Puppet MastersS


Evil Rays

US will give US tax-payer's money to Ukraine if Kiev makes necessary reforms - Nuland

Victoria Nuland in Kiev
© AFP Photo/Andrew KravchenkoA handout picture released on December 10, 2013 by Ukrainian Union Opposition press services hows US Assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland (R) distributing cakes to protesters on the Independence Square in Kiev on December 10, 2013.
The United States is ready to provide financial support to Ukraine if the country implements the necessary political reforms, senior US diplomat Victoria Nuland said.

"We have had extensive discussions at all meetings concerning support from the international community, including the United States," Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs said at a press conference in Kiev on Friday.

"[The United States] is ready to support Ukraine if the will quickly move towards the path of protecting human rights, dignity, a de-escalation of the conflict, and political reforms."

Nuland's offer of support follows the leak of an apparently bugged phone conversation in which the senior US diplomat had choice words for the EU's mediation efforts in Ukraine.

On Thursday, a four-minute video - titled 'Maidan puppets,' referring to Independence Square in Ukraine's capital - was reported in the Kiev Post. In the clip, Nuland is allegedly heard saying "f**k the EU" while speaking with the American Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyat on how to end the crisis in Ukraine.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment on the tape's contents, but did not deny its authenticity.

"I did not say it was not authentic," she said, adding that Nuland had apologized to her EU counterparts for the reported comments.


Comment: The US has been very obvious in their support of the protests and riots in Ukraine. Divide and conquer is the strategy.


Comment: The comments from Nuland makes it clear how involved the US is in regime change in Ukraine and how they view the leaders of the "riots" as mere usefull idiots. Referring to them as "Klitch," "Yatsy" and "Tiny Bock", says it all.

"F**k The EU" - U.S. State department blasts Europe; revealed as alleged mastermind behind Ukraine unrest
'Nuland apologized, but didn't mention US plans to midwife a new govt in Ukraine'


Cookie

'Nuland apologized, but didn't mention US plans to midwife a new govt in Ukraine'

Unrest in Ukraine
© AFP Photo / Aris MessinisFebruary 6, 2014.
So long as the US and the EU are united in efforts to replace the government in Kiev, they will tolerate internal spats, Nebojsa Malic, foreign policy expert, told RT.

RT: The EU is one of the most powerful political bloc's in the world. Are we likely to see thestatements attributed to Nuland damaging relations with Washington?

Nebojsa Malic: Honestly, if I were the EU official, I would demand an apology but considering that they are on the same page with the US government, considering setting up a client regime in Ukraine, I'm inclined to believe that Brussels and various officials there, including commissars including Baroness Catherine Ashton, would tend to gloss over it. Again it's not necessarily what is done but who does it to whom. And so long as they are united in efforts to replace the government in Kiev with somebody more obedient, they'll tolerate internal spats. Honesty, even the US wiretapping of the EU officials hasn't done really much to damage relations despite obvious problems with it. I would hold my breath to see the Europeans cleave away from the US on this. On the other hand, it's very ironic that the US efforts are being effectively undone by the wiretapped phone conversation.

RT: Nuland apologized to her European counterparts, before the State Department tried to laugh it off. Do you think it goes a little deeper than that?

NM: She has apologized for a comment that she is not admitting she made, which is itself a conformation that the comment was indeed made. But what she hasn't apologized for is the plans to midwife a new government in Ukraine. In other words, she is apologizing for cussing out the EU but she is not apologizing for trying to overthrow the government in Kiev, calling it popular democracy. Obviously there is more to it than that. I don't think anyone in the US establishment feels sorry for what they are trying to do, I think they are very proud of it and they are going to pursue it.

RT: Where do you think the recording came from?

NM: That I honestly don't know. I'm as stumped as you are. I think it's most ironic that the US which is collecting everybody's phone conversations and has been for years had the tables turned in such a fashion, but how the phone conversation came to light I have no idea.

Comment: "F**k The EU" - U.S. State department blasts Europe; revealed as alleged mastermind behind Ukraine unrest


Bizarro Earth

Hysterical Australian government ignores science to cull vulnerable sharks

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© Theron Kirkman/EPAProtesters gather to rally against Western Australia's shark culling policy at Cottesloe Beach in Perth.
Where Russian premier Vladimir Putin totes a high-powered rifle, Western Australian premier Colin Barnett totes a giant barbed hook. One is to bears as the other is to sharks.

Playing up the ancient fear of monsters of the deep, Barnett responded to a series of fatal shark attacks last year by setting up drums trailing chains with baited hooks to catch, shoot and dump sharks of more than three metres length out at sea. The federal minister for the environment Greg Hunt gave Barnett a special exemption to ignore the national protected status of the great white shark.

The great white is the monster of the deep. It is found in all the earth's oceans, lives for 30 years or more, grows to six metres in length and more than two tonnes in weight, and feeds primarily on fish. It has no more trouble cruising from Australia to South Africa and back than it does returning year after year to its favoured seal colony when the seal pups are leaving the land to begin feeding in the sea - this has proven a dangerous place to be for people in wetsuits.

USA

"F**k The EU" - U.S. State department blasts Europe; revealed as alleged mastermind behind Ukraine unrest

Ms Nuland
Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs and wife of Robert Kagan, infamous for dismissing the European Union's concerns over Ukraine. "F*ck the EU!"
A leaked recording of a telephone conversation allegedly between US assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland and the US envoy to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt discussing who should be in Ukraine's next government has, according to The FT, threatened to fuel east-west tensions over the troubled nation's future. In apparent frustration with the EU - which has failed to join the US in threatening sanctions against Ukraine's leaders if they violently crush the protests - the voice resembling Ms Nuland at one point exclaims "Fuck the EU". As the two US diplomats decide whether "Klitsch" or "Yats" should be 'in' or 'out', listeners will be reminded (uncomfortably) that the governments of Ukraine and Russia previously alleged that the protests are being funded and orchestrated by the US.

The authenticity of the recording has not been confirmed (though comparisons to Nuland's recent media appearances provide some confidence) - the FT reported that the US embassy in Kiev declined to comment, which is a tacit admission: if the clip was a fake, the US would immediately make it clear.

Needless to say, as the FT adds, "[this clip] could also bolster a propaganda campaign by the governments of Ukraine and Russia alleging that the protests that erupted against Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich last November are being funded and orchestrated by the US." Its release ahead of the day the Sochi Olympics start is also somewhat disturbing.

An excerpt on the US meddling...

Nuke

Citizen scientists step in to study radiation effects in Western U.S. because there's no money in it for CorpGov

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© Jeffrey YoungA radioactive plume is expected to reach the West Coast sometime this year, but experts say it will be diluted by currents off Japan's east coast.
An Internet search turns up an astounding number of pages about radiation from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown that followed an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. But it's difficult to find credible information.

One reason is that government monitoring of radiation and its effects on fish stocks appears to be limited. According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "No U.S. government or international agency is monitoring the spread of low levels of radiation from Fukushima along the West Coast of North America and around the Hawaiian Islands."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's most recent food testing, which includes seafood, appears to be from June 2012. Its website states, "FDA has no evidence that radionuclides from the Fukushima incident are present in the U.S. food supply at levels that would pose a public health concern. This is true for both FDA-regulated food products imported from Japan and U.S. domestic food products, including seafood caught off the coast of the United States."

The non-profit Canadian Highly Migratory Species Foundation has been monitoring Pacific troll-caught albacore tuna off the B.C. coast. Its 2013 sampling found "no residues detected at the lowest detection limits achievable." The B.C. Centre for Disease Control website assures us we have little cause for concern about radiation from Japan in our food and environment. Websites for Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency yield scant information.

Megaphone

Propaganda alert: lawmakers 'disturbed and angered' after classified briefing reveals extent of Snowden defense leaks‏

snowden in moscow
© Sunshinepress/Getty ImagesEdward Snowden in Moscow.
Leading members of the House Armed Services Committee emerged from a classified briefing on the Edward Snowden leaks Wednesday afternoon "shocked" at the amount of information he reportedly leaked beyond the NSA surveillance programs.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the Armed Service panel's Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee and also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the briefing on the defense consequences of Snowden's leaks was "very highly classified," and therefore details couldn't be discussed.

Thornberry did say that lawmakers "left the briefing disturbed and angered" after hearing that the leaks by the former Booz Allen Hamilton employee "went well beyond programs associated with the NSA and data collection."

Comment: Forsome interesting food for thought, check out:

NSA PRISM: Neither Privacy Nor Security

NSA leaker: are there serious cracks in Ed Snowden's story?
Matrix: Who is Edward Snowden?
Ed Snowden's magic thumb drive and other NSA fantasies
Did someone help Ed Snowden punch a hole in the NSA?


Blue Planet

Freedom of religion is under threat: Catholics sue Obama administration

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© Unknown
In a speech during Thursday morning's National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama acknowledged, "It's also clear that around the world, freedom of religion is under threat."

"No society can truly succeed unless it guarantees the rights of all its people, including religious minorities," he added later.

The Obama administration has been harshly criticized by the Catholic church and civil liberties organizations concerned that Obamacare mandates that organizations provide their employees free access to contraceptives through their health care plans, even if their religious faith calls contraception a sin.

Eye 1

OpEdNews.com interview with Ian Hughes: A world damaged by psychopaths and narcissists (partial transcript)

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This is part one of a transcript of my September 12, 2013 Interview with Ian-Hughes

In his forthcoming book Imperfect Design: How Our Psychology Threatens Our World, Ian Hughes brings together his experience in science, psychology and political science to demonstrate that a small proportion of people with dangerous personality disorders are responsible for most of the violence and greed that scars our world. His blog disorderedworld.com has just been shortlisted in the "Top 10 Political Blogs" in Ireland.

R.K.: This is the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, WNJC 1360 AM out of Washington Township and reaching metro Philadelphia and South New Jersey, sponsored by Opednews.com. My guest for this portion of the show is Ian Hughes. I am speaking to Ian, he's in Ireland. What part of Ireland are you in, Ian?

I.H.: I'm in Dublin at the moment Rob, I'm originally from the North though.

R.K.: Okay. Ian is the author of a book in process, Imperfect Design, and he has a website, disorderedworld.com. He's a government adviser in science and technology and I'm going to talk to Ian about pathological people. The personality disorders and psychopaths because that's what his book is about. So welcome to the show.

Comment: Ian Hughes' upcoming book is called 'Imperfect Design: How Our Psychology Threatens Our World'. Look out for it, sounds interesting!

Book excerpts can be read on Ian's blog here.


Rainbow

Medvedev: Threats to gay rights in Russia a foreign invention

LGBT flag
Threats to the rights of gay people in Russia are an issue that has been "invented" abroad, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview broadcast late Thursday.

"This situation has caused a commotion in other countries. I think it is an invented problem," Medvedev said in an interview with CNN, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin.

A law passed by Russia last year that forbids the promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships toward children has been widely condemned and has overshadowed the Winter Olympics, due to open in Sochi next month.

Snakes in Suits

Should David Cameron be prosecuted for recruiting Brits to fight in Al Qaeda ranks in Syria?

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The British government of Prime Minister David Cameron has blood on its hands. It is acting in defiance of its own legislation.
According to the London Evening Standard, a top British prosecutor has "warned that Britons who travel to join the Syrian conflict will face prosecution and potential life sentences on their return."

Sue Hemming said it was a crime to fight in another country even if it was to topple a "loathsome" dictator such as president Bashar Assad.

The head of counter-terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service said Britons could also face charges for attending rebel training camps.

Her comments, in an interview with the Evening Standard, come as seven British residents including two London women await trial over charges connected to the Syrian conflict.

They follow a recent surge in arrests by police and a warning by the Met's counter-terrorism chief about the growing number of young Britons either traveling to Syria or attempting to go." (Brits who fight in Syria face life in jail, London Evening Standard, February 3, 2014)

What the British prosecutor fails to address is that the British "freedom fighters" are being recruited with the full support of the British government of Prime Minister David Cameron in defiance of UK laws.