Puppet MastersS


Heart - Black

Psychopathy in action: The 'atrocity' of Australia's detention regime: "The worst I've seen" - trauma expert

australian dentention centers
© The GuardianIn his 43-year career, Paul Stevenson has worked in the aftermath of the Bali bombings and the Boxing Day tsunami but says nothing he witnessed was as bad as the treatment of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus
"In my entire career of 43 years I have never seen more atrocity than I have seen in the incarcerated situations of Manus Island and Nauru."

Paul Stevenson has had a life in trauma. The psychologist and traumatologist has spent 40 years helping people make sense of their lives in the aftermath of disaster, of terrorist attacks, bombings and mass murders, of landslides, fires and tsunamis. He's written a book about his experiences, Postcards from Ground Zero, and for his efforts in assisting the victims of the Bali bombings, the Australian government pinned an Order of Australia Medal to his chest.

Now, he says, it is the Australian government deliberately inflicting upon people the worst trauma he has ever seen.


Paul Stevenson on Australia's detention regime: 'Every day is demoralising'

Over 2014 and 2015, Stevenson made 14 "deployments" - as they are called in the militarised argot of those secretive worlds offshore - to Manus Island and Nauru, where about 1,500 asylum seekers who tried to arrive in Australia by boat are held on behalf of the Australian government. His role was to counsel and care for the mental health of the Wilson Security guards.

Stevenson is president of the Queensland branch of the Australian Democrats. The party is not registered in the state, so he is standing in this federal election as an independent, with the support of his party. He doesn't know whether his slim electoral chances for a Senate seat - "somewhere between zero and a half" - will be helped or harmed by speaking to the Guardian. But he says he feels it is incumbent on those who have been inside Australia's offshore detention centres to tell those at home the truth about regional processing.

Comment: Let's call these sites for what the are: concentration camps. Australia's psychopathic, racist, neocon government is simply warehousing those it finds inconvenient. Neither is this a recent development:

Australia Asylum: Christmas Island Unrest Continues


Music

Syrian 'activist' tells how U.S. Ambassador Ford instigated revolution in Syria, then lied about it

robert ford
Robert "can't believe they're not terrorists!" Ford
S. Rifai, also known as @THE_47th, is a Syrian "activist" from Homs. He was involved since early 2011 when the U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford (@fordrs58) fermented the "revolution" in Syria. He has since tweeted about the "revolution" and has shown lots of insider knowledge. Below S. Rifai corrects the U.S. propaganda record.

The former ambassador Ford allegedly had a hand in last week's "dissident" letter by some State Department employees. The letter urges launching an open U.S. war against Syria and its government. Ford was recently interviewed about the letter for an exculpatory piece in the New Yorker.


Comment: Ford just wrote an equally slimey piece for The Daily Beast: U.S. Diplomats Are Right on Syria.


Comment: This is hilarious! First the U.S. (via Ford) meets with Syrian 'rebels', gets them all riled up and ready to start a violent insurrection in Syria, with no negotiations. Now that the U.S. has been forced to back down on their murderous plans for Syria, their proxies are getting pissed. It seems the U.S. hasn't learned that you can't trust mercenaries, especially when you turn on them. As usual, the U.S. has no one to blame but themselves.


Attention

FBI radicalized Orlando shooter, not ISIS - informant attempted to entrap him in 2013

Marcus Robertson
As scary as any cartoon villain - and ironically - quite literally a manufactured villain. Marcus Robertson is not only a former US Marine, but also a long-time CIA and FBI asset. He runs an extremist website on American soil with absolute impunity and is likely one component of the FBI's counterterror entrapment pipeline.
As predicted, the FBI is revealed to have approached Orlando shooting suspect Omar Mateen in 2013 with informants posing as terrorists in an attempt to "lure" him into participating in a terrorist attack.

USA Today's TC Palm reports in an article titled, "Exclusive: PGA Village residents want answers from security firm," that (emphasis added):
The FBI launched an investigation into Mateen after Sheriff's Office officials reported the incident to the agency. As part of its investigation, the FBI examined Mateen's travel history, phone records, acquaintances and even planted a confidential informant in the courthouse to "lure Omar into some kind of act and Omar did not bite," Mascara said. The FBI concluded Mateen was not a threat after that, Mascara said.
This is in line with the FBI's practice of approaching and entrapping potential terror suspects by posing as terrorists themselves and aiding and abetting them in the planning and preparations for high-profile attacks. These undercover operations include everything from "casing out" potential targets, to the obtaining and training with actual, live explosives, to the purchasing of small arsenals of firearms including the sort of semi-automatic rifles and pistols used by Mateen during the Orlando shooting.

In addition to the FBI's undercover operation, it is now also revealed that Mateen frequented the website of another FBI/CIA informant, Marcus Dwayne Roberson, a former US Marine, turned bank robber, turned US government informant.

Comment: Orlando nightclub massacre eyewitnesses: 'More than one shooter, snipers fired at police, someone blocked exits'


Pirates

SOTT Focus: English football fans cause more mayhem in France - British government blames violence on Kremlin

English football fans
English football fans' behavior is notorious in Europe. Theft, vandalism, death threats, rioting, and generally revolting and anti-social behavior are to be expected when they travel abroad to represent their country. And this year's Euro2016 football competition in France has been no different.

The latest UK government lie about Russia (in what has been a spectacular few years of epic British-American lies about Russia) is that the Kremlin (i.e., VVP himself) trained, organized and dispatched the 150 or so 'martial arts-expert, weapon-wielding, genetically-super-engineered, Russian football ultra-commandos' who 'provoked' England football 'fans' into doing something they never, ever do - act like brain-dead neanderthals in other people's countries - and that it's all part of Russia's 'hybrid warfare' against Western civilization.

It's an absolutely ludicrous assertion of course, but one which is to be expected at a time when British-American monopoly over what exactly constitutes 'Western civilization' is fast eroding.

Let's take a look at England fans' behavior over the years (when no Russians were in sight)...


Vader

Obama ignoring Russia's valid national security worries about NATO activities in Eastern Europe

Khrushchev and Kennedy
© en.wikipedia.orgJohn F. Kennedy meeting Nikita Khrushchev
When the democratically elected President of Ukraine was violently overthrown in February 2014 and replaced by a rabidly anti-Russian regime, not only the residents in the areas of Ukraine that had voted heavily for him (Crimea having voted 75% for him, and Donbass having voted 90% for him) were terrified by what they viewed to be a bloodthirsty new regime, but Russians were, too, because the dictators who were installed made clear their hatred of Russians and even of speakers of the Russian language - one of their first legislative initiatives was to outlaw the Russian language, but the blatant hatred there made the proposal die in Ukraine's parliament because this new regime needed outside support, and outlawing a language spoken by around half of the nation's population would have sparked international condemnation.

Shortly after Crimeans voted overwhelmingly on 16 March 2014 to separate from Ukraine and to rejoin Russia, of which Crimea had been a part until the Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev arbitrarily transferred Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, the top military commander at NATO, US General Philip Breedlove, said that because Russia had protected Crimeans from invasion by the newly installed Ukrainian regime, which was threatening Crimeans if they were to hold a referendum to separate from Ukraine, "now it is very clear that Russia is acting much more like an adversary than a partner", and he speculated sarcastically about the "next place where Russian-speaking people may need to be incorporated" into Russia - as if the people of Crimea didn't have a good reason to fear the new regime, and as if speakers of the Russian language in all countries were in the same situation and needed the same protection; and as if NATO itself had any right to comment about this matter at all, since Ukraine isn't even a member-nation of NATO anyway. Ukraine is a nation that shares a long border with Russia, but does this give NATO a right to 'defend' Ukraine from 'Russian aggression'? Is NATO trying to provoke a Russian invasion in order for NATO to have a pretext to launch a full-scale nuclear war?

Comment: The Western public is not worried about potentyial nuclear war because the 100% state-controlled media doesn't inform them about the issue. It only spews anti-Putin, anti-Russian propaganda 24/7.


Attention

Regulating toxic chemicals: Is this new reform a toxic waste?

toxic chemicals
© nytimes.com
There should've been an overhaul in how we regulate toxic chemicals years ago. Like when the 2010 President's Cancer Panel report concluded that babies are now born "pre-polluted." Or when it came to light that a common flame retardant used in household items actually causes cancer.


Comment: Read about the President's Cancer Panel:
The President's Cancer Panel is the Mount Everest of the medical mainstream, so it is astonishing to learn that it is poised to join ranks with the organic food movement and declare: chemicals threaten our bodies.
The report blames weak laws, lax enforcement and fragmented authority, as well as the existing regulatory presumption that chemicals are safe unless strong evidence emerges to the contrary.

"Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety," the report says. It adds: "Many known or suspected carcinogens are completely unregulated."



Finally, our infamously ineffective Congress has passed a landmark toxic chemical reform.

Or did it only happen on paper?

Comment: Stay vigilant indeed! It would appear that chemical reform - created and supported by chemical corporations - is a toxic waste!


Bullseye

Belgium raids: 3 charged with attempt to commit terror

Belgian raids
© Francois Lenoir / ReutersBelgian police on guard in the Brussels district of Etterbeek.
At least 12 people have been arrested overnight during anti-terrorist operations across Belgium on suspicion of plotting attacks, the federal prosecutor said. Reports emerged that one of the suspects worked at Zaventem Airport and had previously contacted a Brussels suicide bomber. Three of the suspects have been charged with attempting to commit terrorist acts, while nine were released, according to the prosecutor, RTBF reports. According to the prosecutor, a Brussels judge specializing in terrorism placed Samir C., Mustafa B., and Jawad B., under arrest. All three are Belgian citizens.

Earlier on Saturday, the prosecutor stated that "in connection with a criminal investigation concerning terrorism... 40 people were taken for questioning. Twelve of them were arrested." Some 40 addresses were searched during the raid. The anti-terrorism operation was carried out in 16 areas, according to RTBF. Apart from Brussels, these sites included Molenbeek-St-Jean, Schaerbeek, Anderlecht, Koekelberg, Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Evere, Forest, Watermael-Boitsfort, Ganshoren, Zaventem, Ninove, Wemmel, Fleurus Tubize and Liège. "Evidence was gathered [and] as part of the instruction [we] needed to intervene immediately," the federal prosecutor said in a statement.

No weapons or explosives have been found during the raids so far. The suspects were planning to carry out attacks in the areas of events linked to Euro-2016 in Brussels this weekend, Flemish-speaking VTM broadcaster reported. The broadcaster added that the attacks could have been targeted the festive events linked to Saturday's Euro-2016 match.

Comment: Raids, real or fake, were primarily conducted in Muslim areas of Brussels. Smart terrorists would change neighborhoods, knowing this. Profiling?

"Belgium has been the source of more Islamic State (IS formerly, ISIS/ISIL) recruits per capita than any other country in Europe"...and why is that?


Bomb

Obama: Resumes selling cluster bombs to Saudi 'child killers'

Obama and sheik somebody
© AP/Carolyn Kaster...about says it all, doesn't it?
Despite concerns of human rights violations conducted by Riyahd in Yemen, the United States has decided to give the Kingdom weapons that disproportionately threaten children. On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted against banning the transfer of cluster bomb munitions to Saudi Arabia. This came only one week after a scandal surfaced about Riyadh's targeting of children in the US-backed mission in Yemen, which the regime attempted to cover up by extorting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

On June 2, the United Nations added Saudi Arabia to the "child killers blacklist" in their annual Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) report, but only four days later the UN Secretary General announced that the regime was to be removed from the list pending further investigation of the report's claims by Saudi and United Nations officials. At the time, Ban Ki-moon attempted to minimize the controversy, implying the redaction was temporary. But Saudi Arabia's envoy to the United Nations declared that Riyadh's removal from the infamous list is permanent.

Last Thursday, the UN chief went public about the circumstances surrounding his decision to remove Saudi Arabia from the list. "The report describes horrors no child should have to face, but at the same time, I also had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund UN programs. Children already at risk in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and so many other places would fall further into despair," Ban said.

Reports indicate that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir informed the United Nations that if the truth about Riyadh's war crimes against children in Yemen was not redacted, the country would move to eliminate as much as $500 million in annual funding for UN programs. He also threatened to coordinate with Arab allies.

This is not the first time that the Saudi Foreign Minister has resorted to extortion to prevent embarrassing truths to come to light. In April, Adel al-Jubeir informed Washington that Riyadh would move to dump $750 billion in US Treasury bonds if legislation was passed that allowed the family members of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia.

Comment: These bombs are banned in 119 OTHER countries for a reason. The US and Puppet UN are equally despicable, trading the lives of children for gob-sum money. Blackmail only works if it works. Ban Ki-moon has fallen into the trap. So has Obama. So has Congress.

See also: Saudi Arabia pressures UN to disclose blacklist sources


Megaphone

Bankrupt Puerto Rico: 500 activists demand decolonization

free puerto rico
© todosloscaminoshaciati.blogspot.com
Ahead of next week's visit by the UN decolonization committee and buried in economic debt, some 500 activists with the Puerto Rico independence movement took to the streets of Old San Juan to demand freedom from US rule. There were two purposes to the Saturday march, according to Liliana Laboy, one of the members of the Independentista Roundtable, speaking to EFE: "To insist that it's time to start the decolonization process that will bring us independence, and to support the hearings this Monday."

The country is a US Commonwealth, meaning it enjoys independence in most issues, but still answers to Washington on matters of foreign relations. The United Nations has been looking at its decolonization since 1962, and has issued a total of 34 resolutions in favor of it. The UN's Special Committee on Decolonization is to arrive at the start of the week. "It's past time to shed the trickery of the US and the UN General Assembly, when they said that Puerto Rico was decolonized and we were taken off the list of non-autonomous territories," Laboy said.


Comment: And if Puerto Rico gets too close to achieving independence, will PR find itself in similar circumstances to Haiti with its own form of 'earthquake insurance?' Empires expand. They don't do reductions.


Heart - Black

Israel plans to destroy only water source of shepherds in West Bank village

water source
© Guy HirshfeldThe Jordan Valley water source that is slated for demolition.
Move comes despite Israeli authorities telling international agencies that there would be no demolitions during the month of Ramadan.

Israel intends to destroy a water-holding tank that serves 20 families of Palestinian shepherds and their flocks in the northern Jordan Valley.This, despite the fact that Israel's coordinator of government activities in the territories (to which the Civil Administration is subordinate) promised representatives of international agencies that there would be no demolitions during the month of Ramadan, except for structures built during this time, Haaretz has learned.

The simple structure collects water coming out of a natural spring. A rubber hose attached to it runs for a few dozen meters to a plastic trough. The Civil Administration claims the structure was built illegally.

The shepherds, who live in a community called Umm al-Jimal, own 700 sheep and goats, as well as 300 cows and some horses. Last year, a flood destroyed another holding tank that served the families, also blocking the spring's exit. The families are concerned that destroying the current holding tank will once more block the spring, which is their only close water source.A final injunction to stop work and demolish the holding tank was given in April 2012, but was never implemented. Last Tuesday, an inspector called Avi posted a notice concerning filing reservations regarding the demolition injunction "for a 10-meter-square pool of water."Residents were given three days to present their reservations at the Civil Administration. At press time, they didn't know if an attorney for the Palestinian Authority had managed to file on time, or whether Civil Administration officials will arrive in coming days to demolish the tank.