Puppet MastersS


Airplane

Best of the Web: Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 downed over warzone Ukraine. Who was behind it? Cui Bono?

MAS B777
© Global ResearchYet another Malaysia Boeing 777 is lost under extraordinary circumstances this year.
Flying over warzone Ukraine, The probable and Convenient Happens

At no juncture during the Ukrainian crisis could the downing of Malaysian Boeing 777 flight MH17 have been more convenient for NATO and its proxy regime in Kiev.

Kiev's forces were being picked apart in eastern Ukraine with several units encircled and destroyed. In the west of the country, dissent was growing by Ukrainians unwilling to march off to fight in the east. NATO's attempts to bait Russia into moving into Ukrainian territory and shift global opinion against Moscow had repeatedly failed.

The final card to be played by the US was another round of sanctions that almost immediately was ridiculed as ineffective and impotent. Even US corporate-financier interests condemned the latest round of sanctions claiming they were "unilateral" in nature and thus limited US enterprise from interacting with Russia while leaving European competitors free to move into the void. An effective US policy of confronting, containing, and undermining Russia would require multilateral sanctions with almost universal support - but the impetus for such sweeping sanctions did not exist - until now.

The US FAA Declared Ukrainian Airspace Off-Limits 3 Months Ago

Indeed, the stars have aligned for NATO. While the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared Ukrainian airspace off limits to all aircraft under its jurisdiction, it appears other airlines continued flying over what has been a warzone for months. The Atlantic in a report titled, "The FAA's Notice Prohibiting Airline Flights Over Ukraine," stated clearly that:
Did aviation authorities know that this was a dangerous area?
Yes, they most certainly did. Nearly three months ago, on the "Special Rules" section of its site, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration put out an order prohibiting American pilots, airlines, charter carriers, and everyone else over whom the FAA has direct jurisdiction, from flying over parts of Ukraine.

Binoculars

Israel invades Gaza, sends in ground troops

Israeli missile
© AFP/Getty ImagesThe remnants of an Israeli missile lay on the ground inside a heavily damaged building of the Erez border crossing in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces, backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, launched a major ground offensive into Gaza late Thursday, marking a dramatic escalation in the 10 day-old conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Declaring a new phase in its operation, Israel's military said it was entering the coastal strip to wipe out Hamas's rocket capabilities and to dismantle what is believed to be an extensive network of tunnels used by the militants to infiltrate Israel.

The operation came hours after diplomatic efforts in Cairo to negotiate a sustainable truce between Israel and Hamas failed.

The ground offensive began at 10 p.m. Thursday and involves dozens of infantry, armed core, and artillery units, as well as air and naval support, said Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner. The military, he added, plans to call up additional reservist troops to bolster the 50,000 reservists called up so far.


Comment: All this against a region with no real military to speak of, no advanced military hardware, and largely ineffectual rockets. Either the IDF is stupendously inept, or it's the biggest psychopathic bully in the world. I think we all know which.


In Gaza City, from a high floor in an apartment building, reporters watched an hour of heavy fire along the eastern and northern borders of the Gaza Strip.

The sky was lit, as if by lightning strikes. There were sustained barrages, flares and drones flying overhead. Israeli warships fired from the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, reported fighting with Israeli troops near the Erez border crossing.


Comment: How convenient. While the world watches Ukraine and the passenger plan crash tragedy, the Israelis invade Gaza for the umpteenth time.


Cult

'Senior advisor' to British government responsible for instituting online porn filter that blocks 20% of ALL websites... arrives in court to face kiddie porn charges

Image
© AFP Photo / Leon NealPatrick Rock, a former senior adviser to British Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, attends Westminster Magistrates Court in central London on July 3, 2014.
David Cameron's senior adviser on internet porn filters has appeared at crown court accused of child indecency offenses.

Patrick Rock is charged with three counts of making indecent photographs of children and one count of possessing indecent images of children.

The offences, said to have been committed last summer in the US, relate to more than 60 images, all described as category C - the lowest on the scale.

Before his arrest and resignation, Rock was an adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron on internet porn filters, introduced last year to curb children's ability to access adult content online.

According to the Open Rights Group, the government-backed ISP filters have been overzealous in blocking completely innocuous websites, raising concerns over web censorship. The percentage of sites hosting legal pornographic material online is thought to be close to 4 percent.

Comment: A clear-cut case of the 'fox guarding the hen-house'?

If so, was Rock thrown to the wolves to distract from ongoing police investigations into pedophile politicians?

It's possible that he was framed because he was a little 'overzealous' in clamping down on kiddie porn, a subject close to the hearts of many prominent Tory party members and senior British establishment figures...
Leading British opposition party politicians under investigation for channeling public funds to elite pedophile network

UK MP calls for public inquiry into child sex abuse: 'If MPs are discovered to be harboring pedophiles, damage to British democracy will be fatal'

Crocodile tears, impression management: Investigation into 'powerful pedophiles' continues in UK

Confirmed: British Labour and Conservative governments in 1970s gave elite pedophile network nearly half a million quid

The U.K. political pedophile ring scandal is just the tip of the iceberg - The full story is much more disturbing



Snakes in Suits

Moscow says allegations it shot down Ukrainian jet 'absurd'

Sukhoi Su-25
© Reuters / Vasily FedosenkoSukhoi Su-25 jet fighter.
Kiev's accusations that Russia shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet are "absurd," the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

"This is absurd, like all previous accusations from Kiev officials concerning Russia's Ministry of Defense," a ministerial official told journalists on Thursday.

Kiev has accused Russia of downing its Su-25 fighter jet on June 16. Andrey Lysenko, spokesman of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, said a Russian military jet shot down a plane that was fulfilling a military operation over the east of Ukraine at 19:00 local time. Earlier Kiev blamed the attack on self-defense forces.

On Wednesday, self-defense forces claimed they had shot down two of the Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 fighter jets.

The high-ranked Defense Ministry official said that "almost every day" Russia "gets exposed" and receives threats that "irrefutable evidence" will be released, but every time "this evidence disappears somewhere."

"And the confusion is being covered with new, more fantastic accusations," he added.

Eye 2

Psychopath Netanyahu orders military ground invasion of Gaza

Image
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to start a ground operation in Gaza, his office has announced.

"The prime minister and defence minister have instructed the IDF to begin a ground operation tonight in order to hit the terror tunnels from Gaza into Israel," the statement said.

A large IDF force has launched a new phase of Operation Protective Edge starting a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson has confirmed.
BREAKING NEWS: A large IDF force has just launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. A new phase of Operation Protective Edge has begun.

- IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 17, 2014

Bomb

42% of Bostonians skeptical of official marathon bombing account - for good reason

Dzohkhar Tsarnaev
Dzohkhar Tsarnaev in 2010.
A recent poll conducted by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense team, part of an effort to force a change of venue for his trial, found that a majority of Bostonians - 58 percent - are already convinced the accused Marathon bomber is "definitely guilty."

That may be persuasive to the presiding judge. But what's perhaps more interesting is that the poll found a sizable number of Boston residents - 42 percent - are still "unsure," indicating that even the population with the closest proximity to the April 15, 2013, act of terrorism still harbor doubts about the "official" version of events.

Without seeing the evidence the government claims to have of the younger Tsarnaev's guilt, and due to many anomalies and lingering questions about the bombing and its aftermath, we're siding with the 42 percent who just aren't sure yet.

Kevin Cullen of the Boston Globe recently expressed surprise about the poll's results in a column in which he wrote: "Call me Pollyanna, but I'm shocked they were able to find the 42 percent who don't think he's guilty." While people answering that they're unsure about Tsarnaev's guilt isn't the same as thinking he's innocent, it does reflect a substantial feeling that the jury is still out in many Bostonians' minds.

Cullen's surprise makes sense when one considers the nature of the event, with its gut-wrenching imagery and suspenseful days-long manhunt. After an experience like that, it's understandable that Bostonians would want someone to hang.

And from the beginning, law-enforcement along with the vast majority of the media have implied that the evidence against Tsarnaev is so airtight, and that his guilt is so self-evident, that it's bordering on the absurd to assert some things in the official version may not be exactly as we've been told.

Stormtrooper

Veteran NBC reporter pulled from Gaza after witnessing and reporting on Israeli bombing of Palestinian children

Ayman Mohyeldin
© NBC NewsAyman Mohyeldin reports from Gaza City on killing of four Palestinian boys by Israel
Ayman Mohyeldin, the NBC News correspondent who personally witnessed yesterday's killing by Israel of four Palestinian boys on a Gazan beach and who has received widespread praise for his brave and innovative coverage of the conflict, has been told by NBC executives to leave Gaza immediately. According to an NBC source upset at his treatment, the executives claimed the decision was motivated by "security concerns" as Israel prepares a ground invasion, a claim repeated to me by an NBC executive. But late yesterday, NBC sent another correspondent, Richard Engel, along with an American producer who has never been to Gaza and speaks no Arabic, into Gaza to cover the ongoing Israeli assault (both Mohyeldin and Engel speak Arabic).

Mohyeldin is an Egyptian-American with extensive experience reporting on that region. He has covered dozens of major Middle East events in the last decade for CNN, NBC and Al Jazeera English, where his reporting on the 2008 Israeli assault on Gaza made him a star of the network. NBC aggressively pursued him to leave Al Jazeera, paying him far more than the standard salary for its on-air correspondents.

Yesterday, Mohyeldin witnessed and then reported on the brutal killing by Israeli gunboats of four young boys as they played soccer on a beach in Gaza City. He was instrumental, both in social media and on the air, in conveying to the world the visceral horror of the attack.

Stock Up

U.S. Senate approves measure to double funds for Israel's Iron Dome

Iron Dome
© www.businessinsider.comHow the Iron Dome works:
Enemy fires missiles or artillery. Radar detects and tracks trajectory. Battle management and control unit analyze and estimate impact location. Two Tamir missiles are fired to intercept and destroy enemy projectile.
A US Senate panel has approved a measure that would double the funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile system as Tel Aviv's new wave of aggression against Palestinians continues.


More than 200 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded, including women and children, by the Israeli offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip. In response to the attack, Palestinian resistance fighters fired rockets into Israeli cities. The Iron Dome has reportedly shot down most of the rockets fired from Gaza. One Israeli has died by a rocket.

On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee approved a spending bill that would provide $621.6 million for Israeli missile defense, including $351 million for the Iron Dome.

"It works," said Senator Dick Durbin, the chairman of the subcommittee.

The Iron Dome is a short-range rocket defense system designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells fired from a range of between four and 70 kilometers.
In 2013, Congress allocated $235 million for the Iron Dome. And the Obama administration had requested about $176 million for the system for 2015, but the Senate panel doubled the amount.

Israel already receives billions of dollars of American taxpayers' money each year. Under an existing 10-year aid agreement between Washington and Tel Aviv signed in 2007, $30 billion of American money is flowing to Israel.

The US annual military aid to Israel has been elevated from $2.4 billion to $3.1 billion through 2017 under the existing agreement.

Meanwhile, US and Israeli officials have discussed a surge in US military aid to Israel in a new aid package that would extend through 2027.

Comment: Each Tamir interceptor missile costs between $40,000-$50,000 and to date there have been 260 intercepts fired two at a time (or $26M.) While Israel supporters claim the Iron Dome has saved lives, it allows Israel carte blanche to escalate the slaughter of helpless civilians barricaded in the Gaza concentration camps, outmatched and sitting targets for a ruthless and brutal enemy. Where is the Iron Dome for these people? What is the culpability of the U.S. in funding these atrocities?


Blackbox

More chaos in the skies: Ukraine Air Force jet allegedly shot down by Russian plane

Sukhoi-25 jet
© Max BryanskyUkrainian Air Force Sukhoi-25 jet.
An Air Force fighter jet has been shot down by an air-to-air missile fired from a Russian plane, a spokesman for Ukraine's Security Council said Thursday.

Andrei Lysenko also said Ukrainian troops had been fired upon by missiles from a village just inside Russia.

Officials in Kiev have recently accused Russia's armed forces of being directly implicated in attacks on Ukrainian troops battling an insurgency near the border.

Lysenko said in a televised briefing that the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 jet that was hit on Wednesday evening was forced to bail out after his jet was shot down. He provided no further details.

Pro-Russia rebels, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets.

Comment: Russia responds: Moscow sez allegations it shot down Ukrainian jet 'absurd'


Handcuffs

Swedish court dismisses legal challenge to Assange arrest warrant

Image
© Reuters/Anthony DevlinWikileaks founder Julian Assange
A Swedish court has upheld an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who found shelter in Ecuador's embassy in London two years ago.

The Stockholm District Court moved to uphold the warrant on Wednesday following a legal challenge from Assange's lawyers in June. The challenge was spurred by a change to Swedish criminal proceedings regarding the right to information in criminal procedures which brings the country in line with an EU directive.
Verdict today: Julian #Assange is to REMAIN in detention in absentia. Just announced in Stockholm District Court. http://t.co/nOuKXtQiRd

- Rick Falkvinge (@Falkvinge) July 16, 2014
Swedish Judge Lena Egelin was quick to dismiss the legal challenge to Assange's arrest warrant, but noted that the decision could still be appealed.