Puppet Masters
[Author Note] As this is a developing story, updates are posted at the end of the article:
Sarkozy speaking in Toulouse, March 19th 2012. A 'strong leader in a crisis'. But who is behind the crisis?French President Sarkozy's 2012 re-election bid has been faltering almost since he was 'elected' in 2007. Long viewed by a majority of the French public as a latter-day Napoleon wannabe, some were perplexed as to how he won the 2007 presidential race, given that one year before the election, opinion polls placed him a definite second, and between then and the election he did nothing to justify his alleged increase in popularity, with his 'Bling Bling' approach to electioneering turning the stomachs of many French people. In addition, within a few months of his 'victory' in May 2007, Sarkozy's popularity had plummeted to around 30% as people reacted to his austere economic reforms, on which he had openly campaigned, mind you. How to explain such a sudden turnaround so soon after his victory? It was only on election day that, somehow, the diminutive son of a Hungarian immigrant and his 'princes of Paris' were gifted 5 years in the Elysee palace.
Sarkozy speaking in Toulouse, March 19th 2012. A 'strong leader in a crisis'. But who is behind the crisis?
© U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet
The Navy practices a mock boarding operation on the U.S.S. Princeton in the Middle East, 2010.
The Navy practices a mock boarding operation on the U.S.S. Princeton in the Middle East, 2010.
In the next few months, the Navy will double its minesweeper craft stationed in Bahrain, near Iran, from four to eight. Those ships will be crucial if Iran takes the drastic step of mining the Strait of Hormuz, one of the global energy supply's most crucial waterways. Four more MH-53 "Sea Stallion" helicopters, another minesweeping tool, are also getting ready for Bahrain, to give the U.S. Fifth Fleet early warning for any strait mining.
Then the Navy will prepare to get closer to Iranian shores. Much closer. It's got five close-action patrol boats in the Gulf right now. Once the Coast Guard returns three that the Navy loaned out, the Navy will have five other patrol craft in the United States. All those boats are getting retrofitted. With Gatling guns. And missiles.
Sure, the guns aboard the two aircraft carriers currently near Iran are the seapower equivalent of high-powered, long-range rifles. "But maybe what you need is like a sawed-off shotgun," capable of doing massive damage from a closer distance, said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy's senior officer. All 10 of those patrol boats, Greenert told reporters at a Friday breakfast in Washington, will get strapped with the Mk-38 Gatling Gun and should make it to the Gulf next year. (Though, alas, they won't have the Gatling/laser gun mashup BAE Systems is working on.) They'll also get close-range missiles that can hit Iranian shores from four miles away - the same kinds Navy SEALs use.
© Presstv.com
Bank of Moscow’s former Chief Executive Officer Andrei Borodin.
Bank of Moscow’s former Chief Executive Officer Andrei Borodin.
"After determining the location in the United Kingdom of [Bank of Moscow's former Chief Executive Officer] Andrei Borodin, who was put on the international wanted list in November 2011, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has promptly prepared and submitted a request for his extradition for criminal prosecution to the competent British authorities," Russia's Prosecutor General's Office spokeswoman Marina Gridneva said on Friday.
Washington - The ornate ballroom of the Willard Hotel buzzed with activity on a Saturday morning in July. Crowded together on the stage sat a cadre of the nation's most influential former government officials, the kind whose names often appear in boldface, who've risen above daily politics to the realm of elder statesmen. They were perched, as they so often are, below a banner with a benign conference title on it, about to offer words of pricey wisdom to an audience with an agenda.
That agenda: to secure the removal of the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) from the U.S. government's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. A Marxian Iranian exile group with cult-like qualities, Mujahideen-e Khalq was responsible for the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s, along with staging a handful of bombings. But for a terrorist organization with deep pockets, it appears there's always hope.
That agenda: to secure the removal of the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) from the U.S. government's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. A Marxian Iranian exile group with cult-like qualities, Mujahideen-e Khalq was responsible for the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s, along with staging a handful of bombings. But for a terrorist organization with deep pockets, it appears there's always hope.
© unknown
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
Chavez arrived in Caracas on Friday night, the Associated Press reported.
Surgeons at Havana's Cimeq Hospital operated on the 57-year-old socialist leader for 90 minutes late on February 27.
He had been diagnosed with a two-centimeter-long lesion in the same part of his body from which a cancerous tumor was removed in 2011.
The Venezuelan leader, who came to power in 1999, is seeking another six-year term in the upcoming presidential election, which will be held on October 7, 2012.
© Agence France-Presse/The Associated Press
Gen. Hugh Shelton, left, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh are among the top former U.S. government officials whose speaking fees have been subpoenaed.
Gen. Hugh Shelton, left, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh are among the top former U.S. government officials whose speaking fees have been subpoenaed.
The investigation, being conducted by the Treasury Department, is focused on whether the former officials may have received funding, directly or indirectly, from the People's Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK, thereby violating longstanding federal law barring financial dealings with terrorist groups. The sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said that speaking fees given to the former officials total hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"This is about finding out where the money is coming from," an Obama administration official familiar with the probe said. "This has been a source of enormous concern for a long time now. You have to ask the question, whether this is a prima facie case of material support for terrorism."
Freeh and Shelton are among 40 former senior U.S. government officials who have participated in a public lobbying campaign - including appearing at overseas conferences and speaking at public rallies - aimed at persuading the U.S. government to remove the MEK from the terror list.
© The Associated Press/Ng Han Guan
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman holds up a paper with the Chinese proverb "We will not attack unless we are attacked, if we are attacked, we will certainly counterattack.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman holds up a paper with the Chinese proverb "We will not attack unless we are attacked, if we are attacked, we will certainly counterattack.
China, which has close energy and trade ties with Iran, has urged a negotiated solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions and long opposed unilateral sanctions on Iran.
"For us, it's crucial to explain our position to our Chinese partners," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters on a visit to Beijing. "It's crucial to clarify our position to China in the hope they understand our concerns, our problems," he said, adding that Israel would "continue the dialogue" with China.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned Iran in January against any effort to acquire nuclear weapons but apart from that, China has shied away from speaking out strongly against Iran.
That position on Iran underscores the tricky path China is trying to steer between pressure from the United States and its allies and, on the other hand, expectations from Iran, which looks to China as a sympathetic power and a big oil customer.
© The Associated Press/New Zealand Herald/Glenn Jeffrey
In this Aug. 1, 2008 file photo the King of Tonga George Tupou V sits on his throne in Nuku'aloka,Tonga.
In this Aug. 1, 2008 file photo the King of Tonga George Tupou V sits on his throne in Nuku'aloka,Tonga.
He was 63. Tupou V's younger brother and the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Tupouto'a Lavaka, was with him when he died while on a visit to Hong Kong. A government statement confirming his death was read on local radio.
The New Zealand government, a major aid donor to Tonga, said he would be remembered for ushering in significant political change.
"He believed that the monarchy was an instrument of change and can truly be seen as the architect of evolving democracy in Tonga. This will be his enduring legacy," said Prime Minister John Key in a statement.
Shortly after Tupou V ascended the throne in 2006, demonstrations demanding greater democracy turned into riots in which eight people died and large parts of the commercial centre of the capital, Nuku'alofa, were destroyed.
The Oxford-educated king then said he would relinquish most of his power in the last Polynesian monarchy to a broadly popularly elected government after 165 years of feudal rule.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales (left) one of up to 20 US Marines who massacred 16 Afghan villagers. Here he is seen training at a US military mock up of a typical 'rag-head ville'.
"There will be moments like this when you're searching for the meaning of this loss. There will be moments like this, when your emotions are governed by anger and a desire to strike back. Now is not the time for revenge, now is not the time for vengeance, now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are."This little detail, as motive, seems to have been 'forgotten' by the mainstream media in their coverage of the recent massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by up to 20 drunken US soldiers. Indeed, the reports that up to 20 'drunken' troops were involved in the massacre have also been conveniently ignored by the Western media, who have chosen to go with the US military-provided "lone crazed assassin" lie that has served so well to cover up previous planned murders by US forces of Empire. The fact of the matter is, General Allen knew that his troops were planning 'revenge', but obviously could do nothing to stop it.
