Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

Totalitarian agenda: The Israel lobby smashes free speech and criminalizes resistance in the West

Max Blumenthal
AlterNet
Mon, 28 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in all her AIPAC glory
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in all her AIPACian glory

With help from influential liberals, pro-Israel lobbyists push to define resisting Israeli apartheid as hate speech.

Last week, just a few minutes before the House Foreign Affairs Committee met for a hearing, one of the Israel lobby's most dependable members of Congress, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen huddled with twenty supporters of AIPAC, the lobby's front line organization in Washington. It was a routine affair for the Florida Republican and her pro-Israel allies, whom she addressed by their first names. But a member of the public who witnessed the meeting noticed a startling new agenda was on the table.

The witness told me that Ros-Lehtinen vowed to destroy the mounting grassroots BDS campaign to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. To do so, she pledged to weaken the First Amendment. "Free speech is being used in our country to denigrate Israel and we need to actively fight against that," Ros-Lehtinen declared, according to the source.

Disturbing as her statement might have been, it was consistent with the rhetoric bellowed out by nearly every presidential contender who appeared on stage at DC's Verizon Center. Speaking before some 18,000 AIPAC supporters, Senator Ted Cruz not only pledged to starve educational institutions of federal funding if they dared to support BDS, he promised that under his watch, "they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." Echoing Cruz, Republican contender John Kasich announced his intention to "use the full force of the White House" to destroy what he called "the scourge" of BDS.

Comment: There will come a time, probably sooner than later, when even individuals not fighting for social justice on the side of the Palestinians will realize that Israel's totalitarian tactics have been largely enforced word-wide. This oppression will be realized for exactly what it is and will only serve to further confirm that such movements as BDS, the recognition of Palestine, etc. were right all along, and the fascist intentions to suppress these movements will backfire in a big way. The process has already begun, but Israel and its supporters - too myopic to see it - are clueless to approach the problem in any way that is constructive. They are unwittingly helping to bring about their own demise in spite of themselves.

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Camcorder

Complaint filed by Hebron settlers against Palestinian who filmed execution

Dan Cohen
Mondoweiss
Sun, 27 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Palestinian shot
© www.crescent-online.net'Cold-blooded execution' of unconscious Palestinian lying on the ground.
Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bentzi Gopstein, far-right settlers and followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, have filed a complaint with Israeli police against Emad Abu Shamsiya, the Palestinian videographer who captured the execution of an incapacitated Palestinian suspect in Hebron.

Ben-Gvir & Gopstein
© Miriam Alster/Flash90Leader of the far-right Israeli group Lehava, Bentzi Gopstein (L) seen at a press conference with his lawyer Itamar Ben Gvir last year.
Ben-Gvir is a lawyer who defends Jews suspected of vigilante attacks including the killers of the Dawabshe family. Gopstein is founder of the state-funded anti-miscegenation movement Lehava, and has called for churches to be burned.

In their letter to the police, they claim that Abu Shamsiya's presence during the killing is no coincidence, but was coordinated with the alleged attack in order to capture damning video.


Comment: Emad Abu Shamsiya is a shoemaker.


They write: "In our opinion the accumulation of cases and their number raises questions and it would be quite naive to think that we might be talking about a coincidence. It deserves to be checked and examined, is there coordination, between certain elements of those who carry out offenses and those who are present on the spot exactly at the same time? Under these circumstances, we ask you to order an opening of an investigation against Abu Shamsiya, and make a clarification also about the actions of B'Tselem."

Ben Gvir and Gopstein allege the attackers and Abu Shamsiya somehow foresaw the execution and plotted accordingly. This would be laughable if it didn't have serious implications. Abu Shamsiya has already received death threats from settlers.

This letter comes as a new video has surfaced showing Elor Azraya, the soldier who killed Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif in Hebron, shaking hands with far-right leader Baruch Marzel while al-Sharif's body was being removed from the scene. Ben-Gvir has also served as Marzel's attorney.


Comment: How does an unconscious victim pose a mortal threat to a soldier holding a gun? Unless there is further evidence brought to light that suggests otherwise (and the video below does not support that circumstance) this was a deliberate act of murder, requested by or consented to by the commander in charge. FYI: The video below is graphic.



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Bad Guys

As Assad liberates Syria a war between CIA & the Pentagon intensifies

Daniel McAdams
Ron Paul Institute
Wed, 30 Mar 2016 06:22 UTC
palmyra liberated
© Agence France-Presse/STRA Syrian Army soldier carries a Daesh flag as he stands on a street in the ancient city of Palmyra on March 27, 2016
The big news out of Syria over the past couple of days has been that Syrian government forces with the help of the Russian military have taken back control of Palmyra from ISIS. The fall of Palmyra and subsequent destruction of the spectacular Roman ruins there by ISIS horrified the civilized world. The US government had claimed from the beginning that the Russians were not targeting ISIS at all, but only the "moderate" rebels supported by Washington. That lie now stands bare in newly-liberated Palmyra and onward, as Syrian government troops aided by the Russians speed east toward the "capital" of the Islamic State, Raqqa.

Meanwhile, the five year US "regime change" effort in Syria chugs along in a very different way. We learned in a Los Angeles Times report yesterday that the US is now at war with...itself in Syria.

Yes, that's right. While Syrian government troops and the Russians are dealing a death-blow to ISIS in Syria, one set of rebels supported by the Central Intelligence Agency is at war with another set of rebels supported by the Pentagon!

Comment: The US' 'empire of chaos' is coming apart at the seams. Also see:
While the Pentagon's actions are part of an overt effort by the U.S. and its allies against the Islamic State, the CIA's backing of militias is part of a separate covert U.S. effort aimed at keeping pressure on the Assad government in hopes of prodding the Syrian leader to the negotiating table.

At first, the two different sets of fighters were primarily operating in widely separated areas of Syria — the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeastern part of the country and the CIA-backed groups further west.

But, over the past several months, Russian airstrikes against anti-Assad fighters in northwestern Syria have weakened them.

That created an opening that allowed the Kurdish-led groups to expand their zone of control to the outskirts of Aleppo, bringing them into more frequent conflict with the CIA-backed outfits.

The insanity of Empire: CIA-armed militias are shooting at Pentagon-armed ones in Syria


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Dollar

Flashback The history of US Dollar and nails in the coffin


You tube
Thu, 09 Jul 2015 00:00 UTC
dollar_opp_countries
© Unknown
The history of the Dollar and more than 23 countries are leaving the US currency. The nails in the coffin of the US Dollar and it will effect you personally.
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War Whore

Balkanizing Syria was always the West's plan

Maram Susli
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 21:45 UTC
kerry
Last month, US secretary of State John Kerry called for Syria to be partitioned saying it was "Plan B" if negotiations fail. But in reality this was always plan A. Plans to balkanize Syria, Iraq and other Middle Eastern states were laid out by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a 2006 trip to Tel Aviv. It was part of the so called "Project For a New Middle East". This was a carbon copy of the Odid Yinon plan drawn up by Israel in 1982. The plan outlined the way in which Middle Eastern countries could be balkanized along sectarian lines. This would result in the creation of several weak landlocked micro-states that would be in perpetual war with each other and never united enough to resist Israeli expansionism.
"Syria will fall apart, in accordance with its ethnic and religious structure, into several states such as in present day Lebanon, so that there will be a Shi'ite Alawi state along its coast, a Sunni state in the Aleppo area, another Sunni state in Damascus hostile to its northern neighbor, and the Druzes who will set up a state, maybe even in our Golan... " Oded Yinon, "A strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties",
The leaked emails of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reveal advocates of the Oded Yinon plan were behind the US push for regime change in Syria. An Israeli intelligence adviser writes in an email to Hillary,
"The fall of the House of Assad could well ignite a sectarian war between the Shiites and the majority Sunnis of the region drawing in Iran, which, in the view of Israeli commanders would not be a bad thing for Israel and its Western allies,".
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Snakes in Suits

Former Belgian MP Laurent Louis: Belgian security services either totally incompetent or complicit in Brussels attacks

Brandon Martinez
Non-Aligned Media
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 21:41 UTC
laurent louis
Laurent Louis, a former Belgian MP known for his anti-Zionist stances, made the following comment on his official Facebook page concerning the attacks in Brussels:
In this dark day for Belgium, I would like to express my support and my condolences to the families of the victims of the attacks of Brussels. After the national airport, the Brussels underground has just been hit by deadly attacks. The situation is serious and it is important to call on all citizens in a quiet area. Of course, radical islamism will be once more made responsible for these attacks presented as a revenge after the arrest of salah abdeslam in molenbeek end of last week.

However, how can we overlook the responsibility of the Belgian government in these horrific acts perpetrated this Tuesday in our capital? Two things, either our security services are incompetent and incapable of protecting places as sensitive as the national airport or the network of Brussels underground [or] these are the same services that are at the origin of these attacks.

Comment: Meanwhile, British Labour MP Bob Campbell is under fire for claiming on his own Facebook page that Israel is responsible for the Brussels bombings, Mossad runs ISIS, and ISIS has refrained from attacking Israel 'because the dog doesn't bite his own tail.'

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Wolf

Reaping what was sown? Europe's perfect storm of terrorism

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 21:10 UTC
jihadists terrorists europe
It seems paradoxical, just as Islamist terror brigades are being eradicated in Syria and Iraq, the threat of terrorist mayhem in Europe is gathering momentum.

Emergency meetings by European Union security chiefs last week following the Brussels attacks were given even more urgency by warnings from Europol that as many as 5,000 terrorist operatives were primed to bring war onto the streets of EU capitals.

There were also several arrests of terror suspects in France, Germany and Belgian, with one man shot by police in Brussels believed to be connected with the suicide attackers who struck the Belgian capital days earlier.

A report in the Washington Post noted: "As European governments scramble to control the expanding terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State, on the battlefields in Iraq and Syria the group is a rapidly diminishing force".

The Post attributes the defeats for the terrorist brigades to the military support afforded by Russia to the Syrian army and from the US to Iraqi forces. Advances against ISIS in the ancient city of Palmyra as well as in its eastern Syrian stronghold of Raqqa underscore the dramatic collapse of the terrorist self-proclaimed Caliph.

But, ironically, the gains made in Syria and Iraq against the jihadists are placing Europe at greater threat than at any time before.
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Eye 1

Nanny state: Feds will punish schools that don't comply with Michelle Obama's lunch rules

Elizabeth Harrington
Washington Free Beacon
Mon, 28 Mar 2016 21:28 UTC
child eating lunch
© AP
The federal government is taking steps to fine schools that do not comply with first lady Michelle Obama's school lunch rules.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service issued a proposed rule Monday to codify parts of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by Mrs. Obama.

The regulation would punish schools and state departments with fines for "egregious or persistent disregard" for the lunch rules that imposed sodium and calorie limits and banned white grains.

A West Virginia preschool teacher was threatened with fines for violating the rules by rewarding her students with candy for good behavior in June 2015. The teacher ultimately did not have to pay, but the school had to develop a "corrective action plan" with training on the policies.

The government now seeks to make fines enforceable by regulation. Section 303 of the law requires that the federal government "establish criteria for the imposition of fines" for all the Department of Agriculture's child food programs.

Comment: The school lunches that were championed by Michelle Obama have proven to be universally unpopular among both children and adults. The government should just stay out of the person's choice of diet, and leave the parents and schools to handle children's lunches.

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Gem

So much for sanctions: Russian economic difficulties greatly exaggerated as forecasts predict return to growth


Sputnik
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:42 UTC
russian economy
© Sputnik/Anton Denisov
If the Russian economy could talk it would echo the famous quote from novelist Mark Twain, who said that "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," Finnish economist Pekka Sutela wrote.

Last week the central banks of Finland and Russia both published forecasts about Russia's economic development over the next few years which show that while inflation remains high and GDP has fallen, the decline has slowed and will turn to growth in 2017.

These indicators of improvement are in contrast to a discourse popular among some observers that foresees an economic crash, and bring to mind a famous quote from Mark Twain, Finnish economist Pekka Sutela wrote in the Kouvolan Sanomat newspaper on Friday.

Comment: Russia has successfully outmaneuvered Western machinations against her, which have only encouraged the country's greater self-sufficiency while bestowing fitting repercussions on the West.

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Boat

UN ruling ups Falklands animosity, UK rejects Argentina's territorial waters claim


RT
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 04:42 UTC
falklands oil fields
© www.peacepalacelibrary.nl
Britain has rejected Argentine claims to the waters surrounding the Falkland Islands following a UN commission ruling that extended the South American nation's maritime territory by 35 percent. Downing Street dismissed the move as "not legally binding," insisting the UN commission does not have jurisdiction over national sovereignty. The government of the Falklands has expressed concern over the decision, while, shares in Rockhopper Exploration - an oil firm drilling near the islands - slumped following the announcement.

According to the UN, Argentine waters have expanded 1.7 million sq km to encompass the disputed Falklands, or, as they are known in Argentina, Islas Malvinas.The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf essentially ratified Argentina's 2009 petition to fix the limit of its territorial waters at 200 to 350 miles from its coast.

However a spokesperson for Downing Street downplayed the ruling. "What's important is what do the Falkland islanders themselves think? They've been clear that they want to remain an overseas territory of the UK and we will still support their right to determine their own future."

The British government says Falklands residents cannot be forced to accept Argentine sovereignty against their will. Mike Summers, chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland's Islands said: "Our understanding has always been that the UN would not make any determination on applications for continental shelf extension in areas where there are competing claims."

Shares in UK oil company Rockhopper Exploration PLC slumped 5.3 percent on Tuesday morning. The company, which has suffered major losses in recent years after failing to find oil around the Islands, merged with competitor Falklands Oil & Gas Limited (FOGL) last November in a £57-million deal.

Announcing the UN's decision on Tuesday, Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra said: "We're reaffirming our sovereignty rights over the resources from our continental shelf, minerals, hydrocarbons and sedentary species."

Comment: The competing claims re-emerged because of the discovery of access to the oil deposits located in the Falklands/Malvinas seabed. It is about rights, resources and greed. The rest is window-dressing.

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