Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Foreign Ministry officials admit: Turkey citizens routinely humiliated at Israel's airport

Image
© David BacharSecurity staff questioning Israeli Arab passengers at Ben-Gurion Airport
Dozens of Israelis say they were humiliated at Istanbul airport, forced to strip to their underwear on Monday; Foreign Ministry officials say humiliation of Turkish citizens happens on regular basis in Israel.

Foreign Ministry officials told Haaretz on Monday that over the past year, there were dozens of complaints on the part of Turkish citizens who claimed they were humiliated by Israeli security personnel at Ben-Gurion airport.

The officials also said that almost every Turkish citizen who arrives at Ben-Gurion airport undergoes a routine procedure of extensive, humiliating examinations that also include undressing to one's underwear.

"Turkish citizens are always separated from the rest of the passengers at the airport," said a Foreign Ministry official.

"When their luggage is thoroughly examined and they undergo extensive questioning they understand it comes from security needs, but when they get to the strip search part it breaks them and they are humiliated. Many Turkish businesspeople and tourists have complained about this in the past. This humiliation ceremony of Turkish citizens is a routine matter."

Bad Guys

Psychopathic state is eager to unleash hell: Israel Defense Forces general says that likelihood of regional war is growing

Image
© Agence France-PresseIs Israel moving closer to regional war?
Senior IDF officer warns of 'radical Islamic winter' that may lead to regional war, could prompt use of WMDs; new, more lethal weapons discovered in hands of terrorists during latest round of fighting in Gaza, Major General Eisenberg says.

Recent revolutions in the Arab world and the deteriorating ties with Turkey are raising the likelihood of a regional war in the Middle East, IDF Home Front Command Chief, Major General Eyal Eisenberg warned Monday.

"It looks like the Arab Spring, but it can also be a radical Islamic winter," he said in a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

"This leads us to the conclusion that through a long-term process, the likelihood of an all-out war is increasingly growing," the IDF general said.

Bad Guys

Hellenic Republic on a downward spiral: Greece, Israel agree on military cooperation

Image
© RIA Novosti. Edward PesovIsraeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
The Defense Minister of Greece Panos Beglitis and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak signed a memorandum on military cooperation in Jerusalem on Sunday, the Greek Ministry of Defense reported.

The contents of the memorandum is undisclosed. Panos Beglitis said that the two governments are intend to cooperate closely.

Bad Guys

How private firms have cashed in on the climate of fear since 9/11

A US homeland security helicopter
© US Coast Guard/AFP/Getty ImagesA US homeland security helicopter patrol over New York in 2003.

The past ten years have seen the growth of a national security industrial complex that melds government and business

Charles Smith always enjoyed visiting US troops aboard. Though a civilian, he had worked for the army for decades, helping to run logistical operations from the Rock Island arsenal near Davenport, Iowa.

He helped keep troops supplied, and on trips to Iraq made a point of sitting down with soldiers in mess halls. "I would always ask them: what are we doing for you?" Smith told the Guardian.

Smith eventually got oversight of a multibillion-dollar contract the military had struck with private firm KBR, then part of the Halliburton empire, to supply US soldiers in Iraq. But, by 2004, he noticed problems: KBR could not account for a staggering $1bn (£620m) of spending.

Gear

Sarah Palin 'Big Announcement' Flakes Out

Image
© Associated Press/Charlie NeibergallTimothy Jacques of Bellvue, Nebraska, stands in the rain while waiting for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to speak to Tea Party members during the Restoring America event, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011, in Indianola, Iowa.
For all the tea party supporters who showed up in Iowa to hear what Fox News called a "major announcement" from Sarah Palin, perhaps her message should have been "psych." Palin spent a majority of her 40-minute speech thrashing the current administration for its policies and little else.

Only about 2,000 people showed up to hear a Tea Party of America public figure speak about how bad things are in America. At the Restoring America event, Palin said many things she would do. Bloomberg reports Palin wouldn't approve any bailouts yet get rid of corporate income taxes. The former governor of Alaska also said the tea party has been "mocked."

One thing Palin didn't say was whether or not she was running for president. Despite many signs in the crowd saying "Run Sarah, Run" she was coy about her political ambitions. The night before her speech, Palin said she could see more room for candidates yet she liked the current field running in the GOP primaries for 2012.

Light Saber

Stuxnet, EPIC FAIL: Iranian nuclear power station begins generating electricity

Image
© Bagher Nasir/APThe reactor building of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, 750 miles south of Tehran.
Long-delayed Bushehr plant joins national grid, according to state TV

Iran's first nuclear power plant has started adding electricity to the national grid after years of delays, according to the state news agency.

"The Bushehr nuclear power plant joined the national grid on Saturday at 11.29pm (6.59pm GMT) with the power of around 60 megawatts (MW)," the Isna news agency said.

Hamid-Khadem Qaemi, a spokesman for the country's Atomic Energy Organisation, told Iran's Arabic TV station al-Alam that the plant would be officially inaugurated by 12 September, by which time it would be operating at 40% capacity. The agency was not immediately available to comment.

The $1bn (£616m), 1,000MW plant on the Gulf coast is the first of what Iran hopes will become a network of nuclear facilities that will reduce its reliance on its abundant fossil fuels.

Coffee

He Who Gets Slapped: The Progressive Perpetuation of Past and Present Evil

iraq isahaqi massacre,
© 9q9q.com
Five years ago, I wrote several articles about a horrific massacre of Iraqi civilians in Ishaqi. Credible evidence and eyewitness testimony indicated that American soldiers, in the course of a raid, had executed unarmed civilians -- including several small children -- then called in an airstrike to destroy the house, and the evidence of these murders.

At the time, these articles were criticized by some for putting the "worst case" construction on the evidence. After all, in the "fog of war" -- that clapped-out rhetorical trope which has hidden a multitude of sins down through the years -- who could know what really happened? Yeah, some mistakes might or might not have been made -- crossfire, collateral damage, etc. -- but surely no one could believe that American soldiers would deliberately do such a thing. My take -- and that of this blog's co-founder, Rich Kastelein, who put together a devastating flash film on the incident -- was just the usual overblown, knee-jerk, anti-war hissy fit, etc.

But thanks to a recent WikiLeaks revelation, we now know that at least two other groups of knee-jerk, anti-war freaks were also pursuing the "worst-case" interpretation of the massacre: UN investigators, who delivered a detailed report on the evidence to the American occupation forces -- and the invaders themselves. It turns out that American authorities regarded the UN evidence very seriously; so seriously that they took immediate, decisive action .... to cover it all up.

Cowboy Hat

UK: Bosses' Bonuses Up by 187% Since 2002

Bank notes
The Commission says complicated bonus structures can mask real rises in pay
Average bonuses for directors of FTSE 350 companies have risen by 187% since 2002, without a corresponding rise in share prices, new research suggests.

The High Pay Commission said on Monday that average annual bonuses were worth 48% of salary in 2002, but are now 90%.

Commission chairman Deborah Hargreaves said it was a "myth" that big bonuses meant companies performed better.

Bell

Gerald Celente: Economy is Going to Get Much Worse

A recent report reveals that the US created zero new jobs last month. The last time this happened was in 1945.


The unemployment rate is still at 9.1% and projected numbers for the next year show the average unemployment rate at about 9%. With these numbers, many Americans question if President Obama's jobs creation plan, due to be unveiled next week, will have any effect on the economy. Gerald Celente, director at Trends Research Institute, helps us peer into the future.

Vader

Cheney: US Different if Hillary Clinton President

Image
© The Associated Press / Richard DrewFormer Vice President Dick Cheney, left, is interviewed on the Fox & friends television program, about his book in My Time, in New York Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011.
Hillary Rodham Clinton isn't president, but Dick Cheney says that if she were in the White House rather than Barack Obama, then things might be different today in the country.

Cheney isn't getting into specifics, but he does think that "perhaps she might have been easier for some of us who are critics of the president to work with."

The former vice president tells Fox News Sunday that it's his sense that the secretary of state is "one of the more competent members" of the Obama administration and it would be "interesting to speculate" about how she would have performed as president.

Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic nomination to Obama, who went on to beat Republican John McCain in the general election. Obama named Clinton as the country's top diplomat.