Puppet MastersS


Telephone

Merkel, Hollande to discuss possible European communication network that excludes U.S.

Erik Kirschbaum and Julien Ponthus
Yahoo! News
Sat, 15 Feb 2014 13:11 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Yoan Valat/PoolFrench President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) meet in President's office prior to a dinner at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, December 18, 2013.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday she would talk to French President Francois Hollande about building up a European communication network to avoid emails and other data passing through the United States.

Merkel, who visits France on Wednesday, has been pushing for greater data protection in Europe following reports last year about mass surveillance in Germany and elsewhere by the U.S. National Security Agency. Even Merkel's cell phone was reportedly monitored by American spies.

Merkel said in her weekly podcast that she disapproved of companies such as Google and Facebook basing their operations in countries with low levels of data protection while being active in countries such as Germany with high data protection.

"We'll talk with France about how we can maintain a high level of data protection," Merkel said.

"Above all, we'll talk about European providers that offer security for our citizens, so that one shouldn't have to send emails and other information across the Atlantic. Rather, one could build up a communication network inside Europe."

Hollande's office confirmed that the governments had been discussing the matter and said Paris agreed with Berlin's proposals.
Read More...
Bomb

Western terrorists' car bomb killed dozens outside mosque in southern Syria


The Guardian
Fri, 14 Feb 2014 14:51 UTC
Image
© APA still from video footage shows smouldering vehicles after an explosion outside a mosque in Yadouda, Syria.
Explosion in Yadouda after Friday prayers ignites nearby oil tanker, causing large fireball at mosque in Deraa province

A car bomb has exploded outside a mosque in southern Syria, killing dozens of people and filling clinics and hospitals with the wounded, anti-government activists have said.

The explosion in Yadouda, as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers, charred nearby vehicles and damaged the white-domed mosque, according to video images posted by activists who are fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.

The motive for the blast could not immediately be determined and activists provided varying death tolls ranging from 29 to 43. State-run TV confirmed the bombing but said only three people were killed.

Car bombs have frequently been used by Islamic extremists both against the government and against moderate rivals in the Sunni-led opposition movement. Government forces also have been known to use explosive-packed vehicles and the two sides frequently trade blame in attacks targeting mosques.

An activist in the nearby region of Quneitra, Jamal al-Golani, said the car bomb killed at least 29 people, of which 18 were identified. He gave the Associated Press a list of the names of the identified men who were killed.
Read More...
Pistol

U.S. DHS contracted to purchase 704 millions rounds of ammo

Ali Meyer
CNS News
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 15:54 UTC
Image
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is contracted to purchase 704,390,250 rounds of ammunition over the next four years, which is equal to a total of about 2,500 rounds per DHS agent per year, according to a January 2014 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report entitled Ammunition Purchases Have Declined Since 2009.

"If DHS were to purchase all 704 million rounds over the next four years, and if they were used by 70,000 DHS agents and officers, it would be roughly 2,500 rounds per agent per year," David Maurer, author of the GAO report, told CNSNews.com.

"That would be higher than what we saw in past years at DHS and higher than the average annual number of rounds per agent or officer at the Department of Justice (DOJ)," he said.

"The 704,390,250 number of rounds is like a ceiling or credit limit which DHS wouldn't have to fully execute," said Maurer. "It's there to use over the next four years until fiscal year 2018, if DHS needed to purchase those rounds."

In Appendix III of the GAO report, "Department of Homeland Security Ammunition Contracts, as of October 1, 2013," it states that "the 29 existing DHS ammunition contracts extend over the next 4 fiscal years and have a remaining contract limit of approximately 704 million rounds (for various ammunition types) if every option for purchasing ammunition were exercised into fiscal year 2018."
Read More...
Quenelle

Best of the Web: US Hypocrisy and 'Regime change': The Simple Truth About Ukraine - Video


Democracy Now
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 10:01 UTC
Read More...
Snakes in Suits

California senator charged in big corruption case


Washington Post
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 09:41 UTC
Image
© Rich Pedroncelli/APCalif. State Senator Ron Calderon. Calderon and his brother, Tom Calderon, were indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple political corruption charges
A California state senator was charged Friday with accepting $100,000 in bribes, lavish trips and no-show jobs for his children in exchange for pushing legislation to benefit a hospital engaged in billing fraud and participating in a film industry tax scheme that actually was an FBI sting.

The 24-count federal indictment against Sen. Ron Calderon, a Democrat from a politically prominent family in Los Angeles' blue-collar suburbs, depicts a rogue legislator eager to trade his clout at the state Capitol to enrich himself and his family. His brother Tom, a former state lawmaker-turned-lobbyist, was charged with money-laundering for funneling bribes through a tax-exempt group he controlled, prosecutors said.

"When public officials choose to callously betray the trust of the people they serve and selfishly abuse the privileges of public office, then we will take all necessary steps to hold those persons fully accountable for their behavior," U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte said.

The charges come after a long-running corruption investigation that has tarnished the state's majority party - Democrats hold every statewide office and control both chambers in the Legislature. The charges also threaten the patriarchs of a family that rose to political prominence from the heavily Hispanic, working-class communities southeast of Los Angeles.
Read More...
Light Sabers

Latest from Ukraine: Military signals support for coup d'état, regional deputy says foreign agents spent $10 billion laying groundwork over many years, Yanukovich quashes Western rumors that he's resigned


RT
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 08:17 UTC
Image
The goals of this "revolution" come into focus...
Protests in Kiev continue despite President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders signing an EU-brokered agreement which seeks to end the bloody political crisis in the country.

Saturday, February 22

14:17 GMT
Ukraine's armed forces cannot and will not be involved in political conflict, the Ministry of Defense has stated.

"Units of the armed forces of Ukraine are located in places of permanent deployment and perform scheduled tasks," the statement published on the Ministry's webpage reads.

"Armed forces are faithful to their constitutional duty and cannot be dragged into an internal political conflict," the Chief of General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said. "Now I am fully controlling the situation in the Armed forces of Ukraine."
14:06 GMT
Yanukovich has accused the opposition of staging a coup d'etat and has no plans to resign, according to advisor Anna German, a Party of Regions deputy, who was interviewed by UNIAN news agency.
13:48 GMT
Party of Regions deputy Vadim Kolesnichenko has blamed "foreign agents" for the unfolding events.

"The situation in Kiev has taken years to prepare. Foreign agents of influence have spent over $10 billion in recent years to execute this coup. The money has been channeled into so-called non-governmental organizations," Kolesnichenko told the ITAR-TASS news agency.
13:47 GMT
Opposition deputies claim they have received verbal assurances from Yanukovich that he will resign.

"We have received a verbal promise from Yanukovich that he will step down. Now, we are waiting for written confirmation," said Nikolay Kerinchuk from Yulia Tymoshenko's Fatherland party.
Read More...
Dominoes

Venezuela revokes CNN journalists' press credentials for 'war propaganda'


RT
Fri, 21 Feb 2014 08:24 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Carlos Garcia RawlinsSupporters of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez stand at a barricade during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro's government, in a middle-class neighbourhood in Caracas February 20, 2014.
Venezuela has revoked or denied press credentials for seven CNN journalists working in the country for what President Nicolas Maduro called "war propaganda" amid coverage of anti-government protests.

Before the conditions on credentials were announced, Maduro said he would eject CNN from the country if it did not "rectify" its coverage amid a spike in the unrest that has gripped Venezuela. According to officials, at least eight people have been killed since demonstrations mounted by the opposition turned violent last week.

"They want to show the world that there is a civil war in Venezuela," Maduro said of CNN in a televised speech on Thursday.

He added that CNN was not showing "the people working, studying, building the homeland."
Read More...
Eiffel Tower

Imperialist Meddling: France triggered slaughter in Africa

Finian Cunningham
Press TV
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 21:23 UTC
Image
© Rebecca Blackwall/AP
French soldiers fire tear gas as they attempt to contain a demonstration calling for the departure of French forces.
As the Central African Republic descends into a charnel house of mass killing, hunger and fleeing refugees, one country bears full responsibility for the catastrophe - France.

This week, France's defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had the brass neck to tour the former French colony where hundreds of people - mainly Muslims - have been lynched in the streets in recent weeks, their corpses left to rot along the roadsides.

Thousands more have been burnt out of their homes and have fled to the jungles for refuge from inter-communal clashes. A Muslim man happened to fall off a truck ferrying refugees from the violence. He was then beaten, hacked to death by a frenzied mob on the street below.

An entire country has been turned upside down, and that chaos and suffering is all down to French imperialist meddling.

Le Drian had the nerve to claim that the dispatch of French troops to the Central African Republic in early December "had prevented even more deaths from occurring". How dare the French minister distort the facts and exonerate his country from the cold-blooded mass murder and an unfolding humanitarian crisis that it - and it alone - has triggered.

Comment:
France sends military to deal with another 'ex'-colony, Central African Republic, under pretext of intervening in 'humanitarian crisis' it helped create

French military oversees power-sharing deal in 'former' colony, the Central African Republic

Read More...
Vader

Free-dumb and Democrazi: Ukraine MPs vote for release of ex-PM and gas billionaire Tymoshenko, along with a return to 2004 CIA-imposed constitution


RT
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 07:54 UTC
Image
The Ukrainian parliament has voted in favor of a bill that will allow the release from jail of the former Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. 310 MPs have voted to decriminalize the article of the Ukrainian law defining the charges under which Tymoshenko is serving her term. The former Ukrainian PM was sentenced to 7 years in prison for abuse of office during the signing of the January 2009 natural gas imports contract with Russia.


Comment: Yulia Tymoshenko was charged with abuse of power and embezzlement and sentenced to seven years in jail in October 2011.

Her supporters claim that she was charged and sentenced under current president Yanukovych but the investigation that led to her imprisonment was launched at the behest of her former ally, Yushchenko, with whom she led the CIA's 2004 'orange revolution'.

Investigators concluded that Ukraine suffered losses of 310 million euros due to Tymoshenko's ten-year dodgy gas deal with Russia.

Before Tymoshenko was sentenced for her controversial gas deal in October 2011, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) re-opened another criminal case which had been scrapped in 2005.

Between 1995 and 1997 during her time as head of Ukraine's then largest natural gas importer, United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU), the "gas princess" allegedly embezzled 405.5 million dollars in cooperation with Pavlo Lazarenko, who was Ukrainian Prime Minister at the time.

Lazarenko plays also a central role in the latest and most interesting criminal case against Tymoshenko, the 1996 murder of Ukrainian oligarch Yevhen Shcherban.

This is the kind of 'leader' that the US and EU would like to see in power in Ukraine, because they share so many 'interests'. And this is the kind of leader the Ukraine will have, the wishes or interests of the Ukrainian people be damned.

The US state department and EU would like to thank the dozens of Ukrainian citizens who gave their lives so that the US state department and EU could use their sacrifice to manipulate the world and push through an elitist political agenda that will ensure the Ukrainian people are screwed for decades to come.

Read More...
Stock Down

Flashback Will the U.S. economy crash March 4, 2014?

Grady Means
Washington Times
Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:38 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Jason DeCrow
America's fall will take global economies with it

Those wild and crazy Mayans put down their marker that the end of the world would occur on Dec. 21, 2012 - about two months from now. There is, of course, some small chance that they might be right. On the other hand, there is a very large probability that the real end of the world will occur around March 4, 2014.

The doomsday clock will ring then because the U.S. economy may fully crash around that date, which will, in turn, bring down all world economies and all hope of any recovery for the foreseeable future - certainly over the course of most of our lifetimes.

Interest rates will skyrocket, businesses will fail, unemployment will go to record levels, material and food shortages will be rampant, and there could be major social unrest.

Any wishful thinking that America is in a "recovery" and that "things are getting better" is an illusion.
Read More...