Puppet MastersS

Binoculars

A list of known NSA spying techniques

NSA
© Police State USAIs the NSA listening to your phone calls? Yes.
The scope of the National Security Agency's spying abilities has increased dramatically in the last few of years. Rumors have been circulated for years about the agencies clandestine abilities. Many of those rumors have been confirmed, thanks to leaked documents and whistleblowers like Edward Snowden.

Below is a list of powers and tricks used by the NSA. Many of these abilities are shared by the NSA's spying counterpart in the United Kingdom, known as the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ). Interestingly, most of the reporting about the USA's Orwellian playbook comes from foreign publications.

Police State USA will attempt to update this list as evidence of the police state continues to unfold.

Quenelle

Hillary Clinton poses with Pussy Riot

hillary clinton and pussy riot
© twitterHillary Clinton with two members of Pussy Riot
Former Secretary of State and presumed 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner, Hilary Clinton took time on Thursday at the fifth annual Women in the World Summit in New York to pose for a photo with two members of the Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot.

A photograph of Hillary Clinton with two members of the Russian punk rock protest band taken on Thursday evening has been tweeted by Mrs. Clinton with the message:

Great to meet the strong & brave young women from #PussyRiot, who refuse to let their voices be silenced in #Russia.

The tweet quickly went viral with close to 5,000 favorites and close to 4,100 retweets in six hours.

Comment: For more on the "irony" of Mrs. Clinton's support of Pussy Riot see Joe Quinn's SOTT article:
'Pussy Riot', the U.S. State Department and Economic Shock Therapy
When the US government sanctioned the beating and arrest of US citizens for swaying from side to side in the Jefferson Memorial a couple of years ago, it provoked no response from the Western media (and therefore the Western zombie-citizens who rely entirely on the media for their 'opinions'). Yet the Russian government, sorry, 'Putin' (because everyone knows Putin is a dictator, right?) is broadly denounced as a 'tyrant' by these same Western zombies (again because their 'outraged opinion' was deftly inserted into their brains by the Western media) for putting a stop to the ugly spectacle of deranged Russian women sticking chickens up their vaginas in supermarkets, daubing outlines of phalli on bridges, staging 'orgies' in a museum and defiling the peace and tranquility of Russian Orthodox churches as part of their three year long international attack on the Russian government.

Disconnect? For sure, but, like I said, don't expect any logic from the collective mind of the citizens of Western zombie nations. All you can hope to do is understand the psychopathic logic of Western governments and the way it infects the minds and manipulates the emotions of Western citizens.

'Pussy Riot', or 11 Russian women between the ages of 20-33, has received direct moral support from the US State Department and likely indirect financial support, and appears to be one aspect of the US government's decade-long attempt to undermine Russian society and its president, Vladimir Putin.

NED-funded Oksana Chelysheva of the US State Department-funded "Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, who is also coordinator of the 'Pussy Riot' campaign in Finland.For the last 30 years the US State Department has created and used phony NGOs in many countries as an advance guard for 'regime change'. Funneling $billions into 'student' and 'activist' groups in foreign countries, the US government attempts to carefully prepare the local population for 'revolution' that is not of their making and has nothing to do with improving their lot (if indeed it needs improving) and everything to do with getting rid of a, usually democratically-elected, leader of a sovereign country because, in one way or another, he or she refuses to roll over and play dead for 'pax americana'.



War Whore

Rand Paul says Dick Cheney pushed for Iraq war after 9/11 to benefit his former employer Halliburton

Rand Paul
In a videotaped 2009 speech before student Republicans at Western Kentucky University, Rand Paul - who was just beginning his run for the Senate seat he eventually won - explained that former Vice President Dick Cheney, who counseled against war in Iraq in 1995, pushed for war following 9/11 to benefit his former employers at military contractor Halliburton.

Wall Street

Casino capitalism: FBI investigating high-frequency insider trading on Wall Street

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© Business Insider
The FBI is investigating whether high-speed trading firms trade on non-public information, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The agency is working with the SEC and CFTC.

Bloomberg's Keri Geiger and Patricia Hurtado also have an update:

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry stems from a multiyear crackdown on insider trading, which has led to at least 79 convictions of hedge-fund traders and others. Agents are examining whether traders abuse information to act ahead of orders by institutional investors, according to the person, who asked not to be named because the probe is confidential. Even trades based on computer algorithms could amount to wire fraud, securities fraud or insider trading."

Compass

California AG candidate wants death penalty for corrupt lawmakers - Firing squad, public hanging or lethal injection?

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© CBSSFYee in custody as he arrives at the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco.
A Republican candidate for California attorney general said Friday that state lawmakers who are found guilty of crimes that endanger the lives of others should face the death penalty.

Phil Wyman, who spent 17 years in the state Legislature, said he was motivated by the case of Democratic Sen. Leland Yee. Yee faces federal charges that include an attempt to coordinate an international gun-running scheme from the Philippines.

Wyman also criticized Democratic Attorney General Kamala Harris for being "silent as a mouse" on the corruption cases that have marred the state Senate this year. A campaign spokesman for Harris declined comment.

Wyman said in a news release and subsequent telephone interview that the "most egregious" abusers of their public office, if convicted, should be able to choose their method of death - public hanging, firing squad or lethal injection - as a deterrent to others.

Stock Down

Ukraine faces enormous financial problems that will only worsen under IMF management

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© SXC.hu
The Both Houses of the US Congress have passed a bill providing assistance to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia. It envisages 50 million dollars in financial aid to Ukraine for improving democratic governance, anti-corruption efforts and supporting free and fair elections in Ukraine and allots additional $100 million to enhance security cooperation among the US, EU and countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

The document also calls for the introduction of sanctions against Russian citizens, who, according to US senators, are associated with the violation of human rights in Ukraine or actions that undermine the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The Voice of Russia talked to Francis Boyle, professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of Tackling America's Toughest Questions.

Can this financial aid stabilize the financial situation in Ukraine?

Of course not. It is purely symbolic, it is pretty much money down the drain. I think everyone knows it. Ukraine has enormous financial problems, as you know. President Putin offered Yanukovich 15 billion dollars and a 5 billion dollar gas discount, which would have helped meet their immediate upcoming debts. But this is purely symbolic.

Sheriff

Using real detective work, not mass surveillance, the FSB foiled the activities of 304 foreign spies in 2013

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© Reuters/Mikhail Klimetyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin
President Putin has highlighted the success of Russia's internal security service in counter-intelligence. Speaking at the FSB executive council he said that fighting extremism is the agency's top priority.

"The situation remains complicated, the terrorist underground, despite suffering serious casualties retains the capability of launching terrorist attacks against the civilian population," the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying on Monday.

"Extremist radical groups are trying to boost their activities not only in the North Caucasus but also to transfer them into different regions of our country, to the Volga Region and Central Russia, they seek to instigate ethnic and religious conflicts," the president said.

Snakes in Suits

How the international banking cartel controls the world through the U.S. military and economic sabotage

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"My assessment is that 90% of the value of the US dollar comes from the US military."

- Former Assistant Housing Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts
For decades, America has used its armed strength to enforce the use of the dollar as the world's reserve currency, effectively making the US military the armed wing of the international banking cartel (IBC). Since 1971 when President Richard Nixon stopped paying US debt obligations with gold, America has increasingly used its military might to prop up the value of the dollar and enforce a global financial structure whose primary beneficiary is the US itself, and whose central bank, the Federal Reserve, serves as the IBC's supervisory authority.

Who or what is this IBC? It consists of Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo along with Deutsche Bank, BNP and Barclays. Eight families reportedly control the IBC: the Goldman Sachs, Rockefellers, Lehmans, Kuhn Loebs, Rothschilds, Warburgs, Lazards and the Israel Moses Seifs. Besides owning the US oil behemoths Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron Texaco, IBC member institutions are among the top ten shareholders of nearly every Fortune 500 company. While the IBC itself has no formal status, nevertheless its members are represented by an international body, the Financial Stability Board (FSB). Organized as the Financial Security Forum in 1999 by G7 finance ministers and central bank governors, the FSB "seeks to give momentum to a broad-based multilateral agenda for strengthening financial systems and the stability of international financial markets."

V

Exodus to Russia: Eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk rallies in favor of independence referendum

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© AFP PhotoA demonstrator holds a flag with the portrait of deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych during a rally of pro-Russia supporters outside the regional government administration building in the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk during on April 5, 2014
At least 1,000 protesters have gathered in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the industrial capital of the region, demanding that authorities respect their right for self-determination by allowing them to stage a Crimea-style referendum.

The rally was held in the city's central Lenin Square. Demonstrators held Russian flags and signs which read, "The Republic of Donetsk."

The protesters called for a general all-Ukrainian strike and distributed leaflets declaring April 18 a referendum day.

"Today a referendum remains a sharp political and social issue in Donbass region. People do not leave squares and require to hold [a referendum]. The fight for a referendum is accompanied by protests against rising prices for gas, electricity and food. The socio-patriotic movement 'Eastern Front' offers trade unions to hold a general strike on April 18. The goal of the strike is to require that the authorities hold a referendum and introduce a moratorium on the increase of tariffs and utilities," said the leaflet, according to local media reports.

Residents then marched from the square to the city council building. Law enforcement officers in riot gear gathered near the building.

Family

Did Michigan just trigger an American 'constitutional convention'?

US constitution
© National Archives
Momentum is building behind what would be an unprecedented effort to amend the U.S. Constitution, through a little-known provision that gives states rather than Congress the power to initiate changes.

At issue is what's known as a "constitutional convention," a scenario tucked into Article V of the U.S. Constitution. At its core, Article V provides two ways for amendments to be proposed. The first - which has been used for all 27 amendment to date - requires two-thirds of both the House and Senate to approve a resolution, before sending it to the states for ratification. The Founding Fathers, though, devised an alternative way which says if two-thirds of state legislatures demand a meeting, Congress "shall call a convention for proposing amendments."

The idea has gained popularity among constitutional scholars in recent years -- but got a big boost last week when Michigan lawmakers endorsed it.

Michigan matters, because by some counts it was the 34th state to do so. That makes two-thirds.