Puppet MastersS


Wolf

Government decrees Maidan neo-nazi squads are now Ukraine "National Guard" - fears raised they will be used to crack down on pro-Russian dissidents

maidan neo-nazis
© Reuters/David MdzinarishviliProtesters from far-right group "Right Sector"
The creation of Ukraine's National Guard - the custodian of the coup-imposed government - has raised concerns that it may later be deployed to eastern regions of Ukraine to suppress the population increasingly standing up against Kiev.

Ukraine has established a National Guard which will be comprised of former and current Ukrainian troops and volunteers from Maidan self-defense squads. Its declared goal, according to the statement of the country's parliament, is the protection of Ukrainians against external and internal aggression as well as ensuring territorial integrity of the country.

A decree enabling the creation of National Guard has already been signed by the coup-imposed President of Ukraine, Aleksandr Turchinov, after it was hastily passed by the parliament on Thursday. A total of 262 members of the Rada voted in favor of establishing the Ukrainian National Guard. According to the law, the National Guard's chief will be appointed by the Rada upon the recommendation of the acting president.

The Guard will be compromised of 60,000 men and women and its official tasks will be to protect and safeguard the lives, rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens, society and the state from criminal and other unlawful acts. In addition, the guard will ensure public order in cooperation with law enforcement authorities, protect state borders, combat terrorism, as well as the suppress the activities of illegal paramilitary or armed organized groups or individuals.

The National Guard will be able to carry out the functions of any law enforcement agency in the post-coup country, as the existing agencies cannot be fully relied upon, considering the questionable legitimacy of the new rulers and the public discontent in eastern regions.

Ukraine previously established the National Guard in 1991 with a similar role, as the remnants of the former Soviet army were then considered unreliable. In 1995, it became the personal praetorian guard of President Leonid Kuchma. It was later disbanded in 2000.

Yet experts are already beginning to question the true motives behind the formation of the new combat force in Ukraine. Historian Vladimir Skachko argues that the Guard will be used to antagonize the Russian speaking population, and he has called the creation of the special force "legalization of neo-Nazi and neo-fascist batons."

Citing historical examples from 20th century European history, Skachko draws a parallel with the SA, or Brownshirts, a paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, which acted as death squads.

This theory appears to hold ground, considering the coming of extreme right-associated politicians to key posts in the coup-installed Ukrainian government.

Eye 1

Patriot Act author Jim Sensenbrenner states CIA spying Is 'Almost Nixonian'

nsa spying
© Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is again demanding answers to his inquiry on how the government spies on Congress.

The author of the post-9/11 law that granted the government much of its modern surveillance authority is again demanding the government explain how and to what extent it spies on members of Congress and their staffers.

"Tapping into computers used by members of Congress and attempts to use the Justice Department to intimidate congressional staff is a gross violation of the constitutional principles of separation of powers," Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner wrote in a Thursday letter to Deputy Attorney General James Cole. "It paints an almost-Nixonian picture of an administration that believes it can act with impunity behind a veil of secrecy."

The Wisconsin Republican's new letter arrives on the heels of dramatic accusations leveled this week by Sen. Dianne Feinstein that the CIA hacked her intelligence panel's computers during its investigation into the spy agency's Bush-era interrogation programs. The letter asks Cole to respond to an earlier request sent last month by Sensenbrenner, in tandem with Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Darrell Issa, asking for a clarification of recent congressional testimony where he said the government "probably" spies on members of Congress.

"We probably do," Cole said in response to a string of questions from Issa during a House Judiciary hearing in February. "But we're not allowed to look at any of those [phone lines], however, unless we have reasonable, articulable suspicion that those numbers are related to a known terrorist threat."


The admission should not have been surprising, but it still incensed a number of lawmakers. The administration has repeatedly argued that while virtually all phone records are subject to its data sweeps - a technique it says is necessary to assemble the whole haystack in order to find the needle - it examines only records determined to be relevant to a terrorism investigation.

Comment: The comparison between Nixon's two-bit phone taps and the monumentally egregious data vacuuming engaged in by the NSA is almost laughable. So is Sensenbrenner's outrage that the Patriot Act would ever be 'misused'. It's working exactly as it was designed to. So, one might wonder what is behind this apparent change of heart?


Stormtrooper

Canadian prof Chossudovsky: What happened in Ukraine is act of warfare, coup d'etat supported by foreign powers

Image
© RIA Novosti
What's happened in Ukraine is part of a military and intelligence agenda, it is part of a global economic agenda, and is in fact an act of warfare, because it is a coup d'état, which was supported by foreign powers and there ample evidence to that effect, in addition, the US and NATO have been practicing the worst case scenario of the World War III, Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and an advisor to governments of developing countries, told the Voice of Russia.

Light Sabers

Saudi Arabia threatens to blockade Qatar unless it shuts down Al Jazeera, cuts ties with Muslim Brotherhood, expels local branches of U.S. think-tanks, and quits funding Muslim terrorists

Image
© Reuters Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal attends an Arab foreign ministers emergency meeting to discuss the Syrian crisis at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo March 10th.
Riyadh wants to contain radical groups and media at odds with foreign jihad policy

Saudi Arabia has threatened to blockade neighbouring Qatar by air, land and sea unless Doha cuts ties with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, closes global channel al-Jazeera, and expels local branches of the US Brookings Institution and Rand Corporation think tanks.

The threat was issued by Riyadh before it withdrew its ambassador to Doha and branded as "terrorist organisations" the brotherhood, Lebanon's Hizbullah and al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra.

Although the kingdom has long been the font of Sunni ultra-orthodox Salafism and jihadism, it now seeks to contain radical movements and media and other organisations giving them publicity.

King Abdullah has decreed that any Saudi who fights abroad could be jailed for 20-30 years, and those who join, endorse or provide moral or material support to groups classified as "terrorist" or "extremist" will risk prison sentences of five to 30 years.

Comment: Well, well, well... something is definitely up!

Is the House of Saud paranoid that it's next up for regime change?

How easy would it be to redirect those jihadi nutjobs the Saudis helped create (and are funding to this day!) back into Saudi Arabia?

Tune in to SOTT Talk Radio tomorrow, Sunday March 16th, when we'll be discussing this and other big moves on the geopolitical chessboard.


TV

Best of the Web: Ukraine Crisis: The truth you're not hearing from Western media

Image
The European and American public are being systematically lied to about the Ukraine crisis. Storm Clouds Gathering bring you the condensed truth on recent events in Ukraine.


Bell

Leading German politician blasts Merkel's support of illegitimate Ukraine govt: 'They are fascists!'

Image
© AFP PhotoGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and Gregor Gysi (R), parliamentary group leader of the left-wing "Die Linke" party
The recognition of Kosovo independence set a precedent that gives Crimeans, as well as Basques and Catalans, a right for self-determination, German opposition leader said, lashing out against Angela Merkel's support of sanctions against Russia.

Gregor Gysi, a parliamentary head of the largest lower-house opposition party in Germany - the Left Party - has spoken out on Thursday against German Chancellor's unquestioning support of the coup-appointed Ukrainian government.

"They formed a new government..... Immediately recognized by president Obama by the EU and German government as well. Miss Merkel! The vice- prime minister, the defense minister, minister of agriculture, environment minister, the attorney general.. They are fascists!" he stated.

HAL9000

China abstains and Russia vetoes US-sponsored UN resolution declaring Crimea vote invalid

Liu Jieyi, China's Ambassador to the United Nations
© UnknownLiu Jieyi, China's Ambassador to the United Nations
Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council's resolution declaring the upcoming referendum on the future status of autonomous republic of Crimea invalid and urging all states not to recognize its results.

China abstained as 13 council members supported the resolution and Russia voted against.

The draft resolution noted that the Ukrainian government in Kiev has not authorized the referendum and said that it cannot be valid.

"This referendum can have no validity, and cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of Crimea; and calls upon all States, international organizations and specialized agencies not to recognize any alteration of the status of Crimea on the basis of this referendum and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognizing any such altered status," the documents reads.

Moscow has a veto right as one of five permanent members of the Security Council.

It was "no secret that Russia would vote against the US draft resolution," Russia's envoy at the UN Vitaly Churkin said ahead of the voting. He added that Moscow would respect the choice of Crimeans.

"We cannot accept its basic assumption: to declare illegal the planned March 16 referendum where there residents of the Republic of Crimea should decide on their future," Churkin said, explaining Moscow's decision to veto the proposed document.
"The philosophy of the authors of the draft runs counter to one of the basic principles of the international law - the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples enshrined in the Article 1 of the UN Charter," the Russian diplomat said.

Comment: The vote shows how polarised the UN security council is. Where is India or Brazil in this setting? To equal the UNSC with the international community is a big distortion of affairs. Wonder what the NAM countries and the other members of the BRICS would vote. Russia is not so isolated as the West wishes it to look.

In the meantime, the US sponsored neo-nazi army is losing no time in arming itself to the teeth:
U.S. proxy army: More weapons 'stolen' from Ukrainian military bases


Che Guevara

The greatest leader Britain never had: Tony Benn knew the rules, but would not play the game

Image
© Nick Rogers/RexTony Benn: ‘What is the final corruption in politics? Earlier, it was to get into cabinet, before that, to be popular, but later on, the final corruption is this kindly, harmless old gentleman …'
His lifelong belief in socialism inspired several generations of socialists and radicals, and infuriated the establishment

The conductor was striding through the early train from Paddington to Penzance apologising as we shuddered to a halt just east of the Tamar. "I'm sorry for the delay," he told Tony Benn, sitting opposite me. "There was a lightning strike on the line ahead."

"Lightning strike!" said Benn, assuming industrial action. "What's it about?"

"It's about God, sir," said the guard, referring to the harsh weather of the previous night, and the two men smiled at each other.

That night I stayed in Cornwall. The prospect of spending nine hours on a train in one day was too draining. Benn came straight back, arriving in Paddington around 11pm so he could be up at 6am the next day to drive to Burford to address a Levellers rally. Around the time I was ordering my second round of sandwiches from the buffet car on my way back from Cornwall, he was heading back to London from Burford to speak to a pro-Palestinian demonstration, when his car exploded on the motorway. I was 33; he was 77.

When I next saw him I suggested, in jest, that he slow down, if only to stop me looking bad. He laughed and said he planned to work right up to the end. "The last entry in my diary will be: 'St Thomas's hospital: I'm not feeling very well today'," he said. He even had plans for his gravestone. "I'd like it to say: 'Tony Benn - he encouraged us.'"

Pistol

U.S. proxy army: More weapons 'stolen' from Ukrainian military bases

Image
© Reuters / Eduard Kornienko
Fears of possible armed assaults and provocation in Ukraine and neighboring countries are on the rise after yet another report that rocket grenade launchers, firearms and munitions have been stolen from a military warehouse in western Ukraine.

A source in the Ukrainian Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti that the coup appointed Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has recently been notified that a large cache of guns and ammunition was missing from one of the military warehouses.

"Reports to Avakov indicate that over 5,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 2,741 Makarov handguns, 123 light machineguns and 12 Shmel rocket launchers were stolen from the Interior Troops' depots in the Lvov Region in late February," the source said.

"The investigation has also established that 1,500 F-1 hand grenades and a large number of munitions are missing," it added.

Arrow Down

Here's what the richest man in the world thinks about Snowden and NSA surveillance

Bill Gates
© Mashable
So Bill Gates recently gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine. The vast majority of the interview focused on his philanthropic efforts, with a particular focus on poverty and climate change. However, several questions were brought up on illegal NSA surveillance in general, and Edward Snowden in particular.

His answers reveal one of the biggest problems facing America today, which is the fact that the billionaire class as a whole does not question or rock the boat whatsoever. They criticize only when it is convenient or easy to do so, never putting themselves at risk for the sake of civil liberties and the Constitution.

In mosts cases, this is due to the fact that they themselves are the characters pulling the strings of the political class in Washington D.C. So when it comes down to it, their policies ultimately become our policies.

It is also important to note that Microsoft was a particularly eager participant in NSA spying from the very beginning. For example, according to the following PRISM slide provided by Edward Snowden, we see that Gates' company was the first to become involved. In fact, they were participating a full six months before Yahoo!, while Apple didn't join until a year after Steve Jobs died.