Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

FBI kills 'friend of Boston bomb suspects' during questioning in Florida

Tim Walker
The Independent, UK
Thu, 23 May 2013 08:08 UTC
Man identified as Ibragim Todashev, who reportedly knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev as both were mixed martial-arts fighters
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Ibragim Todashev, pictured, is believed to be an associate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev

An FBI agent has shot and killed a Chechen man with alleged ties to deceased Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in what was described as a "violent confrontation" in the early hours of Wednesday in Orlando, Florida.

Officials said the man, identified as 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, was being interviewed about his friendship with Tsarnaev when he tried to attack an agent with a knife. The FBI confirmed the agent sustained "non-life threatening injuries" before shooting dead his assailant.

Law enforcement officers reportedly visited Mr Todashev at his apartment late on Tuesday night. Mr Todashev, who had been living in the US for the past five years, spent some of that time in Boston, and came into contact with Tsarnaev through the mixed martial arts community. Authorities suspect the pair of a gruesome, unsolved triple murder, committed on 11 September 2011, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Brendan Mess, Raphael Teken, and Erik Weissman were found with their throats cut at an apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts; their bodies were covered with marijuana. Tsarnaev had previously described Mr Mess as his best friend, though the two had reportedly fallen out.
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Eye 1

Teaching the populace to love enslavement: CBS reporter brags about Miami military-style equipment

Michael Allen
Opposing Views
Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00 UTC
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A local Miami news station, CBS 4 News, recently gushed over plans for local police to use military-style equipment for Memorial Day Weekend (video below).

Reporter Lauren Pastrana marveled at how cameras are installed throughout Miami as well as "62 light towers, twelve visual messaging boards and three watch towers."

The reporter bragged about the station's "exclusive" on the police department using a LTV, which she described as a "light tactical all-terrain vehicle, similar to the ones used in the military."

"But instead of war zones overseas, cops will use it to protect the city of Miami Beach," said Pastrona.

Comment: Don't think the U.S. is a police state yet?
Militarized police state over Miami: "It's only a drill..."
Concerns grow as local police look more and more like the military
The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US
US: Local Cops Ready for War With Homeland Security-Funded Military Weapons

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Bad Guys

Western mercenaries have integrated the ranks of Al Qaeda rebels in Syria


Press TV
Wed, 22 May 2013 17:02 UTC
Syria rebels
© n/a
In April, the EU's anti-terror chief Gilles de Kerchove told the British media that some 500 Europeans were in Syria to fight against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has said that a number of German nationals have teamed up with the foreign-backed militants in Syria.

In an exclusive interview with Germany's Der Spiegel weekly magazine, Friedrich officially confirmed for the first time that there were German-born gunmen inside Syria fighting against the government.Friedrich particularly expressed concern about calls for those Europeans who have been trained in battle inside Syria.German officials say that 20 German nationals are currently fighting in Syria. Some have reportedly even taken their wives there and live directly on the frontlines of battle.
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Vader

Barack Obama administration confirms 4 US nationals abroad were deliberately killed.


Al Jazeera
Wed, 22 May 2013 16:55 UTC
Eric Holder
© APAttorney General Eric Holder gestures while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington. Four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009
A letter from US attorney-general confirms Barack Obama administration deliberately killed US nationals abroad.

The US has killed four of its own citizens in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, the Barack Obama administration has formally acknowledged.

Eric Holder, the US attorney-general, said in a letter addressed to congressional leaders on Wednesday that three of those killed were not targets of the strikes involving drones in Yemen and elsewhere.

Holder named the four dead US citizens in a letter to members of Congress one day before President Obama is scheduled to deliver an address on the use of drones.
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Cult

And the winner is - Khamenei

Pepe Escobar
Asian Times Online
Wed, 22 May 2013 14:09 UTC
Khamenei
© Wikimedia CommonsAyatollah Ali Khamenei
Nothing will be left to chance - even the hint of a green protest wave.

In 2009, 475 candidates registered to run for Iran's presidency. Only four were approved by the Guardian Council - the all-powerful, vetting clerical committee. This year, no fewer than 686 registered for the upcoming June 14 elections. Eight were approved.

Among them, one won't find the two who are really controversial; former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, aka "The Shark" - essentially a pragmatic conservative - and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, adviser and right-hand man to outgoing President Mahmud Ahmadinejad are both out.

Those who will run are not exactly a stellar bunch; former vice president Mohammad Reza Aref; former national security chief Hassan Rowhani; former telecommunications minister Mohammad Gharazi; the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili; Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf; the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's foreign policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati; secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei; and Parliament Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel.

But they do read like a who's who of ultimate Islamic Republic insiders - the so-called "principle-ists".
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Blackbox

Federal agents and the state fire marshal are blocking the board from investigating deadly Central Texas fertilizer plant blast


wrbl.com
Wed, 22 May 2013 11:59 UTC
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The head of a federal safety board says federal agents and the state fire marshal are blocking the board from investigating a deadly Central Texas fertilizer plant blast.

In a letter to a U.S. senator planning hearings into the West Fertilizer plant blast, the chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board says the board's investigation of the blast has been blocked by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the State Fire Marshal's Office. The Waco Tribune-Herald reports that the chairman asks U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer to help the board obtain evidence controlled by the ATF.

The ATF special agent in charge of the investigation tells the Austin American-Statesman that a criminal investigation comes with "certain sensitivities," while the State Fire Marshal's Office tells the paper evidence needs to be protected for now so that law enforcement produces one "clear cut" report.

The April 17 blast killed 15 people and injured about 200 others.
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War Whore

Surprise! Bin Laden death photos will not be released as U.S. court rules they must stay classified


Daily Mail UK
Wed, 22 May 2013 09:59 UTC
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Under wraps: A federal appeals court has ruled that the U.S. government did not need to release top-secret photographs of Osama bin Laden taken after he was 'killed' at his compound (right) in Pakistan in May 2011
A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. government had properly classified top secret more than 50 images of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden taken after his death and that the government did not need to release them.

The unanimous ruling by three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a request for the images by a conservative nonprofit watchdog group.

Judicial Watch sued for photographs and video from the May 2011 raid in which U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after more than a decade of searching.

The organization's lawsuit relied on the Freedom of Information Act, a 1966 law that guarantees public access to some government documents.

In an unsigned opinion, the appeals court accepted an assertion from President Barack Obama's administration that the images are so potent that releasing them could cause riots that would put Americans abroad at risk.

'It is undisputed that the government is withholding the images not to shield wrongdoing or avoid embarrassment, but rather to prevent the killing of Americans and violence against American interests,' the opinion said.

The court ruled that the risk of violence justifies the decision to classify the images top secret, and that the CIA may withhold the images under an exception to the Freedom of Information Act for documents that are classified.

The organization's lawsuit relied on the Freedom of Information Act, a 1966 law that guarantees public access to some government documents.
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Eye 1

About time!! Major sea change in media discussions of Obama and civil liberties

Glenn Greenwald
The Guardian
Wed, 15 May 2013 10:45 UTC
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© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesPresident Barack Obama
Due to the controversies over the IRS and (especially) the DOJ's attack on AP's news gathering process, media outlets have suddenly decided that President Obama has a very poor record on civil liberties, transparency, press freedoms, and a whole variety of other issues on which he based his first campaign. The first two paragraphs of this Washington Post article from yesterday, expressed in tones of recent epiphany, made me laugh audibly:
"President Obama, a former constitutional law lecturer who came to office pledging renewed respect for civil liberties, is today running an administration at odds with his résumé and preelection promises.

"The Justice Department's collection of journalists' phone records and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups have challenged Obama's credibility as a champion of civil liberties - and as a president who would heal the country from damage done by his predecessor."
You don't say! The Washington Post's breaking news here is only about four years late. Back in mid-2010, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, speaking about Obama's civil liberties record at a progressive conference, put it this way: "I'm disgusted with this president." In the spirit of optimism, one can adopt a "better-late-than-never" outlook regarding this newfound media awakening.
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USA

Ceiling suspended: U.S. takes on $300bn in new debt after hitting $16.7 trillion


RT.com
Mon, 20 May 2013 16:45 UTC
US Debt
© AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary
America's ticking debt bomb has been reset. Washington has suspended the debt ceiling, setting a date, and not a concrete dollar sum as a deadline, an unprecedented first in US history.

Citing 'extraordinary measures', the US Treasury has further delayed tackling America's debt, and will wait until Labor Day, September 2nd, to revisit the burgeoning crisis. The ceiling has been lifted, and the Treasury has promised it will keep cash pumping into government spending programs beyond the debt limit through a series of emergency cash tools.

"It will not be until at least after Labor Day" when Washington will have reached their full borrowing capacity, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, told CNBC television on May 10th.
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Arrow Down

Assad talks, Russia walks

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Mon, 20 May 2013 14:37 UTC
Bashar-al-Assad
© Before It's News
So Bashar al-Assad has spoken - exclusively, to Argentine daily El Clarin (there's a huge Syrian diaspora in Argentina, as well as in neighboring Brazil).

Cutting through the fog of Western hysteria, he made some valuable points. The record shows that, yes, the regime has agreed several times to talk to the opposition; but myriad "rebel" groups with no credible, unified leadership have always refuted. So there's no way a ceasefire, eventually agreed on a summit - such as the upcoming US/Russia Geneva conference - can be implemented. Assad makes some sense when he says, "We can't discuss a timetable with a party if we don't know who they are."

Well, by now everyone following the Syrian tragedy knows who most of them are. One knows that the Un-Free Syrian Cannibals, sorry, Army (FSA) is a ragged collection of warlords, gangsters and opportunists of every possible brand, intersecting with hardcore jihadis of the Jabhat al-Nusra kind (but also other al-Qaeda-linked or inspired outfits).

It took Reuters months to finally admit that jihadis are running the show on the ground.[1] A "rebel" commander even complained to Reuters, "Nusra is now two Nusras. One that is pursuing al Qaeda's agenda of a greater Islamic nation, and another that is Syrian with a national agenda to help us fight Assad." What he didn't say is that the real effective outfit is al-Qaeda-linked.

Syria is now Militia Hell; much like Iraq in the mid-2000s, much like the Western-imposed, "liberated" Libyan failed state. This Afghanization/Somalization is a direct consequence of NATO-GCC-Israel axis interference. [2] So Assad is also right when he says the West is adding fuel to the fire, and is only interested in regime change, whatever the cost.
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