Puppet MastersS


Wall Street

London trading driven by advance inside knowledge of official data - report


RT
Tue, 14 Mar 2017 17:29 UTC
London skyline
© Neil Hall / Reuters
An analysis of official trading data suggests some London-based investors may be trading with advanced knowledge of sensitive economic reports before they are released to public.

A report prepared for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) by Alexander Kurov, an associate professor of finance at West Virginia University, suggests City investors trade using the confidential economic data in breach of regulations.

From April 2011 to December 2016, UK government-bond futures correctly predicted market fluctuations that later occurred when economic data was made available to the public.

The report found futures frequently move sharply in the 24 hours before confidential information is released to the public.
Read More...
Info

Duterte orders military to tell China that Philippine Sea area 'is ours' in a friendly way


RT
Tue, 14 Mar 2017 17:22 UTC
Rodrigo Duterte
© Erik De Castro / Reuters
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his military to visibly declare ownership of a large area in the Philippine Sea where China's survey ships were spotted last year - but to do it in a way that would not anger or cause confrontation with Beijing.

"My order to my military, you go there and tell them straight that this is ours, but I say it in friendship," Duterte said during a press conference on Monday when asked about the Chinese vessels spotted at the Benham Rise off the Philippine north east coast.

His country has no option but to be diplomatic because "I cannot match the might of China," the Philippine president explained according to AP.
Read More...
Eye 2

President who created CIA came to regret it: 'A secret government all of its own, accountable to no one'


Washington's Blog
Wed, 08 Mar 2017 17:11 UTC
Truman CIA gestapo
© stateofthenation.com
President Truman created the CIA.

He explained that it was solely an attempt to consolidate intelligence from many different intelligence agencies (page 285):
I needed ... the President needed at that time a central organization that would bring all the various intelligence reports we were getting in those days, and there must have been a dozen of them, maybe more, bring them all into one organization so that the President would get one report on what was going on in various parts of the world. Now that made sense, and that's why I went ahead and set up what they called the Central Intelligence Agency.
But in the 1970s, he told his biographer, Merle Miller (page 285):
I think [creation of the CIA] was a mistake. And if I'd known what was going to happen, I never would have done it.
***
Why, they've got an organization over there in Virginia now that is practically the equal of the Pentagon in many ways. And I think I've told you, one Pentagon is one too many.
Read More...
Radar

Intelligence Minister: Iran installed intel devices in Syria to track terrorists movements


Sputnik
Tue, 14 Mar 2017 17:16 UTC
Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi
© AP Photo/ Ebrahim NorooziIranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi
Iran has planted intelligence devices on Syrian territory to collect data about terrorist groups and monitor their movements, Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said Tuesday.

"Security goods are a type of products exported by the Islamic Republic and today the intelligence ministry's technical team has installed the most powerful devices in Syria and the terrorists' bases are precisely monitored through this vitally necessary intel," Alavi said addressing a forum in the city of Isfahan, as cited by the FARS news agency.

Earlier in March, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qassem Soleimani stated that Iran has "waged war" on the terrorists that threaten all Muslims and target "the sanctity of humanity and the Sunni world."

Comment: Iran has more tricks up its sleeve: Iran combats drones with jamming tool

Read More...
Eye 1

Surveillance 'watchdog': CCTV mixed with mass data collection, internet integration increases threat to privacy


RT
Tue, 14 Mar 2017 11:17 UTC
CCTV cameras
© CTK/Rostislav Kalousek/globallookpress.com
Mass data collection and the proliferation of CCTV vastly increase the risk of citizens being snooped on by advanced technology, the government's surveillance camera watchdog has warned.

Launching a new three-year strategy on Tuesday, CCTV commissioner Tony Porter warned that government regulators are failing to keep up with advances in technology or adequately protect the right to privacy.

Porter highlighted how it is increasingly easy for technology to spy on people thanks to CCTV, drone and body-camera images. But he pointed out that the real risk lies in such technology being brought forward by facial recognition and analyzed against other databases which scrutinize people's movements.

What most worries me is the impact of big data and integration of video surveillance," said Porter, according to the Guardian.

The surveillance camera commissioner said police have failed to appropriately manage people's data. One example is a database of millions of vehicle number plates that has been retained ever since the London 2012 Olympics, vastly exceeding the two-year limit for data possession. "To retain into 2017 without giving evidence and grounds is questionable. There needs to be a very close look at that," said Porter. "And my understanding is that the police are doing that. The danger of delay is that you have a state body that is prepared to play fast and loose with the retention of citizens' data when there is no requirement."
Read More...
Propaganda

The Democrats anti-Russia campaign falls apart

b
Moon of Alabama
Tue, 14 Mar 2017 16:56 UTC
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on January 28th, 2017 with Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon
© Drew Angerer/Getty President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on January 28th, 2017 with Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon.
A while ago Matt Tabbi in Rolling Stone warned: Why the Russia Story Is a Minefield for Democrats and the Media:
If we engage in Times-style gilding of every lily the leakers throw our way, and in doing so build up a fever of expectations for a bombshell reveal, but there turns out to be no conspiracy - Trump will be pre-inoculated against all criticism for the foreseeable future.
Sanity is finally winning over. After raising all kinds of shambolic rumors about "Russian interference" the "western" intelligence agencies are walking back their previous outrageous claims:
  • Former DNI James Clapper admits (vid) that he has zero evidence for any Trump-Russia collusion;
  • The British Foreign Secretary now says there is "no evidence" of any Russian interference with British democracy;
  • The German secret services have no proof (in German) for any Russian disinformation campaign.
There is no evidence for any Russian interference in the U.S., or any other, election. No evidence has been show, despite many claims, that Russia or its proxies hacked John Podesta's emails or the DNC or collaborated with Wikileaks.
Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Western chicken hawks are going cold on Turkey

Neil Clark
RT
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 16:38 UTC
Demonstrators wave Turkish flags
© Murad Sezer / Reuters Demonstrators wave Turkish flags during a protest in front of the Dutch Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, March 12, 2017.
Where is the increasingly vituperative spat between Turkey and The Netherlands (and other EU countries) going to lead? Why is this political fall-out between fellow NATO members happening at this precise moment?

First, a quick recap of the events.

At the weekend, two high-ranking Turkish officials were prevented from speaking at political rallies in The Netherlands. The Dutch authorities barred Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from landing in Rotterdam, while Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya was prevented from entering the Turkish consulate, and was then deported.

Ankara's reaction has been furious, with Turkish President Erdogan giving a stern warning to the Dutch while likening their actions to Nazism.

Comment: For more analysis on the Netherlands and Turkey spat, read the SOTT Focus: The Bigger Picture: What's Behind the Souring Relationship Between Turkey and The Netherlands

Read More...
Eye 1

American presstitutes hide from the truth of Vault 7

Paul Craig Roberts
Institute for Political Economy
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 16:36 UTC
wikileaks vault 7 cia
The CIA created and accumulated from other sources a huge array of malware and cyber attack capability capable of stealing information from any individual, any government, any corporation, any intelligence agency and either leaving no trace or leaving a "fingerprint" of an innocent party. The CIA, being arrogant and incompetent, lost control over its monster which escaped and now is in the hands of we know not who. Floating around the Internet, it was sent to WikiLeaks. Listen to Julian Assange's explanation of the capability of the CIA's spyware, which includes end runs around encryption.

The presstitute media's response was not outrage over the CIA's criminal behavior, compounded by its incompetence in failing to keep the package from escaping. Rather, the whores who comprise the US media turned on Julian Assange for making known what we need to know. Brian Ross, the chief presstitute at ABC, wanted to know if WikiLeaks took money from Russia. Presstitute Andrea Mitchell, faithful to the CIA, quickly got former CIA director Michael Hayden on TV to agree with her that "Wikileaks has struck again" and revealed information damaging to the US about the CIA's foreign intelligence operations. You can see what a great lie Andrea and Hayden have conspired to tell by listening to Assange explain the information delivered into his hands.
Read More...
Blackbox

How likely is an OPEC deal extension? Russia's Rosneft not optimistic

Rakesh Upadhyay
Oilprice.com
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 16:18 UTC
oil field worker
Damned if they do and damned if they don't. This is OPEC's precarious position after the recent fall in oil to below $50 per barrel. Oil prices will tank if OPEC says that they are not open to extending their production cuts for another six months. On the other hand, if prices remain low, OPEC only stands to lose market share to its competitors by continuing the production cuts.

So what will they do?

For the whole of last year, OPEC had been supporting prices on speculation of an impending production cut. In January of this year, the production cuts became a reality, and the oil cartel achieved an exemplary compliance rate of above 90 percent for both January and February on its agreed plan.
Read More...
Network

WikiLeaks destroys BuzzFeed claim about Apple vulnerabilities in one tweet

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 16:18 UTC
Apple DOJ seal, FBI unlock iphone
Last week, Wikileaks dumped what seems to be authentic CIA documents which revealed, among other things, that the spy agency has a way of hacking into smart TV's in order to spy on targeted persons of interest. The data dump, known as the Vault 7 release, also showed the CIA has the ability to hack into Apple phones as well. While the conjugation of the verb is apparently incorrect, when Buzzfeed News recently posted a tweet with an attached story which stated Apple had patched its IOS vulnerabilities described in Vault 7, Wikileaks responded with a tweet of its own.


The agency, committed to forcing governments to operate with transparency, called Buzzfeed "fakenews" and stated Apple had not been able to patch those weaknesses in its operating system.

In Buzzfeed's own article Apple states: "...our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS..." — not all the issues, as Buzzfeed implied.
Read More...