing its report to the public.

Duffy, meanwhile, said Wednesday he's pleased that same committee will be reviewing his expenses once again.

A draft of the internal economy committee's report from earlier this month, obtained by The Canadian Press, shows the sections of the report that were later dropped.

The cover-up is the scandal — not the Senate

“The status quo is not acceptable and Canadians want the Senate to change … When distractions arise, as they inevitably will, we will deal with them firmly. The world we are in remains a deeply uncertain place. Canadians need us to protect them.” — Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressing the Conservative caucus Tuesday morning.

Mr. Prime Minister, you have got to be kidding.

Damning findings removed from Sen. Mike Duffy’s audit report: documents

The Senate’s internal economy committee sanitized the original audit of Sen. Mike Duffy’s expenses to remove damning findings, documents obtained by CTV News show.

A confidential report obtained by CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife shows the original version of Duffy’s audit found that the senator broke the Senate’s “very clear” and “unambiguous” residency rules.

The report found that Duffy stayed in his Prince Edward Island cottage mostly during the summer months. He had listed it as his primary residence, which allowed him to claim an annual housing allowance given to senators who live more than 100 kilometres from Ottawa.

WikiLeaks: Vatican Dismissed Pinochet Massacre Reports As 'Communist Propaganda'

Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship was responsible for the deaths of as many as 3,200 people in Chile in the 1970s, but the Vatican dismissed reports of bloodshed at the time as "communist propaganda," according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks on Monday.

Pinochet came to power in 1973 as the head of a military coup against democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende. The right-wing junta that subsequently ruled the country from 1973 to 1990 was responsible for the murders of as many as 3,200 people, as well as the arrest of tens of thousands more, many of whom were tortured.

Photos Of Dead Sperm Whale Found In Gulf Raise Questions About Truth Of BP Oil Spill Disaster

Photographs of a dead sperm whale found in the Gulf of Mexico a few weeks after the BP Deepwater disaster have reignited a debate as to the extent of the oil spill damage and the lasting consequences of the ecological tragedy.

On Wednesday, environmental organization Greenpeace released a series of long-anticipated photographs of a bloated and burned juvenile sperm whale that had been found dead on June 15, 2010 -- seven weeks after the start of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster:



The Guardian notes:

    It was the first confirmed sighting of a dead whale since the BP oil spill… a time of huge public interest in the fate of whales, dolphins, sea turtles and other threatened animals -– and yet US government officials suppressed the first reports of the discovery and blocked all images until now.

Councillor Doug Ford says Mayor's itineraries don't reflect all that he does

Councillor Doug Ford is once again defending how the mayor of Toronto spends his time, saying his brother’s internal itineraries are not an accurate reflection of his long and jam-packed days.

“I’ll tell you right now, every meeting Rob has isn’t on his schedule,” the councillor said. “It’s very simple. He doesn’t want people being harassed with the media and he goes from morning to tonight. He goes to events, he does constituent calls ... I just walked by his office: there’s four constituents in there waiting for him right now.”

Dalton McGuinty Accused Of Ontario Gas Plants 'Cover Up'

TORONTO - Premier Dalton McGuinty and senior Liberal cabinet ministers "lied" to the legislature when they repeatedly said all documents on cancelled power stations in Oakville and Mississauga had been released last month, PC Leader Tim Hudak charged Monday.

"We’ve had now several occasions where they have actually lied to MPPs," Hudak told reporters at a news conference.

"We commonly don’t use that kind of language in the legislature, but I don’t know what else to call it."

Ashley Smith Inquest: Lawyer Alleges 'State Cover-Up' In Probe Into Teen's Prison Cell Death

TORONTO - Federal correctional authorities are trying to stop public disclosure of videos and documents during a fight over the scope of an Ontario inquest into the prison death of a deeply troubled teen.

The motion to seal the materials — which a lawyer for the family of Ashley Smith called a "pure and simple state coverup" — threatens to further delay the already long-delayed probe.

DND edited NIS report on Langridge suicide before releasing it to the public

OTTAWA — Dogged by increasingly negative media coverage over the handling of investigations into the suicide of Afghanistan war veteran Stuart Langridge the Department of National Defence edited an internal police force report before releasing it publicly and to the soldier’s family, a federal inquiry heard Friday.

The revelation at the Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry was one of several indications that the independence of the National Investigation Service (NIS), the military’s detective agency, was compromised after Langridge’s parents went public with their grievances.