Puppet MastersS


USA

Santorum: No Apology Needed for Quran Burning


boston.com
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
Rick Santorum
© unknown
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum criticized President Barack Obama's apology for the burning of Qurans in Afghanistan, adding that Afghanistan should apologize to the U.S. for the deaths of four U.S. soldiers during six days of violence sparked by the incident.

"There was nothing deliberately done wrong here,'' Santorum said Sunday on ABC's This Week'. "This was something that happened as a mistake. Killing Americans in uniform is not a mistake. It was something that deliberate.''

More than 30 people have been killed in clashes since it emerged Tuesday that copies of the Muslim holy book and other religious materials had been thrown into a fire pit used to burn garbage at Bagram Air Field, a large U.S. base north of Kabul. Protesters angry over Quran burnings by American troops lobbed grenades Sunday at a U.S. base in northern Afghanistan and clashed with police and troops in a day of violence that left seven international troops wounded and two Afghans dead.

"The response needs to be apologized for by (President Hamid) Karzai and the Afghan people for attacking and killing our men and women in uniform and overreacting to this inadvertent mistake,'' Santorum said on NBC's Meet the Press'. "That is the real crime here, not what our soldiers did.''
Read More...
Mr. Potato

Santorum stands by John F. Kennedy criticism

Jackie Kucinich
USA Today
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
Rick Santorum
© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesGOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
Former senator Rick Santorum defended his comment that President John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech about the importance the separation of religion from government "makes him throw up."

"To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?" Santorum said Sunday at a campaign event here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Santorum is locked in a tight race with Mitt Romney in Michigan, whose GOP presidential primary is being held Tuesday.

He made his initial comments about the Kennedy speech during an appearance earlier Sunday on ABC's This Week. "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," he said on the talk-show program.
Read More...
Dollar

Report: Millions of White House dollars helped pay for NYPD Muslim surveillance


Fox News
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Corey Sipkin / New York Daily News

Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance.

The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135 million to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, known as HIDTA.

Some of that money -- it's unclear exactly how much because the program has little oversight -- has paid for the cars that plainclothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods. It also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons and social events.

When NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly was filled in on these efforts, his briefings were prepared on HIDTA computers.

The AP confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on HIDTA computers. The HIDTA grant program is overseen by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Read More...
Pistol

Assassination Bid on Putin Foiled, Ukraine Says

Gleb Bryanski
Reuters
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:38 UTC
Putin
© © RIA Novosti. Alexei Nikolsky
Russian and Ukrainian security services have foiled a plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin after next week's presidential election, Ukraine's SBU counter-intelligence agency said on Monday.

Russian pro-government Channel One television said Ukrainian special services in the Black Sea port of Odessa had held two men linked to a group seeking an Islamist state in Russia's North Caucasus.

"I can officially confirm that they were preparing an (assassination) attempt on Putin," said Marina Ostapenko, a spokeswoman for the SBU.

Ostapenko said two men were under arrest. One was seized in Odessa after being wounded in an explosion at an apartment in the city on January 4 which also killed another alleged plotter.

The second man, who was on the international wanted list, was arrested a month later after initially escaping, she said.

"We found him in an apartment and detained him without a single shot being fired on February 4," she said.
Read More...
Attention

"Suicide Attack" Kills 9 Amid Protests in Afghanistan


Voice of America
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated PressAfghan soldiers secure the scene of a "suicide attack" at the gate of an airport in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, February 27, 2012.
Afghan police say nine people have been killed in a suicide car bombing outside an airport in eastern Afghanistan used for civilian and military flights.

Several others were wounded in the blast early Monday at the gates of Jalalabad airport.

Provincial officials say most of the casualties appear to be civilians. Two airport guards and a soldier were also among the dead.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed days of unrest across Afghanistan in response to the burning of Qurans by NATO personnel at Bagram Air Base. More than 30 people, including four U.S. military personnel, have died in protests since the Quran burning.

On Sunday, Afghan authorities began an intense search for an Afghan intelligence official suspected of killing two U.S. officers Saturday at the Interior Ministry in Kabul.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Conclusive Evidence That BP Misrepresented Gulf Oil Spill Sent To Congress


NaturalSociety
Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:56 UTC
GOM oil spill
© Joel Sartore/National Geographic
Gulf Rescue Alliance (GRA) has just sent a briefing package to the Attorney Generals of Alabama and Louisiana which presents evidence they believe has never seen the light of day concerning the how and why of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster and subsequent release of toxic oil into the Gulf - oil that is still gushing from various seabed fractures and fissures.

The evidence provided therein clearly indicates:
  • The unmentioned existence of a 3rd Macondo well (the real source of the explosion, DWH sinking and ensuing oil spill).
  • The current condition of this well being such that it can never be properly capped.
  • The compromised condition of the seabed floor being such that there are multiple unnatural sources of gushers continuing to pour into the Gulf, with Corexit dispersant still suppressing its visibility.
  • That the highly publicized capped well (Well A) never occurred as reported, and in fact was an abandoned well, hence it was never the source of the millions of gallons released into the Gulf.
GRA's special report (a comprehensive compilation of research released by insiders and experts through confidential internet sources) has been forwarded to Congress in advance of BP's upcoming trial on Monday, February 27th in New Orleans, LA. Entitled "An Expert's Analysis of ROV Film Footage Taken at the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster Site," it has also been submitted to the appropriate federal, state and county authorities, plaintiff attorneys, and environmental and health advocacy groups who have a stake in the outcome of the trial.
Read More...
Star of David

Israeli Assassinations and American Presidents

Alison Weir
Antiwar.com
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:29 UTC
Image
"By Way of Deception"
On Jan. 13 the Atlanta Jewish Times featured a column by its owner-publisher suggesting that Israel might someday need to "order a hit" on the president of the United States.

In the column, publisher Andrew Adler describes a scenario in which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would need to "give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel."

The purpose? So that the vice president could then take office and dictate U.S. policies that would help the Jewish state "obliterate its enemies."

Adler wrote that it is highly likely that the idea "has been discussed in Israel's most inner circles."

Numerous Jewish leaders quickly condemned Adler, who has now apologized for the column, resigned, and put the newspaper up for sale. An Israeli columnist noted that the hatred being stirred up against Obama is similar to conditions in Israel that led to the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist.
Read More...
Star of David

Enormous weapons caches, made in Israel, found in Syria

Roi Kais
Ynet
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:29 UTC
Syrian media showcase images of weapons allegedly produced by Jewish State

Syrian media outlets reported Friday that President Bashar Assad's security forces seized huge quantities of weapons used by rebels across the country, including Israeli-made arms.

According to the unconfirmed reports, Assad's troops seized a machinegun, Israeli-made bombs, automatic rifles, various explosive devices, protective vests, night-vision equipment and military uniforms, among other things.

Syrian television showcased the weapons Friday evening and claimed that some of the arms originated in Israel. Some of the weapons featured Hebrew inscriptions, yet it was unclear who was holding the arms and where the images were photographed.
Read More...
Pistol

Best of the Web: CIA or Mossad Snipers Caught in Syria?


YouTube
Sun, 26 Feb 2012 14:24 UTC
The following video was uploaded to YouTube in July 2011. It is a collection of video footage showing snipers firing from the rooftops of tall buildings in Syrian cities. Towards the end, there is also footage of what appear to be Western agents trying to escape the scene with very high-powered rifles.

Read More...
War Whore

Best of the Web: Al Jazeera Doxed: Leaked emails reveals "Free Syrian Army" as branch of Al-Qaeda

Wissam Kanaan
al-akhbar.com
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:52 UTC
Image
© AFP - Karim JaafarAl-Jazeera's chairman, Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani, speaks during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the launching of the Qatar-based Arabic satellite news channel in Doha, on 1 November 2011. Once a thorn in the side of the US Empire, Al Jazeera is now its key propaganda tool in the Middle East Region.
Emails said to reveal dismay among Al-Jazeera staff over its "biased and unprofessional" coverage of Syria have been leaked by pro-Assad hackers.

On Wednesday, the entire staff of the Al Jazeera network allegedly received an email instructing them to change their computer and email passwords.

Earlier in the week, the network's server had been hacked by the self-styled Syrian Electronic Army, and some of its secrets were released to the media.

The major find to be made public was an email exchange between anchorwoman Rula Ibrahim and Beirut-based reporter Ali Hashem. The emails seemed to indicate widespread disaffection within the channel, especially over its coverage of the crisis in Syria.

Ibrahim wrote to her colleague saying that she had "turned against the revolution" in Syria after realizing that the protests would "destroy the country and lead to a civil war." She went on to deride the opposition Free Syrian Army, which she described as "a branch of al-Qaeda."
Read More...