Puppet MastersS


Chess

Old game, new enemy: China

John Pilger
Asia Times Online
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 02:35 UTC
US targets China
© Unknown
Countries are "pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a great game for the domination of the world," wrote Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, in 1898. Nothing has changed. The shopping mall massacre in Nairobi was a bloody facade behind which a full-scale invasion of Africa and a war in Asia are the great game.

The al-Shabaab shopping mall killers came from Somalia. If any country is an imperial metaphor, it is Somalia. Sharing a common language and religion, Somalis have been divided between the British, French, Italians and Ethiopians. Tens of thousands of people have been handed from one power to another. "When they are made to hate each other," wrote a British colonial official, "good governance is assured."

Today, Somalia is a theme park of brutal, artificial divisions, long impoverished by World Bank and IMF "structural adjustment" programs, and saturated with modern weapons, notably President Obama's personal favorite, the drone. The one stable Somali government, the Islamic Courts, was "well received by the people in the areas it controlled," reported the US Congressional Research Service, "[but] received negative press coverage, especially in the West." Obama crushed it; and in January, Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, presented her man to the world. "Somalia will remain grateful to the unwavering support from the United States government," effused President Hassan Mohamud, "thank you, America."
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Arrow Down

Arafat may have been poisoned with Polonium 210 - Lancet claims


Al Jazeera
Sat, 12 Oct 2013 15:16 UTC

One of the world's leading medical journals has supported the possibility that Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium 210.

The British The Lancet journal has published a peer review of last year's research by Swiss scientists on Arafat's personal effects.

It endorsed their work, which found high levels of the highly radioactive element in blood, urine, and saliva stains on the Palestinian leader's clothes and toothbrush.

The work of the experts at Lausanne University, Switzerland, was triggered by an Al Jazeera investigation, and also led to Arafat's body being exhumed in November 2012 for further testing.

In October 2004, Arafat fell ill, suffering from a number of symptoms, including nausea and abdominal pain.
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Info

Guardian was 'entirely correct' to publish NSA stories, says Vince Cable

Dan Roberts
The Guardian
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 11:13 UTC
Business secretary confirms Nick Clegg is to launch review of oversight of intelligence agencies

Vince Cable
© Unknown
The Guardian performed a considerable public service after making the "entirely correct and right" and "courageous" decision to publish details from secret NSA files leaked by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Vince Cable has said.

The business secretary, who reserved judgment on Snowden's decision to leak the files, confirmed that Nick Clegg was setting in train a review of the oversight of Britain's intelligence agencies.

In an interview on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Cable said that "arguably" Britain did not have proper oversight of the domestic intelligence service MI5, overseas agency MI6 and eavesdropping centre GCHQ.
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Camcorder

Alan Rusbridger: I would rather destroy the copied files than hand them back to the NSA and GCHQ - video

Julian Borger
The Guardian
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 00:00 UTC

The Guardian's editor reveals why and how the newspaper destroyed computer hard drives containing copies of some of the secret files leaked by Edward Snowden. The decision was taken after a threat of legal action by the British government, that could have stopped the reporting on the extent of American and British state surveillance revealed by the document
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Bad Guys

Obama campaign manager: House Republicans 'committing economic treason'

Alex Pappas
The Daily Caller
Thu, 10 Oct 2013 10:23 UTC
Image
President Barack Obama's former senior White House adviser and campaign manager David Plouffe accused House Republicans of "committing economic treason" during the partial government shutdown on Thursday.

In a snarky tweet about Republicans' attempts to negotiate an end to the government shutdown, Plouffe dredged up the "birther" issue in order to discredit the GOP:
Maybe throw in a Special Counsel to investigate the President's birthplace and the House GOP will stop committing economic treason.
- David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) October 10, 2013
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Arrow Up

Obama's national debt rate on track to double

Dave Boyer
Washington Times
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 10:17 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Evan VucciSen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is pursued by members of the media as he gets on an elevator on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013, after leaving a Republican policy luncheon.
Says raising limit 'won't add a dime'

President Obama likes to say that raising the nation's borrowing limit "won't add a dime" to the federal debt, but he neglects to mention that the government already has borrowed the equivalent of more than 60 trillion dimes since he took office.

When Mr. Obama became president in January 2009, the total federal debt stood at $10.6 trillion. This week, it hit $16.7 trillion - an increase of 57 percent. In the same time frame under President George W. Bush, total federal debt rose 38 percent. Under President Clinton, it rose 32 percent.

The administration says the government will run out of authority to pay its bills by Oct. 17 unless Congress raises the debt limit again to allow more borrowing. The president portrays the move as one of simple responsibility.

"It does not increase our debt," Mr. Obama said. "It does not grow our deficits. All it does is allow the Treasury Department to pay for what Congress has already spent."
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Dollar

Fisher House steps in to pay for military death benefits during shutdown

Stephanie Gaskell
The Atlantic
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 10:01 UTC
Image
© Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Fisher House has announced it will step in to pay military death benefits during the shutdown, with the Pentagon repaying the organization after the shutdown has ended.

The Fisher House Foundation, an organization long- known for caring for wounded troops and their families, will pay death gratuity benefits for the families of servicemembers killed during the government shutdown - and the Pentagon will back them pay once it's over.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the deal on Wednesday after massive public outrage that benefits - including a $100,000 payment to the family within 36 hours of the death notice - would not be paid while the government is shut down.

"Today I am pleased to announce that the Department of Defense is entering into an agreement with the Fisher House Foundation that will allow the federal government to provide the family members of fallen service members with the full set of benefits they have been promised, including a $100,000 death gratuity payment," Hagel said in a statement released shortly after he and Army Secretary John McHugh traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the dignified transfer ceremony for four soldiers who were killed by an IED in Afghanistan on Sunday.
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Take 2

Four Horsemen - Feature documentary

Renegade Economist
Youtube
Sat, 12 Oct 2013 05:37 UTC

FOUR HORSEMEN is an independent feature documentary which lifts the lid on how the world really works.

As we will never return to 'business as usual' 23 international thinkers, government advisors and Wall Street money-men break their silence and explain how to establish a moral and just society.

FOUR HORSEMEN is free from mainstream media propaganda -- the film doesn't bash bankers, criticise politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. It ignites the debate about how to usher a new economic paradigm into the world which would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.

"It's Inside Job with bells on, and a frequently compelling thesis thanks to Ashcroft's crack team of talking heads -- economists, whistleblowers and Noam Chomsky, all talking with candour and clarity." - Total Film

"Four Horsemen is a breathtakingly composed jeremiad against the folly of Neo-classical economics and the threats it represents to all we should hold dear."
- Harold Crooks, The Corporation (Co-Director) Surviving Progress (Co-Director/Co-Writer)
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Bell

"Congress all bribed" - World Bank whistleblower


Information Clearing House
Sat, 12 Oct 2013 05:08 UTC
"Most of the American citizens are clueless about the corruption that's rifling their economy."

We're on the verge of the currency war. The Federal Reserve is printing dollars like there is no tomorrow, and if they keep going, the rest of the world is not going to accept them.eyes of American people' - World Bank whistleblower:

Karen Hudes was World Bank lawyer when she blew the whistle on major corruption cases in the system and was fired as a result.

Transcripts:
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Gold Coins

Brunei is America's East Pacific cash cow and military base

Wayne Madsen
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 12 Oct 2013 03:15 UTC
Brunei
© Unknown
Due to the shutting down of the U.S. government over a budget battle, President Barack Obama was forced to pare back and then cancel altogether planned visits to four Southeast Asian nations. The first two casualties were planned trips to two nations, Malaysia and the Philippines, where Obama hoped to cement economic and trade relations under the umbrella of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. With no end in sight to the U.S. government's paralysis, Obama reluctantly canceled his planned attendance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali, Indonesia and the East Asia Summit in Brunei.

Although Obama always enjoys visiting Indonesia, the country of his childhood, it was the cancellation of Obama's planned trip to the oil-rich Sultanate of Brunei that not only prevented Obama from being hosted by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, one of the world's wealthiest men, but prevented him from cementing ties with a nation that enjoys a special relationship with the United States, particularly the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency... Brunei's Sultan was to provide Obama and his staff with the entire palace of the Crown Prince for the duration of his visit.
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