Puppet Masters

Every Six Hours, the NSA Gathers as Much Data as Is Stored in the Entire Library of Congress

Dan Nosowitz
PopSci
Tue, 10 May 2011 12:45 UTC

The National Security Agency is, by nature, an extreme example of the e-hoarder. And as the governmental organization responsible for things like, say, gathering intelligence on such Persons of Interest as Osama bin Laden, that impulse makes sense--though once you hear the specifics, it still seems pretty incredible. In a story about the bin Laden mission, the NSA very casually dropped a number: Every six hours, the agency collects as much data as is stored in the entire Library of Congress.

That data includes transcripts of phone calls and in-house discussions, video and audio surveillance, and a massive amount of photography. "The volume of data they're pulling in is huge," said John V. Parachini, director of the Intelligence Policy Center at RAND. "One criticism we might make of our [intelligence] community is that we're collection-obsessed - we pull in everything - and we don't spend enough time or money to try and understand what do we have and how can we act upon it."

How Politicians Answer Questions Without Actually Answering

Jennifer Welsh
Live Science
Tue, 10 May 2011 16:39 UTC

Research has confirmed that politicians are smooth talkers. A study found they evade answering tough questions during debates by addressing similar, though not identical, questions.

"When you pay attention to it, communicators are often evading questions that are asked," said Todd Rogers, a political psychologist and executive director of the Analyst Institute, a group focused on understanding voter communication. "Unless you are asked to pay attention to it, they can get away with it."

To determine how they get away with it, Rogers showed participants video clips of a simulated debate. The "candidate" was asked about universal health care or a similar question about the war on drugs. The actor answered both questions with a statement about universal health care.

Only 40 percent of the listeners could remember the original "war on drugs" question, compared with 88 percent of those who heard the "health care" question. If the listeners couldn't remember the question correctly, the speaker was determined to have successfully dodged that question, satisfying viewers with an alternate, though similar, answer.

Propaganda Alert!: Pakistan finds secret al-Qaeda™ and Taliban underground cave complex

Douglas Stanglin
USA Today
Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:26 UTC

Pakistani forces have discovered an abandoned complex of caves apparently used recently by Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, including Ayman al-Zawahri, the second-in-command to Osama bin Laden, The Times of London reports.

The network of 156 caves is located in Damadola in the semi autonomous Bajaur tribal region. Pakistani Maj. Gen. Tariq Kahn said the arrival of his forces marks the first time Pakistan's flag has flown over the village since Pakistan gained its independence in 1947, the newspaper says.

Bin Laden's Teen Daughter Reportedly Escapes House Arrest in Tehran

Douglas Stanglin
USA Today
Tue, 10 May 2011 16:22 UTC

Osama bin Laden's 17-year-old daughter, who has been under house arrest in Tehran for eight years with five siblings and a stepmother, has escaped from her guards and taken refuge in the Saudi Embassy, the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports.

The newspaper says Iman Bin Laden called her brother, Abdullah, in Syria to say they have been held by Iranian authorities since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 2001.

Hypocrisy: The West's Silence over Bahrain

Hooshang Amirahmadi and Kaveh Afrasiabi
The Guardian
Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:14 UTC

The absence of pressure on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will only deepen the gulf of distrust between Iran and the west

The European Union and the Obama administration have made a splendid art of double standards by imposing sanctions on Tehran's rulers for their human rights violations and taking military action against the Libyan dictator while failing to address the appalling repression of the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain.

For the US and the EU, which claim to uphold principles over interests, this contradictory policy and their silence over the Saudi intervention in Bahrain is particularly harmful.

The Cost of bin Laden: $3 Trillion Over 15 Years

Tim Fernholz and Jim Tankersley
National Journal
Thu, 05 May 2011 15:35 UTC

The most expensive public enemy in American history died Sunday from two bullets.

As we mark Osama bin Laden's death, what's striking is how much he cost our nation - and how little we've gained from our fight against him. By conservative estimates, bin Laden cost the United States at least $3 trillion over the past 15 years, counting the disruptions he wrought on the domestic economy, the wars and heightened security triggered by the terrorist attacks he engineered, and the direct efforts to hunt him down.

What do we have to show for that tab? Two wars that continue to occupy 150,000 troops and tie up a quarter of our defense budget; a bloated homeland-security apparatus that has at times pushed the bounds of civil liberty; soaring oil prices partially attributable to the global war on bin Laden's terrorist network; and a chunk of our mounting national debt, which threatens to hobble the economy unless lawmakers compromise on an unprecedented deficit-reduction deal.

Comment: Indeed, we need to ask the question: 'Who benefits?' Considering that bin Laden has been dead for years, and that he had nothing to do with the September 11th false flag attacks, '"he" has wrought nothing. The cost that our blinkered authors are about to describe is the fruit of a plan of action. A plan not born of the long dead bogey man, but of those in positions of economic and political power who are the real beneficiaries. What is a $3 trillion cost to the American tax payer, is a $3 trillion profit for the military industrial complex and the psychopathic forces that drive it.

The Audacity of Genetically Modified Foods

Bruce Robinson
Common Dreams
Sun, 08 May 2011 14:48 UTC

The biotech industry, led by Monsanto, promotes the idea that the arguments about genetically modified crops should focus on the science and the economics as Monsanto sees them. I maintain that the real discussion should be about the audacity and illegitimate way GM crops have been forced on a reluctant United States and world - the money, corruption, politics and obfuscation that characterize its rise to dominance. The discussion should focus on how GM crops have taken over our food supply with little concern for safety or our right to choose.

Does it bother you that we consumers are largely unaware that 70 percent to 80 percent of the processed foods we buy contain GM ingredients? We are "largely unaware" because these foods are not labeled - even though 90 percent of Americans want them labeled and think that we have the right to know what is in our food. The biotech industry fights labeling viciously because they know that, if GM foods were labeled, many would refuse to buy them as is the case in Europe. It's not financial considerations that leave us with no choice; it's our lack of awareness that allows them to take advantage of us. How many realize that Kraft Mac & Cheese is non-GM in Europe but does contain GM ingredients in the United States?

Propaganda: Elusive ex-commando to replace bin Laden?

Michael Isikoff
MSNBC
Tue, 10 May 2011 04:07 UTC

© Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images
Ilyas Kashmiri once told a reporter that the 2008 Mumbai attacks were “nothing compared to what has already been planned for the future.”

A Pakistani former commando who has been linked to multiple terror plots - including a series of planned "Mumbai style" attacks in European cities last summer - has emerged as a possible successor to Osama bin Laden as leader of al-Qaida, according to U.S. officials.

Although Ilyas Kashmiri is barely known to the American public, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies have increasingly focused on him in recent years. The CIA has targeted him in drone attacks in northwest Pakistan and federal prosecutors have indicted him in a major terrorism case involving a Chicago businessman who goes on trial next week.

An elusive figure who often wears heavily tinted aviator glasses, Kashmiri remains at large and active in plotting new attacks against the West, U.S. officials say. It was Kashmiri who, according to U.S. officials, was the key figure behind a suspected plot for multiple attacks in European cities, patterned after the 2008 Mumbai terror strike, which led to a widely publicized State Department travel advisory in October.

While Ayman al-Zawahri remains the "presumed" successor to bin Laden, the longtime al-Qaida deputy is deeply unpopular in some circles and his elevation is by no means guaranteed, a senior U.S. official told reporters this weekend. If al-Zawahri doesn't make it, Kashmiri may emerge as the dark horse in the ensuing power struggle, the official told NBC on Monday.

Comment: Just when the world thought it safe to look under the bed..

'Bin Laden dead long before US raid'

Press TV
Tue, 10 May 2011 10:20 UTC

Iran's intelligence minister says the country has reliable information that former head of the al-Qaeda terrorist group Osama bin Laden died of disease some time ago.

"We have accurate information that bin Laden died of illness some time ago," Heidar Moslehi told reporters on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting on Sunday.

He questioned Washington's claim that bin Laden was killed by American troops in a hiding compound in Pakistan on May 1.

"If the US military and intelligence apparatus have really arrested or killed bin Laden, why don't they show him (his dead body) why have they thrown his corpse into the sea?" Moslehi asked.

"When we apprehended [former Jundallah ringleader Abdul Malik] Rigi, we showed him and also aired his interview," ISNA quoted the intelligence chief as saying.

By releasing such false news, he said, the White House seeks to overshadow regional awakening.

Billionaire's role in hiring decisions at Florida State University raises questions

Kris Hundley
St. Petersburg Times
Tue, 10 May 2011 08:18 UTC

A conservative billionaire who opposes government meddling in business has bought a rare commodity: the right to interfere in faculty hiring at a publicly funded university.

A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University's economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting "political economy and free enterprise."

Traditionally, university donors have little official input into choosing the person who fills a chair they've funded. The power of university faculty and officials to choose professors without outside interference is considered a hallmark of academic freedom.

Under the agreement with the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, however, faculty only retain the illusion of control. The contract specifies that an advisory committee appointed by Koch decides which candidates should be considered. The foundation can also withdraw its funding if it's not happy with the faculty's choice or if the hires don't meet "objectives" set by Koch during annual evaluations.

.. .. Hey, Los Alamos-stein-etes! Did you really nuke Larry's twin towers?

Jibrish

IMO, this is not how you 'pay back' the 'elites'. It makes the rest of them more jumpy and gives them an excuse to do even stupider draconian...

beherenow

Bring on the comets...please.

Unkl Brws

This article is irrelevant. Hunter Biden was scheduled to be executed through hanging on Friday Oct. 15 at GITMO. Wake Up SOTT.net! [Link]

rbeltz48

The Duke gave the credit for the Royal family's decades-long interest in the environment to his late grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, who he...

LadyRad

Puppet Masters

Every Six Hours, the NSA Gathers as Much Data as Is Stored in the Entire Library of Congress

How Politicians Answer Questions Without Actually Answering

Propaganda Alert!: Pakistan finds secret al-Qaeda™ and Taliban underground cave complex

Bin Laden's Teen Daughter Reportedly Escapes House Arrest in Tehran

Hypocrisy: The West's Silence over Bahrain

The Cost of bin Laden: $3 Trillion Over 15 Years

The Audacity of Genetically Modified Foods

Propaganda: Elusive ex-commando to replace bin Laden?

'Bin Laden dead long before US raid'

Billionaire's role in hiring decisions at Florida State University raises questions

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