Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

AP investigation: Pentagon anti-ISIS online propaganda program lacks staff proficient in Arabic and Islam


RT
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:16 UTC
ISIS video on laptop
© Oliver Berg / www.globallookpress.com
A critical Pentagon-funded psychological operations program aimed at countering ISIS online is plagued by corruption and cronyism, while employing people with little or no knowledge of Islam, or Arabic language and culture, an AP investigation reveals.

The WebOps program - launched several years ago by a group of civilian contractors and officers of the information operations division of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) - appears to be more of an enrichment source for managers at Colsa Corp. (an Alabama-based company which received the multimillion contract) than a tool for tackling Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) growing online reach.

Most of the people involved in the WebOps program lack sufficient command of Arabic and its regional dialects, in addition to having no experience in counter-propaganda activities, according to an AP investigation based on interviews with former employees, published on Tuesday.
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Info

Chaos? Disorder? WaPo says Trump's immigration order exposes "deep rifts" in Trump camp, GOP

Ahsley Parker, Philip Rucker, Robert Costa
The Washington Post
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 18:47 UTC
Priebus bannon
© Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesWhite House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, left, speaks Saturday with White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in the Oval office as President Trump speaks on the phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The fallout Monday from President Trump's sweeping immigration order exposed painful rifts within the Republican Party, alarmed members of his Cabinet and fueled suspicions among his top advisers.

That left the defiant commander in chief stewing over who was to blame — capped by Trump's remarkable decision late Monday to fire the acting attorney general because she refused to enforce the order as potentially unlawful.

For all the promises of Republican bonhomie, Trump and his aides kept GOP congressional leaders almost completely in the dark about the most consequential act of his young presidency: a temporary ban on refugees and on anyone from seven majority-Muslim nations.

Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly fumed privately to associates over the weekend because they had been caught unaware by a travel ban that was drafted and set into action largely in secret by the White House, according to three people who have spoken with them.


Comment: Naturally, Sean Spicer denied this in today's press briefing, saying Kelly had been briefed multiple times. Here's Kelly's press conference where he says the same thing and refutes reports that he saw it for the first time while flying on Friday, and was angry. (However, this report says Kelly learned the order was being signed AS he was being briefed about it in his office.) He says DHS "probably" found out on Thursday that the order would be signed, but he knew it had been coming for a long time and had seen drafts.

One more interesting tidbit, at the end of the conference, Kelly says that while it's possible some of the 7 countries may not be taken off the list after the temporary ban, he would ultimately like to see ALL of them taken off, once the governments of said countries "tighten up" on their security and information sharing in cooperation with the U.S.

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Chess

Scott Adams: Is President Trump doing management wrong?

Scott Adams
Scott Adams' Blog
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:20 UTC
President Donald Trump
© Toronto Star
I made the mistake of turning on CNN yesterday and saw all the hypnotized pundits trying to work the secret persuasion word "chaos" into every comment about President Trump. That's your tell that none of the pundits are offering independent opinions. They are part of the hive mind led by some uncredited persuader on their side. Someone told them to say "chaos" a lot, and so they do. This might signal the return of Godzilla. Reminds me of "dark," their hive-mind word for the summer of 2016.

It appears that Trump's counter-persuasion for "chaos" involves framing his administration as "disruptive." That's a good persuasion move because it doesn't deny the observations. A disruption looks a lot like chaos from the outside. Two movies on one screen.

The interesting question to me is this: How do we know whether President Trump is doing a good job or a bad one? What standard do we use for comparison? If you are not comparing Trump's performance to some objective standard, you're not saying anything at all.

Does it make sense to compare President Trump's performance to an imaginary president who didn't get elected? I don't think science recognizes your imagination as the base case for an experiment. It just feels like it should be. That's an illusion.

Does it make sense to compare President Trump's performance to past presidents who got a lot done in the first week? Well, maybe, if such a person existed. No one has ever tried moving at Trump's speed before. We expect the slow-moving traditional leader to create less "chaos" than the entrepreneurial and disruptive leader. But don't you have to include the benefits in this comparison? The whole point of Trump's flurry of activity is that he's trying to create good outcomes. We don't know if the good outcomes will pan out. All we know is that it was a bit messy at the start.

Comment: See also: Scott Adams: Trump's 'Muslim ban' is just another 'Art of the Deal' opening bid

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Eye 1

Customs agents forcing travelers affected by Trump immigration ban to give access to phones, computers and social media accounts

Joshua Kopstein
Vocativ
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 18:07 UTC
airport protests
© Getty ImagesPolice arrest activists during a protest JFK airport in New York
President Trump's confusing, chaotic executive order against travelers arriving from seven Muslim-majority countries has prompted federal agents to demand travelers — some of them legal residents — hand over access to their electronic devices and social media accounts to be searched, their lawyers say.

Since the order's surprise signing on Friday, scores of refugees and legal U.S. residents have been detained at and deported from airports across the country, followed by multiple federal courts ruling against detaining those who were in transit to the U.S. when Trump signed the order. Unlike temporary visitors, who are granted visas, green card holders are permanent legal residents that have already been granted the right to enter and leave the country freely.

But even though some of the people detained have since been allowed entry, lawyers providing them legal assistance say many travelers are also being coerced by airport customs agent into letting government agents search their computers, phones, and social media accounts upon landing in the U.S.
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Sheriff

'Secret FBI rules' exposed in report revealing pattern of white supremacy infiltration of U.S. law enforcement


RT
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 17:55 UTC
FBI logo
© Yuri Gripas/Reuters
An FBI investigation, carried out quietly, into white supremacy infiltration of US law enforcement has been revealed by the Intercept as part of its lengthy examination of classified bureau documents.

The investigation which exposes the FBI's vast powers uncovered an FBI file concluding that white supremacists and overt white nationalists had infiltrated US police departments and other law enforcement agencies.

The classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide from April 2015 states that "domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers."

The FBI has the option to mark a watchlisted police officer as a "silent hit" where a suspect is tracked by the FBI without the knowledge of law enforcement. The document states that a "specific, narrowly defined, and legitimate operational justification" must be given in order to mark a 'Known or Suspected Terrorist' (KST) entry as a silent hit. The document also notes that to protect the safety of local law enforcement, suspects who are "violent or are known to be armed and dangerous" cannot be marked as silent hits.

A 2006 heavily redacted FBI internal intelligence assessment showed the agency was alarmed over white supremacist groups' "historical" interest in "infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel." However, the issue was not publicly addressed by the FBI since then.
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Chess

U.S. Establishment's soft coup against President Trump

Catherine Shakdam
RT
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 19:43 UTC
U.S. President Donald Trump
© Andrew Harrer / www.globallookpress.comU.S. President Donald Trump
And you thought President Donald Trump's first TV interview was bad ... I guess there are new bottoms to be still found when it comes to the 'Circus de Trump' and mainstream media's propensity to fan hysteria. How fast can you say set up and manipulation?

Donald Trump unleashed a furious storm on his newly inaugurated presidential head when he decided to put ink to paper and sign off on what the world refers to as the infamous "Muslim ban." And just like that, America ... and most of the Western world flocked to the defense of Muslims, arguing Washington's vile immigration policy and fascist streak!

Who knew it would take a visa ban for the world to jolt back to its humanity and realize that exclusion on the basis of one's faith or ethnic profile equates to a pernicious act of terror? Hold on! THAT was former US President Obama.

All Trump did with his executive order was to temporary halt the entry of refugees into the United States. All he's really done is use Obama's policy as a springboard for his own tempestuous and misguided terror crusade against an enemy he has failed to identify adequately. So let's give credit where credit is due and thank America's very own presidential Nobel Peace prize for so kindly laying down the foundation of Trump's misguidance.

To be perfectly fair, America has done a lot worse by way of injustice and state-sponsored criminal behavior over the years than an entry ban: rendition, black sites, drone strikes, systematic torture, unilaterally declaring war on countries ... Need I go on?

Comment: See also: Trump's unwillingness to take on the real nexus of terrorism

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Magnify

Trump immigration order is (kinda) similar to Obama's 2011 Iraqi refugee ban but. . .

Ronn Blitzer
Law Newz
Sun, 29 Jan 2017 18:25 UTC
Obama and Trump
© Reuters/Kevin LaMarque/AP/Chris Carlson/Salon
President Donald Trump's executive order restricting immigration, including refugees, has drawn widespread criticism, with many believing that the U.S. blocking persecuted people from entering the country is a dramatic shift in American policy. Trump has responded, claiming that his order is no different than an Obama administration move to restrict Iraqi movement into the U.S in 2011.

"My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months," Trump said.

So is this accurate? Did President Obama do something similar to this? Well, sort of, but not really. The The Washington Post's Fact Checker column gave the claim two "Pinnochios," in determining the truth of this claim, and with good reason.

Trump's order bans all refugees from entering the country for 120 days, restricts all refugees from Syria indefinitely, and bars anyone from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days. This is supposedly to give the U.S. time to figure out more stringent vetting processes for people entering the country. At first, this order was even being applied to people who were already granted visas who had arrived in the U.S., only to be told they weren't welcome. An ACLU lawsuit resulted in a stay of the order for people in that situation, but the order is still far-reaching.

Comment: A little sanity: Full text and analysis of Trump's 'travel ban' Executive Order

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Dollars

Demonetization and the push for Biometric ID

James Corbett
Corbett Report
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 18:40 UTC
Biometric ID
© GCN
In last week's report on India's demonetization disaster I began to connect the dots between demonetization, the push for a cashless society, and the biometric identification schemes that will eventually tie everyone's fingerprints, iris scans, and other identifying details to every transaction they ever make.

Well, that game of "connect the dots" just became even easier to play.

First, it was reported last week that a key panel advising the government on its implementation of the "digital payments ecosystem" (that is being pushed and funded by USAID) is now recommending that India links its national biometric ID database directly to tax returns.

And now comes word that India is "working on a biometrics-backed payment system that will be connected to a user's unique ID number, or Aadhaar." (Who could have seen that coming?)

No, it doesn't take a Nostradamus to understand where this is all heading: From the cashless society and the biometric ID grid to the cashless biometric grid. And we already know about the cashless society. Now it's time to collect the data on the biometric ID grid.

And let's not be naive: As I've demonstrated before, this is a coordinated plan to institute a worldwide biometric id system to track every human on the planet.

But given how fast and furious these new biometric databases are coming online, no one person can possibly keep track of them all. That's why I'm calling on Corbett Report members to help assemble this information. Like last year's open source investigation into the War on Cash, this country-by-country guide will be updated with input from the Corbett Report community. Members of the site are invited to log in and leave links to information about the biometric ID grid in their country in the comments section below.
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Mr. Potato

U.S.-Poland military drills will help ensure "unlikely Russian attack even more unlikely"


RT
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 18:21 UTC
poland tank
US and Polish soldiers, alongside newly delivered American military hardware, have conducted joint drills as part of the biggest US deployment in Europe since the end of the Cold War.

Servicemen of the 3,500-strong 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Carson, Colorado showcased some of their skills in front of Commander of the US Army Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, US Ambassador Paul Jones and Polish President Andrzej Duda said in Zagan on Monday.

The drills, which started at around 1:30 pm local time and lasted for about an hour, demonstrated US troops' resolve to deter the "unlikely" potential aggression from Russia.

During the live fire exercises in Zagan, Polish-American forces split up into two teams. The task of the exercise was to stop the "enemy" advance from Zagan firing range over the distance of over 30 km to Zielona Gora. Leopard tanks from Poland's 11th Armored Cavalry Division and the American Abrams tanks managed to repel the "enemy attack." Anti-aircraft artillery and helicopters were also involved in the drill.


Comment: Inertia from the previous administration's last-minute blitz to scale up provocations on Russia in E. Europe? Well, if so, Lt. Gen. Hodges' spin is telling. The U.S. military admits that the idea that Russia would attack Poland is unlikely. Welcome to the real world!

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Chess

Trump's unwillingness to take on the real nexus of terrorism

Robert Parry
Consortiumnews
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 18:49 UTC
President Trump's ban against letting people from seven mostly Muslim countries enter the United States looks to many like a thinly concealed bias against a religion, but it also is a troubling sign that Trump doesn't have the nerve to challenge the false terrorism narrative demanded by Israel and Saudi Arabia.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia and his entourage arrive to greet President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 27, 2015
© Official White House Photo by Pete SouzaKing Salman of Saudi Arabia and his entourage arrive to greet President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 27, 2015
The Israeli-Saudi narrative, which is repeated endlessly inside Official Washington, is that Iran is the principal sponsor of terrorism when that dubious honor clearly falls to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Sunni-led Muslim states, including Pakistan, nations that did not make Trump's list.

The evidence of who is funding and supporting most of the world's terrorism is overwhelming. All major terrorist groups that have bedeviled the United States and the West over the past couple of decades - from Al Qaeda to the Taliban to Islamic State - can trace their roots back to Sunni-led countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Qatar.

Privately, this reality has been recognized by senior U.S. officials, including former Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump's National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. But that knowledge has failed to change U.S. policy, which caters to the oil-rich Saudis and the politically powerful Israelis.

For instance, in August 2012, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency - then headed by General Flynn - warned that Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al Qaeda were "the major forces driving the insurgency" against the largely secular government in Syria.
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