Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Surprise! Multinationals insulated from lawsuits over atrocities overseas

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Chief Justice John Roberts said a company couldn’t be sued under the Alien Tort Statute simply because it had a “corporate presence” in the U.S.
The U.S. Supreme Court insulated multinational corporations from at least some lawsuits over atrocities overseas, scaling back a favorite legal tool of human-rights activists.

The justices threw out a suit accusing two foreign-based units of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) of facilitating torture and executions in Nigeria. The majority said the 1789 Alien Tort Statute generally doesn't apply to conduct beyond U.S. borders.

In the Shell case, "all the relevant conduct took place outside the United States," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. The justices were unanimous on the outcome in the Shell case, while dividing in their reasoning.

The ruling may help a number of companies defeat similar lawsuits. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Chiquita Brands International Inc. (CQB), Siemens AG, Daimler AG and Rio Tinto Group (RIO) are all fighting Alien Tort Statute claims.

Sheeple

DC Senate buildings temporarily evacuated, locked down; president sent suspicious letter

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Politico reporter Ginger Gibson Instagrammed a photo of a bomb squad in the Russell Building.
12:50 p.m. - The Daily Caller's Alex Pappas reports that a loudspeaker message at the Hart Senate Office Building announced that "all tests were negative" - indicating that no poison was found on the suspicious letters.

12:47 p.m. - The Daily Caller's Alex Pappas reports that a loudspeaker message at the Hart Senate Office Building announced that the Hart building is clear, and both Senate buildings are now open. The Capitol Police issued a statement saying that the suspicious packages have been removed.

12:41 p.m. - The Daily Caller's Alex Pappas reports that the bomb squad has left the Russell Senate Office Building, the closed hallway has been reopened. A spokesman for Sen. Richard Shelby has confirmed to TheDC that their Russell office received a suspicious package.

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TheDC’s Alex Pappas snapped this photo of a bomb squad leaving the Russell Senate Office Building.

Arrow Up

U.S. says Guantanamo hunger strike on the rise

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© ReutersFormer Guantanamo Bay detainees wear black hoods during a protest outside the US embassy in Sanaa on April 16, 2013, to demand the release of Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay
Days after a violent clash between guards and prisoners, the U.S. military says a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay is on the rise.

A military spokesman says 52 prisoners have been classified as hunger strikers as of Wednesday. That's up from 45 a day earlier. Navy Capt. Robert Durand says 15 prisoners are being force-fed to prevent dangerous weight loss and three have been hospitalized.

Red Flag

New York Daily News doctored front-page photo from Boston bombing

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© Charles AppleDetail from the original photo (left) and the News' version.
The New York Post was derided Tuesday for apparent inaccuracies in its reporting on the bombing at the Boston Marathon. And now, its rival tabloid, the Daily News, is facing criticism over an apparent photo touch-up.

On yesterday's cover wrap, the News ran a photo taken by John Tlumacki of The Boston Globe showing an injured woman lying in a pool of blood while being tended to by a civilian.

It was one of many widely circulated images capturing the moments after explosives were detonated near the finish line of the marathon on Monday afternoon, killing at least three and wounding more than 170 in a likely terrorist attack about which police are still scrambling to scare up leads.

Gold Seal

Let's hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American

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© AP/David Longstreath
There is a double standard: White terrorists are dealt with as lone wolves, Islamists are existential threats

As we now move into the official Political Aftermath period of the Boston bombing - the period that will determine the long-term legislative fallout of the atrocity - the dynamics of privilege will undoubtedly influence the nation's collective reaction to the attacks. That's because privilege tends to determine: 1) which groups are - and are not - collectively denigrated or targeted for the unlawful actions of individuals; and 2) how big and politically game-changing the overall reaction ends up being.

This has been most obvious in the context of recent mass shootings. In those awful episodes, a religious or ethnic minority group lacking such privilege would likely be collectively slandered and/or targeted with surveillance or profiling (or worse) if some of its individuals comprised most of the mass shooters. However, white male privilege means white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted for those shootings - even though most come at the hands of white dudes.

Likewise, in the context of terrorist attacks, such privilege means white non-Islamic terrorists are typically portrayed not as representative of whole groups or ideologies, but as "lone wolf" threats to be dealt with as isolated law enforcement matters. Meanwhile, non-white or developing-world terrorism suspects are often reflexively portrayed as representative of larger conspiracies, ideologies and religions that must be dealt with as systemic threats - the kind potentially requiring everything from law enforcement action to military operations to civil liberties legislation to foreign policy shifts.

Gold Bar

The gold price crash is further evidence of market rigging

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The facts in the public domain do not justify the sharp fall in the gold price over the past two trading days. At the time of writing, the price per 100oz is $1363, down over $200 since Friday's open. The scale of the sell-off was the worst in 30 years, with the volatility index standing at the highest level in its history. John Kemp at Reuters has calculated that based on a normal distribution, you would expect to see movements like Monday's only once in every 500 million trading days, or two million years. The news which would justify such a price swing is curiously absent - in fact, my view is that the market ought to be bullish for gold. Something doesn't add up.

In any market, price is determined by the confluence of demand and supply. In many respects supply of gold is relatively fixed. We know the extent of discovered gold reserves and the rate of production. While Cyprus is being forced to dump "excess" gold in order to meet the ever escalating bank bail-out bill, its whole holdings are worth only $750m, hardly enough to move one of the worlds deepest and most liquid markets to this degree.

In fact, most of the selling pressure has come from ETFs dumping holdings. A record $9.2bn of net outflows from gold ETFs in the first three months of 2013 are indicative of a loss of faith on the part of investors, as well as of a structural change in a market which has been opened up to electronic trading by the invention of these instruments.

Eye 1

FBI's history of handing "terror suspects" live explosives

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In late September 2011, AFP reported that a man was charged with "planning to fly explosive-packed, remote controlled airplanes into the Pentagon and the Capitol in Washington." In its report, "US man charged with Pentagon bomb plot," AFP stated (emphasis added):
During the alleged plot, undercover FBI agents posed as accomplices who supplied Ferdaus with one remote-controlled plane, C4 explosives, and small arms that he allegedly envisioned using in a simultaneous ground assault in Washington.

However, ''the public was never in danger from the explosive devices, which were controlled by undercover FBI employees,'' the FBI said.

Ferdaus was arrested in Framingham, near Boston, immediately after putting the newly delivered weapons into a storage container, the FBI said.

Authorities described Ferdaus as a physics graduate from Northeastern University who followed al-Qaeda and was committed to ''violent jihad'' since early last year.

Bomb

Best of the Web: Reality Check: Did the FBI know about Boston bombing beforehand?

Tonight we are learning more about the Boston Marathon bombing tonight and yet there are still so many questions that have not been answered.

The biggest question of course, who is behind it?

Could it be that the FBI knows more about this attack than they are letting on? Could they have known about the attack before hand?

Ben is looking back at some recent history in order to look forward in a Reality Check you won't see anywhere else.


Comment: Given that the FBI practically has a hand in all U.S. 'terror plots', it is doubtful in the extreme that the Boston Bombings deviated from that rule:

FBI Organizes Almost All Terror Plots in the U.S.


Black Magic

Senator John Cornyn's Dallas-area office gets suspicious letter

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© WFAA
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas says authorities are investigating a suspicious letter sent to a district office.

Cornyn spokesman Drew Brandewie says authorities have been called to his office in Farmers Branch, just north of Dallas. He declined to provide more information.

War Whore

Senate committee: U.S. will aid Israel if it strikes Iran

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© REUTERS/Jim Bourg
Resolution to provide diplomatic, economic, military support to Israel if it strikes Iran adopted by Senate Foreign Relations C'tee.

On Israel's 65th Independence Day, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopted "Senate Resolution 65," stipulating that the US will assist Israel diplomatically, economically and militarily if the Jewish state is compelled to take military action against Iran "in its defense of its territory, people, and existence."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sponsored Tuesday's resolution, which garnered a bipartisan group of 79 co-sponsors. The resolution also emphasizes that the US must be committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.