Puppet MastersS


HAL9000

Coming to her senses: Merkel not ready to back economic sanctions against Russia


RT
Thu, 27 Mar 2014 05:21 UTC
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
© UnknownGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel
The West has not yet reached a stage where it will be ready to impose economic sanctions on Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, stressing that she hopes for a political solution to the stalemate over Ukraine crisis.

The chancellor said she is "not interested in escalation" of tensions with Russia, speaking after Wednesday meeting with the South Korean president in Berlin.

"On the contrary, I am working on de-escalation of the situation," she added, as cited by Itar-Tass.

Merkel believes that the West "has not reached a stage that implies the imposition of economic sanctions" against Russia, advocated by US President Barack Obama. "And I hope we will be able to avoid it," she said.

Berlin is very much dependent on economic ties with Russia with bilateral trade volume equaling to some 76 billion euros in 2013. Further around 6,000 German firms and over 300,000 jobs are dependent on Russian partners with the overall investment volume of 20 billion euros.

Germany is currently the European Union's biggest exporter to Russia. German car manufacturing companies are likely to suffer first if sanctions against Russia become more substantial, as about half of German exports to Russia are vehicles and machinery.
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Handcuffs

The IMF vultures unlocks up to $18 bn for Ukraine's shattered economy


RT
Thu, 27 Mar 2014 05:08 UTC
Christine Lagarde
© AFPHead of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde
The International Monetary Fund has agreed to grant Ukraine between $14 billion and $18 billion to help the country avoid a default. The package includes a 50 percent rise in the cost of energy to Ukrainian homes.

The IMF promised to grant Kiev the lifeline over the next two years, after finishing its mission in Ukraine on Wednesday. Overall support from the broader international community will stand at $27 billion over the period, the IMF statement said.

"The agreement reached with the authorities is subject to approval by IMF Management and the Executive Board. Consideration by the Executive Board is expected in April, following the authorities' adoption of a strong and comprehensive package of prior actions aiming to stabilize the economy and create conditions for sustained growth," the document specified.

The money will help to stabilize Ukraine's economy and compensate for the damage incurred by four months of unrest across the country.

However, the IMF funds come with stringent terms; it is asking for a number of economic reforms particularly in energy.

"Energy sector reform will focus on reducing this sector's fiscal drag, while attracting new investment and enhancing efficiency. A key step is the commitment to step by step energy reform to move retail gas and heating tariffs to full cost recovery, along with early action towards that goal," the IMF said.
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Megaphone

The latest in pretentious Putin propaganda: Washington psychopaths accuse enemies in typical hypocritical fashion

Ian Traynor
The Guardian
Wed, 26 Mar 2014 14:50 UTC
Image
Barack Obama declared there were no easy answers nor military solutions to the Crimea crisis, but cast Vladimir Putin's Russia as a lonely villain shredding the international rulebook to bully a smaller neighbour.

Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Black sea peninsula did not herald a new cold war, Obama told 2,000 people gathered in an arts centre in central Brussels in the big speech of his four-day trip to Europe.

But it was also clear that the Kremlin's actions in recent weeks had triggered a deep shift in western perceptions of Putin that would see Russia increasingly isolated internationally and exposed to a spiralling trade war with the west, depending on his next moves.


Comment: New heights of absurdity from the puppet in chief, accusing Russia of doing exactly what the United States has been engaged in all over the world, and for a very long time.


Putin's decision to redraw his region's borders had caused "a moment of testing", Obama said in a 40-minute speech on his first visit in office to Brussels."Bigger nations can bully smaller ones to get their way," he said. "We must never take for granted the progress that has been won here in Europe and advanced around the world, because the contest of ideas continues. And that's what's at stake in Ukraine today. Russia's leadership is challenging truths that only a few weeks ago seemed self-evident, that in the 21st century the borders of Europe cannot be redrawn with force, that international law matters, that people and nations can make their own decisions about their future."


Comment: In other words, Russia is standing up to the twisted "reality" created by the US, and this is inducing major cognitive dissonance in the headless chickens in Washington. The borders of Europe can be redrawn through force, and international law doesn't matter, as long as it's all in the name of "freedom and democracy".

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Footprints

Venezuela moves against its fascists: Maduro puts agitators behind bars

Fabiola Sanchez and Andrea Rodriguez
The Associated Press
Thu, 20 Mar 2014 18:38 UTC
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© Latino News Daily
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has used the military, legislative and judicial power consolidated during 15 years of socialist rule in a sudden series of blows against opponents who have spent more than a month protesting in the streets, knocking down their barricades and throwing dissident leaders in jail.

Thursday dawned with two more opposition politicians behind bars, one of them sentenced to more than 10 months in prison. And pro-government lawmakers had already started trying to jail another outspoken critic as well, moving to strip an opposition congresswoman of her legislative immunity from prosecution.

Maduro has been warning his rivals for weeks that they could soon meet the same fate as opposition hardliner Leopoldo Lopez, who was jailed on charges related to the Feb. 12 protests that initiated the wave of unrest, which has so far led to at least 28 deaths, most of them after Lopez was arrested.

San Diego Mayor Enzo Scarano was removed from his post by the Supreme Court, arrested and on the same day sent to begin a 10 1/2-month prison term for failing to heed a court order to have protesters' barricades removed from the streets of his city.
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Take 2

NSA spying: Zuckerberg says Obama's reform steps are not enough

Roger Runningen and Chris Strohm
Bloomberg News
Sat, 22 Mar 2014 21:01 UTC
Image
© Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., right, arrives to the White House for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. on March 21, 2014.
Facebook Inc. (FB) Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg left a meeting with President Barack Obama unsatisfied with administration assurances that the government can protect privacy while continuing surveillance.

Zuckerberg and five other Internet and technology executives were invited to the White House yesterday to discuss National Security Agency spying following revelations the NSA may have infected millions of computers globally with malware to advance surveillance.

"While the U.S. government has taken helpful steps to reform its surveillance practices, these are simply not enough," Facebook said in a statement released after the meeting. "People around the globe deserve to know that their information is secure and Facebook will keep urging the U.S. government to be more transparent about its practices and more protective of civil liberties."

Facebook, Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) are among the companies that have been pressing the administration to restrain spying following revelations about the extent of NSA surveillance and data collection by fugitive former contractor Edward Snowden. The NSA's global sweep also has drawn protest from other nations, including NATO ally Germany.

Comment: Zuckerberg calls Obama to express 'frustration' over NSA surveillance

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Pirates

First Lady's Beijing hotel deemed 'prohibitive' for Biden

Jeryl Bier
The Weekly Standard
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 07:18 UTC
Image
Silk pillows: The Obamas are staying in the Jinmao Presidential Suite in the Westin Hotel near Beijing.
The White House has been tight-lipped about the cost of First Lady Michelle Obama's trip to China, but based on the choice for lodging, it could be considerable. Mrs. Obama and her entourage, which numbers seventy according to the Washington Times (including her two daughters and her mother), booked the Westin Chaoyang Hotel close to the U.S. embassy in Beijing for their first stop. According to USA Today, the presidential suite at the hotel is listed as $8,400 per night.

But when Vice President Joe Biden visited China in December 2013, he and his team stayed at the St. Regis Hotel after the contracting officer responsible for booking rooms determined that the Westin Chaoyang hotel "price was prohibitive when compared with St. Regis." This is according to the justification and approval documents just released on a government contracting website:

The following other hotels were reviewed but were not adequate because of the following:
Grand Hyatt Beijing - cannot meet security requirements for travel into and out of the building.
Westin Chaoyang - price was prohibitive when compared with St. Regis - otherwise met requirements.
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Dollar Gold

Obama most expensive President in history

Matthew Boyle
Breitbart
Sun, 23 Mar 2014 20:42 UTC
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© Breitbart
President Barack Obama has spent more time traveling abroad than other U.S. president in history at this point in their presidencies, according to a forthcoming study from the National Taxpayer Union Foundation (NTUF) provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of its public release.

"The most internationally well-traveled President, through five years, is also flying the most expensive-to-operate Air Force One to date," NTUF wrote.

After five years in the White House, Obama has taken 31 trips for a total of 119 days abroad. At that point in George W. Bush's presidency, Bush had taken 28 trips for 116 days, while Bill Clinton had taken 27 trips for 113 days. Ronald Reagan, after five years, had taken 14 trips for 73 days while Richard Nixon had taken 12 trips for 60 days after five years in the White House and Lyndon Johnson took 10 trips for 34 days at the half-decade mark. Dwight Eisenhower took 8 trips for 31 days after five years in the White House.
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Eye 1

The story the Washington Post won't print: covert operations

Jon Rappoport
John Rappoport's Blog
Sun, 23 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
nsa spying
© Alex Milan Tracy/NurPhoto/CorbisThe data can also be used to study patterns of behaviour to reveal personal information
In the world of spying and social engineering, the punch line you see coming isn't always the real one. It's just a setup for something else.

In many of my articles over the past 13 years, I've been explaining how this works in various covert theaters of operation.

Here's another one.

To set the stage, read these three quotes from a March 18 Washington Post story, "NSA surveillance program reaches 'into the past' to retrieve and replay phone calls":

"The National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording '100 percent' of a foreign country's telephone calls, enabling the agency to rewind and review conversations as long as a month after they take place."

"The voice interception program, called MYSTIC, began in 2009. Its RETRO tool, short for 'retrospective retrieval,' and related projects reached full capacity against the first target nation in 2011. Planning documents two years later anticipated similar operations elsewhere."
"At the request of US officials, the Washington Post is withholding details that could be used to identify the country where the system is being employed or other countries where its use was envisioned."
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Dollars

California state senator accused of wire fraud


Associated Press
Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:49 UTC
FBI Agents
© AP Photo/San Jose Mercury News, John GreenAgents from the FBI and the IRS carry boxes from a home in San Mateo, Calif., on Wednesday, March 26, 2014. FBI Agent Greg Wuthrich said the raid was part of an investigation involving the arrest of State Sen. Leland Yee early Wednesday morning.
San Francisco - A California state senator who was lauded for his efforts to make government more transparent and authored gun control legislation was arrested Wednesday, accused of conspiracy to deal firearms and wire fraud.

The allegations against State Sen. Leland Yee were outlined in an FBI affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against him and 25 other people. The affidavit was unsealed on Wednesday, as Yee was scheduled to appear in court.

Yee performed "official acts" in exchange for donations from undercover FBI agents, as he sought to dig himself out of a $70,000 debt incurred during a failed San Francisco mayoral bid, according to court documents.

Yee is also accused of accepting $10,000 in January 2013 from an undercover agent in exchange for his making a call to the California Department of Public Health in support of a contract under consideration with the agency.

Also named in the affidavit is Raymond Chow. Chow, who is also known as "Shrimp Boy," was the former leader of a Chinese criminal organization with ties to Hong Kong.

Chow is accused of money laundering, conspiracy to receive and transport stolen property and conspiracy to traffic contraband cigarettes.

He and Yee were arrested earlier in the day during a series of raids by the FBI in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.
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MIB

Domestic spying: Naval Criminal Investigative Service LinX database tracks civilians

Mark Flatten
Washington Examiner
Fri, 21 Mar 2014 05:18 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
A parking ticket, traffic citation or involvement in a minor fender-bender are enough to get a person's name and other personal information logged into a massive, obscure federal database run by the U.S. military.

The Law Enforcement Information Exchange, or LinX, has already amassed 506.3 million law enforcement records ranging from criminal histories and arrest reports to field information cards filled out by cops on the beat even when no crime has occurred.

"That may be where you are starting to cross the line on mass collection of information on innocent people just because you can."

LinX is a national information-sharing hub for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. It is run by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, raising concerns among some military law experts that putting such detailed data about ordinary citizens in the hands of military officials crosses the line that generally prohibits the armed forces from conducting civilian law enforcement operations.
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