Comming Mass Atrocities Will Be In Name Of Their Prevention

April 23, 2012

Samantha Power to chair Obama's Atrocities Prevention Board

Obama will speak about genocide prevention and the U.S. efforts to make sure mass atrocities never happen again.

The Obama White House efforts to address genocide is headed by Samantha Power, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.

Which country, after Libya with 50,000 killed, will be the next to be devastated by the U.S. in the new scheme of wars to "prevent mass atrocities"?

The White House Fact Sheet points to Syria and several other non-allied countries.

Neither any of the recent U.S. mass atrocities committed in Iraq and is committing in Afghanistan and elsewhere, nor any mass atrocities committed by allies, like those by Sri Lanka against the Tamil in 2009, are mentioned. For future mass atrocities by allies and the U.S., a different designation will be found. Many of them will get done to "prevent mass atrocities".

Any government that snubs its nose towards the U.S. can now be certain to get accused of such by the very next opportunity. If it itself does not commit atrocities, the new Defense Clandestine Service will certainly be able to help with that.

Posted by b on April 23, 2012 at 16:29 UTC | Permalink

Comments

yes, it is Orwellian. the word “atrocity” is highly suspect as it might mean anything and is independent of international law or UN definitions …

Posted by: somebody | Apr 23 2012 16:45 utc | 1

Gee. b, How did you do that without abusing the exclamation point so well? /s
Samantha Power is married to Cass Sunstein. Enough said.

Posted by: Eureka Springs | Apr 23 2012 17:57 utc | 2

Wow, for someone who has these credentials “Power is considered to be perhaps the key figure within the Obama administration in persuading the president to intervene militarily in Libya” you would think the last thing you want is to have her in this post. I wonder what she considers Mass Atrocities, anything done by anyone NOT AMERICAN…

Posted by: ana souri | Apr 23 2012 18:09 utc | 3

-50,000 murdered by terroristic indigenes and foreign mercenaries in Libya?
interesting how you do not apply your critical calculus to these numbers as you do in situations in which the murdered must surely count as exaggerated evidence needed to justify the intrusions of “Empire”
but you’re a hypocrite

Posted by: slothrop | Apr 23 2012 18:23 utc | 4

In Syria, Lebanon’s Most Wanted Sunni Terrorist Blows Himself Up

TIME has learned that Abdel Ghani Jawhar, one of the leaders of the Sunni fundamentalist terror group Fatah al-Islam, died in the Syrian city of Qsair on Friday night. The founding cleric of Fatah al Islam, Sheikh Osama al Shihabi, confirmed Jawhar’s death to TIME with a quote from the Koran: “‘We are for God and to him we return.’ We as Mujahideen are used to being killed and if God wants to give those killed dignity he gives them martyrdom. This is the path of righteousness.”
…

Posted by: b | Apr 23 2012 19:04 utc | 5

at least 50 000. probably closer to 100 000

Posted by: Alexander | Apr 23 2012 19:06 utc | 6

that is quite interesting b re: #5, Time magazine reporting that terrorists are fighting against Syrian government forces. this would be a remarkable revelation amongst sane people but I fear it will not get reported on Faux or CNN.

Posted by: dan of steele | Apr 23 2012 19:11 utc | 7

1 million or more, maybe 20 million.

Posted by: slothrop | Apr 23 2012 19:29 utc | 8

As ever slothrop, is a troll. but is But is our resident troll.

Posted by: timid | Apr 23 2012 19:59 utc | 9

In a new executive order, Obama says he’s trying to prevent the governments of Iran and Syria from misusing information technology the way the U.S. government is doing:

I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, hereby determine that the commission of serious human rights abuses against the people of Iran and Syria by their governments, facilitated by computer and network disruption, monitoring, and tracking by those governments, and abetted by entities in Iran and Syria that are complicit in their governments’ malign use of technology for those purposes, threaten the national security and foreign policy of the United States. The Governments of Iran and Syria are endeavoring to rapidly upgrade their technological ability to conduct such activities. Cognizant of the vital importance of providing technology that enables the Iranian and Syrian people to freely communicate with each other and the outside world, as well as the preservation, to the extent possible, of global telecommunications supply chains for essential products and services to enable the free flow of information, the measures in this order are designed primarily to address the need to prevent entities located in whole or in part in Iran and Syria from facilitating or committing serious human rights abuses. In order to take additional steps with respect to the national emergencies declared in Executive Order 12957 of March 15, 1995, as relied upon for additional steps in subsequent Executive Orders, and in Executive Order 13338 of May 11, 2004, as modified in scope and relied upon for additional steps in subsequent Executive Orders, and to address the situation described above, I hereby order: . . .

Posted by: lysias | Apr 23 2012 20:11 utc | 10

b, time forgets to mention that Fatah al Islam has quite history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ga22XxUjSU
“In an interview on CNN International’s Your World Today, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh explains that the current violence in Lebanon is the result of an attempt by the Lebanese government to crack down on a militant Sunni group, Fatah al-Islam, that it formerly supported.
Last March, Hersh reported that American policy in the Middle East had shifted to opposing Iran, Syria, and their Shia allies at any cost, even if it meant backing hardline Sunni jihadists.
A key element of this policy shift was an agreement among Vice President Richard Cheney, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national security adviser, whereby the Saudis would covertly fund the Sunni Farah al-Islam in Lebanon as a counterweight to the Shia Hezbollah.”
or here http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh?printable=true
and there is this strange Wikipedia “fact”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah_al-Islam#cite_note-NY-51
“The United States Department of State classified the group as a terrorist organization on August 9, 2007[6] but it was not classified as such anymore on November 24, 2010”
Whilst in other news Fatah al Islam is supposed to be led by Syrian agents.
And there is a very speedy update of this strange battle where Fatah al Islam is supposed to be involved
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Al-Qusayr
plus this
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=13884
Syria: Christians flee al-Qusayr
My guess: it is all true …

Posted by: somebody | Apr 23 2012 20:15 utc | 11

‘Neither any of the recent U.S. mass atrocities committed in Iraq and is committing in Afghanistan and elsewhere, nor any mass atrocities committed by allies, like those by Sri Lanka against the Tamil in 2009, are mentioned’
therefore its worthless …but who would trust a govts sheet on atrocities ..esp the US? who is expected to read this? who is the target audience?

Posted by: brian | Apr 23 2012 21:49 utc | 12

‘Last March, Hersh reported that American policy in the Middle East had shifted to opposing Iran, Syria, and their Shia allies at any cost, even if it meant backing hardline Sunni jihadists’
what does the US electorate think of this? did they gove their govt permission to behave this way? if not how is this a reflection of the american peoples views? whos policy is this ‘american policy’?

Posted by: brian | Apr 23 2012 21:51 utc | 13

As ever slothrop, is a troll. but is But is our resident troll.
Posted by: timid | Apr 23, 2012 3:59:24 PM | 9
given B has recently banned one poster for some infraction, why is slops allowed to continue?

Posted by: brian | Apr 23 2012 21:51 utc | 14

An atrocity of war– is about very evil and cruel actions, accompanied by brutality. Hasn’t the US completely transcended the stateless kind of terror, with its own State Terror? Looking at things this way, Samantha Power has no standing to represent, or speak for morality. Neither Clinton nor Obama has any moral standing left, to criticize any nation, while the US brand of atrocities, intrigues, and aggressions are ongoing. These drone (and cruise missile) assassins, are the ultimate sort of cowards: just the kind of people who are unconcerned about how many civilians and children they kill. They don’t care if the societies they attack are devastated; they don’t care if the social order can recover or not.
It’s obvious that Washington’s newly-minted, and very bad political actors, are emboldened with each new step they take; and they are more reckless in their actions now, than when they began. They have dehumanized people living in kill zones; and it’s likely that from now on, they are not even going to be bound by any precision of military intelligence, because they are considering a new protocol to order drone strikes. Now, with what they call “signature strikes” they can decide like gods viewing from afar that certain movements on the ground, merit killing. Less information, rather than more, is the criteria for unleashing these fearsome and impersonal killing machines.
After a whole series of US war atrocities has unfolded in Afghanistan,–and as it is reported by Michael Hastings–the slang the US military has been using to describe victims of their drones is “bugsplat”; it would seem that Obama’s confident reliance on this video arcade view of the battlefield, and the dead, gives him no moral standing to criticize Syria’s president.

Posted by: Copeland | Apr 23 2012 22:04 utc | 15

brian
You’re dumb

Posted by: slothrop | Apr 23 2012 22:19 utc | 16

WRT slothrop: A poster who is repeatedly pwn’d for the same specious arguments, but continues to make them, should not be banned but should have his name flagged in red, flashing red! with a little descriptive line or two.

Posted by: ruralito | Apr 23 2012 22:22 utc | 17

given B has recently banned one poster for some infraction, why is slops allowed to continue?

To keep us reminded just how slimy and pathetic are the shills and apologists for empire. Just don’t feed it.

Posted by: juannie | Apr 23 2012 22:23 utc | 18

@ #9 + 14 (and ESPECIALLY for you, Slop!):
Why not? Sesame Street had Oscar The Grouch!

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Apr 24 2012 0:59 utc | 19

speaking of mass atrocities: Obama is far worse than Bush: 14 times as bad:
http://nothingchanged.org/obama_and_muder_of_innocents_by_drone.html
How many civilians do Obama and his regime have to murder before he and they get hauled before a criminal court for mass murder?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133282/The-boy-sitting-photos-protesting-deadly-US-drone-strikes–Three-days-later-killed–US-drone-says-Jemima-Khan.html
to these atrocities , a steep rise in antiamericanism is a reasonable response

Posted by: brian | Apr 24 2012 4:05 utc | 20

thanks for the Jemima Khan link, Brian. This should be made an issue when “atrocities” are talked about.
they should be made to swallow their own choice of words.

Posted by: somebody | Apr 24 2012 4:37 utc | 21

Spell Check:Coming

Posted by: DM | Apr 24 2012 5:04 utc | 22

brian @ 13 asked: “what does the US electorate think of this?”
The vast majority of the US electorate knows nothing of this. Our so called “media”, does not inform, they distract. News here isn’t meant to enlighten, it’s only to entertain folks with meaningless bullshit. “Dumbing down” the public, has reached new heights in America. If it isn’t seen on TV, it never happened. And the atrocities our military engages in, are never seen on TV.

Posted by: ben | Apr 24 2012 5:38 utc | 23

Yeah, because everyone knows that the best way to speed up the USA’s reaction-time is to…. create an all-new committee stuffed full with turf-fighting pen-pushers.
After all, if his daughter asks him “Daddy, Jimmy at school says the fighting in ____________ (fill in the blanks) amounts to genocide. Is that true?” then Obama would have to be honest and say: “Sorry, darling, but we don’t have a commitee for that, so I Just Don’t Know.”
b is correct: Obama rather liked how easy it was to go to the UN Security Council and getting a R2P free pass to go BANG!!! on people, and now that Russia and China have pulled the plug on that racket he has to find another way of justifying his prediliction towards dropping bombs on people and starving them with sanctions.
Hence this board, whose job it will be to fill out an Obama Axis Of Evil Hit List.
He can then wave under list everyone’s nose while he goes about hitting Axis Of Evil Number One and then working his way down to the More Naughty Than Evil But What The Hell Let’s Bomb Them Anyway.

Posted by: Johnboy | Apr 24 2012 6:34 utc | 24

Canada’s media is better:
This is a pretty complete account of the “Responsibility to Protect” Mission in Libya
– i.e. arming a civil war
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Libya+Mission+Year+Later+rules+engagement/6176389/story.html
including the incredibly hypocritical U-Turn in treating Gaddafi as partner then evil dictator
The Libya Mission One Year Later: The rules of engagement
By David Pugliese, The Ottawa Citizen
“Five months into the war, Canadian government officials set in motion a plan to provide surveillance drones to rebels so they could better attack Libyan troops, day or night.
The Aeryon Scout Micro-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, designed and built in Waterloo, was a small spy drone that fit inside a suitcase.”
…
“Opposition forces freely admitted to journalists that from the beginning they were in contact with the coalition to identify targets, which would then be destroyed by NATO aircraft. “We work on letting them know what areas need to be bombarded,” spokesman Ahmed Khalifa acknowledged in March.”
“But NATO’s stated goal to protect Libyan civilians was seen by critics as a one-way street, with the focus being on protecting only those allied with the rebels. It would later emerge that rebel forces hunted down black Libyans they believed supported Gadhafi, as well as African guest workers.
The BBC interviewed one Turkish construction contractor who told the news service he witnessed the massacre of 70 Chadians who had been working for his company.”
so I suggest this “atrocity prevention commission” starts from here … I know they won’t.

Posted by: somebody | Apr 24 2012 6:45 utc | 25

None of this answers the primary issue; which is whatever it is another mob gets up to behind the borders of their sovereign state, what business is it of amerika england or france?
I think peeps need to be re-educated on that issue rather than debating the finer points of which sect in state n fucked up which other sect in state N first.
Currently amerika imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. That is both in terms of sheer numbers and as a percentage of population. China may execute more humans each year but amerika kills many more relative to its population. England is another state with more than its fair share of political prisoners -more than any of its eu counterparts. All the kids involved in the riots last year copped big prison sentences for ‘crimes’ like posting on the net esp facebook. If those kids don’t fall under the definition of political prisoner none of amnesty international’s global celebrity list of incarcerated bourgeois do either.
So given these facts isn’t it high time for the two most criminal regimes of the axis of evil to be subjected to an ever increasing strategy of UN mandated sanctions until they have a regime change the rest of us find satisfactory?

Posted by: Debs is dead | Apr 24 2012 11:51 utc | 26

Copeland @ 15 — Do you remember where you read/heard Michael Hastings say drone operators call victims “bugsplat”?
Before tying Obama to “bugsplatting” I’d like to have a link or some kind of corroboration (I am not in the Mainstream Corporate Media, so I need to be able to defend things I write…).

Posted by: jawbone | Apr 24 2012 14:16 utc | 27

Deba @ 26 — I’ve been saying ever since Bush/Cheney made “regime change” such an important phrase in US policy that we damn well need regime change in the US. Needed it under BushBoy and need it under Obama. Unfortunately, whoever wins in November will just continue our desperate need for regime change.
Wall Streeters who gave Obama the Big Bucks to get his insurgent campaign off the ground against Hillary got way more than they put up to get him elected. And it was worth it to them because they didn’t trust Hillary to meet their every demand and they were sure no Republican was going to win in 2008. Now, they have a win-win situation…literally. Obama wins they win; Romney wins they win.
It’s now just a matter of taste for the Big Money crowd. They can concentrate on giving whomever wins a Republican Congress, as they probably don’t trust the Dems to fall in line behind Romney as they do behind Obama. Maybe they’ll just buy up all the TV advertising time to prevent Dems from getting any air time — they have the money to do things like that.

Posted by: jawbone | Apr 24 2012 14:30 utc | 28

Well,if Romney wins,at least then some opposition to his stupid policy decisions will arise,unlike the absolute silence while Obomba is in office.
Last Nov. I sent to the league of women voters my application for changing party enrollment to rep to vote for Dr.Paul in the primary.Never received a reply or confirmation,and today on voting I was told that no,I’m not on the rep rolls.Figures huh?collusion and obfuscation,and here in NY we had to learn the primary was today on todays news,a very very great affirmation on the state of our democracy.They let me sign an affadavit that I was a rep voter,and of course I cast a vote for the only American patriot left running,Dr.Paul.
But it probably was in vain.
If one aint pissed,one is part of the scam.

Posted by: dahoit | Apr 24 2012 15:52 utc | 29

Not really but maybe OT.
As for the Obama admin cracking down, it appears that the IRS will now be able to prevent US citizens from obtaining or keeping a US passport. This makes a mockery of the various separations of power.
Gonzalo Lira has a post about it. (I link to him as he brings it up, didn’t see anyone else …)
The atrocities that are implemented abroad always come home to roost.
US citizens who are subjected to SWAT teams for drug busts or foreclosure are in the same position as Iraqis who are murdered for plunder, the line between is super slim. US Prisoners are slaves…
It is well known, always the same story: the laws adopted, voted, only affect a small no. of ppl, so nobody cares, nobody speaks up. The ordinary citizen is not a tax cheat, does not travel, and thinks he or she is protected by a benevolent state.
http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2012/04/you-are-free-to-travelif-irs-lets-you.html

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 24 2012 16:21 utc | 30

@ 27 re bugsplat.
Googling Michael Hastings drone bugsplat
Should take you where you want to go (Rolling Stone).

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 24 2012 16:24 utc | 31

… Rise of the killer drones (Page 2).

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 24 2012 16:33 utc | 32

The Michael Hastings article

Posted by: Copeland | Apr 24 2012 22:10 utc | 33

Thanks to Hoarsewhisperer and Copeland @ 31-33. I maybe had too much in my search terms, so much appreciated.

Posted by: jawbone | Apr 24 2012 23:25 utc | 34

Debs,
I’ve started reading the new Adam Hochschild history, To End All Wars: it covers WWI from a perspective of British society mostly, showing relationships, close family relations for instance, that split on the issue of war fever versus anti-war. The seductiveness of war’s fever seemed in many cases to overcome strongly held ideological convictions; there was this pent up energy that could suddenly obliterate notions of international working class solidarity.
Keir Hardie received the shock of his life, after England’s declaration of war; when he went to speak to coal miner unionists in Wales. These were men who had shown strong animus previously against imperial war over the Boer War; and they had voiced before the belief that working men ought not to support wars in Europe that could only benefit the capitalists. When Hardie tried to express his beliefs that the war at hand was no good, they jeered him and ran him out of the lecture hall. A mob followed the poor Scotsman, Hardie, to the place in town where he was staying, and stood around outside shouting “Turn the German out!”
The Big War in which all the atavistic and primal buttons in peoples’ heads can be pushed, is probably as dangerous to our future as it was to Europeans in 1914. People are prime for this kind of flip and about-face; and it can work in a religious sense like a conversion experience. Americans (some of them, who will suggest in polling data that they got weary of the wars), get excited over the R2P charade–cheering on, or feeling vindicated somehow–as Gadhafi’s Libya was knocked down.

Posted by: Copeland | Apr 24 2012 23:36 utc | 35

for copeland & debs

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 25 2012 0:14 utc | 36

Debs is dead [ 26]
*So given these facts isn’t it high time for the two most criminal regimes of the axis of evil to be subjected to an ever increasing strategy of UN mandated sanctions until they have a regime change the rest of us find satisfactory?*
in the assange thread
its amusing to see somebody n parviz citing some *authorative* source to prove that regime is a *harmless and amiable* word [sic]
why are so many moafers willfully obtuse ?
all they have to do is look at how the msm use this *amiable* word
its always the us *administration* , the uk government
but the *regime* in beijing, teheran, nk etc etc.
debs is calling a spade a spade to refer to the fukus regime
or perhaps its too *amiable* for this partners in crime
how about cabal, mafiaso ?

Posted by: denk | Apr 25 2012 4:24 utc | 37

@rgiap Thanks, loved that link to John MacLean

Posted by: DM | Apr 25 2012 10:58 utc | 38

denk 37:
‘all they have to do is look at how the msm use this *amiable* word
its always the us *administration* , the uk government
but the *regime* in beijing, teheran, nk etc etc’
yes denk: the media uses such words to lead the public into supporting the views their regimes want them to have

Posted by: brian | Apr 25 2012 12:36 utc | 39

@r’giap my thanks as well for that link.

Posted by: Copeland | Apr 25 2012 16:50 utc | 40

brian 39
*yes denk: the media uses such words to lead the public into supporting the views their regimes want them to have*
u know brian,
there was this denks’ golden rule no 1
*if fukusi says the sun rises from the east, it must be from the west*
thats until they come up with wiki the *whisteblower*
it thrashes my gold rule to pieces
now if wiki says the sun rises from the west, if must be so 😉

Posted by: denk | Apr 26 2012 2:55 utc | 41

here let me correct that for you dunk:
now if wiki says china harvests organs from prisoners against their will, if must be so 😉
there’s wiki, cryptome and other efforts to free information, and then there’s fud coated straw
you decide

Posted by: crazy_inventor | Apr 26 2012 11:25 utc | 42

crazy_inventor 42
*here let me correct that for you dunk:*
name calling is the last refuge of the scoundrel
*now if wiki says china harvests organs from prisoners against their will, if must be so ;-)*
u believe in wiki[fukus]leaks ?
sorry i accused u of being willfully obtuse
i see u’re just born that way
btw
u sound familiar kid 😉

Posted by: denk | Apr 27 2012 4:43 utc | 43

denk
the most successful bellwether so far(wikileaks is still uncertain terrain) is Amnesty

Posted by: brian | Apr 27 2012 5:14 utc | 44

maybe it was a typo, not wise to ASSume..
“iF must be so ;-)”
ooooooh the refuse of a mongrel
but really ‘scoundrel’ ?
I’ve been called worse, though not troll
“The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.”

Posted by: crazy_inventor | Apr 27 2012 7:38 utc | 45

brian 44
*denk
the most successful bellwether so far(wikileaks is still uncertain terrain) is Amnesty*
ai, hrw have long been lambasted for their bias n double standard
hrw’s cred has been called into question coz its board members
the current *ceo* of ai is a former aide of the mdm sec
both ai n hrw have been denounced as tools of the fukusi
otoh , assange has been elevated into messiah status
even tho wiki has been *quacking n walking like a duck*
i’d say wiki is the most successful *meme* so far
crazy_inventor 45
*maybe it was a typo, not wise to ASSume..*
u enjoy such childish prank ?
look kid
my contention is wiki is targeting china, russia, etc
not fukusi
u’ve done nothing to refute it
except keep wailing about china’s *organ harvesting*
[here’s a whistleblower expose’ about *organ harvesting* bs ]
whats ur point………. china is bad ?
ok lets put it this way,
so wiki is targeting *bad* china
but not the evil fukusi
satisfied ?
*”iF must be so ;-)”
ooooooh the refuse of a mongrel
but really ‘scoundrel’ ?
I’ve been called worse, though not troll*
funny u should mention it urself
u’ve been *quacking n walking like one*
*“The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.”*
guess who’s the biggest fear monger ?
i’ve broken my own golden rule
*not to feed a troll*
consider urself inside my bozo file now

Posted by: denk | Apr 28 2012 3:10 utc | 46

[here’s a whistleblower expose’ about *organ harvesting* bs ]
Ralph McGehee’s Archive on JFK Place
====================================
5/2/96
^^^^^^^
_____________________________________________________________________
China’s Gruesome Organ Harvest | The Weekly Standard (Nov 24, 2008)
Organ Harvesting in China – YouTube (20 Aug 2006)
Organ harvesting of live Falun Gong practitioners (2006/08/12)
Large Scale Organ Harvesting in China – YouTube (18 Jan 2008)
China to Stop Harvesting Inmate Organs (23 Mar 2012) China to Stop Harvesting Inmate Organs Huang Jiefu, China’s vice minister of health, said on Thursday that Chinese officials plan to abolish the
China to Stop Harvesting Inmate Organs | China News Center
Mar 25, 2012 BEIJING — China officials plan to phase out organ harvesting of death-row / Huang Jiefu, China’s vice minister of health, said on Thursday that Chinese
China to Stop Harvesting Inmate Organs
Mar 24, 2012
Medical Daily: China Plans to End Executed Prisoner Organ
Mar 23, 2012
Beijing Announces an End to Prisoner Organ Harvesting | China
Mar 25, 2012
China Moves to Stop Transplants of Organs After Executions
Mar 23, 2012 … China said on Friday that it planned to end within three to five years
_______________________________________________________
“*organ harvesting* bs”

Posted by: crazy_inventor | Apr 28 2012 6:53 utc | 47

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