Puppet MastersS


Handcuffs

UK military should not receive blanket immunity from corporate manslaughter


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 17:00 UTC
UK Ministry of Defense
© Phil Noble / Reuters
Ministry of Defense (MoD) officials should face the same threat of criminal prosecution for corporate manslaughter as staff in any other UK workplace, Britain's Defense Select Committee has said. The committee of MPs, which oversees MoD operations and the work of associated bodies such as the armed forces, made the recommendation in a report published Monday. The study called for the MoD's blanket immunity from corporate manslaughter - extended in the form of a "crown censure" - to be lifted.

"The lives of serving personnel are worth no less than those of civilians and those responsible for their deaths must be equally liable under the law," the committee said.

Blanket immunity

The MoD currently has crown immunity if one of its staff dies in the so-called line of duty. This is facilitated by a special exemption from corporate manslaughter law in Britain. Britain's Defense Select Committee says the situation requires prompt reform. Since the turn of the millennium, some 135 MoD staff have died while in training. Britain's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had to bring in a crown censure in eleven of these cases.

Comment: Yep, the common folk can feel assured that the safety of the MoD staff is an 'unshakable priority'... never-mind they are exempt from actual accountability. Remember, the MoD is even looking out for the welfare of the brown-skinned people they murder. You can trust the MoD because they say so; just pay no attention to their actual behavior. This nonsense sums up the 'thinking' of the Anglo-American empire quite nicely.

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Sherlock

Assassination of a leader: Eva Golinger on the West's murder of Hugo Chavez

Mike Whitney
Counterpunch
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 17:01 UTC
Hugo Chavez
© Roberto Stuckert Filho/PR, Wikipedia CommonsHugo Chavez
"Hugo Chavez defied the most powerful interests, and he refused to bow down....I believe there is a very strong possibility that President Chavez was assassinated."

— Eva Golinger
MW - Do you think that Hugo Chavez was murdered and, if so, who do you think might have been involved?

Eva Golinger - I believe there is a very strong possibility that President Chavez was assassinated. There were notorious and documented assassination attempts against him throughout his presidency. Most notable was the April 11, 2002 coup d'etat, during which he was kidnapped and set to be assassinated had it not been for the unprecedented uprising of the Venezuelan people and loyal military forces that rescued him and returned him to power within 48 hours. I was able to find irrefutable evidence using the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), that the CIA and other US agencies were behind that coup and supported, financially, militarily and politically, those involved. Later on, there were other attempts against Chavez and his government, such as in 2004 when dozens of Colombian paramilitary forces were captured on a farm outside of Caracas that was owned by an anti-Chavez activist, Robert Alonso, just days before they were going to attack the presidential palace and kill Chavez.

There was another, lesser-known plot against Chavez discovered in New York City during his visit to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2006. According to information provided by his security services, during standard security reconnaissance of an event where Chavez would address the US public at a local, renowned university, high levels of radiation were detected in the chair where he would have sat. The radiation was discovered by a Geiger detector, which is a handheld radiation detection device the presidential security used to ensure the President wasn't in danger of exposure to harmful rays. In this case, the chair was removed and subsequent tests showed it was emanating unusual amounts of radiation that could have resulted in significant harm to Chavez had it gone undiscovered. According to accounts by the presidential security at the event, an individual from the US who had been involved in the logistical support for the event and had provided the chair was shown to be acting with US intelligent agents.
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Eye 1

Shin Bet miraculously 'busts' 6 members of Jewish network responsible for terrorizing West Bank Palestinians


RT
Wed, 20 Apr 2016 13:53 UTC
IDF forces
© Ammar Awad/Reuters
Israeli intelligence says it has managed to break up a Jewish terrorism network which had been carrying out attacks against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank. Among those arrested were two minors and an IDF soldier.

Israel's intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, said that six members of the cell were suspected of trying to firebomb dwellings in which Palestinians were present, while the organization described the suspects as "extremely violent."

"During the latter half of 2015, there were a number of terror attacks and violent incidents against Palestinians in the Gush Talmonim region," the Shin Bet said, as cited by the Times of Israel. "Two notable attacks were against buildings that had Palestinians inside."

The intelligence agency said it had undertaken a "lengthy intelligence effort" in order to help expose the terror group. Among those arrested were two minors who were born in 1999 and 2000, as well as a 19-year-old IDF soldier. The three other men arrested were aged between 20 and 22 and hailed from the settlements of Nahliel and Kiryat Arba.

The suspects "confessed to carrying out widespread terror activities, which included attempts to harm inhabited Palestinian homes, attacking minorities, arson, and vandalizing Palestinian vehicles," according to the Shin Bet, as reported by the Jerusalem Post.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

CIA director heads to Bosnia on unannounced visit for "counterterrorism meetings"

Guy Taylor
Washington Times
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 16:44 UTC
CIA Director John Brennan
© Alex Brandon
The Obama administration dispatched CIA Director John O. Brennan to Bosnia and Herzegovina for a series of counterterrorism meetings Friday amid ongoing concern among intelligence officials that the Islamic State terror group aims to open a front in southeastern Europe.

Mr. Brennan arrived in Sarajevo on an unannounced visit from Saudi Arabia, where he held meetings this week with senior officials from six Arab nations on the sidelines of President Obama's own trip to Riyadh.

The Associated Press reported that the head of Bosnia and Herzegovina's anti-terrorism group, Goran Salihovic, told reporters Friday that Mr. Brennan's visit was a "great honor" and that Bosnian officials would brief the CIA chief on their counterterrorism activities.

Mr. Brennan's visit comes roughly four months after Bosnian authorities engaged in an aggressive sweep that arrested at least 11 people suspected of ties to the Islamic State, the Syria- and Iraq-headquartered terrorist group known as ISIS and ISIL.

While ISIS has claimed responsibility for last month's suicide bombing attacks on Brussels, as well as those that ripped through Paris last November, the Bosnian arrests underscored growing concern among U.S. and European officials that the terror group may see the Balkans as a major target opportunity.
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Map

Russia: Sorry, Israel, Golan Heights is Syrian territory


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 16:41 UTC
AFP 2016/ JALAA MAREY
Illegal occupiers in Golan Heights.
Russia will abide by the UN Security Council resolutions on the Golan Heights, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

Moscow's stance on the Golan Heights remains unchanged and is in line with UN Security Council resolutions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

"The Russian stance is not changing in any way, it is in line with the relevant Security Council resolutions, there are no new elements to this position," Peskov told reporters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting on Thursday that the Golan Heights would remain under Israel's control. The UN Security Council defines the region as occupied Syrian land.
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Light Sabers

German alternative party wants France and other southern EU states excluded from Eurozone


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 16:34 UTC
eiffel tower
© Mal Langsdon / Reuters
Senior officials in the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party want France and southern EU states - Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece among them - to be banished from Eurozone, as they lack "cultures of stability" like Germany's.

The remarks were made by AfD deputy leader Alexander Gauland and party's federal spokesman and co-leader Joerg Meuthen in an interview to German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"We can have a common currency with the Netherlands, Austria, Finland or Baltic states. They have similar cultures of stability like ours," Meuthen said, as quoted by Deutsche Welle. "But the French have a different one, not to mention the Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese and Greeks. They don't want austerity at all."

When Gauland was asked if AfD wants France to be excluded from the EU currency zone, he said that while "no one wants to throw France out," the country is "certainly a political problem."

Comment: Maybe the southern EU states should leave, and join ranks with Russia in forming a true partnership instead of being vassal states of the US like Germany and the UK.

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Snakes in Suits

Going for broke: Congress uses Donald Cook incident to quadruple anti-Russian arms spending


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 16:28 UTC
US bomber strike group
© Flickr/ U.S. Pacific Fleet
Citing the Russian fighter jet maneuvers that warded off US ships and aircraft near Russia's border in the Baltic Sea earlier this month, lawmakers from the US House Armed Services Committee said that there will be plenty of money devoted to "to deter Russia" in the finalized 2017 defense budget, The Hill reports.

Lawmakers, the political newspaper writes, are fired up about supporting President Barack Obama's military budget proposal, particularly the section devoted to quadrupling US military expenditures in Europe. The spending would allow the Pentagon to station more troops and weapons in Central and Eastern Europe.

"We do have money to station troops in various parts of Eastern Europe, and that's the main thing, to have a presence in the region and to show support for our allies," Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, the ranking member of the committee, told The Hill.
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Bad Guys

The Brazil fingerprint: Just look at who is to be installed as president and finance chiefs

Glen Greenwald
The Intercept
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 12:01 UTC
Temer, Cunha
© www.revistaforum.com.brMichel Temer, Eduardo Cuhna...Boys from Brazil
IT'S NOT EASY for outsiders to sort through all the competing claims about Brazil's political crisis and the ongoing effort to oust its president, Dilma Rousseff, who won re-election a mere 18 months ago with 54 million votes. But the most important means for understanding the truly anti-democratic nature of what's taking place is to look at the person whom Brazilian oligarchs and their media organs are trying to install as president: the corruption-tainted, deeply unpopular, oligarch-serving Vice President Michel Temer. Doing so shines a bright light on what's really going on, and why the world should be deeply disturbed.

The New York Times' Brazil bureau chief, Simon Romero, interviewed Temer this week, and this is how his excellent article begins:
RIO DE JANEIRO — One recent poll found that only 2 percent of Brazilians would vote for him. He is under scrutiny over testimony linking him to a colossal graft scandal. And a high court justice ruled that Congress should consider impeachment proceedings against him. Michel Temer, Brazil's vice president, is preparing to take the helm of Brazil next month if the Senate decides to put President Dilma Rousseff on trial.
How can anyone rational believe that anti-corruption anger is driving the elite effort to remove Dilma when they are now installing someone as president who is accused of corruption far more serious than she is? It's an obvious farce. But there's something even worse.

The person who is third in line to the presidency, right behind Temer, has been exposed as shamelessly corrupt: the evangelical zealot and House speaker Eduardo Cunha. He's the one who spearheaded the impeachment proceedings even though he got caught last year squirreling away millions of dollars in bribes in Swiss bank accounts, after having lied to Congress when falsely denying that he had any accounts in foreign banks.

Comment: Cui Bono? There is an ongoing corruption investigation in Brazil that involves significant politicians in various positions of power (including 60% of congress). By creating and voting for this coup, those who are already implicated in corruption will likely assume power. Assuming power provides the opportunity to compromise or negate the corruption investigation, a "get out of jail free" card." Corrupt individuals, at the helm of Brazilian government, are easy prey for imperial schemes. Disrupting BRICS states is on the Western PTB agenda in order to maintain global control of the dollar, manipulate markets, remain the only game in town. It has found its wedge for Brazil, retraceable (at minimum and on the surface) back to the impeachment set-up of Dilma Rousseff. The pattern and fingerprint are there, just themes and variations.

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Star of David

Cruel treatment: 12yo Palestinian girl released from Israeli prison after almost 3 months behind bars


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 16:20 UTC
Dima al-Wawi
© Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFPThe mother (L) and brother of Palestinian Dima al-Wawi, 12, who is believed to be the youngest female detained by Israel, greet her in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, upon her release from Israeli prison on April 24, 2016.
Palestinian 12-year-old Dima Al-Wawi has been released from an Israeli prison. She was sentenced to four-and-a-half months in custody for allegedly plotting to carry out a stabbing attack against Israelis in the Hebron area. She spent two-and-a-half months behind bars.

The girl's family have also been obliged to pay a fine of 8,000 Shekels (about $US2,080).

Having informed Dima's family, who live in the town of Halhoul near Hebron, about her release, Israeli authorities handed the girl over to relatives at the Jbarrah checkpoint near Tulkarem in the West Bank on Sunday.

Israel's practice of prosecuting children in military courts has been criticized in the report titled No Way to Treat a Child: Palestinian Children in the Israeli Military Detention System, compiled by Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) and released on April 14.

"Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year. Since 2012, Israel has held an average of 204 Palestinian children in custody each month," the report says.
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Chess

U.S., Germany: Golan Heights not a part of Israel despite Netanyahu's claims

JTA
Forward
Mon, 18 Apr 2016 16:18 UTC
Golan Heights-Syria border
© Moshe Shai/Flash90The Israeli-Syrian border on the Golan Heights.
The United States and Germany both criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration that the Golan Heights "will forever remain part of Israeli sovereignty."

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the Obama administration does not consider the Golan Heights to be part of Israel, despite Netanyahu's assertion at a Cabinet meeting there Sunday, Haaretz reported.

"The U.S. position on the issue is unchanged," Kirby said at a daily media briefing at the State Department in Washington. "This position was maintained by both Democratic and Republican administrations. Those territories are not part of Israel and the status of those territories should be determined through negotiations."

Earlier in the day, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said, "It's a basic principle of international law and the UN charter that no state can claim the right to annex another state's territory just like that," according to Haaretz.

The Arab League and Hezbollah also criticized Netanyahu's statement about the Golan Heights.

Comment: See also:

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