Puppet MastersS


MIB

Wikileaks documents reveal NSA spied on world leaders for Big Oil


RT
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 16:28 UTC
Ban Ki-Moon
© Andy Rain / ReutersUN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
Wikileaks published a new trove of top secret documents revealing that the NSA spied on the private meetings of major world leaders, including UN chief Ban Ki-Moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as the prime ministers of Italy and Israel.

The National Security Agency (NSA) listened in on high-level meetings on climate change, global economics, and even "how to deal with [US President Barack] Obama," according to the new documents released by WikiLeaks.

"Today we showed that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's private meetings over how to save the planet from climate change were bugged by a country intent on protecting its largest oil companies," said WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange about NSA activities.

Assange added that the UN will most likely react to these leaks.

"We previously published Hillary Clinton's orders that US diplomats were to steal the secretary general's DNA. The US government has signed agreements with the UN that it will not engage in such conduct against the UN — let alone its secretary general.

"It will be interesting to see the UN's reaction, because if the secretary general can be targeted without consequence, then everyone from world leader to street sweeper is at risk."
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Arrow Down

Flashback CIA study predicts Israel will fall in 20 years with mass Israeli emigration to US and Russia


Press TV
Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:14 UTC
Franklin Lamb
Franklin Lamb, well-known progressive international lawyer and researcher with the University of Beirut.
A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years.

The CIA report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region."

The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israeli - who would move to the US in the next fifteen years.

"There is over 500,000 Israelis with American passports and more than 300,000 living in the area of just California," International lawyer Franklin Lamb said in an interview with Press TV on Friday, adding that those who do not have American or western passport, have already applied for them.

Comment: For the sake of the Palestinians, we can only hope for sooner.

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Cell Phone

Slippery slope: Dept. of Justice now wants Apple to unlock nine more iPhones


RT
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 16:12 UTC
iPhone
© Michaela Rehle / Reuters
The US Department of Justice is joining the FBI in pressuring Apple. Even as the Bureau is saying that their request to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone is a one-time thing, the DoJ is demanding Apple's help in unlocking at least nine more.

Apple's concerns that creating a backdoor for the FBI will lead to similar requests are growing increasingly founded. For three months, the US government has been fighting Cupertino over making a master key to gain access to locked iPhones. In response to concerns about privacy and security, the FBI has painted the demand for Apple's assistance as a small action needed in response to an unusual request.

However, the Department of Justice is now demanding Apple's help for cases in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco, the New York Times reports. Although the FBI insists that the key is necessary to fight terrorism, the Department of Justice's cases seem to be related to drug trafficking and pornography.

Comment: Once the precedent is set and Apple gives in to the government to open one phone, then the floodgates open and the government will never stop asking to unlock phones.

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Rocket

Syrian YPG: Alleged use of US high-tech anti-tank missile, Turkey furious at US, makes demands


RT
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 12:37 UTC
YPG anti-tank missile
© www.scoopnest.comYPG fighters with a US-made FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile launcher.
Pictures have emerged on social media which appear to show Syrian Kurds with an advanced US-produced anti-tank missile. A video allegedly shows a rocket blowing up an Islamic State truck. Washington has denied "providing the YPG with weapons." If the authenticity of the video, believed to have been filmed near the Syrian town of Shaddadi, is proven it would show that Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) forces have been given an upgrade in technology. The footage shows an alleged truck belonging to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) on the receiving end of a direct hit from the missile.

The FGM-148 Javelin is a portable anti-tank missile, which was developed by the United States. It is able to lock on to potential targets using infrared imaging, which makes it a lot more effective than the TOW missile system, which militias fighting against IS had been using, as the TOW is heavier and requires a portable power supply. "Assuming he's not firing from the side of a mountain or on top of a compound, it's definitely a Javelin," Corporal Thomas Gray, a former Marine Javelin gunner who watched the video told the Washington Post. However John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said that he was unable to confirm whether the image was authentic and that "nothing has changed about our policy of not providing the YPG with weapons."

The US has denied it is directly sending weapons to the Kurdish YPG forces in Syria, but has admitted it has handed over arms to the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is made up of both Kurds and Arabs.





Comment: It's arguably better and simpler for both the US and Turkey if Turkey just stays out of Syria. Don't expect Turkey to toe the line, though. Erdogan and Davutoglu seem hell-bent on tantruming their way into the fight, against the US' and their own military experts' advice and any excuse will do.

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Quenelle

Putin's address to Russia on terms of the Syrian ceasefire deal

Vladimir Putin
Kremlin.ru
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 04:35 UTC
Putin
© Sputnik/ Ramil Sitdikov
Friends,

I just had a telephone conversation with President of the United States of America Barack Obama. The phone call was initiated by the Russian side, but the interest was certainly mutual.

During our conversation, we approved joint statements of Russia and the US, as co-chairs of the ISSG, on the cessation of hostilities in Syria. Adoption of the statement was preceded by intensive work by Russian and American experts. We also made use of the positive experience we accumulated over the course of cooperation in eliminating chemical weapons in Syria.

Comment: Further reading: End of the Syrian war? Looking at the ceasefire loopholes

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Cow

'Small-government' conservative wants to limit the cuts of meat poor people can eat

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Mon, 22 Feb 2016 16:59 UTC
State Sen. Patty Ritchie
© State Sen. Patty Ritchie (Facebook)
A New York Republican has declared herself the leading authority on what groceries food stamp recipients should buy.

State Sen. Patty Ritchie (R-Oswegatchie) introduced a bill Wednesday that would place additional restrictions on purchases made through the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Ritchie, like the woman in a satirical article on The Onion, doesn't believe government benefits should be used on sugary snacks or certain costly items.

"At a time when our state and nation are struggling with an obesity epidemic, it is critically important that taxpayer-funded programs help low-income consumers make wise and healthy food choices," Ritchie says in the bill memo.

She specifies a few items — lobster, some cuts of steak, decorated cakes and energy drinks — that she believes are too decadent to be purchased with food stamps.

Comment: Telling food stamp recipients that they're not worthy or deserving of a steak every now and then does nothing but increase the social stigmas against them. Instead, how about we empower them with knowledge concerning the dangers of high fructose corn syrup, GMOs, additives, preservatives, etc., and let them make their own informed decisions about how to budget for groceries?

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Mail

Letter from military to warn UK voters to not leave EU


RT
Mon, 22 Feb 2016 09:44 UTC
Cameron
© www.sandiegouniontribune.comLadies and Gents of the EU...Mr. Cameron is Brexiting the building.
More than a dozen senior British military leaders are to sign a letter that will warn voters not to support leaving the EU in an upcoming referendum because doing so would compromise the UK's national security, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The letter, to be published this week, is being organized by Downing Street and will cite the threat from the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and "increasing Russian aggression" as the reasons why Britain should remain part of the European Union, the British newspaper said. Those likely to sign the letter include Admiral Lord Boyce, General Lord Stirrup and Field Marshal Lord Bramall, three former Chiefs of the Defence Staff, and General Sir Peter Wall, a former Chief of General Staff. Others are reluctant to endorse the message, the Telegraph said.

"Yes there is a security dimension to the EU, but in my mind it is more of a policing and judicial matter rather than a military matter. The military dimension is provided by NATO," one of them, General Sir Mike Jackson, a former head of the British Army, told the newspaper.

The UK is to hold a referendum on "Brexit" on June 23, PM David Cameron announced last week, after securing a deal ensuring special treatment for the UK within the union. His cabinet largely backs remaining part of the EU and national security is one of the arguments it uses to support the position.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said in an article for the Sunday Telegraph that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Britain to leave the European Union. "It is not scaremongering to ask which result Putin would favor. If we left, the European Union for the first time in its history would be smaller and weaker. That's obviously in Russia's interests," he argued.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

Pollster for Zionism: Most U.S. Jewish students don't see Israel as 'civilized' or a 'democracy'

Ofer Neiman
Mondo Weiss
Mon, 22 Feb 2016 00:25 UTC
Lutz the putz
© Mondo WeissFrank Lutz, impassioned
Here's the story in Hebrew. In a nutshell:

Minister Gilad Erdan has organized a secret conference in Jerusalem, with 150 top supporters of Israel. American right wing pollster Frank Luntz [who has earlier stated that Zionism is becoming a dirty word for US elites] presented statistics:
- The Ministry of Tourism's attempt to market Israel as a cool destination (girls and bikinis) has failed.

- Jewish American students have an increasingly negative image of Israel:
-Just 42% believe Israel wants peace.

-Just 38% believe "Israel is civilized and Western".

-Just 31% believe Israel is a democracy.
- No less than 21% believe the US should side with the Palestinians.
The new, or not so new, agenda put forward by Luntz and co: Israel's supporters should say that they are in favour of a dialogue and peace-building through diplomacy, and accuse BDS supporters of obstructing dialogue, and spreading hate.

Sentences to defeat BDS
© m.nrg.co.il

Comment: Discussion, engagement and peace paving translates to colonization, occupation and murder. It doesn't look like Israel will be saving themselves with slogans in the near future; they are losing their grip on young minds.

See also: Pro-Israel lobby's McCarthyism and extreme measures to slime BDS human rights activists

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Snakes in Suits

Silencing dissent: MSNBC censors Bernie Sanders condemnation of TTIP agreement


RT
Tue, 23 Feb 2016 17:05 UTC
Bernie Sanders
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been struggling with a media blackout throughout the campaign - and even during those rare moments when he is covered, he's still being censored.

US broadcaster MSNBC is facing criticism for cutting away from live coverage of a Sanders press conference, just as he was condemning the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Media critics point out that the network's owner Comcast stands to benefit greatly from the trade deal - and has largely been silencing any negative coverage.

Comment: The secretive nature of the TTIP negotiations highlights the fact that this agreement is set to provide a huge source of profits to multi-national corporations, but could well be devastating to those individuals forced to live under its yoke.

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Star of David

Boris bows to Bibi: UK obeys Israel's demand to remove BDS posters from London tube stations


RT
Tue, 23 Feb 2016 22:16 UTC
Netanyahu podržao zauzimanje palestinskih kuća
© Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Posters promoting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that criticized the policies and actions of Israel's right-wing government are being removed from London's tube stations after pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Observing Israeli Apartheid week, the posters created by the London Palestine Action group were designed to look like real advertisements and feature facts about the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel.
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