Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Big Brother is watching: Partnership between Facebook and police could make planning protests impossible


RT
Fri, 25 Oct 2013 20:01 UTC
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Reuters / Kyle Carter
A partnership between police departments and social media sites discussed at a convention in Philadelphia this week could allow law enforcement to keep anything deemed criminal off the Internet - and even stop people from organizing protests.

A high-ranking official from the Chicago Police Department told attendees at a law enforcement conference on Monday that his agency has been working with a security chief at Facebook to block certain users from the site "if it is determined they have posted what is deemed criminal content," reports Kenneth Lipp, an independent journalist who attended the lecture.

Lipp reported throughout the week from the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference, and now says that a speaker during one of the presentations suggested that a relationship exists between law enforcement and social media that that could be considered a form of censorship.

According to Lipp, the unnamed CPD officer said specifically that his agency was working with Facebook to block users' by their individual account, IP address or device, such as a cell phone or computer.

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Megaphone

Congressional oversight of the NSA is a joke. I should know, I'm in Congress

Alan Grayson
Guardian
Fri, 25 Oct 2013 19:50 UTC
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© JASON REED/REUTERSUS National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander (L), Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Deputy Attorney General James Cole (R) are sworn in to testify at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation on Capitol Hill in Washington, 26 September 2013.
I've learned far more about government spying on citizens from the media than I have from official intelligence briefings

In the 1970s, Congressman Otis Pike of New York chaired a special congressional committee to investigate abuses by the American so-called "intelligence community" - the spies. After the investigation, Pike commented:
It took this investigation to convince me that I had always been told lies, to make me realize that I was tired of being told lies.
I'm tired of the spies telling lies, too.

Pike's investigation initiated one of the first congressional oversight debates for the vast and hidden collective of espionage agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA). Before the Pike Commission, Congress was kept in the dark about them - a tactic designed to thwart congressional deterrence of the sometimes illegal and often shocking activities carried out by the "intelligence community". Today, we are seeing a repeat of this professional voyeurism by our nation's spies, on an unprecedented and pervasive scale.

Recently, the US House of Representatives voted on an amendment - offered by Representatives Justin Amash and John Conyers - that would have curbed the NSA's omnipresent and inescapable tactics. Despite furious lobbying by the intelligence industrial complex and its allies, and four hours of frantic and overwrought briefings by the NSA's General Keith Alexander, 205 of 422 Representatives voted for the amendment.
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Wall Street

An ad man mentions damage to America's brand and corporate media wakes up

Pam Martens
Wall Street On Parade
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 18:09 UTC
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Cover of the German Magazine, Der Spiegel, November 5, 2012
When Martin Sorrell speaks about America's brand, important people listen. Sorrell is CEO of the monster advertising and marketing company, WPP, a brand unremarkable to the average worker around the world. Sorrell took recognized advertising brands like J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, and Grey, bundled them with mega public relations firms like Hill & Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller to sit atop the image makers of the new world order.

WPP - the parent brand - stands for Wire and Plastics Products Plc, a name which likely 9 out of 10 people around the world could not identify. But don't question the brand masters of the universe.

Earlier this month, Sorrell was quoted in the U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper on the potential for a shutdown of the U.S. government. Sorrell said, "If you were running a company like this, and stopped paying your workers, you'd get fired." Sorrell said shutdown "is almost like going into Chapter 11 or bankruptcy. The Americans I talk to are frustrated and embarrassed," adding that the "impact on Brand America is not good at all."
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Red Flag

Obama left increasingly isolated as anger builds among key U.S. allies

Dan Roberts and Paul Lewis
Guardian
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 18:03 UTC
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© Rex FeaturesObama met Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday to reassure him over anxieties around US drone attacks.
Merkel the latest to rebuke Washington over NSA spying while US relationships in the Middle East are also unravelling

International anger over US government surveillance has combined with a backlash against its current Middle East policy to leave President Obama increasingly isolated from many of his key foreign allies, according to diplomats in Washington.

The furious call that German chancellor Angela Merkel made to the White House on Wednesday to ask if her phone had been tapped was the latest in a string of diplomatic rebukes by allies including France, Brazil and Mexico, all of which have distanced themselves from the US following revelations of spying by the National Security Agency.

But the collapse in trust of the US among its European and South American partners has been matched by an equally rapid deterioration in its relationships with key allies in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia this week joined Israel, Jordan and United Arab Emirates in signalling a shift in its relations with the US over its unhappiness at a perceived policy of rapprochement toward Iran and Syria.

Though the issues are largely unrelated, they have led to a flurry of diplomatic activity from Washington, which is anxious to avoid a more permanent rift in the network of alliances that has been central to its foreign policy since the second world war.
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Stormtrooper

Right-wing lunacy never sleeps: 10 nutty, vile and absurd utterances from the fringe this week

Janet Allon
AlterNet
Sat, 19 Oct 2013 17:46 UTC
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The right-wing has had a rough week, but refusing to acknowledge reality always helps.

1. Justice Antonin Scalia: "The 14th Amendment protects all races, not only the blacks."

No friend of affirmative action, voting rights protections, or anything he deems "racial entitlements," the high court's least inhibited conservative was at it again this week during oral arguments in a case in which advocates for minorities are challenging Michigan's voter-approved ban on affirmative action in college admissions. The case reached the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court held the ban violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection guarantee, in that it prevents minorities from lobbying for racial preferences, when other groups can lobby for their favored programs, Huffpo explained.

A lawyer challenging the ban argued that the original goal of the 14th Amendment was to protect minority rights against a white majority.

Scalia begged to differ. "My goodness," he said. "I thought we've held that the 14th Amendment protects all races. I mean, that was the argument in the early years, that it protected only - only the blacks. But I thought we rejected that. You say now that we have to proceed as though its purpose is not to protect whites, only to protect minorities?"

A little history: the 14th Amendment was approved three years after the end of the Civil War, and it was definitely about protecting the rights of former slaves. Scalia has not made any secret of his view that the country is all done with that racism stuff. If anything, the pendulum has swung too far the other way, he seems to think.
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Handcuffs

British marines court-martialed for alleged murder cover-up

Scott Kaufman
Raw Story
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 17:41 UTC
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© Shutterstock
The helmet camera of a British Royal Marine captured the execution of an injured enemy combatant in Afghanistan, according to reports from the court martial of three soldiers being called Marine A, B and C.

Footage of the video was shown during the trial. It allegedly shows the three servicemen approaching the combatant, who was twitching and gasping for breath, then pretending to provide first aid while they called into base saying he'd already died.

The alleged murder took place after an Apache helicopter strafed insurgents attempting to attack a command post. A patrol led by Marine A found the combatant, and on the video says, "Get him close in, so the [observation balloon] can't see what we're doing to him. He's over there, he can f***ing see us."

Marine A then asks, "Anyone want to do first aid on this idiot?"
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Megaphone

Texas Republican judge switches party, denouncing GOP as party of bigots and hate-mongers

Steven Rosenfeld
AlterNet
Mon, 21 Oct 2013 17:35 UTC
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© Frontpage/Shutterstock
A Republican Judge from San Antonio, Texas, has announced he is quitting the GOP and will seek re-election as a Democrat, saying that he can no longer be part of political party whose identity is based on hate, bigotry and destroying people's lives.

Bexar County Judge Carlo R. Key made his announcement in a YouTube campaign video, where the image shifts between the judge sitting at his bench and screenshots of Republicans - from Sen. Teed Cruz to state politicians - boosting their agenda or career by harming others.

Key's words speak for themselves. Here's a transcript, where he ends by urging others who share his moderate temperament and respectful demeanor to join him.
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MIB

Best of the Web: Was Israel behind the hacking of millions of French phones and NOT the U.S.? Extraordinary twist in spying saga revealed

Nabila Ramdani
Daily Mail UK
Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:22 UTC
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© ReutersFrance first suspected the U.S. of hacking into former president Nicolas Sarkozy's communications network when he was unsuccessfully trying for re-election in 2012
Israel and not America was behind the hacking of millions of French phones, it was claimed today. In the latest extraordinary twist in the global eavesdropping scandal, Israeli agents are said to have intercepted more than 70 million calls and text messages a month. Up until now the French have been blaming the U.S., even summoning the country's Paris ambassador to provide an explanation.

But today's Le Monde newspaper provides evidence that it was in fact Israeli agents who were listening in.

France first suspected the U.S. of hacking into former president Nicolas Sarkozy's communications network when he was unsuccessfully trying for re-election in 2012. Intelligence officials Bernard Barbier and Patrick Pailloux travelled from Paris to Washington to demand an explanation, but the Americans hinted that the Israelis were to blame.

The Americans insisted they have never been behind any hacking in France, and were always keen to get on with the French, whom they viewed as some of their closest allies.

They were so determined to be friends with the French, that U.S. briefing notes included details of how to pronounce the names of the Gallic officials.

A note published in Le Monde shows that the Americans refused to rule out Mossad, Israel's notoriously uncompromising intelligence agency, or the ISNU, Israel's cyber-intelligence unit.

Comment: Again we come back to the idea that a third party, through the Mossad, is purposely 'revealing NSA and GCHQ secrets'.

PRISM for your Mind: NSA, WikiLeaks and Israel

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Eye 1

Obama sez.: U.S. not monitoring German chancellor Angela Merkel's phone


CBS News
Wed, 23 Oct 2013 20:19 UTC
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© Reuters/Yves HermanGermany's Chancellor Angela Merkel uses her mobile phone before a meeting at a European Union summit in Brussels December 9, 2011.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States "is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications" of German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the German government received information that the leader's cell phone might have been targeted.

Merkel complained to President Barack Obama on Wednesday after learning that U.S. intelligence may have targeted her mobile phone, saying that would be "a serious breach of trust" if confirmed. The two leaders spoke by phone, Carney said.

"The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor," said Carney. "The United States greatly values our close cooperation with Germany on a broad range of shared security challenges."

However, Carney did not specifically say that that U.S. had never monitored or obtained Merkel's communications.
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Eye 1

Forget Merkel, the NSA has been tapping the phones of at least 35 world leaders

James Ball
The Guardian
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 17:39 UTC
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The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its "customer" departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.

The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately "tasked" for monitoring by the NSA.

The revelation is set to add to mounting diplomatic tensions between the US and its allies, after the German chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday accused the US of tapping her mobile phone.

After Merkel's allegations became public, White House press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement that said the US "is not monitoring and will not monitor" the German chancellor's communications. But that failed to quell the row, as officials in Berlin quickly pointed out that the US did not deny monitoring the phone in the past.

Comment: Like we said in our radio show when 'NSA-gate' broke, drown them in data! Let them EAT DATA!

PRISM for your Mind: NSA, WikiLeaks and Israel

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