Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Snowden leaks reveal NSA and GCHQ tapped all in-flight phone calls


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 17:50 UTC
air france
© J.W.Alker / Global Look Press
According to leaks from Edward Snowden, the NSA and GCHQ have been gathering voice communications and content from mobile phones used on commercial flights, with special emphasis on Air France, which was seen as a source of "terror threats" for the US.

In-flight mobile phone communications began to be targeted almost as soon as the airlines introduced the service earlier in the 2000s. According to Edward Snowden's leaks, which have been analyzed by the Intercept and the French daily Le Monde, the NSA and its British partner agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), were prompt in exploiting the new feature for their surveillance programs.

A top secret NSA document dating back to 2009 noted that around 50,000 people had already used their mobile phones on board aircraft as of December of 2008, a figure that rose to 100,000 just three months later.

In commenting on the expanding in-flight mobile service, the NSA, which is the US' primary electronic intelligence agency, noted "more planes [are] equipped with in-flight GSM capability, less fear that a plane will crash due to making/receiving a call, not as expensive as people thought."
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Chess

Report: US trying to rescue spies from Eastern Aleppo, wants negotiations with Russia


Fars News
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 17:17 UTC
Aleppo
Washington has urged for negotiations with Moscow over a deal that would envisage providing a safe passage to the US intelligence officers and terrorists in Eastern Aleppo to Turkey via the Castillo corridor in lieu of handing over the remaining districts to the Syrian army, media reports said Tuesday.

The Arabic-language al-Hadas news website quoted unnamed informed sources as saying on Tuesday that the negotiations are meant to help US spies, including an intelligence officer involved in battle arrangement for the terrorists and an informant named Balal Abdel Karim, leave the Aleppo city.

Earlier on Tuesday, media sources disclosed that a large number of militants have been negotiating secretly with government officials in Aleppo to surrender themselves and leave the city.

The Arabic language al-Watan newspaper reported that continued defeats of Jeish al-Fatah and devastating advances of the Syrian army troops in the Eastern districts of Aleppo city have widen rifts amongst militant groups.

The paper added that a large number of militants have had secret negotiations with government officials to pave the ground for their amnesty and their evacuation to the Western districts of Aleppo that are under army's control.
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Pistol

Best of the Web: Did FDR Provoke Pearl Harbor?

Patrick J. Buchanan
AntiWar.com
Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© U.S. NavyView of the airfield at Naval Air Station (NAS) Ford Island and flames from burning ships in the background taken during the Japanese attack, 7 December 1941.
On Dec. 8, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt took the rostrum before a joint session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war on Japan.

A day earlier, at dawn, carrier-based Japanese aircraft had launched a sneak attack devastating the U.S. battle fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Said ex-President Herbert Hoover, Republican statesman of the day, "We have only one job to do now, and that is to defeat Japan."

But to friends, "the Chief" sent another message: "You and I know that this continuous putting pins in rattlesnakes finally got this country bit."

Today, 70 years after Pearl Harbor, a remarkable secret history, written from 1943 to 1963, has come to light. It is Hoover's explanation of what happened before, during and after the world war that may prove yet the death knell of the West.

Edited by historian George Nash, Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover's History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath is a searing indictment of FDR and the men around him as politicians who lied prodigiously about their desire to keep America out of war, even as they took one deliberate step after another to take us into war.
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Seismograph

Oklahoma residents sue energy companies over fracking quakes


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 18:10 UTC
Fracking protester
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
A group of Payne County residents has filed a class-action lawsuit against five energy companies over the recent earthquakes in Cushing, a city in central Oklahoma. The companies have fracking disposal wells in the area.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process of extracting oil and gas by injecting pressurized water, sand and chemicals into layers of rock. Waste water from the process is then poured into underground wells.

A 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck Cushing on November 6, damaging over 40 buildings. A month later, a series of five quakes struck the area again, with Cushing registering a 3.6 magnitude temblor and the strongest one coming in at 3.9 magnitude in Pawnee to the north.

Among the buildings damaged in the November 6 quake were the offices of the Cushing Citizen newspaper, owned by David and Myra Reid. The Reids have now filed a class action lawsuit along with Cushing residents Valerie Branyan and Timothy Harris, asking for $10,000 for property damages, punitive damages and emotional distress, reports the Oklahoman.
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Dollars

Former watchdog says British welfare benefits used to fund Islamic terrorists


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 17:48 UTC
isis flag
Hundreds of thousands of pounds of British housing and child welfare payments have been used to fund Islamic terrorism in recent years, a former watchdog head claims.

Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, issued the warning after it emerged on Tuesday that two men living in Birmingham handed thousands in wrongly-paid state handouts to Brussels terrorism suspect 'The Man in the Hat'.

Carlile told the Times that "several hundred thousand pounds in small remittances have been used to fund terrorism in one way or another," including for weapons and travel for those joining Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

"[Such activity] has increased during the rise of ISIS. Certainly the government should ensure that there is no more triage available when housing benefits recipients are known to have gone to another country," Carlile said.

On Tuesday, Belgian national Zakaria Boufassil was convicted of helping to fund terrorism by giving cash from overpaid benefits to Brussels bombing suspect Mohamed Abrini during a secret rendezvous in a Birmingham park.

Boufassil, together with Mohammed Ali Ahmed, supplied £3,000 (US$3,780) to Abrini, who was dubbed 'The Man in the Hat' after he was allegedly caught on CCTV at Brussels Airport just before the bombing in March.
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Cow Skull

Lying through his teeth: Obama sums up war on terror legacy


RT
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 20:59 UTC
U.S. President Barack Obama
© Kevin Lamarque / ReutersLiar par excellence Barack Obama
In his final national security speech, outgoing US President Barack Obama addressed drone warfare, the rise of the Islamic State under his watch, as well as the future of counterterrorism and other foreign policy issues to a military audience at the MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Florida, headquarters of the US Central Command.

On Tuesday, Obama defended his legacy of fighting Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, recounting history as far back as the 2003 invasion of Iraq under President George W. Bush to his own administration's operations.

Claiming credit for the US withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan while acknowledging the challenges of fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), he argued that things are better off today than eight years ago, he said President-elect Donald Trump will inherit a "sustainable" counterterrorism strategy.


Comment: What an utter insult to the intelligence and good intentions of the military personnel Obama addressed. Not only is the US counterterrorism strategy NOT "sustainable," not only has it cost the lives of many innocents, but it threatens the stability of the countries it's operating in, and has, in general, exacerbated violence throughout the world. Who does Obama think he's fooling??


On Monday, the White House released a 61-page report describing the extent of counterterrorism operations around the world, based on the October 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) congressional resolution.
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Post-It Note

May backtracks on Trump criticism, wants "special relationship"


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 11:56 UTC
Trump
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has praised President-elect Donald Trump for being "very easy to talk to," despite having criticized him during the US election.

The PM also insisted Trump is committed to the so-called 'special relationship' between the US and Britain.

May's comments are part of an apparent effort to build bridges with the incoming Trump administration, after several top UK government figures attacked the president-elect during the election campaign.

"What I have found with Donald Trump is that he is somebody who very much values the relationship he has with the UK," May said during a trade visit to Bahrain.

"When we've talked that's been one of the key things we've talked about, is the depth of our special relationship, and the fact that we both want to ensure that we obviously maintain that, but we also build on that for the future."
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Jet2

US F/A-18 fighter jet crashes in southwestern Japan


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 18:38 UTC
A McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet
© Toby Melville / ReutersA McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet
A US F F/A-18 Hornet military jet has crashed in Japan, NHK reported, citing the country's Defense Ministry. It was stationed at the Iwakuni base in the Yamaguchi prefecture.

The plane crashed around 6:00pm local time in the Kochi Prefecture, the report said, adding that the pilot survived.

The US Marine Corps' Iwakuni Air Station hosts around 5,000 American troops and is used for Marine pilot training and to conduct air patrols with F/A-18 Hornets.

This incident is the latest in a series of F/A-18 crashes apparently plaguing the Marine Corps. In November two Hornets collided near Miramar in California during a training mission, forcing one of the pilots to eject.

Comment: See also:

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Stormtrooper

Turkey contemplates permanent military camp in northern Syria


Daily Sabah
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 17:07 UTC
Free Syrian Army Turkey training
© GettySoldiers belonging to Free Syrian Army during Operation Euphrates Shield
The Turkish military is considering setting up a permanent military camp near Mare in northern Syria with an aim to maintain security in the newly-liberated areas from Daesh under Operation Euphrates Shield as well as training the moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces, according to military sources.

Sources indicate that the military camp would be built in the region upon invitation from the local authorities while the presence of the camp will abide by international laws.


Comment: What about the authority of the democratically-elected government of Syria? It's their territory.


The planned military camp is expected to be built and operated in a similar fashion to Turkey's Bashiqa camp, which is located some 30 kilometers northeast of Mosul in northern Iraq.

Sources claimed the camp is expected to maintain its operations in northern Syria until local forces become strong enough to maintain security in the liberated regions and all the terrorist elements that pose security threats to Turkish borders are eliminated.


Comment: Does anyone honestly think Turkey will pack up and go home once 'the security threats are eliminated'? Perhaps though, Russia may have approved this move, and it will actually be a temporary installation. Erdogan survived Turkey's July coup attempt with Russia's help. He owes a huge debt to Putin.


Turkey set up the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq in March 2015 upon the invitation of the Iraqi Central Government. Currently, there are some 150 soldiers and up to 25 tanks stationed in Bashiqa, protecting Turkish servicemen training Iraqi volunteers to fight Daesh. So far, more than 3000 volunteers have received training at the Bashiqa camp and these volunteers, known as the "Ninova Guards" are playing an important role in the ongoing operations to liberate Mosul.
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Bad Guys

From 9/11 to Syria and Ukraine and now ProporNot's accusations of Russian agents: The NATO campaign against freedom of expression

Thierry Meyssan (Translated by Pete Kimberley)
Voltaire Network
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:10 UTC
nato
The attacks of 11 September 2001 were followed by a permanent state of emergency and a series of wars. As I wrote at the time, the theory that they were directed by a group of jihadists from a cave in Afghanistan does not stand up to analysis. On the contrary, everything points to the conclusion that the attack were organised by a faction of the military-industrial complex.

If this analysis is correct, the course of events could only lead to repression in the United States and the Allied states.

Fifteen years later, the wound that I opened is still not shut - in fact the opposite is true, given the events that followed. The «Arab Springs» were added to the Patriot Act and the oil wars which followed. Not only does the majority of the US population no longer believe what the government has been telling it since 9/11, but by voting for Donald Trump, it has expressed its rejection of the post-9/11 system.

It so happens that I opened the debate on 9/11 to the world, that I was part of the last government of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and that I report on the war against Syria from the ground. At first, the US administration thought that they could extinguish the blaze by accusing me of writing contentious rubbish for money, hitting me where they thought it would hurt most, in other words, my wallet. And yet my ideas have never ceased to spread. In October 2004, when 100 US personalities signed a petition demanding the re-opening of the enquiry on the attacks of /9/11, Washington began to worry [1]. In 2005, in Brussels, I gathered more than 150 personalities from all over the world - including Syrian and Russian guests such as the ex-Chief of Staff for the Federation armies, General Leonid Ivashov - to denounce the neo-conservatives, and demonstrate that the problem was becoming global [2].
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