David Copperfield is a CIA Contractor?

The crisis involving the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a Godsend to politicians, which is probably why the threat actually posed by the group is being hyped as it is while the White House and Pentagon continue to change the meaning of commonly used English expressions to enable the attacking of just about anyone anywhere. We are told that the United States will have a free hand in bombing Syria, an independent nation with which Washington is not at war. The Administration has warned that if Damascus attempts to defend itself from the air armada there will be consequences in the form of "retaliation," suggesting that the US would be striking back after being attacked. Oddly enough, my dictionary suggests that it would be the Syrians who would be retaliating, but one supposes that in the Emerald City everything is not as it seems and certain words have little or no meaning.

The welcome distraction afforded by ISIS means that the issue of Gaza, which was recently devastated by the Israelis, has largely disappeared from the mainstream media, enabling Benjamin Netanyahu to steal still more land on the West Bank for new settlements. And remember MH-17? Still a whodunit and nobody cares anymore.


Back here at home, the dispute over the Senate Intelligence Committee report on Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) torture, a hot button issue earlier this year, has also benefited, largely disappearing from sight. The meticulously researched Senate report, covering 6000 pages and including 35,000 footnotes, apparently concluded that torturing terrorist suspects was not only illegal under the United Nations Convention on Torture, to which Washington is a signatory, it was also ineffective, producing no intelligence that was otherwise unobtainable.

Since a "forgive and forget" forward-looking White House has already indicated that no one will ever be punished for illegal actions undertaken in the wake of 9/11, why is the torture issue important beyond the prima facie case that a war crime that was authorized by the highest levels of the federal government? It is important because of its constitutional implications and its impact on rule of law in the United States, which is again being flouted by the Administration in its rush to "destroy" ISIS, which is little more than a terrorist group du jour being exploited to terrify the American public. The constitutional issue, in its simplest terms, is that the CIA works for the president and when it operates without legally mandated oversight by the executive branch and judiciary it does so in defiance of separation of powers, making the Agency little better than a secret army run by POTUS.

A preliminary report into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 includes a chilling transcript of communication between flight controllers as they realised MH17 had vanished from their instruments.

After the final communication from the plane (a simple acknowledgement of "Romeo November Delta, Malaysian one seven"), a few minutes later flight controllers in Dnipro and Rostov talk on the phone trying to locate the flight.

"Do you observe the Malaysian," Dnipro asks.

"No, it seems that its target started falling apart," Rostov responds.

"It's not responding for our calls too," Dnipro says. "It's disappeared."

Moments earlier, the report finds, a large number of high-energy objects smashed through flight MH17, causing it to break up in mid-air and crash in eastern Ukraine.

Israel's military said it shot down a Syrian warplane over the Golan Heights on Tuesday, in the first such incident in three decades.

"It was a Russian-made Sukhoi," a military spokesman said.

Israeli military sources said the plane apparently crossed by accident into Israeli-controlled airspace over the Golan Heights - where fighting from Syria's civil war has spilled over occasionally - and was not on a mission to attack Israeli targets.


The aircraft was intercepted by a U.S.-manufactured Patriot missile, the spokesman said.

Israel Radio said the warplane was apparently carrying out a mission against Syrian rebels battling the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. Israel's military said it shot down a Syrian drone over the Golan Heights on Aug. 31.

Late Monday evening, September 22, the United States began the first of its airstrikes inside Syria.

Although details are still murky about where the attacks took place and what targets were actually hit, the Pentagon has acknowledged responsibility for the bombings.

According to USA Today, Rear Admiral John Kirby stated that "I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles. Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time."

USA Today reports that the strikes were carried out both by bomber jets and by ships firing cruise missiles. It is said that the strikes have hit about 20 ISIS targets, including what is being called "headquarters buildings" for "militants who have based their movement in Syria."

The attacks were not carried out with the coordination and cooperation of the Syrian government. Nor were they carried out with Syrian government permission.

While Syria has already stated that any airstrikes conducted over Syrian airspace would be considered an act of war and that Syria might very well shoot down any American planes conducting those strikes, it is as of yet unclear as to how the Syrian government will respond.

The former oil tycoon and adversary of president Vladimir Putin has launched a pro-European political platform from exile

The former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade in jail after challenging the Kremlin, says he would be ready to lead Russia if called upon.

Khodorkovsky's statement, at the launch of an online movement called Open Russia, appears to break his promise to steer clear of politics, which he made after being pardoned by president Vladimir Putin in December.

"I would not be interested in the idea of becoming president of Russia at a time when the country would be developing normally," he was quoted as saying by Le Monde newspaper.


"But if it appeared necessary to overcome the crisis and to carry out constitutional reform, the essence of which would be to redistribute presidential powers in favour of the judiciary, parliament and civil society, then I would be ready to take on this part of the task."

Open Russia is intended to unite pro-European Russians in a bid to challenge Putin's grip on power.

"A minority will be influential if it is organised," Khodorkovsky said during a ceremony broadcast online from Paris.

Khodorkovsky and his allies said political change could come quickly and insisted the time had come to think of Russia's future after Putin.

He stressed that his project - named after his charity that was shut down after his imprisonment - would be an online "platform" for like-minded people, not a political party.

But he did not anticipate Putin would approve.

As the US and Europe prepare another round of sanctions against Russia over the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, the third round of such sanctions since the conflict began shortly after the Euromaidan unrest resulted in the installation of a NATO-backed regime in Kiev, a curious and inexplicable oversight appears to have been made.

While wild accusations have been leveled against Russia over its involvement over the violence in Ukraine, claims ranging from covert support up to and including unsubstantiated claims of a "full scale invasion," prominent media organizations across the Western world have for years reported a flow of cash, weapons, equipment and fighters from America's allies in the Persian Gulf as well as from nations like NATO member Turkey, and into the conflict raging within Syria's borders.

While baseless claims leveled against Russia have served as ample justification for the West to continue leveling sanctions against Moscow, no sanctions have as of yet been leveled against the overt sponsors of militancy and, in fact, terrorism in Syria. So widespread has state-sponsored terrorism become in the Middle East that what began as a limited proxy war against Syria has transformed into an immense regional army with tens of thousands of paid soldiers requiring millions of dollars a day to operate across multiple borders and confounding the forces of Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon combined.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel, says that society would be far better off if people quit trying to live past age 75. His new article entitled "Why I Hope To Die At 75" has the following very creepy subtitle: "An argument that society and families - and you - will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly". In the article, Emanuel forcefully argues that the quality of life for most people is significantly diminished past the age of 75 and that once we get to that age we should refuse any more medical care that will extend our lifespans.

This is quite chilling to read, considering the fact that this is coming from one of the key architects of Obamacare. Of course he never uses the term "death panels" in his article, but that is obviously what Emanuel would want in a perfect world. To Emanuel, it is inefficient to waste medical resources on those that do not have a high "quality of life". So he says that "75 is a pretty good age to aim to stop".

The suppression of gold prices is essential at all costs to the Anglo-American banking interests. The saber rattling and attempts to lure Russia and China into military conflict are about who controls the financial world.

Russia and China keep accumulating the eternal currency - gold. The American Empire and their EU disciples continue to accumulate debt and print fiat currencies. Has fiat paper ever won out over gold in the long-run? Change is coming. Revolution is in the air. You can sense the desperation of the ruling oligarchs. Their fiat world is beginning to crumble. But they will not go without a bloody fight.

The United Kingdom Could Not Lose Scotland - The City Of London Would NOT Allow It

The pre-vote polls were very close to 51% NO to 49% YES right up until the day of the vote. These poll numbers could not have legitimately changed to a 55% NO to 45% YES overnight.

Couldn't happen. Wouldn't happen. Didn't happen. Clearly, the Scottish Independence voting process was rigged just as the electoral apparatus was tampered with.

WHY?

Simply put, such a defection from the British camp by Scotland would have not only broken up the United Kingdom - the financial kingpin in the New World Order - it would have severely impacted the entire British Commonwealth.

There is no question it would have given rise to a revolutionary fervor among many other nations in the Commonwealth to leave the UK orbit.

However, the worst 'consequences' of a "YES" vote would have been born by the European Union. Not only would it send a very loud and empowering message to the many EU member states who are only members because of an unwillingness by their respective governments to offer similar referendums, the UK's standing and influence would have been forever altered and greatly diminished in Brussels.
The UK, where it concerns its relationship with the European Union, is very odd in the first place. As the banking capital of the world, the City of London dictates many of the extremely oppressive terms of various financing arrangements and loan guarantees that are extended throughout the community of nations. Their very quiet and often hidden power over the economic and financial activities of the EU are much greater than their lack of full membership would indicate. This is by design.

Media reports that Russia is considering disconnecting from the global internet are false, Dmitry Peskov, presidential press-secretary, said. But the country is working to improve cyber security due to the unpredictable behavior of the West, he added.

"Russia's disconnection from the global internet is of course out of the question," Peskov told the Interfax news agency, adding that such a possibility has never been considered.

However, he stressed that "recently, a fair share of unpredictability is present in the actions of our partners both in the US and the EU, and we [Russia] must be prepared for any turn of events."

"We all know who the chief administrator of the global internet is. And due to its volatility, we have to think about how to ensure our national security," Vladimir Putin's press-secretary said.

When asked if Russia is developing the means to improve its cyber security, Peskov replied by saying: "We're working on such measures, they are being looked at."

It's not about disconnecting Russia from the World Wide Web, but about "protecting it from possible external influence," he concluded.

Russia's communications minister, Nikolay Nikiforov, also denied claims that the authorities are thinking about cutting ties with the global internet.