Puppet MastersS

Star of David

Propaganda Alert: 'U.S. intercepts Iranian order for attack on U.S. interests in Iraq'

Spying cartoon
© Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News
The United States has intercepted an order from an Iranian official instructing militants in Iraq to attack U.S. interests in Baghdad in the event the Obama administration launches a military strike in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The American embassy in Baghdad was a likely target, according to unnamed U.S. officials quoted by the newspaper. The Journal said the officials did not describe the range of potential targets indicated by the intelligence.

In addition, the State Department issued a warning on Thursday telling U.S. citizens to avoid all but "essential" travel to Iraq.


Comment: No evidence needed, just trust that the US government knows. Would it ever lie to you?


Comment: There was no need for the CIA to comment because its agent wrote this article on its behalf...

Do remember that al-qaeda-in-Iraq actually are flooding into Syria and are there hailed as 'the good guys' by the US!

Not to mention that they are also trained, armed and funded by the US.

Let's not forget where these 'intercepts' are coming from:

The Troodos conundrum: Israel fabricated 'intercept' of Syrian government planning chemical attack


Nuke

Russia warns of nuclear disaster if Syria is hit

USS Nimitz
© AFP Photo / Navy Media Content Services / HO / Raul MorenoUSS Nimitz
A military strike on Syria could lead to a nuclear catastrophe if a missile were to hit a reactor containing radioactive uranium, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman warned. The remark comes as the US continues to push for a military strike on Syria.

"If a warhead, by design or by chance, were to hit the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) near Damascus, the consequences could be catastrophic," Aleksandr Lukashevich said in a Wednesday statement.

Russia's Foreign Ministry urged the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to complete a risk evaluation as the US continues to seek support for military action. It asked the agency to "react swiftly" and carry out "an analysis of the risks linked to possible American strikes on the MNSR and other facilities in Syria."

Lukashevich stated that the region could be at risk of "contamination by highly enriched uranium and it would no longer be possible to account for nuclear material, its safety and control." He added that such material could fall into the wrong hands.

Arrow Down

Google argues for right to continue scanning Gmail

Google
© Telugone.com

San Jose, California -- Google's attorneys say their long-running practice of electronically scanning the contents of people's Gmail accounts to help sell ads is legal, and have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to stop the practice.

In a federal court hearing Thursday in San Jose, Google argued that "all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing."

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 10 individuals, is expected to be certified as a class action and is widely seen as a precedent-setting case for other email providers.

The plaintiffs say Google "unlawfully opens up, reads, and acquires the content of people's private email messages" in violation of California's privacy laws and federal wiretapping statutes. The lawsuit notes that the company even scans messages sent to any of the 425 million active Gmail users from non-Gmail users who never agreed to the company's terms.

"This company reads, on a daily basis, every email that's submitted, and when I say read, I mean looking at every word to determine meaning," said Texas attorney Sean Rommel, who is co-counsel suing Google.

Arrow Down

The NSA is reading all the stuff you think you've "encrypted"

NSA
© Associated Press
It's now a given that the NSA works to grab data from sites like Facebook - but what about the stuff that's explicitly private, the websites guaranteed to be protected and secure? The New York Times reports that American spies have been decoding our scrambled online acts for years.

Aside from data-siphoning programs like PRISM and on-demand requests for personal profiles, the basic technology that prevents someone from eavesdropping on your internet banking or password-protected emails is compromised - that little padlock icon you see in your web browser, smashed to virtual bits.

War Whore

Corporate-controlled U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee completely ignores the will of the American people and approves Syria attack resolution

Committee voted 10-7, with both Democrats and Republicans voting for and against resolution.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to authorize President Obama to use limited force against Syria Wednesday, after adopting amendments from Sen. John McCain designed to urge Obama to "change the military equation on the battlefield."

The Senate resolution would limit hostilities to 60 or 90 days, narrow military action to Syria's borders and prohibit U.S. troops on Syrian soil. McCain's proposal didn't change that scope but urged that the end goal should be "a negotiated settlement that ends the conflict and leads to a democratic government in Syria."


The vote was 10-7. Five Republicans and two Democrats voted against it. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., voted "present."


Vader

John McCain: Professional crook selling protection to financial criminals

Image
© www.mrconservative.com
The Savings and Loan Scandal

Who is John McCain?

He passes himself off as a war hero even though fellow POWs in Vietnam say he collaborated with his captors.

So what else does he do?

He's a US Senator who is good at raising money...from anyone and that included financial criminals who needed him to run interference in Washington DC for them.

He did it during the Saving and Loan crisis of the 1980s and he did it during the Sub Prime Meltdown of the 2008.

And we're supposed to take this lying, thieving sack of s***'s word for anything as if he's some kind of statesman.

Are they serious?

Attention

16 Major firms may have received early data from Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters headquarters
© Jb Reed/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe Thomson Reuters headquarters building in New York City.
Readers may recall an ugly story that broke earlier this summer, when New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman rebuked the news/business information firm Thomson Reuters for selling access to key economic survey data two seconds early to high-frequency algorithmic traders. The story strongly suggested that some Thomson Reuters customers were using their two-second head start (an eternity in the modern world of computerized trading) to front-run the markets.

"The early release of market-moving survey data undermines fair play in the markets," Schneiderman said, back in the second week of July. Thomson Reuters suspended the practice of selling two-second head starts after Schneiderman insisted upon a change. Still, the firm defiantly refused to declare the change permanent and insisted that it had the right to "legally distribute non-governmental data" to "fee-paying subscribers."

It turns out that there's more to the story.

Back in June, journalist Simone Foxman at the global economic site Quartz reported that in addition to the two-second head start some Thomson Reuters customers were getting on the release of the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers, other customers may have been getting their data even earlier, "nearly an hour in advance" in some cases.

Rolling Stone has since learned that a whistleblower complaint has been filed to the SEC identifying 16 of the world's biggest banks and hedge funds as the allegedly even-earlier recipients of this key economic data. The complaint alleges that this select group of customers received the data anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour ahead of the rest of the markets.

Question

Business as usual behind the scenes: U.S., Canada and Russia conduct 'successful' joint military drill

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© U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason RobertsonRoyal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets receives fuel from a CC-150T Polaris Aug. 28, 2013, at Exercise Vigilant Eagle (VE) 13.
Senior military officials from the North American Aerospace Defense Command and Russia on Thursday declared their Vigilant Eagle 13 exercise a major success.

The joint military drill kicked off on August 26, with scenarios that required the United States, Canada and Russia to respond to simulated terrorist hijackings of commercial aircraft. Both NORAD, a bi national command of the United States and Canada, and Russia had to scramble fighter jets and track and intercept the "hijacked aircraft."

Just concluding the most ambitious Vigilant Eagle exercise yet, NORAD's operations director Canadian Major General Andre Viens and Russian Commander Gen. Maj. Dmitry Gomenkov told reporters they are ready to take the lessons learned to make next year's exercise even more challenging.

Throughout the exercise series, the participants have developed tactics, techniques and procedures to effectively notify, coordinate, and conduct positive hand-off of a hijacked aircraft flying through Russian, Canadian and American airspace, Viens told reporters during a teleconference.

Eye 1

Brazil senate committee to probe US spying

Brazil cancels US trip
© RT.comBrazil's President Dilma Rousseff and US President Barack Obama (Still from RT video)
Brazil's senate has formed an Investigative Parliamentary Commission to follow up on reports that the US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

"We intend to protect national sovereignty," Xinhua quoted Senator Vanessa Graziotin of the Communist Party of Brazil as saying Tuesday.

The committee, comprising 11 main members and seven substitutes, initially has 180 days to investigate claims that the NSA monitored emails between Rousseff and several of her top aides, and tapped her phone.

The investigative period can be extended by another 180 days if the commission needs more time.

The members discussed the possibility of the state providing federal protection for Rio de Janeiro-based journalist Glenn Greenwald and his partner David Miranda, considering them to be key witnesses in the investigation.

Greenwald was the first to break the story of Washington's global spying programme, based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Vader

Flashback Best of the Web: Washington warmongers turned down extraordinary 2003 Iranian offer to end its support for Hamas and Hezbollah

Image
© Unknown
Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC's Newsnight programme.

Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion.

Offers, including making its nuclear programme more transparent, were conditional on the US ending hostility.

But Vice-President Dick Cheney's office rejected the plan, the official said.

The offers came in a letter, seen by Newsnight, which was unsigned but which the US state department apparently believed to have been approved by the highest authorities.

In return for its concessions, Tehran asked Washington to end its hostility, to end sanctions, and to disband the Iranian rebel group the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and repatriate its members.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had allowed the rebel group to base itself in Iraq, putting it under US power after the invasion.