Puppet MastersS


Star of David

'New' Netanyahu policy on settlements promises Trump less building, and Israeli settlers more

Allison Deger
Mondoweiss
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 11:27 UTC
Palestinian woman looks at bungalows in the distance built by Israeli settlers
© Issam RimawiA Palestinian woman from the village of al-Mazraa al-Kubliyeh looks at bungalows in the distance built by Israeli settlers at an outpost constructed on seized land from the Palestinian village, near the West Bank city of Birzeit on December 3, 2013.
While the White House is still formulating a new policy towards Israeli settlements, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu preempted a potentially unfavorable U.S. dictate by announcing his own set of new rules. Netanyahu has told Israelis he forged a policy that shows his commitment to settlers, yet his advisors have said the opposite, namely that it is a stern rule to restrict growth at the behest of the Trump administration.

The settlement regulation itself is still vague. No text of the guidelines has been published. Reportedly it will restrict where settlers can build in the West Bank, but not how many or how often.

"There's no limit on the number of housing units and no distinction between the blocs and the solitary settlements. It will be possible to build, but in a gradual and measured way and without taking more and more hills," a cabinet member anonymously told Haaretz.
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Info

Leaked Hamas charter illustrates movement's maturation as a political actor

Toufic Haddad
Mondoweiss
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 11:01 UTC
Ismail Haniyeh
© Ashraf Amra/ APA ImagesSenior political leaders of the Islamist movement, Ismail Haniyeh speaks during the opening ceremony of monument of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, in the northwest of Gaza city on April 01, 2017.
Hamas' new charter was leaked Sunday evening and published by the Lebanese network Al Mayadeen. Toufic Haddad,the author of the book "Palestine Ltd: Neoliberalism and National Liberation in the Occupied Territory, posted a quick analysis on social media within hours of the release.

The charter is the first new document on Hamas' core ideology since it's founding convent was published in 1988. Here are Haddad's initial thoughts:

Supposedly the new Hamas charter, as leaked by Al Mayadeen.
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Radar

Erdogan says Turkey planning 'new operations' in Syria


RFE/RL
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 10:19 UTC
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
© AFP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is planning new offensives this spring against groups deemed terrorist groups by Ankara.

Ankara announced last week the end of Euphrates Shield, an operation launched in August against Islamic State (IS) militants and Kurdish militia groups operating in the Turkish border region.

But Erdogan said more cross-border operations would follow against groups like the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Kurdish units known as People's Protection Units (YPG).
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Footprints

Crackdown on dissent: Bahrain king approves law for military courts to try civilians


RT
Tue, 04 Apr 2017 09:13 UTC
Hamad bin Isa Al khalifa
© Hamad I Mohammed/ReutersBahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al khalifa.
Bahrain's king has approved a law allowing civilians to be tried in military courts, amid a major crackdown on dissent in the Gulf kingdom. Amnesty International has called the move "disastrous" and "unfair."

The constitutional amendment, approved by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Monday, drops a clause limiting military trials to members of the armed forces or other security branches, AFP reported, citing Bahrain's BNA news agency.

Although the law reportedly applies only to those accused of terrorism, the legislation does not specify what constitutes an act of terrorism, and Bahrain has previously charged peaceful protesters and activists with such offenses.

Ahead of the king's approval, the amendment was passed by both the upper and lower houses of Bahrain's parliament last month.

Those loyal to Bahrain's Sunni monarchy say the new law is necessary to combat terrorism. Rights groups including Amnesty International have slammed the move, however, describing it as a way to place the island under an undeclared state of martial law.
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Map

US to balkanize Syria under Kurdish pretext

Ms. Marwa Osman
RT
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 08:54 UTC
YPG flag
© Rodi Said / Reuters
As early as 2013, Western powers have been rooting for the balkanization of Syria as the best possible outcome of the war tearing apart the country since 2011.

Since the war against Syria is significant in this period of imperialism, watching how it was led by the US, imperialist proxies and their so-called allies, one can fully understand that the war against the Syrian Arab Republic has been decades in the making.

Throughout history, the imperialist powers have been facilitating and empowering the most intolerant, bigoted ideologies and groups in the region starting from the Balfour Declaration, passing through the infamous Sykes-Picot agreement and ending in the invasions of Iraq and Libya before making their way into Syria. The latest group to gain the full support of the US on the ground in Syria is the Syrian Kurdish YPG forces (People's Protection Units).
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Laptop

Records show deep ties between FBI and Best Buy computer techs looking for child porn

Tom Jackman
The Washington Post
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 05:45 UTC
Geek Squad
© Ken James/BloombergA “Geek Squad” agent walks past computers undergoing a final inspection at Best Buy’s central “Geek Squad City” repair facility in Brooks, Ky., in 2012.
Technicians for Best Buy's "Geek Squad City" computer repair facility had a long, close relationship with the FBI in "a joint venture to ferret out child porn," according to claims in new federal court documents, which also note that Best Buy's management "was aware that its supervisory personnel were being paid by the FBI" and that its technicians were developing a program to find child pornography with the FBI's guidance.

The allegations are made by lawyers for a California doctor charged with possessing child pornography, after the doctor took his computer to a Best Buy store for repair. Computers which require data recovery are typically sent from Best Buy stores around the country to a central Geek Squad City facility in Brooks, Ky., and customers consent to having their computers searched — and turned over to authorities if child porn is found.

While there is no question that Geek Squad technicians have notified authorities after finding child porn, the new court documents assert that there is a deeper relationship than has previously been revealed between the company and federal authorities. The court is now considering the extent of that relationship and whether it is grounds to throw out a pending child porn case, though it could also have ramifications for the dozens of cases which originate from the Kentucky facility annually.
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Info

'Hysterical Russophobia': Moscow blasts Lithuanian report on numerous Russian 'threats'


RT
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 08:29 UTC
Lithuanian soldiers
© Petras Malukas / AFPLithuanian soldiers.
Lithuanian intelligence agencies have produced a security report claiming that Russia threatens the country in numerous ways, from a possible military incursion to promoting a positive image of itself. The Kremlin called the report an example of "hysterical Russophobia."

The annual report was published on Monday by Lithuania's State Security Department (VSD) - an agency responsible for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence - and the Defense Ministry's 2nd Department of Operations, the country's military intelligence body.

Among other things, the Lithuanian spooks said Russia could launch a surprise attack against the Baltic republic in 24 to 48 hours, or use a joint military exercise with Belarus in September for provocation against Lithuania. Other threats to state security mentioned in the report included the backing of the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus and the use of social and traditional media to promote a positive image of Russia.

Comment: More on Lithuania's brainwashing:

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Newspaper

More than half U.S. newspaper jobs have disappeared since 2001


Yahoo! News
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 08:33 UTC
Newspaper jobs decline
© AFP/Alex WongAs employment at newspapers declines, the number of jobs at internet publishers has more than tripled.
More than half of the jobs at US newspapers have disappeared since 2001, with a large portion of the losses offset by employment gains at internet firms, government figures showed Monday.

The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed US newspaper employment fell from 412,000 in January 2001 to 174,000 in September 2016.

In the internet publishing and portal segment the number of jobs grew from 67,000 in 2007 -- the earliest for which data was available -- to 206,000 last year.

The figures confirm the huge upheaval in the news media industry, where a shift to online sources has forced a major retrenchment in print.

The same report showed that the number of newspaper industry businesses fell from 9,310 in 2001 to 7,623 last year, a decline of 18 percent. The number of internet publishing and web search portals meanwhile jumped 150 percent from 2007 to 13,924 last year, the report showed.

The report showed declines in magazines, book publishing and radio broadcasting, while television industry jobs held nearly steady since 2001. The number of periodicals, or magazines, hit a high of 9,232 in 2008 and have been declining since then, with a total of 7,566 in 2016.
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Attention

Confirmed: Susan Rice 'unmasked' Trump team

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 08:05 UTC
Susan Rice
Susan Rice
Once again it appears that Trump was right: the conspiracy theory that a close Obama associate worked to "unmask" the Trump team, resulting in the ongoing media spectacle over "collusion" between Trump and the Kremlin, has been confirmed, first by Mike Cernovich, and now by Bloomberg itself.

As noted last night, Journalist and author Mike Cernovich dropped an exclusive bombshell - naming Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice as the official responsible for the 'unmasking' of the incoming Trump team during 'incidental' surveillance. This was apparently discovered after the White House Counsel's office reviewed Rice's document log requests:
The reports Rice requested to see are kept under tightly-controlled conditions. Each person must log her name before being granted access to them.

Upon learning of Rice's actions, [National Security Advisor] H. R. McMaster dispatched his close aide Derek Harvey to Capitol Hill to brief Chairman Nunes.

Comment: Cernovich Explains How He Learned About Susan Rice
Ever since Mike Cernovich dropped the bombshell report over the weekend outing Obama's National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, as the person behind the unmasking of the identity of various members of Trump's team who were 'incidentally' surveilled during the 2016 campaign (see "Confirmed: Susan Rice "Unmasked" Trump Team"), a report which was subsequently confirmed by Eli Lake of Bloomberg earlier this morning, everyone has been wondering who within the Trump White House or the intelligence community supplied him with such a massive scoop.

But, as it turns out, Cernovich didn't need a 'deep throat' within the NSA or CIA for his blockbuster scoop, all he needed was some well-placed sources inside of a couple of America's corrupt mainstream media outlets. As Cernovich explains below, his sources for the Susan Rice story were actually folks working at Bloomberg and the New York Times who revealed that both Eli Lake (Bloomberg) and Maggie Haberman (NYT) were sitting on the Susan Rice story in order to protect the Obama administration.
"Maggie Haberman had it. She will not run any articles that are critical of the Obama administration."

"Eli Lake had it. He didn't want to run it and Bloomberg didn't want to run it because it vindicates Trump's claim that he had been spied upon. And Eli Lake is a 'never Trumper.' Bloomberg was a 'never Trump' publication."

"I'm showing you the politics of 'real journalism'. 'Real journalism' is that Bloomberg had it and the New York Times had it but they wouldn't run it because they don't want to run any stories that would make Obama look bad or that will vindicate Trump. They only want to run stories that make Trump look bad so that's why they sat on it."

"So where did I get the story? I didn't get it from the intelligence community. Everybody's trying to figure out where I got it from. I got it from somebody who works in one of those media companies. I have spies in every media organization. I got people in news rooms. I got it from a source within the news room who said 'Cernovich, they're sitting on this story, they're not going to run it, so you can run it'."

"If you're at Bloomberg, I have people in there. If you're at the New York Times, I have people in there. LA Times, Washington Post, you name it, I have my people in there. I got IT people in every major news room in this country. The IT people see every email so that's how I knew it."

And while this could certainly be interpreted as a clever ploy to protect his real sources, Cernovich's video comments seem to be validated by both his tweet from yesterday afternoon...

...and the fact that Eli Lake of Bloomberg was able to conveniently confirm Cernovich's story with his own article this morning.

All of which just begs the question of what other stories the mainstream media is sitting on in an effort to protect their chosen candidates.


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USA

When government evil triumphs, freedom falls

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 06:03 UTC
"Government is said to be a necessary evil. The saying appears to be without merit. For can anything be at once necessary and evil? True, all governments have had a history of evil-doing, more or less. However, it does not follow from this experience that their good is indistinguishable from their evil. Governments—assuming a proper limitation of their activities—are necessary and not evil. Their evil begins when they step out of bounds."— Economist Leonard Read
Thomas Paine
© izQuotes
It is often said that if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.

Unfortunately, the American government has been the opposite of good for too long now.

In fact, the American government has been very, very, very bad: so bad, in fact, as to be almost indistinguishable at times from the evil it claims to be fighting, whether that evil takes the form of terrorism, torture, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, murder, violence, theft, pornography, scientific experimentations or some other diabolical means of inflicting pain, suffering and servitude on humanity.

Philosopher Susan Neiman suggests that referring to something as "evil is a way of marking the fact that it shatters our trust in the world."

It's an apt description for a government that keeps violating the sacred trust of its citizenry.

"We the people" should have learned early on that a government that repeatedly lies, cheats, steals, spies, kills, maims, enslaves, breaks the laws, overreaches its authority, and abuses its power at almost every turn can't be trusted.

We haven't learned.

We didn't learn this lesson under George W. Bush. We didn't learn it under Barack Obama. Although it has become fashionable among the media elite to blame the Trump Administration for all that is wrong with the country, where Americans go wrong is in becoming so fixated on a particular politician that they fail to understand that the fault rests with the Government: the permanent, entrenched Deep State that continues to call the shots in the halls of power.

Indeed, the evils perpetrated by the U.S. government have been going on for some time now.

Consider just a few of the ways in which the government—in a misguided, ill-conceived, flawed, bureaucratic and downright Orwellian attempt to fight evil with evil—continues to inflict evil on the citizenry.
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