Puppet MastersS


Attention

9/11: The building blocks of the American police state from A-Z

"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." ― Edward R. Murrow
Twin Towers
© Zen Gardner
We've walked a strange and harrowing road since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties.

We have gone from a nation that took great pride in being a model of a representative democracy to being a model of how to persuade the citizenry to march in lockstep with a police state. In doing so, we have proven Osama Bin Laden right. He warned that "freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life."

These past 15 years have indeed been an unbearable, choking hell.

What began with the passage of the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse.

The citizenry's unquestioning acquiescence to anything the government wants to do in exchange for the phantom promise of safety and security has resulted in a society where the nation is being locked down into a militarized, mechanized, hypersensitive, legalistic, self-righteous, goose-stepping antithesis of every principle upon which this nation was founded.

This is not freedom. This is a jail cell.

Set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches, roving VIPR raids and the like—all of which have been sanctioned by Congress, the White House and the courts—our constitutional freedoms have been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded.

Our losses are mounting with every passing day.

Free speech, the right to protest, the right to challenge government wrongdoing, due process, a presumption of innocence, the right to self-defense, accountability and transparency in government, privacy, press, sovereignty, assembly, bodily integrity, representative government: all of these and more have become casualties in the government's war on the American people, a war that has grown more pronounced since 9/11.

Since the towers fell on 9/11, the American people have been treated like enemy combatants, to be spied on, tracked, scanned, frisked, searched, subjected to all manner of intrusions, intimidated, invaded, raided, manhandled, censored, silenced, shot at, locked up, and denied due process.

In allowing ourselves to be distracted by terror drills, foreign wars, color-coded warnings, underwear bombers and other carefully constructed exercises in propaganda, sleight of hand, and obfuscation, we failed to recognize that the true enemy to freedom was lurking among us all the while.

The U.S. government now poses a greater threat to our freedoms than any terrorist, extremist or foreign entity ever could.

While nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government and its agents have easily killed at least ten times that number of civilians in the U.S. and abroad since 9/11 through its police shootings, SWAT team raids, drone strikes and profit-driven efforts to police the globe, sell weapons to foreign nations, and foment civil unrest in order to keep the military industrial complex gainfully employed. (Syria's bloody civil war in which CIA-armed militias have been fighting FBI-armed militias is a prime example of the government's Machiavellian schemes gone awry.)

No, the U.S. government is not the citizenry's friend, nor is it our protector, and life in the United States of America post-9/11 is no picnic.

Blackbox

Turkish-Russian Syria deal - who wins?

Two headlines today support the claim that "western" media reporting often defies the observable reality. From the last one:
Isis has lost control of its last territories on the border with Turkey, monitoring groups say, in a major blow to the group's ability to receive foreign fighters from the rest of the world.
Neither is ISIS cut off from the world, nor from NATO. Fighters as well as goods can still cross to and from Turkey like they did throughout the last years.

Just take a look at the map:
northern syria

Bad Guys

Kerry and Saudi leaders agree to need for a 72-hour ceasefire in Yemen

Yemeni soldier
© Yahya Arhab/European Pressphoto Agency A Yemeni soldier at a checkpoint leading to the United States Embassy last month during tightened security in Sana, the capital.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir agreed to the need for a ceasefire in Yemen during a meeting on the margins of the G20 summit in China, US Department of State spokesperson John Kirby said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The Secretary [Kerry] stressed the importance of implementing a 72-hour ceasefire by all sides to ‎provide space for the UN Special Envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, to engage in consultations with both sides," the release stated. "The Saudis agreed, provided it is implemented by all sides."

Additionally, the three officials discussed the ongoing conflict in Syria as well as the situation in Libya, the release noted.

On August 25, Kerry stressed the need for a political solution to the Yemen conflict during a meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Aldulaziz Al Saud in Jeddah.

Last week, Ahmed warned the UN Security Council that extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State could find a foothold in Libya if the conflict continues.

UN-brokered talks that began on April 21 ended in early August with the two sides failing to come to an agreement.

Since March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf countries has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthi rebels at the request of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Comment: See also: The U.S. and its allies (Ukraine, Saudi Arabia) only call for ceasefires when they are losing.


Radar

Standing up to bullies: US military ship forced to change course after 'harassment' from Iranian vessel

US Navy patrol boat USS Firebolt
© US Navy / AFPUS Navy patrol boat USS Firebolt
An American patrol ship had to change course in the Persian Gulf after an Iranian military vessel came within 100 yards (90 meters) and did not respond to attempts to contact it, US defense officials told Reuters.

The incident happened on September 4, according to the news agency, which cites two US Defense Department officials.

The USS Firebolt coastal patrol boat had to change course after a vessel of Iran's Revolutionary Guard sailed directly into its path.

Comment: For previous similar incidents see: US destroyer harassed at high speed by four Iranian vessels near Strait of Hormuz - UPDATES


Radar

US spooks use UK base to launch 'kill-capture' missions according to NSA leaks

eceltonic eavesdropping Menwith Hill drone strikes
© Nigel Roddis / Reuters RAF Menwith Hill base, which provides communications and intelligence support services to the United Kingdom and the U.S. is pictured near Harrogate, northern England.
Leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have revealed how his former employer used the US spy base at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire to conduct 'kill or capture' missions in its global shadow war.

The new files published by the Intercept partly lay to rest speculation by journalists and campaigners over what really goes on at the US base.

They show that secretive NSA kill-capture operations in the Middle East have been developed and initiated from inside the base's heavily guarded perimeter wire.

The programs, which carry names like GHOSTWOLF and GHOSTHUNTER, have been used to support conventional operations in war zones such as Afghanistan and Yemen - with which neither Britain nor the US is officially at war.

The leaks also call into question claims about UK complicity in deadly drones strikes carried out using the intelligence base.

In the past Britain claims to have full knowledge and have given full consent for what goes on at Menwith Hill, despite claims by campaigners that clandestine US operations may constitute war crimes.

Comment: More from The Intercept:
...[T]he lethal use of the surveillance data does not appear to have been restricted to conventional war zones such as Afghanistan or Iraq. The NSA developed similar methods at Menwith Hill to track down terror suspects in Yemen, where the U.S. has waged a covert drone war against militants associated with al Qaeda in the Northern Peninsula.

In early 2010, the agency revealed in an internal report that it had launched a new technique at the British base to identify many targets "at almost 40 different geolocated internet cafés" in Yemen's Shabwah province and in the country's capital, Sanaa. The technique, the document revealed, was linked to a broader classified initiative called GHOSTWOLF, described as a project to "capture or eliminate key nodes in terrorist networks" by focusing primarily on "providing actionable geolocation intelligence derived from [surveillance] to customers and their operational components."

The description of GHOSTWOLF ties Menwith Hill to lethal operations in Yemen, providing the first documentary evidence that directly implicates the U.K. in covert actions in the country.

[...]

Jemima Stratford QC, a leading British human rights lawyer, told The Intercept that there were "serious questions to be asked and serious arguments to be made" about the legality of the lethal operations aided from Menwith Hill. The operations, Stratford said, could have violated the European Convention on Human Rights, an international treaty that the U.K. still remains bound to despite its recent vote to leave the European Union. Article 2 of the Convention protects the "right to life" and states that "no one shall be deprived of his life intentionally" except when it is ordered by a court as a punishment for a crime.

Stratford has previously warned that if British officials have facilitated covert U.S. drone strikes outside of declared war zones, they could even be implicated in murder. In 2014, she advised members of the U.K. Parliament that because the U.S. is not at war with countries such as Yemen or Pakistan, in the context of English and international law, the individuals who are targeted by drones in these countries are not "combatants" and their killers are not entitled to "combatant immunity."

"If the U.K. government knows that it is transferring data that may be used for drone strikes against non-combatants ... that transfer is probably unlawful," Stratford told the members of Parliament. "An individual involved in passing that information is likely to be an accessory to murder."



Brain

39 'can't recalls and don't remembers': Brain damaged or outright lying -- either way, Killary is unfit for the presidency

hillary clinton
© Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images
If you or I were not able to recall as much as Hillary Clinton was not able to recall during her FBI email investigation, don't you think someone would have taken us for a mental health examination to find out why we couldn't function normally regarding memory? What causes such severe and 'specific' memory loss? Some conceivable answers are: Brain tumor, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, depression, blood clots, concussion/head injury complications [1], or maybe whatever seems appropriate for the situation.

According to the CNN Politics September 2, 2016 report "FBI releases Hillary Clinton email report," serious issues surface about Hillary Clinton's ability to function mentally at any level of judgement making, especially when she apparently utilized thirteen devices attached to her emails and that some of the email device evidence (two) were smashed with a hammer! Can smashing evidence with a hammer be equated with "the dog ate my homework"? I don't think so!

USA

America: The (not so) 'indispensable' and 'exceptional' nation

Hillary Clinton
© AP Photo/ Andrew Harnik
Hillary Clinton affirmed "American exceptionalism" in a speech to the American Legion in Cincinnati on August 31.
If there's one core belief that has guided and inspired me every step of the way, it is this. The United States is an exceptional nation...And part of what makes America an exceptional nation, is that we are also an indispensable nation.

In fact, we are the indispensable nation. People all over the world look to us and follow our lead.
Her speech was another episode in the chronicle of Clintonian triangulation: the continual search for positions that co-opt and neutralize critics of Clinton and Clintonian policies. And by declaring the "indispensable nation" doctrine, Hillary Clinton convincingly shed the pro-peace/anti-military incubus that had bedeviled the Democratic Party and her family over the last three decades and seized the "strength and security" a.k.a. "warmonger" mantle from the GOP.

Her husband, Bill Clinton, had encountered unique difficulties as the first US president not to have served in the military in some capacity in World War II. In fact, he had taken advantage of a student deferment to avoid induction into the military during the Vietnam War. His first visit as president to a military installation as president subjected him to excruciating mockery and virtual insubordination. Joke: "A protester threw a beer at the president. Don't worry, he dodged it. It was a draft."

Barack Obama, another Democratic president without military credentials, was flayed in his first and second presidential campaigns for his perceived indifference to "American exceptionalism," an unscientific exercise in patriotic superstition and Hegelian projection which, in that context, was seen as the assertion that the unlimited exercise of US power was, perhaps through the moral superiority of our nation and its system, perhaps because of some divine mandate, inherently virtuous.

Comment: Killary promises military force against everything in most hawkish speech yet


Bomb

Strategy of Tension: Explosion at Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan the work of 'suicide car bomber', say authorities - UPDATE

Chinese embassy attack
© TwitterAccording to reports, a car rammed into one of the gates of the embassy.
Authorities in Kyrgyzstan say a suicide car bomber struck the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek on August 30, killing himself and wounding three Kyrgyz employees of the mission.

President Almazbek Atambaev ordered the government to step up counterterrorism measures after what officials called a terrorist attack -- a rarity in a Central Asian country that is known for political upheaval but has experienced few militant attacks despite growing government concerns about Islamic extremism.

Deputy Prime Minister Zhenish Razakov said the suspected bomber rammed a car through a gate to get inside the Chinese Embassy compound and detonated an explosive device.

Residents in the neighborhood on the outskirts of Bishkek said the powerful midmorning blast shook their homes and shattered windows. Images of the scene showed a badly damaged building and debris strewn over a wide area.

Comment: The NATO/Gladio-B 'strategy of tension' becomes clearer, now that Kyrgyz authorities say they have identified the man behind the embassy bombing. From RFE/RL:
The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said on September 6 that the alleged attacker was a 33-year-old ethnic Uyghur with a Tajik passport, Zoir Halilov, who was a member of the Islamic Movement of Eastern Turkestan.
...
The UKMK also said five Kyrgyz and Uzbek nationals suspected of involvement in the preparation of the attack have been apprehended. Another four Kyrgyz nationals were added to the international wanted list, the UKMK said.

According to the UKMK, the terrorist attack was "instigated" by several Uyghur terrorist groups fighting alongside Islamic militants in Syria.
Kyrgyz officials have also revealed that the day before the August 30 attack, law enforcement officers killed a 39-year-old "member of an international terrorist group" in a shout-out near Bishkek. Again, from RFE/RL: "The man's identity and the group he allegedly belonged to was not disclosed. Investigators found a rifle, an improvised explosive device, and a significant amount of ammunition in the slain man's possession. Investigations have been launched into the incident."


Eagle

Big Mother: Hillary Clinton is the Stalinist

hillary stalin
Stalin would appreciate Hillary's words: "Defending American exceptionalism should always be above politics."


Hillary Clinton's address to the American Legion - a veteran's organization - was anything but exceptional. She repeated the tired and endless platitudes about how America must lead the world, while never once mentioning the countless number of disasters suffered by people in far away places because of Washington arrogance, greed, and ineptitude.

Hillary Clinton said, "We are an exceptional nation because we are an indispensable nation. In fact, we are the indispensable nation." This sophomoric binary and empty polemic in reality means every other country in the world is dispensable. A more honest, though completely immoral, rendition of Clinton's words would be "we rule because we rule, we rule because we are not held to any standard beyond our own self-defined interests." There is a long and tragic history of countries that were deemed dispensable and disposed of by Washington's "American exceptionalism."

Comment: Further remarks on Hillary's exceptionally arrogant speech:


Jet1

Despite diplomatic spat with Turkey Germany plans to invest $65mn in Incirlik air base

Incerlik air base german investment
© Tobias Schwarz / ReutersA German Tornado jet is pictured in a hangar at the air base in Incirlik, Turkey.
Turkey's Incirlik military base, used to launch anti-terrorist missions in the region, will reportedly be revamped with the help of a €58 million ($65 million) investment from Germany. That's despite Ankara recently banning German authorities from visiting the site.

The German Defense Ministry has decided to renovate the facilities used by 250 German troops stationed at the base, according to information obtained by Spiegel Online.

german soldier housing incirlik
© Oliver Pieper/Bundeswehr 'Patriot Village' houses German and other crews
Funding of €26 million ($29 million) is to be provided for the construction of a private airfield for six German Tornado reconnaissance jets stationed at the base and on soldiers' accommodation, the report says, citing the budget drafted by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyens and State Secretary Gerd Hoofe. Spiegel states that currently soldiers at the base are forced to station their aircraft in an area used by American troops and use their allies' technical support. They are also presently living in makeshift tents.

A further €30 million ($33 million) will go on obtaining a modern mobile command post for the soldiers, according to the report.

The Defense Ministry sees the renovations as urgently needed, and the warplanes stationed at the base regularly fly combat missions to support the US-led coalition's air campaign against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in neighboring Iraq and Syria.

Comment:

Deutsche Welle adds:
Der Spiegel said the German Bundeswehr wanted the investment urgently because the mission, which began early this year, with its some 240 personnel, has had to park its Tornado surveillance jets at US sites at Incirlik, sleep in provisional quarters - called the "Patriot Village" located near noisy runways - and depend on allies for technical support.

Of 58 million euros, 26 million would fund the laying of a new airfield for the Tornados and appropriate Bundeswehr accommodation for soldiers. A further 30 million euros, awaiting budgetary clearance, would be spent to erect a command center. For this, foundations would be necessary, costing a further two million, Der Spiegel reported.
A symbolic declaration of independence from the US war machine? Until recently Germany has had good relations with Turkey. Might a thaw with Russia be in the offing?