Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Obama team sought data on thousands of Americans from NSA during 2016 election

John Solomon
circa
Thu, 04 May 2017 15:03 UTC
obama spy americans
The Obama administration distributed thousands of intelligence reports with the unredacted names of U.S. residents during the 2016 election.

During his final year in office, President Obama's team significantly expanded efforts to search National Security Agency intercepts for information about Americans, distributing thousands of intelligence reports across government with the unredacted names of U.S. residents during the midst of a divisive 2016 presidential election.

The data, made available this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, provides the clearest evidence to date of how information accidentally collected by the NSA overseas about Americans was subsequently searched and disseminated after President Obama loosened privacy protections to make such sharing easier in 2011 in the name of national security. A court affirmed his order.

The revelations are particularly sensitive since the NSA is legally forbidden from directly spying on Americans and its authority to conduct warrantless searches on foreigners is up for renewal in Congress later this year. And it comes as lawmakers investigate President Trump's own claims that his privacy was violated by his predecessor during the 2016 election.
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MIB

'Chaotic' FBI in turmoil after unexpected firing of Comey

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 10 May 2017 14:57 UTC
Comey Rogers
© Fox5NewsFBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers
As we reported last night, pretty much no one within the FBI had the slightest idea that Comey's firing was coming. Even Comey himself, according to the New York Times, learned of his dismissal on the news and thought it was just a prank.

Not surprisingly, this sudden and shocking ouster of an FBI director that has led an agency of 56 U.S. field offices and 30,000 employees for 6.5 years has created some turmoil inside the FBI. Agency staff scheduled an emergency high-level meeting last night amid speculation about who would replace Comey in the top job and explore next steps for the law-enforcement agency.

One top FBI official told Reuters that the FBI had no idea the Trump administration was considering dismissing Comey and the news "took even top officials by surprise."

Of course, with Comey's dismissal coming right in the middle of an investigation into Russian election meddling, the sudden move by Trump has drawn intense backlack from the left with even some Republicans calling the timing 'troubling.'
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Chess

Iranian president Rohani attacks rivals as 'executioners and jailers' in risky campaign strategy

Golnaz Esfandiari
RFE/RL
Tue, 09 May 2017 14:46 UTC
Iranian President Hassan Rohani
© AFPIranian President Hassan Rohani
Less than two weeks before voting in Iran's presidential election, incumbent Hassan Rohani has risked crossing the political establishment's "red lines" in an unusually blunt attack against two conservative rivals.

In a campaign speech in the western city of Hamedan, Rohani said on May 8 that voters did not want someone who in the four decades since Iran's revolution has only known how to "execute and jail."

That appeared to be a reference to hard-line candidate and cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is said to have condemned many political opponents and opposition activists to death during a spate of thousands of summary trials in the 1980s.

Raisi spent years in senior regional and national posts in Iran's powerful judiciary, which plays a key role in enforcing state repression and silencing critics.

Iranian political analyst Taghi Rahmani called Rohani's tactic potentially "risky," because it could anger powerful hard-line interests, including within the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a branch of the military, and the judiciary.
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Map

South Korea: The Rising Moon of the East

Andrew Korybko
Sputnik
Wed, 10 May 2017 14:02 UTC
Moon Jae-in
© AFP 2017/ KIM JAE-HWANMoon Jae-in
The election of South Korean President Moon Jae-in presents a historic opportunity for the country to earn its rightful place in the Multipolar Century.

South Korea is widely applauded for being one of the Four Asian Tigers which drove regional economic growth for decades during the Old Cold War, but despite its impressive prosperity, the country has lived under the US' shadow the entire time. The contemporary global situation has markedly shifted as the world undergoes the lengthy transition from unipolarity to multipolarity, yet South Korea's relationship with the US remains mostly unchanged, and this is holding it back from realizing its full geopolitical potential.

Comment: Also read: New president wants South Korea to learn to say 'no to America' and improve relations with Kim Jong-un

Moon Jae-in: What We Know About New South Korean President
Moon Jae-in, a 64-year-old Democratic Party candidate, became the 12th South Korean president Wednesday after receiving 41.08 percent of the vote in Tuesday's snap election.

Moon was born on January 24, 1953 in the town of Geoje in the South Gyeongsang Province. He studied at the Kyungnam High School in Busan, which is considered one of the most prestigious schools outside of Seoul.

After graduation, Moon entered the Kyung Hee University, where he majored in law. He was arrested and expelled from the university when he organized a student protest against the Yushin Constitution. Moon Jae-in was sentenced to eight months in prison with a suspended sentence of one year, and then drafted into the Marine Corps. During his military service, he entered into the special forces, where he participated in various missions, including the response operation following the so-called 1976 Axe Murder Incident, in which North Korean soldiers killed two US Army officers in the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

In 1980, he passed the state examination for the right to practice law. Moon had planned at becoming a judge, but because of his participation in protests during his university years, he was turned down for the position. Deciding to become a lawyer instead, he went to Busan, where he met with the future president of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun.

In 2002, Moon supported Roh, who was running his presidential election campaign at that time. After Roh's election, Moon held various positions within his administration: firstly as the senior secretary for civil affairs 2003-2004 and 2005-2006, and as the senior secretary for civil society in 2004-2005.

Between 2007 and 2008, Moon was the head of Roh's presidential staff.

Since 2009, Moon Jae-in was the executive director and from 2010 the chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun foundation.

In 2012, Moon participated in the presidential elections, and received 48 percent of the vote, but ultimately lost to Park Geun-hye.

Between 2012 and 2016, he was a member of the Korean National Assembly and from 2015 to 2016 was the chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea.

In April 2017, Moon was registered as a candidate for the presidency of the Republic of Korea. On May 9, Moon achieved a sweeping victory in the snap presidential elections, defeating his two rivals: conservative Hong Joon-pyo, who received 24.03 percent of the vote, and centrist Ahn Cheol-soo, who received 21.41 percent of the vote.

On Wednesday, Moon in accordance with the National Election Commission's decision, officially assumed the post of President of South Korea.


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Bad Guys

The Afghanistan Syndrome: American Chaos vs. Russian Reconciliation

Mark Ames
The Exiled
Wed, 10 May 2017 11:46 UTC
machine gunner from the Eighth Marines Bravo Company on patrol in southern Afghanistan
© Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters / Reuters
You may not have heard about this, but a few weeks ago, in mid-April, the Taliban scored its deadliest battle victory since the US invasion in 2001. Ten Taliban militants slaughtered at least 144 Afghan Army soldiers and wounded 60+ more, at an Afghan army base just outside of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country.

The attack took place about a week after Trump dropped the largest conventional bomb the US has ever used on an area in eastern Afghanistan. I'm starting to wonder if the MOAB was as much a paranoid, desperate attempt to "send a message" to Russia and Iran as it was meant to kill Islamic State fighters in the area, but I'll get to that in a minute.

The attack on the Afghan Army base in the north was a turkey shoot: The Afghan Army soldiers were largely unarmed and caught by surprise, just emerging from Friday prayers for lunch on their base, when about half a dozen Taliban militants stormed the base with help from four Taliban plants inside the Afghan Army base. The killing lasted 5 hours. The Taliban say they killed 500, and some witnesses claim many more than 140 were killed. It's even possible that one or two of the attackers got away.
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Radar

'NATO ally can't be with terrorists': Turkey presses US to stop supporting Syrian Kurds


RT
Wed, 10 May 2017 12:22 UTC
YPG stand near U.S military vehicles
© ReutersKurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) stand near U.S military vehicles in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria April 29, 2017.
Ankara expressed disappointment with the US decision to send heavy weapons to Kurdish militants, while the Kurds praised Washington's decision as a "historic" move that greatly expands the group's capabilities to "fight terrorism."

The Turkish government has asked the US to reverse its decision to broaden support for Syria's Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (YPG), stating that it is unacceptable for a NATO ally to support "terrorist groups."
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Info

Pelosi delegation meet Dalai Lama amid Trump shift to better US-China relations


RT
Wed, 10 May 2017 12:12 UTC
Nancy Pelosi meets Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama
© Douglas Busvine / Reuters US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi meets Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India May 9, 2017.
A US congressional delegation has met with the Dalai Lama during a trip to India, drawing attention to human rights in Tibet and the upcoming democratic elections in Nepal. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is pursuing common ground with China.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) headed a bipartisan delegation of eight representatives who traveled to Dharamsala, India, for the two-day visit. The trip started with a meeting with the spiritual leader of Tibet at his residence on the 70th anniversary of US-Nepal relations.

"As we visit His Holiness the Dalai Lama, our bipartisan delegation comes in his spirit of faith and peace," Pelosi said, according to Reuters. "We come on this visit to be inspired by His Holiness and demonstrate our commitment to the Tibetan people, to their faith, their culture and their language."
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Newspaper

Kremlin comments on Trump's decision to sack FBI chief


TASS
Wed, 10 May 2017 12:11 UTC
The Kremlin spokesman says Trump's move to fire the head of the FBI is "the US president's independent decision, which has nothing to do and should have nothing to do with Russia"

FBI director James Comey
© AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
FBI director James Comey
US President Donald Trump's decision to dismiss FBI Director James Comey will not affect relations between Russia and the United States, that's Washington's internal affair, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked how this decision again raising the issue of Russia's alleged involvement in the US election, could affect the bilateral ties.
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Attention

New president wants South Korea to learn to say 'no' to America and improve relations with Kim Jong-un


RT
Wed, 10 May 2017 12:05 UTC
Moon Jae-in
© Seo Myeong-gon / Reuters
South Korea has just elected a liberal president who favors rebuilding tattered relations with neighboring North Korea, which could signal a policy shift and mute heightened saber-rattling on the peninsula.

On the campaign trail Moon Jae-in promised to offer a more active diplomatic approach to North Korea centered around more open dialogue with Pyongyang.

Moon, a former human rights lawyer, won 41.4 percent of the vote on Tuesday.
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Bad Guys

Japanese govt interested in Tomahawk missiles to 'counter North Korea'


RT
Wed, 10 May 2017 11:11 UTC
Tomahawk cruise missile
© US Navy / Reuters
The Japanese government is considering the purchase and deployment of Tomahawk cruise missiles amid North Korea's missile and nuclear tests of late, according to reports.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is weighing whether to buy BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to reports in the Japan Times and Sankei Shimbun, the latter of which was cited by Popular Mechanics.

The long-range missiles would be used by Japan's Self Defense Forces to preemptively target North Korea's Rodong medium-range ballistic missiles, according to the reports.

Comment: Japan has made a definite departure from their 'defensive' posture over the past few years. Just like Europe's missile shield was nominally 'protection from Iran' but in reality targeted Russia, the target here is not just North Korea, but China.

Check out:

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