Puppet MastersS


Pirates

Qatar's love affair with Syria: U.S. client regime has spent $3 billion funnelling money to al-Qaeda-in-Syria

Leaders
© Asia Times Online
This is the ultimate "Friend of Syria". But what is Qatar really up to? Word in Doha is that Qatar may have spent as much as a staggering US$3 billion to make sure "Assad must go". Yet he hasn't gone anywhere. Even the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, deposed himself this week, to the benefit of his son, former "heir apparent" Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani (see We are all Qataris now, Asia Times Online, June 26, 2013). But Bashar al-Assad stays put. What gives?

Qatar has spent a fortune weaponizing the myriad Syrian "rebel" factions, buying everything from stashes in Libya to new stuff in Croatia, flown as cargo and distributed by Turkish intelligence (there's an alternative weapons flow by Sunni Lebanese connected to the Saudis.) The chief weaponizer is a Qatari general.

Doha has dispatched Qatari Special Forces on the ground - just as in Libya - to advise "their" favorite batch of rebels. Crucially, these Special Forces are experienced instructors. They are not Qatari; they are Pakistani - as detailed in this must-read dossier.

It goes without saying that these Pakistanis hail from the same tradition of schooling of the mujahideen in the 1980s and the Taliban in the 1990s. We all know what came out of it. Asia Times Online has extensively reported that Syria is the new Afghanistan - but now with extra bonus jihadi gore, developed in the Iraq war, such as suicide bombing, beheading and intestine-eating.

It's no secret most of the rebels are mercenaries - usually paid $1,300 a month directly by the Qataris, with an extra $1,000 if they carry out a special ops. Quite a few have also developed a secondary career as YouTube videos uploaders, the weapon of choice in Arab networks (not to mention Western) to prove how "evil" the Assad regime is.

Bad Guys

Former U.S. General James Cartwright named in Stuxnet leak inquiry

Image
© Pablo Martinez Monsivais/APJames Cartwright as vice-chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in 2011.
Report says Cartwright, once the second-highest ranking US officer, is under investigation over Iran cyber attack leaks.


A retired US general, James Cartwright, is the target of a Justice Department investigation into the leaking of secret information about the Stuxnet virus attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010, NBC News reported on Thursday, citing unidentified legal sources.

NBC said Cartwright, once the second highest ranking officer in the US military, was being investigated over the leaked information about the computer virus, which temporarily disabled 1,000 centrifuges used by Iran to enrich uranium, setting back its nuclear programme.

A "target" is someone a prosecutor or grand jury has substantial evidence linking to a crime and who is likely to be charged.

The Justice Department referred questions to the US attorney's office in Baltimore, where a spokeswoman, Marcia Murphy, declined to comment.

The New York Times published a detailed account of the Stuxnet program in June last year, in which it said President Barack Obama had decided to accelerate US cyber attacks, which began under George W Bush.

Propaganda

Best of the Web: Full Disclosure: What the media isn't telling you about Syrian 'Civil War'

New polls show that 80% Americans think it's a bad idea for the U.S. to intervene in Syria. Meanwhile, 300 U.S. Marines have been stationed along the Syria's southern border with Jordan. Is the U.S. about to become involved in Syria?

Answer: We already are.

Ben Swann presents Full Disclosure on Syria:


Top Secret

U.S. military's 'underground' warfare in Syria

Image
© UnknownThey have always been underground in a deep dark hole
Following the debacles and disasters in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has actually adopted a new role to avoid direct engagement, like in Syria, to go underground and conduct secret operations, an analyst says.

"The decision to pull back on massive engagements of military force does not mean force is not going to be used. It just goes underground," Gordon Adams wrote on the website of Foreign Policy on Wednesday.

"Arguably, today the U.S. military is more involved than ever overseas, on a global basis, carrying out missions that extend well beyond classic military competencies," he added.

Adams said that the approach, described by the Pentagon and the White House as "building partner capacity" is a "stealthy" model which focuses on training and equipping the troops from other countries, allowing the US military to make smaller deployments to more countries across the world.

Comment: See ways the U.S. helps the Syrian Rebels murderous thugs here.


Gear

Swedish security service Säpo infiltrated country's left-wing party

Image
© Scanpix
The Swedish Security Service (Säpo) embedded a spy to monitor activities in the Left Party beginning in the 1980s, according to revelations in the Aftonbladet daily on Tuesday.

The newspaper reports that Säpo officer Hans-Erik Sjöholm infiltrated the party in the early 1980s tasked with keeping tabs on party members, including then party secretary, and later leader, Lars Ohly.

"Säpo really has no bloody business collecting information about a party secretary in the a Riksdag party, that is completely out of order. I am extremely surprised," Ohly said to Aftonbladet when told of the claims.

Sjöholm relates how he joined the party, then known as Left Party - the Communists (VPK), in the beginning of the 1980s and continued to report on members and from meetings over the following two decades.

Vader

Hysterical USA: 'Insider Threat' program forces U.S. Federal employees to spy on co-workers

US employees told to spy on coworkers
© Unknown
Government documents have revealed that the Obama administration is implementing a program that requires millions of federal employees to spy on their co-workers as part of a sweeping crackdown on security leaks across the U.S. government.

The program titled "Insider Threat" which has gone almost entirely unnoticed in the U.S. media also presses managers to punish employees who fail to report their suspicions, McClatchy reported Friday after obtaining the documents.

The program spans all federal agencies and mandates employees and their superiors to identify and report behaviors associated with someone who might leak sensitive government information.

Those who fail to expose "high-risk persons" face penalties that include criminal charges, according to the report.

The program was launched in October 2011 after Army Private Bradley Manning blew the whistle on U.S. war crimes, in the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history.

Comment: And so we see the real purpose of this contrived set of 'leaks': more fear, more paranoia, more suspicion, and more control of the population.See this SoTT Focus for more on the NSA-Snowden affair.


Crusader

Pat Robertson warns God may do something 'drastic' for Supreme Court gay marriage rulings

700 Club host Pat Robertson gave his opinion today on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent rulings on two gay marriage cases.
Robertson began by suggesting that the court's swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, might have some law clerks "who happen to be gays," notes MediaMatters.org.

"Let me ask you about Anthony Kennedy, does he have some clerks who happen to be gays?" Robertson asked American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) founder and lawyer Jay Sekulow (video below). Sekulow seemed taken back by the bizarre question and said: "I have no idea. I think what Justice Kennedy did, if you look at a series of cases that he's been involved in, he's taken the view that sexual orientation is a special class."

The ACLJ is a Christian law firm and activist group that was originally funded by Robertson.



Comment: Well, we might have another 'Sodom' on our hands and 'something pretty drastic' indeed - but not likely at the hand of 'God', more likely something raining down on us that's cyclical and inevitable: Read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's latest
book Comets and the Horns of Moses to see how 'drastic' that just might be.


Chess

Ecuador breaks U.S. trade pact to thwart 'blackmail' over Edward Snowden

Image
© Edgar Su/ReutersEcuador's foreign minister Ricardo Patino (centre left). Snowden's asylum request has yet to be processed.
Government renounces Andean Trade Preference Act even as Snowden's prospects of reaching Ecuador from Moscow dimmed.


Ecuador has ramped up its defiance of the US over Edward Snowden by waiving preferential trade rights with Washington even as the whistleblower's prospect of reaching Quito dimmed.

President Rafael Correa's government said on Thursday it was renouncing the Andean Trade Preference Act to thwart US "blackmail" of Ecuador in the former NSA contractor's asylum request.

Officials, speaking at an early morning press conference, also offered a $23m donation for human rights training in the US, a brash riposte to recent US criticism of Ecuador's own human rights record.

Betty Tola, the minister of political coordination, said the asylum request had not been processed because Snowden, who is believed to be at Moscow airport, was neither in Ecuador nor at an Ecuadorean embassy or consulate. "The petitioner is not in Ecuadorean territory as the law requires."

Tola also said Ecuador had not supplied any travel document or diplomatic letter to Snowden, who is reportedly marooned in Moscow airport's transit lounge because his US passport has been invalidated.

A document leaked to Univision on Wednesday showed that someone at Ecuador's consulate in London did issue a safe conduct pass for the fugitive on June 22, as he prepared to leave Hong Kong. The name of the consul general, Fidel Narvaez, was printed but not signed.

Eye 2

British government sanctions rape of its own subjects as a matter of domestic terrorism policy

Image
Mark Kennedy: sexual predator, environmental activist, government snitch, and wonky-eyed psychopathic undercover British police officer.
Undercover police officers routinely adopted a tactic of "promiscuity" with the blessing of senior commanders, according to a former agent who worked in a secretive unit of the Metropolitan police for four years.

The former undercover policeman claims that sexual relationships with activists were sanctioned for both men and women officers infiltrating anarchist, leftwing and environmental groups.

Sex was a tool to help officers blend in, the officer claimed, and was widely used as a technique to glean intelligence. His comments contradict claims last week from the Association of Chief Police Officers that operatives were absolutely forbidden to sleep with activists.

The one stipulation, according to the officer from the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a secret unit formed to prevent violent disorder on the streets of London, was that falling in love was considered highly unprofessional because it might compromise an investigation. He said undercover officers, particularly those infiltrating environmental and leftwing groups, viewed having sex with a large number of partners "as part of the job".


Comment: Yes, developing normal humans relationships (i.e., a conscience) was not allowed, but they could emotionally rape as many women as they wanted.


Comment: So the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) was a secret unit "formed to prevent violent disorder"?

Its real role of course was to actually foment, instigate and propagate violent disorder that would then justify regular uniformed police intervening to 'save the public'.

Psychopathic government; who needs it?


Crusader

Vatican official arrested in money-laundering corruption plot

Image
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano
A Vatican official has been arrested by Italian police for allegedly trying to illegally bring 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into the country from Switzerland with a private jet. Prosecutor Nello Rossi says
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano is accused of corruption and slander stemming from the plot and was being held at a Rome prison.

He was allegedly asked by friends to bring back the money that had been given to financier Giovanni Carenzio in Switzerland. Scarano is supposed to have asked Giovanni Zito, a military official, to bring the money back by jet, avoiding customs.

Scarano was allegedly due to pay Zito a commission of 600,000 euros for the work. He paid only an initial installment of 400,000 euros before being arrested.