Puppet MastersS

Star of David

Norway backs Palestinian bid for UN recognition in September


shoah.org.uk
Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:40 UTC
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Thou Shalt Not Recognise... Norwegian Foreign Minister Gahr Store with West Bank ruler Abbas.
Norwegian FM says 'it is perfectly legitimate' for Palestinian president to turn to the UN with a proposal for statehood.

Norway, host of the 1993 Palestinian-Israeli peace accords, said on Monday it was "perfectly legitimate" for Palestinians to take their case for statehood to the United Nations for voting in September.

"We will consider very carefully the proposed text that's to be put forward by the Palestinians in the coming weeks," said Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas beside him at a press conference.

"Norway believes it is perfectly legitimate for the Palestinian president to turn to the United Nations with such proposals," Stoere said, adding that continued negotiations with Israel will be required in any case.

The United States and Israel have opposed Abbas' plan, backed by the Arab League, to bring the Palestinians' long quest for statehood to a vote in New York.
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MIB

US House Committee saves Israeli aid in foreign aid cut

Ran Dagoni
Globes
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:38 UTC
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The US House Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday cut the Obama administration's $51 billion 2012 budget request for the State Department and foreign aid by $6.4 billion, but kept unchanged the $3 billion in military aid for Israel.

Commentators say that the committee vote is a direct challenge to President Barack Obama. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives is trying to limit Obama's freedom of action in handling foreign policy and to minimize US contributions to international organizations - especially the UN. An Israeli source told Globes that the Foreign Affairs Committee slashed foreign aid for the Palestinians, Egypt, Lebanon, and Yemen, until the President certifies that these governments are "not directly or indirectly controlled by a foreign terrorist organization", and eliminated military and civilian aid altogether for Pakistan, until the Secretary of State certifies Pakistan's cooperation in the war on terror and the effectiveness of civilian programs.

The Republican majority in the House means that the bill will be easily passed. However, the Democratic majority in the Senate has its own version of the foreign aid and State Department budget bill. The Senate version gives Obama the freedom of action that the House is trying to take away. The joint Senate-House committee will have to reconcile the two versions, and the final version will undoubtedly remove the House clauses limiting the administration.
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Bizarro Earth

UN rights officials raise concerns over Haiti mayor removing homeless from stadium parking lot


The Washington Post
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
haiti
© unknown
United Nations officials say a Haitian mayor's closure of a camp that housed several hundred families displaced by last year's earthquake ignores their rights to adequate housing.

A Thursday statement from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says the more than 400 families relocated from a soccer stadium are more vulnerable now because they'll lack basic services.

Mayor Jean Yves Jason began to evict families from the Sylvio Cator Stadium in downtown Port-au-Prince last week by paying them about $250 a piece.

The U.N. and advocacy groups have urged President Michel Martelly to develop a clear strategy to house the 634,000 people who are still living in flimsy settlements after the January 2010 earthquake.

Source: The Associated Press
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Vader

Israel Defense Forces in Buying Spree in Anticipation of September


The Jeruslam Post
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 06:54 UTC
sniper rifle
© sniper rifleYaakov Katz
Snipers will switch to non-lead rounds and will use new rules of engagement to diffuse potential riots in W. Bank and along borders.

As the Palestinians move forward with their plans to unilaterally declare statehood in September, the army has decided to procure new non-lethal weapons that will help disperse large demonstrations and marches that could break out in the West Bank and along Israel's borders in the North.

Last month, the IDF decided to begin distributing throughout the infantry a new receiver for the standard-issue M-16 semi-automatic rifle that can enable it to shoot a 0.22 round instead of the usual 5.56 mm. bullet. The smaller rounds are not as lethal when fired from a distance.

In addition, the IDF has purchased impact rounds for snipers for use with Remington M-24 7.62 mm. rifles. Impact rounds are usually made of non-lead materials and do not penetrate skin but deal a painful blow.

The Ground Forces Command has also instituted new rules of engagement for snipers who will be deployed to stop demonstrations and marches, including at what distance they are allowed to open fire.
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Stormtrooper

Africa: Malawi Protesters Killed During Anti-Regime Riots

Godfrey Mapondera and David Smith
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:19 UTC
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© AFP/Getty ImagesA Malawian soldier patrols the deserted streets of Lilongwe, a day after mass protests against the president Bingu wa Mutharika.
Demonstrations over fuel shortages, inflation and unemployment target Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika

At least 18 people have been killed, officials say, in two days of public unrest in Malawi, an unlikely stage for one of the biggest anti-government protests in sub-Saharan Africa this year.

The protests, sparked by worsening fuel shortages, rising prices and high unemployment in the southern African country, have seen calls for president Bingu wa Mutharika to step down.

Malawi's health ministry spokesman Henry Chimbali confirmed 10 deaths in the northern cities of Karonga and Mzuzu, where protesters ransacked the offices of Mutharika's Democratic Progressive party (DPP) on Wednesday.

The others died in the capital, Lilongwe, and the southern commercial hub of Blantyre after police and troops fired teargas to disperse crowds demanding that Mutharika quit.

"These figures are based on those casualties that are coming through to the hospitals," Chimbali told Reuters. "Some died in hospital, while some were brought by police already dead."

A further 41 people were injured, six critically, he added.
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Chess

US Warship G.H.W. Bush Enters Persian Gulf, CIA Veteran Robert Baer Predicts Israel-Iran War in September

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 17 Jul 2011 12:46 UTC
One look at the most recent naval update maps shows that in addition to global insolvency (courtesy of the broke European dominoes and a potentially technically broke US), a UK on the verge of a parliamentary scandal courtesy of a media baron whose empire is crumbling, and not to mention yet another downward inflection point in the global economic slowdown courtesy of the end of QE2 and no replacement yet, market watchers may have to start factoring in geopolitical risk yet again. While the fact that Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, and now Turkey, are ever more increasingly on edge is apparently something Mr. Market has managed to internalize, when it comes to geopolitics everyone stops to listen when renewed Iran-Israel rumblings reappear. Which may just be the case.
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© Stratfor 2011naval update per Stratfor

Comment: We have to consider that the information about a war against Iran comes from an "ex-CIA" source. So it makes this information highly suspicious. But we have to consider the movement of those war ships too. All in all, a well-organized strategy of communication and intimidation seems to be taking place.

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Bad Guys

US: Keystone XL pipeline would screw over farmers, threaten aquifer

Carrie La Seur
The Grist
Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:00 UTC
Farm
© David ClowFarms across the Great Plains are in the path of a monster: the Keystone XL pipeline.

Old farmFarms across the Great Plains are in the path of a monster: the Keystone XL pipeline.Photo: David ClowThe other morning I took a call, like so many other calls I've taken over the last four years, from another Dakota farmer wondering how his land may be affected by the Keystone XL pipeline. He had a notice of condemnation and interrogatories from TransCanada in hand, and I wish I'd had better news for him. He's in the path of a monster. Keystone XL will be a 36-inch-diameter pipeline, carrying nine times the volume of the Silvertip line that just vomited 1,000 barrels of crude into the Yellowstone River. It will cross some of the most isolated places in the high plains, cutting through the ecologically fragile Nebraska Sandhills and the irreplaceable Ogallala aquifer.

Keystone XL won't carry "light, sweet" crude, which floats on top of water and can be mopped up with absorbent booms. Bitumen - a tarlike substance mined from the Alberta tar sands, chemically diluted, and heated to improve flow - will travel at high pressure across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas to Gulf Coast refineries. If and when it leaks into water bodies, this product will sink. To judge the risk of that happening, it helps to know that the first piece of the Keystone system, TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline that crosses the eastern Dakotas, has sprung a dozen leaks in its first year of operation.
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Wall Street

States Negotiating Immunity For Banks Over Foreclosures


Raw Story
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:20 UTC
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New York- State attorneys general are negotiating to give major banks wide immunity over irregularities in handling foreclosures, even as evidence has emerged that banks are continuing to file questionable documents.

A coalition of all 50 states' attorneys general has been negotiating settlements with five of the biggest U.S. banks that would include payment of up to $25 billion in penalties and commitments to follow new rules. In exchange, the banks would get immunity from civil lawsuits by the states, as well as similar guarantees by the Justice Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development, which have participated in the talks.

State and federal officials declined to say if any form of immunity from criminal prosecution also is under discussion. The banks involved in the talks are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, CitiGroup, JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial.
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Magnify

TSA Announces Privacy Overhaul of Nude Airport Scanners

David Kravets
Wired
Wed, 20 Jul 2011 02:54 UTC
tsascanners
© Wired
The Transportation Security Administration announced Wednesday that one type of body scanner deployed in as many as 78 airports nationwide will be revamped to no longer display an image of travelers' naked bodies, bowing to months of criticism over the privacy implications of the technology.
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Laptop

US: Alleged hacker just trying to highlight 'flaw'


abc-7
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 02:56 UTC


The father of the University of Central Florida student who was arrested by the FBI said his son had no intention of committing a criminal act. He says his son was only trying to point out a flaw in the system.
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